All freighters between the same 2 worlds, does that lower gain?

It doesn't hurt your profits at all.

.... until the other guy declares war and you lose all your trade routes at once.

Personally, I recommend spreading trade routes out amoung all the other races. It gives bonuses to your relations that can come in handy when trying to avoid wars and also means that any one race declairing war on you means a much smaller hit to your trade revenue. It does depend on the exact situation in the game, however.

And one other thing I've started doing is buying the AI's freighters. They're a lot cheaper than most of their ships, and many times the money they're willing to give for my tech is capped, but tech is worth more than they're offering. I'll ask them to throw in a freighter and they'll do it essentially for free. Half the time, the freighter is already near their homeworld, so I start the trade route that turn. You don't get to chose which of your worlds is the terminus, but its a quick way to get trade routes started in the early game, and if you want to send them to a different world later, you can always make new freighters there, cancel the route, and make the new one.

Here's a related question...
What should i look for when choosing a planet to trade with? Just high Quality? High Revenue? What?

Mostly far planets and high population oftenly the same as high quality.

This is sort of an exploit. I found out in the beta version that for some reason trading with the Dark Yor had a high return regardless of distance. In one game I shared a system with them and sent nearly every freighter to their planet about 4 moves away. It returned an average of 10bc per turn which is pretty spiffy.

My planet and theirs were tucked into a corner of the galaxy and I shielded them from invasion, so it was a neat arrangement.

I had forgotten this until I read this post and I haven't tried it since the final release so it may be fixed. I will try it again if I see them but I haven't seen the DY in a game recently and in fact the minor races seem to be scaled back

I can't seem to get more then 4bc per month out of my frieghters...or do they all start at that level?

I'm not entirely sure what planet stats affect income, but I did find one place where it mentioned planet population, and nothing else I've seen says exactly what affects it, so thats what I've been using. Since the AI doesn't tend to build many farms, I've just been sending freighters to their homeworlds since they have twice the base food production and usually have twice the base pop. I may have to tweak things and actually look at planet stats once 1.1 comes out, but for now its pretty much optimal.

I think distance is the only thing that affects per turn trade income. If you are playing on a tiny or small map it is hard to get more than about 3-4 income but on the larger maps you will average around 10-14 if you are sending the freighters across the map.

If the population or quality of the planet you send them to has any effect I haven't been able to detect it. I have traded with Altaria and Wisp and get the same income.

Does anyone know if the number of trade good achievements (i.e. xinthium hull plating, frictionless clothing, etc etc) that you have affects your freighter income?

It's supposed to be distance + population = more revenue. Seems to work from my experience.

Does anyone know if the number of trade good achievements (i.e. xinthium hull plating, frictionless clothing, etc etc) that you have affects your freighter income?

I believe the 2 are not related. Achievements can be used to trade to other races via diplomacy. Freighter revenue is simply a combo of population and distance. Make sure you send your freighter from your home world with the highest population...even if it was built on a smaller planet. Just send it to orbit that larger pop planet for a turn, and ship it off from there.

I heard from another thread that attempting to change a freighter's home world doesn't work.

I have also noticed that if you trade with a planet that is another nations economic capital the trade route seems to be worth more.

Felk the Trader

I've tried to change the home of a freighter, but can't seem to figure out how. When I sent a freighter from my manufacturing capital to my econ capital and forgot about it for a few turns, it still created a trade route to my manufacturing capital.

I always thought the bonus each trade good gives you when you build it is being shared with the race you run a freighter to....is this not correct? (Would make who you choose to trade with a delicate decision.)

What exactly does the race recieve when you give them a trade good via diplomacy?
The bonus?
The ability to build that trade good?


-Chris-

I've tried to change the home of a freighter, but can't seem to figure out how. When I sent a freighter from my manufacturing capital to my econ capital and forgot about it for a few turns, it still created a trade route to my manufacturing capital.

I heard from another thread that attempting to change a freighter's home world doesn't work

Sending all of your freighters to juyst one world instead of spreading therm around CAN be a good thing in two ways.

1) You get a very rich and very loyal (who's going to throw away that much trade revenue?) partner.

2) One route multiple times = very exploitable with economy starbases. Multi-spam the entire route start to finish, which you just can't do if you're spreading yourself around. Only one effective route for you to protect, too.

If you do go down the single-route road, best still leave one or two routes free for pacifying potential threats.

I always thought the bonus each trade good gives you when you build it is being shared with the race you run a freighter to....is this not correct? (Would make who you choose to trade with a delicate decision.) What exactly does the race recieve when you give them a trade good via diplomacy? The bonus? The ability to build that trade good?

Trade goods actually have nothing to do with trade routes, strange as it sounds. Trade goods can only be shared via diplomacy. When you give someone a trade good, they can get that bonus for their culture, but can not trade it to anyone else. And yes, if you had to build something to get the bonus, they do too. All you are doing is giving them the rights/tech to build it.

Thanks lokiju.

Sorry for side tracking the topic with my questions.

I think it would be cool though if you were actually trading the trade goods with trade routes and giving the other civs the bonuses that way.

I guess I'll start trading with everyone now instead of being selective.

Thanks again,

-Chris-

I guess I'll start trading with everyone now instead of being selective.

Yeah, it's the best form of diplomacy -- send each civ a freighter and he is less likely to declare war on you once his economy is hooked on your income. Naturally, they dont really care that much if the trade value is low.... and probably dont really care that much either if they think they can rob you and take all your planets for their own.... but it definitely improves relations with other civs.

) You get a very rich and very loyal (who's going to throw away that much trade revenue?) partner.

The Drengin did this to me,remember trading partner is only one of the calculations for state of relations with you.