Why even require a ship trader for wharfs and shipyards?

[Falcrack]

I typically just sort my personnel list for the absolutely lowest skilled employee in my empire, and assign them as ship traders for my wharves/shipyards. Because their stats do nothing for their job performance.

But, more than once have I wondered why my shipyard was not producing anything, only to discover I had neglected to assign a ship trader.

It seems so pointless, why not have the ship trader aspect be covered by the manager so we don't have to check that pointless requirement of putting some random dude in a ship trader position?

Or if the ship trader position needs to stay, why not make it so that their skills have some meaning? For example, higher manager skill level for the ship trader means the player is paid more for NPC ship orders at their shipyard?

[geldonyetich]

It's probably a half completed feature for an ambitious system that fell by the wayside. Such as the entire personal inventory system fabricating a reason to get out of your ship at all.

But if it turned out that the choice of ship trader was purely cosmetic, would you like to tell the players they should no longer have that choice? I am sure someone is tickled at their ship traders being surly teladis or ghastly Yaki cyborgs.

[BitByte]

Indeed it feels little bit halfway completed like said there's skill shown in NPC details (when assign) but no affect their operation.
Another thing from stats raises as there's "black marketeer" skill but either that is not used anywhere (so far).
Someone with more experience from older games might be able tell if these skills were something which existed in previous games and had some kind of meaning?

[GCU Grey Area]

I'd guess it's so player-owned shipyards (etc) have the same functionality as faction-owned - can either buy ships remotely via the map if you're in a hurry, or dock & find the ship trader if you prefer to interact directly with an NPC. Might be some complaints from players who prefer the latter option if they went to all the trouble of building their own shipyard, only to find that unlike all the rest their shipyard doesn't have a ship trader to talk to. Rather like having both options available myself. Early game I like to stroll around the docks, whereas later on when I'm often buying in bulk from multiple stations I tend to use the map interface more.

As for the skills, even though they're utterly meaningless for this particular job, I still take distinct pleasure in selecting a specific individual for the task. If I recall correctly, in my current game my very first employee (relief pilot for my starter ship) ended up with the job.

[LameFox]

I'd guess it's so player-owned shipyards (etc) have the same functionality as faction-owned - can either buy ships remotely via the map if you're in a hurry, or dock & find the ship trader if you prefer to interact directly with an NPC. Might be some complaints from players who prefer the latter option if they went to all the trouble of building their own shipyard, only to find that unlike all the rest their shipyard doesn't have a ship trader to talk to. Rather like having both options available myself. Early game I like to stroll around the docks, whereas later on when I'm often buying in bulk from multiple stations I tend to use the map interface more.

As for the skills, even though they're utterly meaningless for this particular job, I still take distinct pleasure in selecting a specific individual for the task. If I recall correctly, in my current game my very first employee (relief pilot for my starter ship) ended up with the job.

I suspect if it was there just to have an NPC to interact with, it would merely appear by magic as the inventory ware traders do.

[Nanook]

...

But, more than once have I wondered why my shipyard was not producing anything, only to discover I had neglected to assign a ship trader....

Could it be this is the way to keep NPC's from buying ships at your shipyard? Don't assign a ship trader and the shipyard won't produce ships, unless you specifically build one yourself?

[Falcrack]

...

But, more than once have I wondered why my shipyard was not producing anything, only to discover I had neglected to assign a ship trader....

Could it be this is the way to keep NPC's from buying ships at your shipyard? Don't assign a ship trader and the shipyard won't produce ships, unless you specifically build one yourself?

I don't think it even builds my own ships without a ship trader.

[rudi_pioneer]

I think it's leftover from X Rebirth, where various station and ship functions were done by different people - pilot, defense, engineer, ship seller, architect (builder), etc. It was awesome in X Rebirth since it was all smaller and more personal, but here it feels like an odd leftover from those days.