Hiya!
Thanks for a great game. I'm having tremendous fun with it.
I have noticed a bug which I have been able to reproduce:
If I buy the required goods BEFORE I take a contract, I am not able to sell the goods in the other city.
Example:
In Paris there is an export contract for 8 tons of fruit to Hamburg.
If I take the contract and then buy the fruit, I am able to sell the goods in Hamburg and fulfill the contract.
If I buy 8 tons for fruit and then take the contract, I am not able to sell the fruit in Hamburg.
This also just applies to goods for the contract. Any other goods I may have in my cargo on the same run I can sell just fine.
I am using the lastest version of the game, but this has been happening with earlier version as well.
Unable to sell goods to fufill contract
Re: Unable to sell goods to fufill contract
Hey Zapotek! We're happy that the game delivers so much fun 
The "bug" you described is not a bug; it's how the game economics work since the beginning. It's designed to protect against exploits. If you purchase goods before taking a contract as a free trader, those purchases are considered invalid for fulfilling the city's needs. The primary purpose of contracts is to satisfy the city's needs, and they are never created randomly; they always depend on the current inventory.
Suppose you buy 200 tons of grain from the city, significantly lowering its stock. Subsequently, the city decides to create an import contract for grain. If you were able to sell back the goods you just purchased to "fulfil" the contract, you could repeat this action endlessly, which would disrupt the game balance. We tested this scenario years ago and concluded that it obviously cannot be allowed in the game.
The same principle applies to mining contracts. Someone could take a mining contract and, instead of extracting the resource from the seabed, buy it locally or in another city. Again, we cannot allow such manipulation.
I hope this explanation clarifies why the system functions in this manner.
The "bug" you described is not a bug; it's how the game economics work since the beginning. It's designed to protect against exploits. If you purchase goods before taking a contract as a free trader, those purchases are considered invalid for fulfilling the city's needs. The primary purpose of contracts is to satisfy the city's needs, and they are never created randomly; they always depend on the current inventory.
Suppose you buy 200 tons of grain from the city, significantly lowering its stock. Subsequently, the city decides to create an import contract for grain. If you were able to sell back the goods you just purchased to "fulfil" the contract, you could repeat this action endlessly, which would disrupt the game balance. We tested this scenario years ago and concluded that it obviously cannot be allowed in the game.
The same principle applies to mining contracts. Someone could take a mining contract and, instead of extracting the resource from the seabed, buy it locally or in another city. Again, we cannot allow such manipulation.
I hope this explanation clarifies why the system functions in this manner.
Re: Unable to sell goods to fufill contract
Yes, that makes sense. I came to the same conclusion on my way to work today and thought about how this could potentially be exploited.
Maybe this could be added to the manual, that goods you already have cannot be used for contracts.
Maybe this could be added to the manual, that goods you already have cannot be used for contracts.
Re: Unable to sell goods to fufill contract
Yes, the manual should be updated, and not just with this information, but a lot more. It is difficult to keep track of so many things in the game. It is also not easy to add new information to an existing manual without having to rearrange many elements on the page. However, for the big box version, this will eventually have to be done one way or another.
Re: Unable to sell goods to fufill contract
That is the thing. Not so many people nowadays read manuals. I read here or in other forums questions that are mentioned in the manual or in the story mode tutorial. But i agree we need to bring the manual to an updated level. I can do that hopefully till end of the year also with new screenshots.