Trade routes are income sources that increase your hourly Economy. Their number is limited by the number of Spaceports you have on a base.
What is a Trade Route?[]
Basically it is an agreement between two base owners to establish trade. There is a fee for opening the route, and both base owners receive an hourly income while the agreement is in effect. Both the opening fee, and the hourly income, depend mostly on the distance between the two bases and the income of the "poorer" base.
Trade Routes versus Spaceports[]
Constructing your first Spaceport allows you to open a single Trade Route. Additional Spaceports allow additional trade, but on a sliding scale.
- 0 Spaceports = 0 Trade Routes
- 1 Spaceport = 1 Trade Route
- 5 Spaceports = 2 Trade Routes
- 10 Spaceports = 3 Trade Routes
- 15 Spaceports = 4 Trade Routes
- 20 Spaceports = 5 Trade Routes
- 25 Spaceports = 6 Trade Routes
- 30 Spaceports = 7 Trade Routes
Trade Partners[]
Trade routes can be opened with ANY OTHER player, including yourself. Although some guilds may have trade embargos in place they really cannot enforce it. All that is required is for you and your partner to agree to trade, and pay the fee. It is also allowable to have multiple trade routes to a single player, although this lowers the credit income from ALL of your trade routes by lowering the number of trading partners. That is why you continually see requests for unique trades.
Trade Route Formula[]
Sqrt(lowest base's income) x ( 1 + Sqrt(distance)/75 + Sqrt(Players)/10 )
Players = number of players your trade with.
Fee = 1/2 of the distance. If your trade is 2200 LY then the fee is 1100 credits. That fee is for BOTH partners, so if you do a self-trade it costs twice as much.
Prior to opening a trade you can display the distance, fee and hourly return using the Calculate button.
See Also[]
- How to build a Trade Route Empire
- Should I Save up for... 25/30 Spaceports
- Ensure you have sufficient fleet at the base to defend against Piracy