Trade?....What is the big deal?

from Stardock Forums
I don't understand what the big deal on trade routes is. Alot of threads indicate that getting trade routes are a huge economic bonus. I don't see it. The most any trade route will produce is about 15 per turn. In the early game a couple of trade routes may make the difference between going into debt or not but 3 or 4 trade routes at 9-15 each later in the game is chicken scratch. Am I missing something? Is there a way to get 30 or 40 trade routes? Why would anyone spend the money on building and defending freighters when other civilizations will do it for you and you still get the benifit? :notsure:
302 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
That initail 15bc a turn grows with time and as the economies of the two trading systems grow. It also gets affected by trade bonus (lots of these in the tech tree) and by star base trade bonus'. In reality this meagre 15bc can become one of the major income factors for your empire.

Remember also that you get money both from your trade routes and also from trade routes to you.

Paul.

~SDC~
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
The 15bc or so trade bonus that is declared when you set up your trade route is just the initial value of that trade route. This value increases dramitcally dependant on how far away your trading partner is. After establishing a trade route and letting your mini-freighter move about halfway to its destination go to the trad screen and look at how much its pulling in....you should see that its dramatically higher and gets higher the closer to its destination it gets.

Later in the game, as Solitair mentioned as well, as your population grows and your trading partners pop. grows, the value of the trade route increases as well. That is why it is important to have your trade route travelling from your most populous systems to your trading partners most populous systems.

Also, to avoid fueling the economies of your enemies, try focusing your trade with a minor race.
[Message Edited]
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Agreed. I've been at 0% taxes and 100% spending because of trade routes in extreme cases. Just wish I had time to play GalCiv. Haven't touched it in three weeks, and I'm dieing to see the expansion beta :)
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Just keep checking those trade routes later in the game. The numbers go way up, especially with starbase module bonuses.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Yeah, with enough starbases you can get several trade routes EACH bringing it upwards of 250bc or so a turn, even if they're only a sector or two long. Longer trade routes are harder to enhance to this degree because each starbase is effective for far less of the time, but they get much more valuable on their own...I've seen UNenhanced trade routes well above a hundred, and those don't have all those 5bc/turn starbase maintenance costs pulling down profits.

-EtherMage


~SDC~
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
don't forget diplomacy, people! if your trading partner's economy is dependent on you and you get attacked, they're the first ones to go to bat for you.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
My long routes (we're talking 274 turns) trade routes are bringing in around 280 a turn without any starbase enhancements. Of course, a big batch of them are about to get the end of their routes and go down to like 50 a turn for a while. Fortunately I'm making 12000bc a month in tax revenue, so when that happens it won't hit me too hard....