The existing player trade quota system was designed a long time ago - the intention was to curb player trade abuse. Over time, more rules have been added to patch loopholes and the rules have become too complicated to comprehend - and it's not very obvious in-game as well. New players always have trouble understanding the system. Also, it is a bit too punishing for new players - with a limited quota available.
I have been thinking about redesigning this for a while. And it's surprisingly hard to design a trading system that is easy to understand yet can prevent market manipulation without frequent manual intervention. In the real world, international trades are heavily managed, with customs duty, quota and anti-dumping rules. I want a simple system that can capture the essence of international trading in the game.
The new player tariff system will replace the existing quota system in the upcoming version. It works as follows:
Instead of limiting the amount you can trade with other players - now you can trade an unlimited amount. However, the amount that exceeds the "tariff credit" is liable for tariff (i.e. import/export tax). Each player can acquire "tariff credit" in two days - by either producing the resource that is being traded or increasing the total market cap. This tariff is reset when the market update. The tariff rate for excess trade value depends on the price difference between the trade and local price and it is applied progressively.
The trading UI when adding and filling trades has been redesigned to show detailed tariff calculations - this should help improve the clarity and make it easier to understand.
This new system is already available on Steam beta channel - you can switch to the beta channel via your Steam Client, no code or password required. Please note downgrading to stable channel is not supported. Remember this is only the first draft version and I am sure there will be issues. Feel free to give your feedback in the #industry-idle-suggestions channel on Discord. I will continue to improve this based on your feedback.