FreeHotSex! [Otherwise known as my burning questions about Trade]

You've got the basics. Just crank up the trade routes and count your money.

Put some picks into Trade and Diplomacy abilities. Trade gets you more money from the routes, and Diplomacy helps you keep your trading partners sweet.

Here's one strategy that worked nicely when I started out stuck in a corner: stay Neutral-to-good and then establish lots of routes with your Evil neighbors after the UP votes to limit *their* routes. The Yor were the dominant race: they had three times as many planets as I did but were limited to two routes. I put up all five of mine to them and they were eating out of my hand. I got an Alliance victory (though I feel like it should be called the "Toady Award").

~SDC~

Although the manual says that trade routes are more valuable the longer they are, I haven't found this to be true. The most valuable trade routes I've run have been to sectors right next to my planets. I think this is because those little "mini-freighters" you see zipping around are actually carrying out the trade routes. If they are in a sector without a trade bonus starbase, the trade route doesn't get the bonus that turn. So if you make a trade route that goes through 6 sectors, you'll need to build 6 starbases and upgrade all of them to be certain of getting the bonus all the time. While if you put the trade route to a planet right next to yours, you can put multiple starbases in just the two sectors where the trade route is. It may be worth less, but it will bring in more because it is always multiplied by many starbases. Got it? : )
V

The most successful trading I ever had in a game was with a minor civ in my home sector. I set all my trade routes to them and generated over 60% of my total income from those small loops. They succumbed to my culture in the early end-game, but they resisted my pull for a long time because of the money they made from our trade and the way they invested it. I've found that the amount of money I generate by setting up short routes quickly makes up for the only-slightly-larger amounts I seem to get from longer routes that take forever to get started.

If you have a minor civ trading partner, you can sell them culture-upgraded starbases to keep them from being culturally absorbed.

It appears there's a design flaw regarding long trade routes. Since the starbase trade bonuses only apply when the "mini-freighters" are in the same sector as the starbase, longer trade routes don't get as big a bonus. A long trade route has a larger base value, but the starbase bonus is a lot less.

Further the "mini-freighters" move like regular ships. The trade screen is misleading, because that isn't the path the freighters actually take. You have to build horizontal or vertical trade routes to get full value from your starbase. If the trade route cuts diagonally across a sector, you may only get the trade bonus for a few squares, rather than for a full sector's worth of distance.

yeah, in my current game, I'm running all my trade routes from my best profit center to each of the planets of a minor civ that is buried in my rear area. I haven't lost any trade routes, it only took 5 starbases to make sure that the freighters were always affected by the +50% bonus, etc.

This is good info guys, thanks!

Re starbases:

I'm a bit confused here. Do Starbases have to be in every sector that the freighter goes through in order to get the bonus or in just one of them? I'm not even exactly sure if Starbases themselves are just sector-influencing or civilization influencing? Someone care to clear that up for me please...

Danke.

~SDC~

1. Trade bases only get the bonus when the little freighter ship is in the same sector with the base.

2. Resource mining modules on a starbase that is on a resource affect the whole civ; other starbase effects like production bonuses affect only planets in the same sector.

~SDC~

what about the military and social bonuses. Do those affect the whole civilization or only the sector??

Mil & Soc production bonuses are only for the sector.

~SDC~

By the way, does anyone know if the "is freighter in a sector with a bonus SB" check is done at the beginning or end of the freighter move? I've assumed that it is after the freighter moves, but I'm not sure.
V

My old strategy has been to send long trade routes from Earth. I'm going to stop for 2 reasons.

1) It's better to establish trade early so the AIs warm up to me

2) I got more base cash from a short route from a backwater to a neighboring AI than I normally get from my homeworld to the fringes.

I have a question about starbase trade bonuses. Do they stack? Can you build 3 starbases with full trade bonuses in a sector and get a superboost to your trade the same way ship catapults are built?

~SDC~

Yes, and yes.

Definitely, Straywolf. In fact, in my current game, I've got a cluster of 9 starbases in every sector that my mini-freighters go through, and I'm funding my entire empire through those trade routes.

Now I have a couple of questions too.
1. does trade go on planet value or system value? In other words, I have Earth generating 54 BC per turn,
but I have system X with 4 size 16 planets generating 21BC each = 84 in toto. I am not sure whether to
start the routes off on Earth or on System X. I usually aim for the biggest earning systems of the aliens,
and that seems to work.

2. if I have an uneven distribution in System X, say a size 26 and 2 size 19, and I have economic capitol
and manufacturing capitol on the 26, does the planet of origin of the freighter matter, or is it all the
same so long as it got built in the same system as the big earning planet?

cheers, and TIA -Peter

~SDC~

wow guys.. this really opens my eyes...
well, I'm exaggerating here.

but those SB things are a great invention and one of the sweetest things I have ever seen in a strategy game.

does this also mean that I can build dozens of starbases in a system that already has great production and keep stacking up the bonuses.
I found that in the late game, I can build about one completely maximized SB every turn.

loving this game, please keep upgrading it FOR EVER!
more techs! more races! more random events, and more modules!!

I love you guys...

~SDC~