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Max out planets and use trade ports especially in a string. You can see the string by hovering cursor over credit total at upper right of screen, it will appear white over the phase lanes. The longer the string the better income you get from trade ports. Have to experiment with what planet to have trade port no know formula explains how string is figured. Any planets that are in the white string line max out trade ports. If playing Entrenchment use starbases with trade port expansion. Make sure to research other available technology like cargo holds, if playing Advent there is nothing for cargo holds the TEC has 4 and can make credit hand over fist. Hope this helps.

Don't have the Entrenchment version yet.  Ok, I"ve started working on some of the things you've mentioned.  I seem to be running out of credits before I can advance.  I may being trying to build a military force two quickly.

Thanks.

If playing TEC, try building Trade Ports on most of your worlds,

If playing Advent, do the same as TEC but with broadcast centers (they increase the alligeance % level, giving you more tax income),

For Vasari, matter processors are the answer (you can have more credits by selling your metal/crystal).

How do you play advent? Unless the game you're playing has some serious culture wars, one broadcast center for one planet and every adjacent planet is more than sufficient. Advent doesn't get any trade uprades, but the base formula is the same (which is something like 1.5 + .1 for every planet you have in a trade route chain). Sure the TEC bonuses make this seem low, but it still is better than a 10% tax increase on most worlds (all except your capital in fact).

Loyalty doesn't affect trade port income.  It does affect refinery income, however. 

Typically the trade port is a better investment than a refinery, especially far away from your empire's core where loyalty is low.  However, extractors in neutral space are unaffected by loyalty, so if you're next to a couple of asteroid belts with plenty of extractors a refinery can be a good idea.  Try to make as long of a trade port chain as possible, as this increases the income of all your trade ports.

Well I guess I wasn't precise enough, what I meant to say was to build about 1 broadcast center per planet, but skipping a planet once or twice is ok, I usually build more on my fronline worlds to make sure it reaches the enemy faster. So yes I do know how to play Advent, even if they are not my favorite faction.

Yes be mindful of how you build up your fleet. Every fleet upgrade takes up x% of your income going from 9 in first upgrade to 75 which can really slow you down. I usually dont go this high unless I have a serious amount of resources laying around and every thing else is researched.

Cool.  Figured it out.  Thanks for the help all.