Is trade income based on number of Trade Ports or time it takes for trade ships to move between planets?

Phase stabs dont help trade i'mc ertain.

Trade is a set income/sec you can view by hovernig over your credits. (Isn't this explained in tutorial?)

IT's both from more, and distance.
All trade ports get the same amount based on the longest possible path between two of them (measured in jumps)

Yeah, I think each trade port has its own income, but you also get more income from ports where the trade ships have less distance to go. But the whole deal with the longer "chains" of ports being more valuable, I'm not sure how that one works. Perhaps a multiplier added to each port in that chain.

*EDIT: Sorry, started to post before the one above me. I may in fact be mistaken about all this, I guess I need to do some more experimenting. For now I'd go with the reply above me

Not entirely true, any trade port not connected to the main "chain"(the big white line you see when hovering over credits amount) only gets an income based on the longest distance between it and the end of what I call one of the "misfit chains" But all trade ports on the same chain will generate the same amount of income each.

For the rest, yeah, phase stabs don't help at all, and thank god for that, the last thing we need is phase stabs turning the vasari into an econ juggernaught before it just starts pumping out free ships.

Not quite...

Trade port income is based on your longest unbroken chain of planets with trade ports (exceptions: unconquerable "planets" - i.e. stars, space junk, asteroid fields, etc.). All trade ports will earn this income, whether or not they're in the longest chain. Building more trade ports on a single planet will increase the income earned from that planet (methinks linearly, but I've never done the math for sure), but will not affect the rate of all the other trade ports on other planets, regardless if they're in the chain or not.

The only ways a trade port can earn more than any other trade port is if it's next to a planet owned by a player with which you have a trade alliance, or if it's on a planet that has some sort of bonus to trade income.

If there's something I've missed, somebody correct me.

That's how I understand it to work as well: your longest chain determines the amount of income from trade ports, and that's what each trade port generates, regardless of whether it's in the chain or not.

And that's longest OPTIMAL chain as well. Ascii diagram time:


..*......*...*...*.......*
......................../.
*---*----*---*---*-*---*..

[length = 8) is an example of an "optimal path". However,

..*......*---*...*.......*
./.\.....|...|...|\...../.
*...*----*...*---*.*---*..

[length = 12] is NOT, because the trade route does not follow the shortest possible path from the most distant planets to each other.

It's a little odd to figure out at times, but if you hover your mouse over the CREDITS section of your HUD, the optimal trade route path is outlined in white.

-- Retro

Ah, but 'optimal' in this case is the route that gets your trade ships visiting the most ports without backtracking.

i know for a fact that the more ports at one planet equals more income at that planet ive done this after i had a victory and continued playing. I played around with the trade ports and matter processor, the number of ports makes a diff the number of MP dont... not sure about the distance

it shoudl be noted that the max income is also affected by the number of trade ships out there. (I'm pretty sure this is how it works)

I don't know for certain how many trade ships each trade port has associated with it... let's say 4.

If the enemy kills a trade ship, then the trade port it belonged to only has 3 of 4 trade ships out there. So it's only making 75% of it's max income. (determined by the longest route). IF the enemy kills all four of the trade ships associated with that trade port, that trade port will be generating 0% if it's max income. Trade ships respawn for free, but they take a while.

So if you've got a bunch of trade ports, losing a trade ship here or there isn't such a big deal, but if somehow the enemy can take out a high quanity of trade vessels, your trade ports are nerfed to hell.

As far as I know refineries function the same way.

So do phase stabilizer's help trade? Not really, except to the extent that they can create alternate routes to keep your trade ships out of harms way.


I wish I knew how the trade ships determined their routes.

That stands to reason. If each trade port generates x amount of income, then 3 trade ports will generate 3x income. I'd assume if they're stationed at a specific planet, then they count in that planetary income.

If everything is based on distance and number of ports, do trade ships actually do anything? Does killing trade ships actually do anything?

They have techs to make killing trade ships hurt the opponent (revenge I think, Advent). And TEC has tougher tradeships, so I'm assuming killing them and keeping yours alive is a good thing. If so, how does it factor that in, and why do trade ships always take the same route, even if its right into a pirate base?

Coelocanth: actually, optimal in this case is the fastest way for a tradeship to reach from one end of the empire to the other. Load up a larger empire's save, zoom out, and have a look at your optimal trade route by hovering over your money and looking for the white line connecting your planets. It's not anywhere near the "most stops on the route" path.

-- Retro

Retro, good point. I stand corrected.

Trade income, while approximated into per second info, is actually granular -- every time a trade ship docks, it "drops off" a given amount of credits, and picks up a load of trade goods to turn into credits at its next destination. Killing trade ships lets you "steal" its trade goods, and prevents the enemy from getting it.

Wait, Ron Lugge, so, phase stabilizers DO help trade money?

And what about things like artifacts and research that increases phse jump speed?

fool phase stabilizers do not apply to ships such as trade ships. It only applies to frigate class and above.