At the moment I feel there's a large discrepancy between the two governing classes. I'm going off of the data at the wiki (http://endlessspace.wikia.com/wiki/Abilities) for Corporate skill trees, because leveling a corporate was painful and I didn't get too far.



In short, administrators early game are vital. I'd go so far as to say that pulling a hero draw without one administrator class puts the player at a disadvantage.



Civil Engineer and Crop Geneticist may very well be three of the best ability-buys in the game.



By comparison, Corporate is highly circumstantial. Margins of profit from trade seem to be just that, marginal, and I've never felt they were a strategic advantage that benefited me more than just invading a person and taking one or two of their systems. The only Corporate ability not tied to trade is Industry-Academic Partnership, which can't be gained until (at the earliest) level 6. Contrast that to a level 6 Admin, who's giving you a +50 food, +25 industry, and their percentile bonuses. And as the Horatio I'm cloning them until the pods won't make any more because they're just so good at causing a pop explosion.



Corporate abilities are only strategic assets if you're lucky enough to cultivate an ally that you trust not to stab you in the back when the Cravers invade your frontiner colonies.



I'd really like for Corporate to be a viable class, but if their entire unique ability suite remains tied to trade, I don't think that's possible. It really puts you at the mercy of whoever you're playing with, and if you get put in with a pack of Locusts, the trade buffs are useless and they can't even give much benefit to the systems they're governing. I automatically skip over Corporates when I'm selecting my initial hero, and if there's any admins left in the pot they always get priority. I think that's called a dominant strategy.



Science or Dust production boosts outside of Trade would be the easiest way to fix this. It wouldn't have to be directly equivalent to the Admin's flat boosts, maybe Dust per head or something. Scaling boosts would make them stronger mid and late game, without the circumstantial vulnerabilities of being trade-reliant.



Smart Investor + Savy Business maxed and wits 25 /is/ a 600% boost to trade, it's true, and that's scary. But the amount of time before it scales up to that really makes it reliant on large/huge maps with a large number of players, late game, and I feel like that's way too specific a build-up for an entire class to be based around. Also the assumption that, by then, none of those players are the Sophons who are vaporizing you with villainesque doomsday weapons at that late in the game and that you'll at least have someone who's scared of you enough to trade with but too strong for you to wipe out and maintain a good position.



Edit: Another thought would be an artificial increase of the tax rate in whatever system they're governing, without the morale drop (which would also benefit the UE, who seem to fit the 'yeah we love mercantile empires' role and make Corporate a more integrated part of their strategy). Putting that early in the tree would be a cool buff.



Edit the Second: Now that I'm thinking about this, another cool buff would be a discount on buy-outs. Say, 20% and then another 30%. A science skill that increases Industy>Science conversion from 50% to 100% would also be neat. A similar power for Dust would also make them way more useful than trade routes.





tl;dr

I would like for there to be a reason for me to ever pick a Corporate hero over the dominant Administrator hero strategy, and for Corporates to not be a gimped option outside of very specific circumstances. halp?



I talked about this with a friend of mine who's also put a good amount of time into the game and his sarcastic response was 'trade exists?'



yeah, pretty much. I'm interested in other opinions, especially if someone's found a way to make trade viable that I've just not hit upon yet.

What is Industry-Academic Partnership? I don't think I've ever even seen that. I've rarely developed a Corporate hero very much; they're not worth much.



You have an especially good point, I think, in calling out the UE as a faction that should love Corporate leaders. The UE is canonically run by its corporations!

Corporate guys are bad except for the nice science boost. Having that civil engineering boost on the Administrator is so killer to have at all times.



I think Corporate guys would get a competitive skill if he had a buyback reduction (10% then 25%?). Although, AI is so war happy with every game I do, I can never get trading off the ground to really see if it usable.