OpenFront How to Capture Trade Ships — Piracy and Trade

OpenFront trade ships are where a port economy turns into ongoing gold, and they are also the most stealable resource in the game. They spawn automatically from ports, sail long routes between players, and pay both ends. Because a warship can capture them, trade is never entirely safe, and capturing an enemy route is one of the cheapest ways to hurt a rival's income. This page covers how they work, how to capture them, and the embargo rules around them.

What Trade Ships Are

A trade ship is a non-player vessel that a port sends out toward another player's port. The current community wiki describes it as how factories and ports earn gold, with ports spawning trade ships that sail to other players' ports and earn for both sides, more the further they travel. The older wiki adds two details worth remembering: a trade ship is drawn with a bright outline and a dark centre, and a warship can capture one to make it switch teams. Ports do not spawn constantly; they check on a timer, and there is a global cap on how many ships can exist at once.

Capturing Trade Ships with Warships

Capturing is a naval job, and it is the main reason a port-heavy player builds a fleet even when they have no coastal enemy.

• Build a port first. Warships launch from ports, and ports are also what generate the trade ships you are raiding.
• Buy a warship. The first costs 250,000 gold on the documented ladder, the cheapest entry into piracy.
• Find the route. Hold the space bar and enemy trade ships show in red, which is the fastest way to spot a rich lane.
• Park the warship on the line. A warship patrols the area you targeted when you built it, so it will capture passing trade.
• Keep an ally screen. An ally's warship will not capture your trade ships, so alliances are the cheapest protection for a route.

Capture step	Why it matters
Port first	Warships cannot be built without one, and ports generate the targets
Buy warship	250,000 gold for the first, rising on a documented ladder
Locate route	Space-bar overlay marks enemy trade ships in red
Patrol the lane	A warship captures ships that pass through the area you set
Screen with allies	Allied warships do not capture your ships, so an alliance protects trade

Trade, Embargo and Piracy Economics

Trade income scales with route length, which makes geography a strategic asset: a long coastal route between distant ports pays far more per ship than a short hop. That also makes it worth defending. The counterplay to a rival's trade is threefold: raid the ships with warships, cut the route by taking the port tiles it depends on, or embargo the player and accept the loss of your own share of that lane. Because trade pauses automatically when you fight, a war you start will reduce your income as well as theirs.

Trade relationship	Effect on trade
Allied	Trade flows and an ally's warships will not capture your ships
Neutral	Trade flows, but either side can raid with warships
Attacked or attacking	Trade pauses for five minutes or until you become allies again
Manually stopped trading	Both directions pause until both players restart trading

• Long routes pay most, so the best piracy targets are the players with the longest coastlines.
• A single warship can matter, because one capture redirects a whole route's income.
• Embargo costs you too, so use it when you are already ahead rather than as a first move.
• Trade pauses when you fight, which means a war declaration is also an economic decision.