Torque Tycoon > Game Components
An encounter is a local who approaches a pilot after a landing at a Hub or City with an offer. The offer appears as its own entry at the end of the Radio Menu; the pilot accepts it or declines.
Encounters are switched off for now. Locals no longer sell rumors, and new offers are still to come.
Locals only talk to pilots who stay on the ground for a moment, and only where the Settlement trusts them: the higher its Trust, the more likely an encounter, and a Settlement in unrest has nothing to say. Landing again and again at the same place does not bring more locals.
The offer stays open for a short while and disappears on takeoff. Show message again repeats it.
Not every local can be trusted. Some offers are traps that send an ambush after the pilot once airborne, and the region's Security decides how often. Nothing gives a trap away in advance. Declining an offer never springs a trap.