Hi ReadyMan!

I think we played against each other a few days ago.

In my opinion you are right about feeding only credits. As a 4v4 or a 5v5 litarally can take hours, the effect of well-placed refineries can be much better than setting up trade ports. Alas, they are only worth their money if settled to a grav well with about 8 to 10 mines in its surrounding area.

Yet I am so sorry about the trade ports if you miss out persevering economy. Build about 5-6 trade ports early in the game. Then add 6 more civil labs and keep on researching the trade enhancements first, then get the two levels of PE. You should then concentrate on getting more ports and refineries.

Why so? Because PE becomes stronger the larger the map and the more players present. You get a share of every sale and every trade income, including that of your enemies! At times I had a base income of 30 c/sec, but I could feed my clan mate GTA!!!MTA!!! like 100 c/sec. I just kept pressing the feed-button each second and could do so before I got a negative salary after 5 minutes. And hell, I already gave him all my credits first!

Things might look different in a 3v3. There you might have to build a fleet as well, even if placed in the pocket. Try to get an income of 30-40 c/sec first, though. Then add up fleet positions your allies have neglected so far (that is usually capital ships and light frigates. The latter ones can also be transferred from one hot spot to another rather quickly due to their high speed, if not already Vasari with phase gates).

So far, EEF - Prax

Plus TEC refineries are garbage unless they are in a really sweet spot. In almost every situation, you're better off just adding another trade port and converting it to resources yourself (if you have black market discounts, which you should!). If you're in the pocket in a 5v5, you probably don't have that many planets (maybe 6-7) so wasting the research on refineries, without getting upgraded cargo etc. is not worth it. Especially, as Astax pointed out, since the feed is most effective at getting the early game advantage.

So if you are going for the trade routes, then population becomes very important doesnt it?  It's so expensive tho (I usually get the planet to pop 2 when I colonize it, so I dont lose $ on it).

So how important is the population to the trade route?

The length of the trade route is the first goal, right?  Then populating each planet with as many trade posts as possible, then populating the planets?

Huge cargo holds also effect the trade ships, not just the refinery ships, right?

The description on huge cargo holds says "frigates improved: trade ship, refinery ship".

So that makes it worth going with more civ labs...

which brings up a good question:

Which is better, 20+ trade ports, or fewer trade ports and pervasive econ?

or even fill trade ports first, or make a long link and then go for pervasive econ,

then fill planets with trade ports/logistic slots?