Trade Routes Displayed by Civilian ships

[plansburn]

In addition to the existing trade route display, add the option to display civilian ships passing through systems connected via a trade route. They wouldn't have to be interactable or even actual units, just an animation that plays while in system, displaying the trade route.

 

[nightraven1901]

In addition to the existing trade route display, add the option to display civilian ships passing through systems connected via a trade route. They wouldn't have to be interactable or even actual units, just an animation that plays while in system, displaying the trade route.

Already suggested it. It has not been implemented.

 

[Skeletr0nKing]

I almost suggested this same thing!!

 

[nightraven1901]

I almost suggested this same thing!!​

It'd be nicer if they were interactive units, scattering when combat fleets entered the system, some brave souls engaging in their commuter shuttles and freighters while others flee for their lives to the nearest jump point. But, even just having phantasmal craft cruising the lanes, displaying the amount of trade flowing down a given lane by their density, would be a lot more visually informative than having to open the trade menu and fiddle about to see the pirate threat locations.

Maybe a roadblock is the visual art required; each shipset would require a craft designed to be a trade ship at least. We could just use the army transports, though- a good starting place. One would expect to see personal shuttles, and private fighters, the modern equivalent of riding a motorcycle, and even privately-owned rated ships bopping along. Using the extant assets would be fine for this. Civilians would build lightly-armed corvettes- this is where the dang pirates would be getting them- and having that modeled similarly to how Distant Stars does would be very nice. I'm tempted to go lurk on their forums instead at this point... they have a much less money-hungry approach to game development. I shouldn't be pitching DLCs to get new features or even fixes to old problems noticed...

And trust me, Skeletr0nKing, a lot of people have made this suggestion in various ways over the course of the entire period of the existence of trade in Stellaris...​