Hello All,



I've just finished my second ever game and absolutely loved it. One thing did stick out for me though, the trading.





I accidently researched all of the trading techs because I was trying to increase my fleet cap.

While one that, shouldn't these techs be on a separate 'branch' of the left tree, as I don't see how they are linked?



Anyway, so I had a Hero with +3 trade routes and +HUGE% bonus to trade from the +2% per Wit on hero along with all of the Trade techs and i'm fairly certain that all of these did absolutely nothing for my empire. I -think- the area at the Top Right of the system screen shows trade, but this was nearly always blank.



I'm just guessing (because it's not really explained at all in the game) that I wasn't 'Trading' with my allies because they were too far away and neighbors are almost always enemies, making that redundant too.





Wouldn't it make more sense for trade to be with other empires AND your star systems? But at a reduced rate of course.



Do I have trading completely wrong or can it be useful?

You have to be at peace to trade if you don't have the trait blockade breakers or an improvement/wonder that bypasses blockades. You must also have explored every system you wish to trade with. I'm not really sure but it seems the game automatically uses the systems with the best bonuses for starting trades, meaning once all conditions are cleared it's automatic.



And it's not insignificant at all, my last game I got 800 dust/turn from trade around turn 50-70.

To trade with other systems you have to have located that system, have available trade routes and be at peace with the empire that own the system. (There is a trait which allows you to trade while in cold war)

You can gather a large amount of dust and science from trade, so it is not to be ruled out as a viable resource.