I think it should .... only advantage I can think of is it'll be harder for the AI to destroy your freighters in a war if they run faster.

I'm sure it's been asked before but I'd like a clarification again, if possible. Do your economy starbases give you any income for other civilization's trade routes passing through their ring of influence?

Basically all the engines do is make it so you can get to the target world quicker, once the trade route is established the trade ships only move 1 square per turn. I think this is more of a game mechanic than what actually would happen, since you would only recieve any money once the freighter returns home. I think you can imagine it as a whole fleet of ships moving backwards and forwards all the time, and the fact you get less money when the trade ship on screen is close is to kind of simulate changes in market and stuff.

By far, the most important thing to stick on you'r trade ships IMO, is life support, that way they can get to the furthest reaches of the galaxy. I usually stick on an Impulse Engine III or 2 and as much life support as I need to get the ship to the furthest away planet.

Well For Freighters, travelling faster mean you can trade with further planet(s) faster, Thus more efficient in trading.
As for fighters, It should be fitted with the best engine(s), so that it can move faster.
This exploits a 'bug' in which the game is designed. If your fast fighters can move and hit enemy fighter(s) first with it weapon(s), it will have a very good chance of destroying it. For Example, your fighter with 3 beam, 10/10 move point with 16/16 hit point can move around and destroy fighter with 0 shield, 10/10 move point, 12/12 hit point, if they are in range. This does not matter if the enemy fighter has greater attack power than your fighter or not. The bottomline is to strike first!. Due to the poor sensor ranges that your fleet may have, the move point provided you the availbility to search an area for the enemy ship that you lose track of or you saw it fly past a visible area. By moving and searching and finding the enemy and give them a first hit is very important if your weapon directly hit it (ie for example, using beam to attack no shield ship). This give you a chance to destroy them, but if they found your ship before you find them, they will have the strike first advantage.

I hope GC2 can improve the ship tactics and be wary that it can become quite unfair if a fleet with better weaponary but little defenses(armor/shield) loses to attacking first ship with lousy weaponary. I know GC2 may claim that it the user fault to not design more defenses for their ship. But the lack of Ship tactics make unarmed ship totally useless against armed ship even with powerful engine(s). The ship battle also noobifies and have little control over what to attack fight in a fleet or how to go about attacking the fleet effectively with a tactic. GC2 should learn from Stars! which has very good ship battle tactics like being able to engage/disengage, choose the attacking targets, minimising demage to self or even maximising attack power.

To Number 7 post. No the only advantage of faster freighter is to establish the trade route fast, but after it is established it only allows so much bc per month, the money is not coming faster, only what the trade route created per month. The only way to increase the amount of bc is by building economic bases on those routes and upgrade the modules.

Grrr....I hate not knowing game mechanics! Since I've asked similiar questions in another thread and gotten different answers, any chance we can get a Stardock ruling on these:

Does placing a econ starbase near the terminus of a trade route bring in more $ than placing it near the origination?
Do econ starbases get anything from other race's trade routes or just your own?
Are multiple routes to/from the same planets as effective? (i.e. can I build 15 trade routes from my best planet to their best planet)

Are multiple routes to/from the same planets as effective? (i.e. can I build 15 trade routes from my best planet to their best planet)

I like to know this as well.

Basically what I do is to have all my frieghters come from a single planet which is the cash planet (no idea if it makes any difference to frieghters). Then I build multiple upgrade economy starbases around that planet which will effectively affect every one of my trade route in 1 go.

Anyway, does anyone know the answer to my above question - can you have multiple frieghters on the same trade route?

The issue I'm dealing now is, don't you want SHORT trade routes? That gives you more mileage out of your econ starbases.

According to what they have said, longer = more money. But without seeing the math, it's impossible to figure more complex scenarios such as a trade route that is 8 squares long where the entire thing is covered by a econ starbase verus a 16 square route where only your first 8 squares are covered by a starbase.

Does placing a econ starbase near the terminus of a trade route bring in more $ than placing it near the origination? Do econ starbases get anything from other race's trade routes or just your own? Are multiple routes to/from the same planets as effective? (i.e. can I build 15 trade routes from my best planet to their best planet)

Wherever you place the starbase doesnt matter in relation to origin/terminus. Maximising the time freighters pass through the sphere adds the value.
No, you don't get any bonus from Starbases for other civs trade routes (as far as I have ever seen)
Multiple routes are equally effective - it's only distance that counts.
Best planet, worst planet.... it's only distance that counts.

Lol...there are a few thread talking about this and everyone is giving different answers.

Guys this is the bottom line, one freighter creates one trade route, the further the trade route more money you get, you can enhance your trade route by placing economic bases, but the best option is to place your econ bases in areas where several trade routes cross each other and enhance those eco bases so you receive more money for each freighter that enters the area of your eco base. faster freighters only help you to establish your trade route faster, after that the amount of bc you get is calculated monthly not by turns. If you have a $$$$ route you can create several routes to the same planet and you will receive the same amount from each route.

Planet also have to do, bigger planets, also what the race has, if you meet the Drengin and they already own certain goods, it will incrase, don't know the math, the amount of BC, more goods you have to trade, I always try to trade with the homeworld of each race or with planets of that race that have a high PQ.

pilots also have a life and need a break once in a while

So will the port-a-potty starbase module increase morale?

Thanks for the information. I'm fighting hard the urge to min/max my economy. I just hate inefficiency. I'm a portfolio manager --- min/maxing is what I do for a living.