In my current game, I'm getting over 2000 bc per turn in trade alone.

[/In my current game, I'm getting over 2000 bc per turn in trade alone.
]

How?

DO bother with the galactic baazar. it does NOT effect trade routes but has a BIG impact on diplomatic trading efforts, any of them. even if you turn off tech trading that wonder can easily pay for itself. buy peace cheaper, cheaper ship purchases, better prices for ships sold, better improvement in your relationships from gifts....

the only reason to ignore it is if you pretty much ignore diplomacy intirely, which is an option i suppose

Now that you mention it, I've had a handful of eco starbases near my homeworld for some trade routes built even before establishing a couple of trade routes, and it would seem that it either increases the base value earned, or now it's simply taking into account the bonus when it tells you the average BC per month.

Before, on a average sized map, I might only get about 10bc or so even if the trade route went to the other side of the galaxy to a well populated planet. I think they may have changed it so that it included any bonus from the eco starbases in the message.

By mid game I usually have 6-9 trade routes that alone bring in 500bc plus per turn. Get a few Econ starbases going and it easily goes over 1000bc per turn. Trade funds my military almost every game. I try to get trade early in my research and immediately have homeworld build freighters and only freighters and just send them out. I usually pick who I want to be friendly with over the course of the game and head out that direction.

Nothing special or hard to do this. Over time those trade routes will really start to roll in the money.

So the galactic bazaar increases diplomacy? Not trade?

IIRC, the galactic bazaar increases the perceived value of items that you offer in the diplomacy window. This means you get more bang for your buck when you horse trade with the AI.


You can maximize your frieghter trade by spamming the trade line with economy starbases, ensuring that it's covered completely. I find that pretty cheesy, so I tend to build my econ starbases at the natural chokepoints that tend to form along trade routes. I'll also put econ starbases around a cluster of worlds to maximize the production and trade bonuses of the starbase.



Overlapping a starbase's ZOC will mean the bonuses are applied multiple times as well.



Trade tends to supply my empire with a nice buffer of cash, but war will kill it, so IMHO it's important to have an economy without trade. The last game I played the Drengin who were clearing ~1500bc/turn at a 35% tax rate without trade...imagine what it could've been if I was picking fights with everyone in the galaxy!?  

I have noticed that it is the relative PQ's that determine how much the route brings in, much more than the distance as the manual states.

A close PQ26 planet will bring in much more that a far distant PQ18.

I only create trade routes between my highest PQ planets and other races highest PQ planets. I don't bother with any of the others, even if I have multiple routes to the same planets.

The important thing is that an eco starbase at the far side increases the BASE value of the trade route. In my last game with 2 bases at the far side, i was getting ~60 bc base value for the route. (which should get a lot higher as the route matures)

Hmmm. I assume that what you're describing as the "base value" is the amount that pops up in the window immediately after you establish a trade route? I don't think it is.

I'm fairly certain that when you establish a trade route and get that popup telling you how much its worth, the game simply displays the amount the trade route is worth per turn at that particular point, ie at the destination planet. If you already have econ starbases at the destination planet then naturally that figure will be higher. It doesn't mean the trade route's worth more on average than if you'd built those econ starbases by the home planet (or indeed anywhere along the route).

Because of the way the econ starbases work, only giving a bonus when your freighters are within the sphere of influence, the most effective trade routes are likely to be the ones which maximize the proportion of time each starbase bonus is contributing. ie the shorter ones, despite what the manual says.

OK, I've just tested it out a bit and you're mostly right.

1) The popup message you get when you start a route isn't particularly useful. At best, it tells you something about the relative value of your trade routes, but I wouldn't even count on that.

2) The income at any particular turn can (very roughly) be considered as base income+bonus income. The base income depends on (at least) the populations and planet qualities of the endpoints of the route. It also increases steadily depending on the distance along the trade route. Note this is NOT the same as the distance from the home planet since it counts the distance in both directions. The base income is therefore at its highest the turn before the freighter completes the homeward journey.

The bonus income at any particular turn also depends on distance from the home planet. You get a sizeable jump every 30 turns or so distance. However, unlike the base income, this bonus depends on the absolute distance. That is, the bonus income is at a maximum when the freighter is just finishing the outward journey, or just beginning the inward.

The upshot of this is that the original poster is mostly correct. For long trade routes you make way more money putting your econ starbases at the destination planet. Enough extra that it's probably worth all the inconvenience of establishing and protecting starbases in another race's territory. If the trade route is less than 30 turns distant, however, the difference is very slight and you're probably better off building the econ starbases in your own territory.

However, it makes no difference whether you build the starbases before or after establishing the route. Other than possibly to the pop up window numbers...but as I already said they're pretty useless!

3) Weirdly, a diagonal move counts as 2 turns. This means you'll make substantially more from establishing trade routes along diagonals, even if the planets take exactly the same amount of time to reach.

4) If you don't want to establish starbases outside your own territory, the best thing to do is to send out your freighters from as deep within your territory as possible (whilst still keeping things diagonal!) and build the econ starbases on the trade route as close to your borders as you feel comfortable. Try and keep all your trade routes close together, at least 'til they leave your territory. This way single starbases serve multiple routes. Personally I'd be inclined to send ALL your trade routes to a single (friendly!) civilization who you don't mind protecting.

UGGG... You're right the base value is MEANINGLESS !!! Once the mini frieghter leaves the starbase area the value drops down to the real base value + whatever distance modifiers...

So i guess trade sucks again... I can't believe the pop-up window isn't showing the base value. I was getting routes when i had 8 starbases around my capitol worth over 160BC. But once they left the area...right back to the 20's.

For Prolet, basically yes. (instead of population, income is probably more accurate.)

Planet quality/income doesn't matter? I thought they did.... well they did in GalCiv I. Haha I guess that's a stupid reason. Still, seems like they should.

stupid question sorry... but... I cant even establish a trade route. I build a freighter, send it to another homeworld, but it will stop outside, nothing is happening. And if I am looking at the menues I can see that trade isn´t researched yet. But I have researched anything which might result in trade. I am totally confused - which technology must be learned for trade, so far I can´t even build a trade module for my freighters. Or is this an effect of the campaign? Is it not possible to build trade routes at the beginning of the missions? No... that sounds strange... I guess I am just blind and stupid... any advice?