Is low trade route income a bug or intended?

I've generally found trade income is only useful for diplomacy (i.e. improving how favourably other races view you). It's sad because I think the income should be much much higher than it is so you can actually focus on trade as a strong source of income. Still on small maps I'm getting 3-4 bc per trade route (when the message pops up that is, I've never bothered going and checking how much I'm getting in total), so it could be a bug.

It can be increased with econ starbases.

If you plan the route(s) correctly (and maximize the bases), you can make a lot of money.

Trade has always been too little money for the effort if you ask me.
Currently I'm playing a game as the Korx in ToA, I have all my trade routes up with 4 economy starbases per sector (ánd the extra trade module the korx can research) and trade is still only 1/7th of my income. (Still over 1000 bc though)

Trade is still useful under a few conditions:
*Being in need of a diplomatic boost. Trade can patch up pretty shabby relationships as long as you don't intentionally try to annoy your trade partner.
*Rare everything. If you only have a few planets, the boost of trade becomes proportionally much larger (can become even more than your taxable income), however, you may not be able to afford to spend time on freighters when the wars start as you have very few production facilities.
*When you have a starport doing nothing useful, you might aswell build freighters, it's production you otherwise wouldn't be using and it will make you money with a bit of luck. (If they don't get blown up, that is...)

Of course there are other situations in which they can also be quite handy, but as with everything else in this game, you have to judge the question "Trade or not?" on the specific situation and your plans, there is no conclusive answer.

The income is pretty pathetic, I gave up and just edited my race to have + 1000% trade income! There are some uses though. I never even use it for diplomatic boosts as generally only 3-4 civ rival my power once I get going and if they all want to war it's fine since the AI attack strategies are pooh. Understand that it takes years to pay for those star bases and freighters with trade income even if they are only 4-5 constructor bases. Now if you arm your trade ships it counts towards military might and you don't pay any maintenance. Takes even longer for them to pay for themselves but free military boosts can keep civs off your back while you build up infrastructure.

I'm playing again for the first time in awhile on an Immense galaxy size and was surprised by the lack of trade income available. I had a route that was worth 24 that quickly dwindled down to 10.

In DA and DL I would use trade income as my economy basis for the early part of the game until I could build up specialized planets. I'm glad to hear I'm not imagining this change and that other people have noticed it as well.

I like trade the way it was, where it was very beneficial for smaller/building civilizations, but not so important for larger self sufficient ones.

Then again I've been out of gaming for a year or so pretty much and playing my first game of GC again so I may be reading more into it then I need to.

Thanks for the feedback folks. I had not thought of putting weapons on the trade ships for purposes of military rating. Interesting idea.

In regards to:



I agree that trade used to be very useful and I would get loads of cash from it, especially when using a bunch of trade ports on econ starbases. But NOW in ToA I get hardly any money at all from it. I am quite surprised at what Highwater was saying about making over 1000bc a turn from it with the Korx. When I play as the Altaran and have eight routes going through some econ bases with trade modules I still make well less than 200bc a turn. I recognize of course that Altarans don't get the trade bonuses that Korx get. All the same, I used to pull in 3x that amount on the last beta and in DA.

Right now trade is hardly relevant to my economy even though I play with very few habitable planets. For folks who play with lots of colonies, trade would be even less useful.

Does anyone know if it makes a difference whether you put all your trade ships going from just one planet (usually my capital)? Can each planet only support so much trade? If so then maybe that is part of my problem. I like having them go from all one planet so I can easily build trade ports on econ bases that cover all my routes.

Also, do trade modules increase the money I get from other races' trade routes?

I'm certain it's a bug, just look at the trade screen, all the trade routes are listed with a negative number of turns! Something is obviously bugged up. I hope it will get patched soon.

I am a bit puzzled by the people that are saying it's less than in DA, to me it looks like approximately the same as in DA. (I often play with the korx and I notice not too much difference, TA seems slightly better when it comes to trade, but that's probably because of the extra 25% trade module the korx can research)
The 1000bc/turn total is with 12 routes that have been up for a while now, I'll have a look at my traderoutes when I get back to playing, to see if there's any further info (nrs of starbases etc).

I usually trade from homeplanet to homeplanet. Population size and economic income of that planet does seem to have a slight impact.

I agree the trade routes seem awfully low to begin with, but now I think I hit some other bug also. I got the UP vote to ease trade restrictions, claiming it would double my trade income. It passed, but instead of doubling my trade income it seems to have cut it by a third or so. Routes making 18bc now make 12, others making 16 now at 10. Definately something fishy there.