TradeDock & Shipyard¶

🚧 Partial. TradeDocks are rare premium hubs that combine an upgraded trading floor with a 12-slip player shipyard. The slip-rental construction pipeline is shipped (see Status summary); the premium trading floor, construction-event RNG, and dedicated UI panels remain 📐 Design-only. The status marker is omitted on individual subsections to reduce noise — assume 📐 throughout unless a subsection says otherwise.

Overview¶

A TradeDock is a multi-purpose station combining an advanced trading floor with full shipyard facilities. It is distinct from the standard Class-0 through Class-11 stations described in trading.md; a TradeDock does not sit in the class enumeration at all and operates under its own pricing and service rules.

Three things define a TradeDock:

Premium trading hub — better spreads, bulk discounts, zero transaction fee, 10× the inventory of a normal port.
Player shipyard — 12 rented construction slips that build ships over 3–14 real-time days.
Economic anchor — a regional centre of gravity around which trade routes, resource gathering, and team coordination form.

Scarcity¶

TradeDocks are rare strategic infrastructure — only 4–8 across the entire galaxy at any time. They are seeded at galaxy generation and never spawn dynamically.

Region	TradeDocks
Central Nexus	3
Terran Space	1
Player-owned region (≥ 500 sectors)	0 or 1
Player-owned region (< 500 sectors)	0

Players in small regions must travel to a neighbouring region — typically the Central Nexus — to access TradeDock services. See ../../SYSTEMS/galaxy-generation.md#step-95-tradedock-seeding-phase-105 for the seeding step, per-region quota, placement rules, and galaxy-wide invariants.

Ownership¶

TradeDocks are NPC-controlled neutral infrastructure. They cannot be captured, ownership-transferred, or destroyed. A region owner can fund construction of a new TradeDock as a one-time region-scale project (see Discovery & access below).

Premium trading mechanics¶

A TradeDock's commodity floor is faster, deeper, and cheaper than a Class-0 port. The standard pricing engine described in trading.md still applies, but the spreads, fees, and inventory caps are different:

Aspect	Standard port (Class 0+)	TradeDock
Sell spread (`midpoint × …`)	1.15	1.05–1.10
Buy spread	0.85	0.90–0.95
Transaction fee	2.0%	0.0%
Inventory cap	1× capacity	10× capacity
Bulk discount	none	5% per 1,000 units, capped at 20%
Cargo insurance available	sometimes	always

Effective price compression: a TradeDock is 10–15% better on either side of the spread than a Class-0 port. Combined with the bulk discount, a 4,000-unit purchase reaches the 20% cap.

Bulk discount detail¶

Applied to buys (player purchasing from the dock):

Units in single transaction	Discount
1–999	0%
1,000–1,999	5%
2,000–2,999	10%
3,000–3,999	15%
4,000+	20% (cap)

The discount applies on top of the better TradeDock spread; reputation and personal-rep modifiers from trading.md stack on top of the discounted price.

Rare commodities¶

TradeDocks broker commodities that are not procedurally generated at standard ports. The catalogue includes:

Advanced ship components — hull plating, shield generators, engine cores.
Rare construction materials — titanium alloys, lumen crystals, quantum shards.
Specialised equipment — advanced sensors, experimental weapons, luxury fittings.

These materials feed both the shipyard's resource bundles below and the warp-tunnel and Genesis pipelines described in galaxy/genesis-devices.md. Lumen crystals and quantum shards specifically gate Warp Jumper construction; see the Bang-bottleneck note in trading.md.

Trade services¶

In addition to the commodity floor, every TradeDock offers:

Cargo insurance — protects against piracy losses on the next jump.
Market trend ARIA integration — premium price predictions.
Trade route optimisation — suggested round-trip routes.
Long-term commodity storage — rented warehouse slots, persists across sessions.
Priority docking — TradeDock berths never queue; instant docking guaranteed.

Shipyard — overview¶

Each TradeDock operates 12 construction slips. Slips rent by the day and are consumed serially — one ship per slip at a time, no parallel builds in the same slip.

The shipyard exists to make ship ownership a project, not a transaction. A built ship is meaningfully different from a purchased one:

Stat bonuses (5–15% across hull / shields / cargo / speed) applied at completion.
Custom name, paint scheme, and builder signature ("Crafted with pride by [Player]").
Unlockable modifications via construction events (see Construction events).
Higher resale value (+20%).
Lower total cost (30–50% cheaper) if the player gathers their own resources.

Versus pre-fab purchase at a standard shipyard, the trade-off is time and effort for discount and quality.

Construction phases¶

Every build progresses through four phases regardless of ship type:

Frame Assembly — 0–25%. Hull structure assembled.
Systems Integration — 25–50%. Engines, power, life support installed.
Outfitting — 50–75%. Cargo bays, defensive systems, sensors fitted.
Final Assembly — 75–100%. Testing, calibration, quality assurance.

Phase boundaries gate certain mechanics (the keel-laid milestone fires at the start of Frame Assembly; hull-complete fires at the end of Systems Integration; see Milestone payments).

Phase-day breakdown¶

Total build days split 20/30/30/20 across Frame / Systems / Outfitting / Final, rounded to whole-day increments at scheduler tick:

Ship type	Total	Frame (20%)	Systems (30%)	Outfitting (30%)	Final (20%)
Scout	3	1	1	1	0.3
Fast Courier	4	1	1	1	1
Light Freighter	5	1	2	1	1
Cargo Hauler	7	2	2	2	1
Defender	8	2	2	2	2
Colony Ship	10	2	3	3	2
Carrier	14	3	4	4	3
Warp Jumper	14	3	4	4	3

Each phase is gated by a resource-delivery checkpoint (per Delivery rules below). Frame requires 25% of every resource delivered; Systems and Outfitting both require 100% of ore/tech/equipment + 50% exotic; Final requires 100% of all resources. The phase clock pauses until its checkpoint is met. Late delivery accrues a compounding 5% / day cost overrun on the next milestone (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, …) so wait time is never free.

Slip rental¶

Slips are reserved on a first-come, first-served basis. When all 12 slips at a TradeDock are occupied, a waiting list forms. Reservations require an initial deposit equal to 10% of the total project cost (rent + labour + resource market value).

Per-ship rental table¶

Ship type	Build days	Slip deposit (10% of total)	Total project cost
Scout Ship	3	4,000 cr	40,000 cr
Fast Courier	4	6,500 cr	65,000 cr
Light Freighter	5	10,000 cr	100,000 cr
Cargo Hauler	7	32,000 cr	320,000 cr
Defender	8	38,000 cr	380,000 cr
Colony Ship	10	64,000 cr	640,000 cr
Carrier	14	190,000 cr	1,900,000 cr
Warp Jumper	14	100,000 cr	1,000,000 cr

(The Warp Jumper remains the only craft-only ship in the galaxy — it cannot be purchased pre-fab at any port. See gameplay/ships.md.)

📐 Design-only — gate-builder cadence. Because the Warp Jumper hull is consumed at Phase 3 of warp gate creation (per ADR-0029) and the limit-1-per-player rule applies, a player who builds warp gates is locked into a ~14-day-per-gate cadence: 14 days of slip rental + 1,000,000 cr per Warp Jumper, on top of the gate's own materials. This cadence is the practical rate-limit on player-built warp gates and bounds the W2 cap formula in the average case.

The total project cost above is the canonical "all-in if you buy every resource at market" figure. A player who self-gathers resources will spend substantially less in net credits — see Cost comparison.

Rental mechanics¶

Daily rent is charged at server reset (00:00 UTC) for as long as the slip is occupied.
Players may pre-pay up to 30 days of rent at booking.
Missed rent pauses construction immediately — no progress accrues until rent is paid.
Three consecutive days unpaid → the project is cancelled and all delivered resources forfeited (see Cancellation & refund).
Slip occupants can lock the slip behind a team-only flag (see Team coordination workflows) but the rent obligation transfers along with the lock.

Slip reservation state machine¶

ConstructionReservation.state ∈ {
  requested,            // initial; player submits slip request
  queued,               // waiting for availability; reputation-tier ordered
  hold_active,          // 24h hold at front of queue; player must arrive + pay deposit
  deposit_collected,    // deposit paid; resources can be delivered
  frame_assembly,       // Frame phase (0–25%)
  systems_integration,  // Systems phase (25–50%)
  outfitting,           // Outfitting phase (50–75%)
  final_assembly,       // Final phase (75–100%)
  claim_pending,        // 100% complete; awaiting final payment + claim
  delivered,            // terminal: ship claimed
  expired,              // terminal: 24h hold missed
  cancelled,            // terminal: player cancelled
  forfeited             // terminal: 3 days unpaid
}

From → To	Trigger	Notes
`requested` → `queued`	Reputation gate passes	Rep tier checked against slip class (see docking-slips.md)
`queued` → `hold_active`	Slip frees, player at top of queue	24h hold timer starts; player notified
`hold_active` → `deposit_collected`	Deposit paid + initial resource batch	If 24h elapses with no deposit → `expired` (50% deposit to next-in-queue, 50% to TradeDock)
`deposit_collected` → `frame_assembly`	25% of every resource delivered	Keel-laid milestone fires
`frame_assembly` → `systems_integration`	100% ore/tech/equipment + 50% exotic	Hull-complete milestone fires
`systems_integration` → `outfitting`	Same checkpoint as Systems	No new milestone
`outfitting` → `final_assembly`	100% of all resources	No new milestone
`final_assembly` → `claim_pending`	Build clock = 100%	Final commissioning milestone fires; player has 7 days to claim
`claim_pending` → `delivered`	Final payment + claim	Ship spawned in roster
any → `cancelled`	Player initiates	Refund per Cancellation & refund
any → `forfeited`	3 days unpaid rent or milestone	No refund; 7-day re-booking lockout

Cost comparison¶

For a Defender (build cost reference: pre-fab ≈ 300,000 cr at a standard shipyard):

Path	Net credits	Net time	Stats
Pre-fab purchase	300,000 cr	instant	base
Player-built (self-gather all resources)	~180,000 cr	7 days + gathering	+5–15% bonus
Player-built (buy all resources at market)	~380,000 cr	7 days	+5–15% bonus
Player-built (mix: gather common, buy rare)	~280,000 cr	7 days + light gathering	+5–15% bonus

The "sweet spot" — gather the bulk commodities (ore, technology, equipment), buy the exotic materials — saves credits versus pre-fab and still earns the construction bonuses.

Resource delivery¶

Each ship type has a fixed construction bundle that must be delivered to the slip over the build's duration. Resources are deposited at the dock's resource intake; once delivered they cannot be reclaimed.

Bundle composition¶

Ship type	Ore	Technology	Equipment	Exotic Tech	Lumen Crystals	Quantum Shards
Light Freighter	1,200	600	400	—	—	—
Scout Ship	500	300	200	—	—	—
Fast Courier	800	500	350	100	—	—
Cargo Hauler	2,500	800	1,200	—	—	—
Defender	2,000	1,500	1,000	500	—	—
Colony Ship	4,000	2,000	1,500	200	—	—
Carrier	5,000	3,000	2,500	1,000	500	—
Warp Jumper	3,000	2,000	1,500	2,000	500	1,000

(Numbers for Light Freighter, Scout, Defender, Cargo Hauler, Carrier, and Warp Jumper are anchored to legacy spec; Fast Courier and Colony Ship are extrapolated to fit the same structure since legacy did not specify them.)

Delivery rules¶

Threshold for keel-laid milestone: 25% of every resource type must be delivered before construction can advance past Frame Assembly.
Threshold for hull-complete milestone: 100% of ore, technology, and equipment plus 50% of any exotic materials.
Threshold for final commissioning: 100% of every resource.
Late delivery penalty: if the project misses a phase threshold by its scheduled day, a 5% daily cost overrun is added to the labour fee for as long as the shortfall persists, compounding daily (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, …). The slip's build clock pauses (extending elapsed real-time days but not the labour-fee accrual).
Resources delivered by team-mates count toward the project's bundle (see Team coordination workflows); the delivering player gets contribution credit on the project ledger.

Resource bundle validation¶

Delivery acceptance at the dock's resource intake follows these rules:

Scenario	Result	Refund / recovery
Correct type, correct quantity	Accepted; counts toward checkpoint	—
Correct type, insufficient quantity	Partial accept; phase timer pauses	Player can deliver remainder
Wrong resource type	Rejected; cargo returned to player ship	No slip fee charged for the rejected delivery
Mixed batch (some correct, some wrong)	Partial accept (correct items only); wrong items returned	No fee for wrong items; correct items consumed

Per ADR-0039, each delivery is atomic and irreversible once accepted: cancelled projects do not return delivered cargo. Cancellation refunds credits per the schedule below, but resources stay with the TradeDock.

Substitution (📐 reserved for future iteration): credit-for-resource substitution at 1.5× market price is allowed for common materials (ore / technology / equipment) up to 50% of the bundle, but not for rare materials (Exotic Tech, Lumen Crystals, Quantum Shards). Allowing full substitution on rares would undermine the resource-scarcity gate on Warp Jumper and Carrier construction.

Sourcing options¶

Self-gather — trade routes, mining, planetary production. Cheapest but slowest.
Market purchase — buy directly at the TradeDock's premium floor or at a standard port. Fastest but most expensive.
Team contribution — team-mates fly resources in from elsewhere.
Mixed — gather the bulk, buy the rare materials.

Milestone payments¶

The total project cost is split across a four-stage payment schedule, separate from daily rent and resource delivery. Milestones unlock in real time as construction phases advance.

Milestone	Trigger	% of total project cost
Deposit	On slip booking	10% of total project cost
Keel laid	Resource threshold met, Frame Assembly begins	25%
Hull complete	End of Systems Integration	25%
Final / commissioning	On ship delivery, claim issued	25–40%

The deposit-to-final ratio scales with ship type — small ships front-load less and back-load more (10% deposit, 40% final), heavy ships front-load more (25% deposit, 25% final). This guarantees the dock recoups capital expenditure on big builds early while keeping entry-tier construction accessible.

Payment failures¶

Missing a milestone payment pauses construction in the same way as missed rent.
Three consecutive days of missed milestone payment cancel the project (see Cancellation & refund).
Players can pre-pay any milestone in advance to immunise against cash-flow gaps.

Construction events¶

During a build, random events can occur with a base 5% chance per real-time day. Events surface as a UI prompt on the player's TradeDock dashboard the next time they dock or open the project view. Some events demand a decision (mitigate vs. accept); others are passive applications.

Event	Effect	Player decision
Quality Discovery (positive)	Engineer finds a structural improvement. Ship gains +5% to a random stat (hull, shields, cargo, speed).	Accept — no decision required.
Resource Shortage	Local supply chain disrupted. +10–25% cost overrun on the next milestone, OR ship 10% extra of one resource type to mitigate.	Pay overrun or deliver extra resource.
Labor Dispute	Slip workers strike. Build delayed 1–3 days unless the player pays a 5% bonus to dock workers.	Pay bonus or absorb delay.
Innovation (positive)	Engineer applies a novel technique. Ship gains +1 random equipment slot at completion.	Accept — no decision required.
Inspection Delay	Federation/Faction inspector slows progress. +1 day elapsed, no cost.	None — passively applied.

Event probability tuning¶

P(event_fires_today) = min(0.65, base_rate + engineer_modifier)

base_rate         = 0.05                       // 5% per project per day
engineer_modifier = 0.10 × engineer_count      // capped at 3 engineers (+0.30)

The 0.65 hard cap prevents pathological all-event projects when three engineers are assigned.

Once an event fires, the type rolls 0–99:

Roll	Outcome class	Pool
0–39	Positive	Quality Discovery, Innovation
40–79	Neutral	Cosmetic Variation, Crew Morale (no mechanical change)
80–99	Negative	Resource Shortage, Inspection Delay

Engineer assignment biases the roll toward positive outcomes (approximately 2:1 in their favour), implemented as a per-engineer −5 shift on the roll (one engineer shifts 0–99 to −5–94; three engineers shift to −15–84).

Concrete numerical effects per event:

Event	Effect
Quality Discovery	+5% to a random stat (hull / shields / cargo / speed)
Innovation	+1 random equipment slot at completion (max 2 per project)
Cosmetic Variation	Unique hull marking; no mechanical change
Crew Morale	Workplace-morale ledger entry; no mechanical change
Resource Shortage	+10–25% (roll 2d8 + 10) cost overrun on next milestone, OR deliver +10% of one resource type to skip
Inspection Delay	+1 elapsed day, no cost (slip rental keeps accruing)

Events log to the project ledger and persist on the completed ship's "build history" record.

Multiple events¶

A single project can fire multiple events across its build window. Carrier and Warp Jumper builds (12–14 days) commonly accumulate 2–4 events; Scout and Light Freighter builds rarely fire more than one.

Space Engineer profession integration¶

The Space Engineer profession on a player-owned planet (see planets/professions.md) materially accelerates and improves TradeDock construction. A player with trained Space Engineers on any planet they control can assign engineers to an active TradeDock project.

Effects¶

Engineer training tier	Construction time reduction	Quality bonus	Labour fee reduction
Tier 1	−10%	+2% extra stat bonuses	−5%
Tier 2	−20%	+3%	−10%
Tier 3	−30%	+5%	−15%

Stacking rules¶

Up to three engineers can be assigned to a single project (one per slip).
Effects stack additively within the build, but the construction time reduction caps at −50% to prevent trivialised carrier and warp-jumper builds.
Each assigned engineer is paid daily from the project owner's credits at the engineer's home-planet wage rate (TBD, set by planets/professions.md).
Engineers also boost the construction-event RNG roll toward positive outcomes (see Construction events).

This is the primary reason the Space Engineer profession exists: it converts long-running planet investment into a recurring shipyard advantage for the player and their team.

Team coordination workflows¶

Multiple players can collaborate on a single slip booking. The legacy single-owner model is preserved as a default — one player books, pays, and claims — but team workflows extend it.

Shared slip booking¶

Initiator — the team-mate who reserves the slip. Credits with the deposit; their Player.id is the project owner of record.
Co-contributors — team-mates who deliver resources or pay milestone fees. Logged on the project ledger.
Claimant — the player listed at completion as recipient of the ship. Default = initiator; reassignable to any co-contributor before final payment.

Pooled resource delivery¶

Any team-mate docked at the TradeDock can deliver to a teammate's project's resource intake, provided the slip is flagged team-shared.
Contributions are credited on the ledger — useful for distributing a future ship's effective cost.
Team-treasury credits can pay milestone fees and slip rent without a specific player needing to be online.

Co-ownership¶

A completed ship may optionally be team-owned rather than individually owned. A team-owned ship is bound to the team's roster and any active member can pilot it (one pilot at a time).
Co-ownership is decided at claim time and irreversible without selling and re-buying the ship.
Per-team-ship limits and team-roster transfer rules track factions-and-teams.md (📐 Design-only there as well).

Specialisation roles¶

A natural team workflow emerges:

Gatherers mine, trade, and produce raw resources to deliver to the project.
Builders queue and manage active slips, schedule milestone payments, decide on construction events.
Engineers train and assign Space Engineers from their colonised planets.
Treasurers fund milestone gaps from the team treasury.

Three team-mates building three ships in parallel at one TradeDock is the design's reference workflow.

Cancellation & refund¶

Players can cancel a project at any point before claim. Refund schedule:

Cancellation timing	Deposit refund	Milestones already paid	Resources delivered
Pre-keel (Frame Assembly not started)	90% (10% restocking fee)	refunded fully	refunded fully
Post-keel, pre-hull (Frame Assembly started, Outfitting not begun)	forfeit	50% of milestones already paid	not refundable
Post-hull, pre-claim (Outfitting or Final Assembly)	forfeit	10% of milestones already paid	not refundable

Sell to dock at completion¶

If a player completes a build but no longer wants the ship, the dock will buy the completed hull at construction cost minus 30%. This is the best-available exit after Final Assembly and is the only way to recover any value once the ship is hull-complete.

Forfeiture cancellation¶

If the project is cancelled by the system (three days of missed rent or milestones), all credits and resources are forfeit — there is no refund path. The player may not re-book a slip at the same TradeDock for 7 real-time days after a forfeiture.

Defenses¶

TradeDocks are heavily defended Class-9-equivalent military installations:

NPC defence fleet — 8–16 turrets and 24–48 garrison drones permanently stationed.
No PvP combat — players cannot initiate combat in a TradeDock's sector against the dock or other docked players.
No PvE damage — no NPC faction event can destroy or capture a TradeDock outside an end-game faction-war scenario flagged by an operator (📐 Design-only).
Player ships at the dock are safe — the dock guarantees a no-combat zone within 1 sector.

A TradeDock cannot be cargo-raided or saboteur-targeted in current design. The shipyard infrastructure is too strategic to be lost to an opportunistic player attack.

Discovery & access¶

Galaxy-generation seeding¶

TradeDock placement is decided at galaxy generation in a dedicated seeding step — Step 9.5 / Phase 10.5, after generic stations and planets and before the Capital + SpaceDock anchors. See ../../SYSTEMS/galaxy-generation.md#step-95-tradedock-seeding-phase-105 for the full per-region quota, placement rules, and galaxy-wide invariants.

3 in the Central Nexus — 1 Tier-A (in an EXPANSE-zone commerce cluster) + 2 Tier-B.
1 in Terran Space — Tier-A.
0 or 1 per player-owned region (eligible only at ≥ 500 sectors); Tier-B by default.

Seeded placement targets sectors in EXPANSE/CLUSTER-class clusters with ≥ 2 inbound warps, never in starter-cluster or FRONTIER-zone sectors, and avoids collisions with the Capital/SpaceDock anchors. The galaxy-wide guarantee is 4–8 total TradeDocks, ≥ 1 Tier-A, and ≥ 2 reachable from any starter cluster — the Tier-A floor is what keeps the Warp-Jumper / warp-gate loop reachable in every generated galaxy.

Player-region TradeDocks must be funded by the region owner; they are not auto-seeded.

Schema¶

TradeDocks share the Station table (see ../../DATA_MODELS/stations.md) and are distinguished from the Class-0..11 trading rows by dedicated columns:

Column	Type	Meaning
`is_tradedock`	`BOOLEAN DEFAULT false`	`true` on TradeDock rows; runtime code filters on this to apply premium pricing and shipyard behaviour.
`tradedock_tier`	`ENUM('tier_a', 'tier_b')` nullable	Set on `is_tradedock = true` rows. Only `tier_a` docks build Warp Jumper / Carrier hulls (see docking-slips.md).
`region_assignment_role`	`ENUM('primary_tier_b', 'secondary_tier_b', 'tier_a_facility')` nullable	Per-region role assigned by the seeder; readable by the player-client region-overview screens.

Reputation gate¶

To dock at a TradeDock without paying the guest fee, a player needs:

+200 or higher reputation with the controlling NPC faction (the faction owning the sector) — see factions-and-teams.md.
A clean criminal record with that faction (no outstanding bounties from the faction's own NPCs).

Guest fee¶

Players below the reputation threshold can still dock by paying a flat guest fee of 100,000 cr per visit. The fee is non-refundable, persists for one in-game session (i.e. until the next undock), and is applied each time the player re-docks.

Region-funded construction¶

A region owner with ≥ 500 sectors may construct one new TradeDock in their region:

Cost: 50,000,000 cr.
Duration: 90 real-time days.
Resource bundle: 500,000 ore + 300,000 technology + 200,000 equipment.
Operating cut: the region owner receives 5% of all shipyard fees generated at the new dock as ongoing income (paid into the region treasury).

Region-funded TradeDocks operate identically to galaxy-seeded ones; players see no functional difference.

Lifecycle — cancellation, lapse, disbandment¶

The 50M / 90-day construction project has three failure modes worth speccing explicitly:

Mid-build cancellation (region owner explicitly cancels via the regional-governance UI): credits and resource bundle are refunded pro-rata for the unbuilt portion, minus a 25% restocking fee on the unbuilt remainder. Worked example: cancel at day 30 (33% built, 67% unbuilt) refunds 0.67 × 50M × 0.75 = 25.125M cr and 0.67 × bundle × 0.75 of each resource. The built portion has no in-game value; the construction site does not become a partial structure.
Region subscription lapses post-construction: the TradeDock persists as an NPC asset in the region. The 5% fee income stops accruing to the region treasury at the moment of lapse. Player-facing functionality (docking, ship construction, repair) continues normally — the TradeDock is treated as an ungoverned facility for fee-distribution purposes (operator pockets the 5%, or the cut is folded into player-facing prices, per operator policy).
Region is disbanded (ownership transfer to operator, region terminated, etc.): same as subscription lapse. The TradeDock persists as NPC infrastructure; the 5% income stream simply has no destination.

In all three cases the TradeDock itself is preserved — once built, it is part of the universe state and survives changes to the funding region's status.

Player-facing affordances¶

TradeDock landing page — three tabs: Trading Hub, Shipyard, Storage.
Shipyard slip browser — visual grid of all 12 slips, occupancy progress bars, waiting-list position.
Project dashboard — for the player's own active projects: progress phase, resource intake checklist, milestone payment schedule, construction-event log, Space Engineer assignment panel, customisation preview.
Customisation panel — paint scheme picker, ship-name field, modification toggles (unlocked through Innovation events).
Stats projection — live preview of the ship's stats including any pending bonuses from quality events.
Cancel / sell-to-dock controls — gated behind a confirmation modal that displays the exact refund amount.
Team-shared slip flag — toggle visible only to the slip's initiator.

ARIA surfaces project status as conversational status updates ("Your Defender is 65% complete and currently in Outfitting; one resource shortage event is pending your decision").

Source map¶

All paths are targets — no current code implements TradeDock or shipyard behaviour at the level described.

Concern	Target path
TradeDock model	`services/gameserver/src/models/tradedock.py` (target)
Construction slip model	`services/gameserver/src/models/construction_slip.py` (target)
Ship construction project model	`services/gameserver/src/models/ship_construction_project.py` (target)
Slip rental & lifecycle service	`services/gameserver/src/services/shipyard_service.py` (target)
Construction event RNG service	`services/gameserver/src/services/construction_event_service.py` (target)
Bundle composition catalogue	`services/gameserver/src/core/ship_construction_bundles.py` (target)
Premium-pricing override (10–15% spread, bulk discount)	`services/gameserver/src/services/trading_service.py` (target update — branch on `Station.is_tradedock`)
Galaxy-gen TradeDock seeding	`services/gameserver/src/services/galaxy_service.py:_seed_tradedocks` (target)
Region-funded construction	`services/gameserver/src/services/regional_governance_service.py` (target update)
Space Engineer integration	`services/gameserver/src/services/profession_service.py` (target) and `shipyard_service.py` cross-call
API — list TradeDocks	`GET services/gameserver/src/api/routes/tradedock.py:/api/tradedock/list` (target)
API — slip availability	`GET .../tradedock/{tradedock_id}/slips` (target)
API — reserve slip	`POST .../tradedock/{tradedock_id}/slips/reserve` (target)
API — deliver resources	`POST .../tradedock/slips/{slip_id}/deliver` (target)
API — milestone payment	`POST .../tradedock/slips/{slip_id}/payment` (target)
API — customise + claim	`POST .../tradedock/slips/{slip_id}/customize`, `.../claim` (target)
API — cancel	`POST .../tradedock/slips/{slip_id}/cancel` (target)
Migration adding TradeDock + slip + project tables	`services/gameserver/alembic/versions/xxxx_add_tradedock_shipyard.py` (target)
Player UI — TradeDock landing	`services/player-client/src/components/TradeDock/TradeDockHome.tsx` (target)
Player UI — shipyard slip browser	`services/player-client/src/components/TradeDock/SlipBrowser.tsx` (target)
Player UI — project dashboard	`services/player-client/src/components/TradeDock/ProjectDashboard.tsx` (target)
Admin UI — TradeDock management	`services/admin-ui/src/components/pages/TradeDockAdmin.tsx` (target)

Status summary¶

This system is 🚧 Partial.

🚧 The slip-rental construction pipeline is live: the ConstructionReservation model (construction_reservations table), construction_service, and routes/construction.py handle reservation, quotes, milestone payments, resource deliveries, lazily-advanced phases, slip-pool availability, queue promotion, and claim — with Tier-A gating. Warp Jumper commissioning runs end-to-end through it (gameplay-verified, 1,000,000 cr).
📐 Still design-only: premium-pricing override in trading_service.py, construction-event RNG path, Space Engineer assignment integration, and dedicated player-client / admin-UI TradeDock panels.

Implementation order, when scheduled, follows the legacy phase plan:

Phase 1 — TradeDock seeding at galaxy generation, premium trading floor (spreads + bulk discount + 10× inventory + zero fee), Warp Jumper construction migrated onto the slip-rental flow.
Phase 2 — Full slip rental for all 8 craft-able ship types (the 9 ShipType values minus Escape Pod, which is issued, not built), resource bundles, milestone payments, cancellation & refund.
Phase 3 — Construction events RNG, Space Engineer integration, team coordination workflows, region-funded construction.

If this system is indefinitely deferred, file an ADR in ADR/ capturing the deferral rationale and the conditions under which it would be picked up.

trading.md — main trading flow, station classes, and pricing engine; the TradeDock summary block there is a brief pointer to this spec.
lifecycle.md — credit faucets and sinks; TradeDock construction is a major mid-to-late-game sink.
planets/professions.md — Space Engineer profession that accelerates and improves TradeDock construction.
gameplay/ships.md — ship types, pre-fab acquisition paths, the craft-only Warp Jumper.
gameplay/ship-systems.md — upgrade and equipment slots that built ships can extend with.
galaxy/generation.md — TradeDock placement at galaxy generation and per-region scarcity rules.
gameplay/factions-and-teams.md — reputation gates for TradeDock access and team-coordinated workflows.