Trade exploit

from Stardock Forums
I'm a newbie, so for all you vet's this may evoke a "duh" response. However, I would like to thank you all for your great tips, and to thank stardock for this wonderful site/forum. I just experienced my first CTD, it happened on version 1.2, but I upped my difficulty level and used all the tactics described by the "BIGS" (see GC Strategies button on the left noob's), and tries something that has yet to be mentioned in the many posts i've seen.

Because exploiting all my trade routes ate up so much time (building 9 starbases/sector with 3 trade modules each), this time I tried to establish a "trade corridor". I chose origin and destination planets that were in the same column/row, and sent all my trade routes to one or two destination planets. I then had only to max out the starbases in the sectors in this "corridor". NOTE: using a diagonal trade route path is tricky because the ships will not take a direct route (eight compass points of movement only for ships), and hence, you may have to track a trade ships TRUE path to its destination to determine its TRUE route. The route shown in the trade menu's mini map shows the direct path, but since ships cannot move outside of eight compass points, this is not always the TRUE path.
2,740 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Sorry, hit the wrong button i guess...

Anyways, after my fifth or sixth route was established, my treasury started to balloon. Since this was the first time I had tried to adjust my spending sliders, i must confess that this may also have had something to do with it, but eventually, my trade income per turn was around 7K or 8K, enough that I soon had 160K in my treasury!!! I then set my tax to below 20%, my spending to 100%, cranked up the military slider, and built my first EVER (dare I say it) Terror Star! At this time, I had 50 + Dreadnaughts, 8 to 10 Overlords, and had just researched the Excalibur. I set my wonder/trade good/production planet to build it (32 turns), and before it was done my spending was finally greater than my income (190K in treasury now!!)

In any event, the trade SB's can be built in sectors owned by other Major races, even those with multiple systems in the sectors, and recieving over 800/trade route/turn aint too bad. Especially when your "corridor" goes through the approximate center of the galaxy so you can get the benefit of those periodic crossings of routes not including your 10!!!

I would love to hear your feedback "BIGS" and any other tricks ya'all might have discovered.

-Chipperoo-
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Nice job chipperoo.

Just watch out for going to war with your trading partner, or having them lose to a race you are at war with *wink*. Man does that hurt.

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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
enough that I soon had 160K in my treasury
End of quote


Be mildly cautious about very high treasury levels. There used to be a bug that caused posted games to be reported as "anomalous" if the treasury had gone over 250K. [I don't remember reading that this was fixed.]
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Each starbase costs 10bct maintenance. Plus the bc spent on building the constructors. I have yet to see any real value to starbase trade modules. I've climbed into the Metaverse top 12 without utilizing trade modules. Heck, on huge/giant maps, games end with my freighters on long routes not even having reached the halfway mark on their journey, no matter how quickly I get them up and running.

Just thought I'd mention, you don't HAVE to "exploit" your trade to be successful. :)


- Sirian
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
As I said, I am a newbie. I have played only three games thus far (two posted), and have had each game take me a couple of weeks to complete, i've played huge on the last two games, and cannot fathom a game ending in less turns than it takes to get freighters to their destinations. I guess that just shows how far behind I am in the learning curve. Thank you for the input Sirius (and HTL and Maxti), I credit your posts in this forum for my sucess,limited as it may be, thus far. I assume you win so quickly through diplomatic manipulation, and a blitz strategy early in the game, I will eventually try these things after I experiment a bit more with the controls and see the effects of major/minor race manipulation.

Thanks again ya'all

-Chipperoo-
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
There used to be a bug that caused posted games to be reported as "anomalous" if the treasury had gone over 250K. [I don't remember reading that this was fixed.]
End of quote


That particular bug is gone. But ccording to Carielf, you can still be flagged as anomalous if your treasury goes too high in the early game (if it exceeds a certain value by a certain year, not currently disclosed).
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Does it matter where the starbases are along the trade line? Ie if theres a starbase in a trade route, but the trade dingy is not currently in the sector w/ the SB, does the SB affect the trade value for that round?

Because I was thinking that if the SB always affects the trade route, you could 'front-end' load you starbase line, ie put 5-10 SBs per sector near your own empire. Get the same trade results, but have a stronger defense and a more condensed influence setup. Plus some maxed production bonuses for any colonies which happens to be in the load.

But if the SB only affect trade values when the dingy is there, you'd get the most efficent trade boost if you back-end load the SBs. Find the first sector that the dingys all pass through and start building your SB clusters there. You'd have a chaotic income, but the best income/round. You might also have diplomatic troubles and the influence from your SBs flipping your trading partners.

Does anyone know if any of that would work?
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
blitzliar

The trade bonus modules added to starbases only increase trade bc while the mini-freighter is in the same sector as the trade-boosted starbase. When the mini-freighter leaves the sector the starbase no longer influences the trade generated by the mini-freighter. That is how I understand it. Hope this helps. :)