Freighters??

from GalCiv2 Forums
Admittidly, i'm a 4x noob, but i can't seem to find a way to get freighters to appear in my ship log to build. i will occasionally get a message recommending that i research "interstellar communications" to enable trade between planets, but i can't find that anywhere in the tech tree. i see xeno communications, but that's it.

help!
6,020 views 9 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There is a specific research field named 'Trade' that gives you access to the trade module. Uh, trying to remember the research tree here, it's universal translater,
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
i see. the ai is telling me to start building freighters by researching the "interstellar communications" tech, but such a tech does not exist! to add to the confusion, the "trade" tech isn't available yet in the campaign!

i loaded my custom map, researched it and sure enough, freighters became available. thanks!

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The campaign is a bad place to start playing imo, start with a few sandbox games on a medium map first to get a hang of the general game first.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

I also have a freighter question; hope it's ok for me to tack it onto this thread...


In my last game, I had the max number of trade routes going, which was 11.  I got these by building 11 freighters, and sending them to different planets.


Then some pirate ships came by, and destroyed about 4-5 of my freighters.  But when I looked at all my trade routes, all 11 were still there, and my trade income didn't look any less.  So I thought maybe I needed to replace the freighters that were destroyed, so I built a few more and sent them out, but the game said I already had the max number of trade routes, and they just sat there.


How can freighters be destroyed and not affect my trading?  Thanks!
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Freighters travel along those trade routes, but the income is not added until one of them returns to its planet of origin. When a freighter is destroyed, the enemy is essentially stunting your income by preventing any freighters from returning home, meaning you aren't actually generating any cash from the routes.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

But the trade screen says I'm making "309bc" per turn in trading...?


So what should I do when freighters are destroyed, kill ALL my trade routes, replace the destroyed freighters and then send them all back out again?  That seems...cumbersome. 

Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
just wanted to update and say that i did find out how to utilize the trade routes. (in a noob kind of way)

thanks for all the help guys, and yes, i did stop playing the campaign. i started a medium map with three other races.