Re: Commerce
Change industry to structure, because no-one will ever build this otherwise with the incredibly tight limits.
Give it a passive income like the population - ideally this could tie into how many resource types/stockpiles are available at that colony.
Hmm - then it'd most likely go from "build very rarely" to "always build". I'd rather it be the former - or not exist at all - than the latter.
Currently all the industries in principle make you credits, except the HQ and Commerce. HQ gets you defense fleets which are necessary late game to defend against raids. So its a trade off of safety against best possible income which seems meaningful.
Commerce on the other hand is a trade off of credits against convenience . You can already do the exact same thing by visiting any core world or pirate base. And I suppose it has a +1 stability bonus, but you can already get stability bonuses from structures (starbase, ground defense, patrol base), so clearly those will be built first if you need stability.
When you build near the core, commerce isn't that useful since you can generally just hit the other core systems first to sell stuff, and then hit your colony to drop stuff off. In fact, if you want to maximize credits you tend to look for a planet that is having a deficit and sell there, which hopefully your own planets don't have.
In any case, I feel like credits from exploration, say picking up things like organics or metals, just pales in comparison to your colony income by late game.
Is there anything that would be problematic if you just had an independent trader buy/sell tab as soon as you colonized? Perhaps empty for the 1st month, and limit weapons and starship selection to similar of that of a size 3 pirate base with no industry (so pretty bad). Presumably where there are people, someone will show up to buy and sell stuff. I mean if a size 3 pirate base that pops up instantly with no industry or anything can buy and sell stuff immediately, why not your own colony as soon as its founded?
You're not gaining access to ships or markets faster - you've had access to all the other markets since the beginning of the game. Its literally only saving you the time of flying to another world that has that ability (and has that ability without needing a commerce industry).
I guess my question is, how does gating the ability to buy and sell stuff at your own colony but not other planets improve the game experience? Perhaps removing the commerce building completely is the way to go?