Space Engineers: Enhanced Trading and Production

This Space Engineers mod introduces four innovative blocks – the Cornucopia Block, Permit Store, Ore Mines, and Smelter – each designed to enhance resource management and acquisition in the game. The Cornucopia Block dynamically generates or destroys resources to maintain specified levels, automating the balance of materials in the player’s inventory. The Permit Store streamlines the trading process by automating buying and selling of items, working synergistically with the Cornucopia Block for efficient resource management. Ore Mines offer an alternative method for acquiring ores without voxel destruction, requiring specific conditions and drill heads for operation. Finally, the Smelter specializes in refining specific types of ores into ingots, necessitating placement on planets with sufficient gravity. Collectively, these blocks aim to expand the player’s capability to manage resources efficiently, enhance trading functionalities, and offer alternative methods for resource collection and refinement, ultimately enriching the gameplay experience in Space Engineers.

This block serves as a means to generate a required amounts of resources or destroy them.
When first setting the block it will automatically write all items (vanilla and modded) from the following categories in its CustomData.
* Ore
* Ingot
* Component
* AmmoMagazine
* PhysicalGunObject
* GasContainerObject
* OxygenContainerObject

On top of these, there is a category added called
* TimeIntervalSeconds

Each item is followed by a colon, and usually three comma seperated digits, e.g.
[Ore]
Iron:0,0,100
Silicon:0,0,100

These three digits are (in that order): changeValue,MinValue,MaxValue
If a certain item is below the MinValue, automatically enough items will be created that MinValue is reached.
If the amount of items exceeds MaxValue, all items above MaxValue will be instantly removed.
If the amount of items is between MinValue and MaxValue, it will change the existing amount every period by ChangeValue. ChangeValue can be a negative or a positive integer.
So this is a valid entry:
Iron:-5000,1000,100000
It means Cornucopia will always have at least 1000 iron ore but also a maximum for 100,000 iron ore. If between these values, each period it will reduce the total amount by 5000, until it reaches 1000.

The length of a period is determined by
[TimeIntervalSeconds]
time:600

The 600 in this case is the amount of seconds a period will take. Keep in mind that Space Engineers calculates time on a frame basis, not actual seconds, so this is a close approximation of 600 seconds. Not exactly 600 seconds.

This block was created to automatically purchase and sell items as required. Especially in conjunction with the Cornucopia block.
Upon placement the Permit Store will generate a list of all items (vanilla and modded) from the following categories in its CustomData.
* Ore
* Ingot
* Component
* AmmoMagazine
* PhysicalGunObject
* GasContainerObject
* OxygenContainerObject

On top of these, there are two categories added called
* TimeIntervalSeconds
* StoreDisplay

Each item is followed by a colon and a list of comma seperated values. These values are seperated again in two parts, designated by the double pipe sign ||.
The first part is store offers. The second part is for store orders.
Each part consists of these values:
* Offer/Order (bool)
* Threshold (int)
* MaxPrice (int)
* MinPrice (int)
* MinPriceQuantity (int)
* MaxQuantity (int)

If order/offer is set to true, the Permit Store will consider this item when creating offers or orders. Otherwise no order or offer will be created.
Threshold determines until what amount offers or orders should be generated. In case of offers, if stock sinks below this value, no further offers will generated. In case of orders if actual quantity exceeds this amount no further orders will be created.
MaxPrice is the maximum amount your are willing to pay or sell an item for. In case of orders this is the price if you have no inventory of the item. In case of offers, this is the price at which you are willing to sell your last item before you cross your Treshold.
MinPrice is the minimum price you are willing to pay for an item or sell it. If your inventory is at a satisfactory level you don’t wont to order that much more and a lower price. On the other hand, if you are selling and your inventory is bursting with an item, you may be willing to sell it at a reduced price. This price will be reached at MinPriceQuantity. If Orders cross MinPriceQuantity, you will only order at MinPrice. If you are selling, and your stocks are above MinPriceQuantity, then you will sell at MinPrice.
MaxQuantity determines the amount Permit Store will try to order or offer each time.
Price adjustments are linear.

A valid entry may be a bit confusing but it looks like this.
[Ore]
Uranium:True,0,100,2500,500,0.5,3||False,100,1000,200,100,1,1

It means the Permit Store in this case will only try to sell Uranium ingots. It will try to sell all of them (treshold=0) and in steps of 100. At a remaining quantity of 500 the offer price will be 2500 per kg. If the actual amount in inventory is above 500kg, it will reduce the price accordingly to as little as 1250 space credits/kg when 1000kg or more are in inventory. On the other hand will it increase the price if less than 500 kg are available to a maximum of 7500 space credits for the last kilogram.

The Permit will check each period if new offers need to be created based on whether the inventory has changed or the Custom Data has changed.
The length of each period is determined by the value time in
[TimeIntervalSeconds]
time:600

You can also display the orders and offers of the Permit Store in a wide LCD panel (there is just too much information for a normal LCD panel).
Each Permit Store has this info as well in its Custom Data:
[StoreDisplay]
StoreID:1

It will look for LCDs which also have the following in their CustomData. You have to copy the following manually into the CustomData of an LCD.
[StoreDisplay]
StoreID:1
StoreItemType: [Order|Offer]
Header:
Categories:
Pagination:1

As you can have multiple Permit Stores on the same grid, you can match LCDs and Permit Stores by providing both with the same StoreID.
With StoreItemType you can decied whether you want to display orders or offers.
Header is an otpional field. You can set your headline here like “We buy” or “We sell”. If you leave this empty the LCD will show “Store Item”.
You can use categories to only show items of a specific category or categories. Just supply the game’s categories in a comma seperated list, e.g.: Categories: Ore,Component, etc.
If you leave this value emtpy it will fetch all categories.
A wide screen can show a total of 15 orders or offers. If the list is exceeded this needs to be shown on a second display. In this case, use Pagination:2 to display the second page.

Keep in mind, a Store Block in Space Engineers is limited to a combined total of 30 orders and offers. The possibilites to create orders and offers, however, easily exceeds 30. So you may have to distribute your orders and offers across different stores.

A Permit Block will not create orders or offers if it is switched off.

Ore Mines are a different approach to get ore items, instead of destroying voxels.
Each ore mine can only mine one type of ore (e.g.: iron, cobalt, uranium, etc.). To build a mine, you must first purchase a mine permit from a Permit Store (or create one yourself if the respective blueprints are enabled). The Permit is a building component of the block, like steel plates and large tubes.

Ore mines need to be fed with Drill Heads, which come in six ascending categories:
* Simple
* Basic
* Intermediate
* Advanced
* High Performance
* Reinforced
* Ultra Durable

Each higher level drill head will produce more ores than the lower category. However it will also cost more. Simple drill heads are very cheap to manufacture, whereas ultra durable drill heads require a bit of every ingot.
The output is not only different per drill head but also according to the ores that are to be drilled. Unsuprisingly the yield on most expensive ores such as Magnesium, Uranium, or Platinum are much lower than compared to Ice or Iron.

Mines also have a few restrictions, they only work under a few conditions:
* Gravity lower than 0.01g natural gravity (artificial gravity is okay around a mine)
* It is stationary
* It is placed close to an asteroid
* It is at least 2000m distance from the next mine

Smelters are dedicated refineries, that can only smelt one type of ore and turn it into ingots.
In order for smelter to work it must
* reside on a planet
* with a natural gravity of at least 0.5g.

The normal Store Block has also been altered in so far that the Listing Fee has been removed (or more accurately: set to 0) and the Transaction Fee has been set to 1% of the purchase price. Also Space Engineers usually mandates a minimum offer price for each item, that is hardcoded. This minimum price has been set to 1 for all items.