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Idea — The Trade Hub

Document Type: Idea Status: 💡 Idea only. NOT in scope. NOT scheduled. Last Updated: 2026-09-06 Vault destination: 00_Ideas Raised: 2026-09-06 Filed per: 02_Risk Register D1 (Scope Creep, Critical) — "Every new feature idea goes to 00_Ideas first. Nothing gets built until it is formally added to the scope document."

The Idea

A peaceful destination for the gate. A shared hub where private worlds exchange materials, with no war involved.

Today the gate has exactly one destination, and it is a war ([32_The Gate & War Logistics](<../01_Design Documents/Systems/32_The Gate & War Logistics.md>)). That is why the gate ships in the War Update ([39_Space Layer Design](<../01_Design Documents/Systems/39_Space Layer Design.md>) §2). A trade hub would give it a second, earlier one.

Where it came from

Working out that the gate does not lead to space. Your world already contains a galaxy ([05_World Generation & Planet Types](<../01_Design Documents/Content/05_World Generation & Planet Types.md>)), so travelling to another planet is travel inside your own world and needs no gate. Once that was clear, the gate had nothing to do in the Space Update, and the question became whether it should have something.

What it would buy

  • Path B, Supply Chain Provider, could open in the Space Update rather than waiting for the War Update. A player who wants to be a supplier and never fight would have somewhere to do it earlier ([36_Progression Arc Design](<../01_Design Documents/Content/36_Progression Arc Design.md>) §6).
  • Cross-world trade without combat. The peaceful half of the multiplayer fantasy, available to players who never join a war.
  • The gate stops being a war-only building, which makes its cost easier to justify and gives the Space Update a reason to ship it.

What it would cost

  • It is an unbuilt feature, and a shared instance at that: hosting, presence, and a way for two worlds to agree on an exchange.
  • The credit economy is war-scoped ([35_Economy Design](<../01_Design Documents/Systems/35_Economy Design.md>)). Trade outside a war either needs no currency, which makes it gifting, or needs a currency that does not currently exist outside war.
  • It reopens questions the war layer already settled once, around who hosts and what happens when someone logs off.

Why it is not in scope

Not because it is bad. Because it is a feature, and features go here first. Space shipped without it, and the gate has a clear home in the War Update either way.

If it is ever picked up, the natural moment is the Space Update, since that is the release it would change.

  • [39_Space Layer Design](<../01_Design Documents/Systems/39_Space Layer Design.md>) §2 — why the gate does not lead to space
  • [32_The Gate & War Logistics](<../01_Design Documents/Systems/32_The Gate & War Logistics.md>) — what the gate is today
  • [36_Progression Arc Design](<../01_Design Documents/Content/36_Progression Arc Design.md>) §6 — where the three endgame paths open