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[Megas]

Is Commerce still worth it aside from +25% income?  (My colonies at the moment cannot absorb a -3 stability penalty on top of another -3 from Free Port and need all the industry slots they can get for more important things.)

I read about the bounty feature, but does it require a minimum score in Hostile Activity?  Currently, my rate is in the negative and total score is zero (because military base is more than enough for all pirates and I have no Pather cells).  I would not mind an Indie bounty since my colony system is near where bounty fleets and bases that harass the core worlds (instead of my colony) spawn.

I thought Commerce was not worth it unless I abuse items (and get more whack-a-mole nags I rather not deal with) last release.  If it has not changed aside from bounties that I will never see because I always keep Hostile Activity at zero (I assume some Hostile Activity is required for bounties), then Commerce is no better than before.  Actually, worse because stability is more important now to keep Hostile Activity under control.  (Although stability was very important too to have pristine ships and bigger fleets to defend colonies from other raiders.)

[Hiruma Kai]

Keeping in mind I typically spend 2 story points on the spaceport for +20% access, if you have a Dealmaker Holosuite, I'd say it is definitely worth it, and probably throw the 4 story points on the Commerce as well, for a +100% credit buff without Alpha Core.  I'll note in the attached pictures, all worlds have a High Command, except the 1st one (New Sahara).  New Amazon has an no story point Commerce building and 2 industries, while New Arctic has 3 Industries.  This is with freeport on, at a distance of 18 light years to Askonia, and I made a deal with the Pathers.

If I had another dealmaker and spent 4 more story points, New Amazon would be at around 180k profit (thats 2 industries and a the upgraded Commerce).  Note, if I was using human administrators and the character as admins, stability on New Sahara would be 8, but all the others would be 10.  Since largest, most stable world is used, for pirate activity it counts as 10, and is easily handled by the -18 bonus.  Dealmaker + Mine is only Pather interest of 5.

So even without cores and only a dealmaker, a size 6 world is likely bringing in 250,000-300,000 at stability 8 (again, 6 story points spent, 2 on port, and 4 on commerce, removed the 5th industry).  A 2 industry + Military + Commerce would bring in 150,000-180,000 at stability 10.

Seed is MN-4326242480375400216, Aether system.

[Megas]

If I have a Dealmaker, then sure, Commerce can be worth it.  In my current game, I have no dealmaker, and I have other more important items (nanoforge, synchrotron, biofactory (for drugs).  I have a bore on another planet, and I may use cryoarithmetic on another planet to make fleets a little bigger.  Other items are soil nanites I cannot use and drone replicator which I do not need.)  +25% income is not enough to eat -3 stability when I can get that much income from another industry, and I have no plans to annihilate the core worlds that would destroy trade.

I already have some improvements reserved for resource generation to make my gate systems worth it (like Mining to make one planet to produce enough transplutonic ore and volatiles to meet demand).  Later, I may throw some more elsewhere for more stability or accessibility, which improves either defenses or income, or maybe on more resource generators to remove dependence on Industrial Planning on my character.

[Wyvern]

Commerce can be worth it, even without a dealmaker, in some circumstances.

For example, I've set up my colonies to cause minimal offense - no AI cores in use, so no inspections, no freeport so no expeditions from Hegemony/Luddics, and kept colony item use low enough that I've only got one pather cell to deal with - and it's harmless, since I'm also keeping the Hostile Activity meter at zero.

In this context, I'm not going to use commerce on my main colony: it needs to stay at maximum stability for the best contribution to the HA meter (and it's got its industry slots full anyway). However, stability of secondary colonies doesn't matter as long as they stay at 5+; easily managed, and plenty of room for adding in Commerce.

[Antichrist Hater]

25% + 25% (story point) + 25% (alpha core) + dealmaker, I'd say it's very worth it. Obviously not on barren planets where you are refining and producing fuel but other habitable planets that can have light industry + freeport synergizes well with commerce.

[KopiG]

My best colony so far regarding income with only 2 Alpha Cores + Alpha Governor + bunch of easily obtainable Beta cores for upkeep reduction. It is VERY close to the core worlds as it has +42% acc due to proximity. If you think about it accessability is the most important stat as its a direct multiplier to income. So starting with +42% is super strong.

[Megas]

I should have asked about using baseline Commerce out of the box with only +25% income (or +50% with improvement) with no items because of unavailability and/or do not want to trigger Pather cells and/or Hegemony inspections.  There is colony improvement, but that gets into 2^n costs, and I have want other industries' boosts more (+stability, +accessibility, +commodities on my resource poor worlds, +fleets in one world systems).  I know Commerce with items is good.

I am not interested in the income part of Commerce, that has not changed since last release, and I did not bother with Commerce in the previous release unless I had a Dealmaker and no other industry that needed an item on the same world.  I want to know if the Indie bounties from Commerce is useful enough to make Commerce worth it if limited to only +25% income.  If the Indie bounties require a non-zero score on Hostile Activity (after player takes penalties), then no, Commerce is effectively unchanged since last release, and it is a bad choice for an industry slot if limited to +25% unless I need a shop in the fringe badly.

[Hiruma Kai]

If you're avoiding Pather interest, and have your largest world with a High Command then your Hostile Activity tracker is going to sit at zero and there will be no bounties.  I haven't seen a bounty yet from it, but I assume it would be on the scale of other system wide bounties, except without the faction reputation benefit.

So if you are in a situation where Commerce wasn't worth it last release, it won't be worth it this release.

[Lawrence Master-blaster]

I never build Commerce even if I have an industry slot left because it simply doesn't matter how much money you make off colonies as long as you make some. There's almost no practical difference between 100k/month and 1mil/month.

[Horselover Manly]

I never build Commerce even if I have an industry slot left because it simply doesn't matter how much money you make off colonies as long as you make some. There's almost no practical difference between 100k/month and 1mil/month.

Understandable, if you are making 100k/month then Commerce costs 3 months' worth of credits and only produces 25k/month before expenses. You may need more than that if you are producing a lot of warships though.

[KopiG]

So if you dont have an Alpha AI core and a Holosuite item for it, I would say Commerce is NOT worth it if you still have open industry available. Even then its questionable and the remaining slot might be filled up better with maybe a High Command.

[Megas]

In my 0.95 game, I filled spare industry slots with more Orbital Works to boost production and build bigger ships in a month or less.

In all of my previous games, every world had a Military Base to defend against expedition spam.  Today, I have not done this yet since expeditions have been rare even with Free Port on one world, and the fleets are small enough for now.  So far, I have not upgraded to High Command because of higher upkeep costs, and I still have no Hostile Activity with just a Military Base.

I am mulling over Commerce in a fringe system (with good but not great planets, gate, and cryosleeper) to dump junk into.  Maybe not, I probably take the Orbital Works for more production.

[eert5rty7u8i9i7u6yrewqdef]

It's a choice between free port and commerce for high hazard planets. If you care about Luddic Church and Hegemony expeditions, you go with commerce.

I personally go with commerce as I have a few level three planets under A.I. admin, and I don't need any more expeditions on top of A.I. inspections.

Also the Path do not care about how many A.I. cores or domain artifacts a planet has so long as it remains at level three. As such level three planets do not contribute to hostile activity.