I was wondering if some kind people could help answer a few questions I have. I'm playing Galactic Civilizations: Dread Lords version 1.4. By the way, in other forum posts people make comments about the game and I often have a hard time telling if they are referring to Dark Avatar or Dread Lords, so its hard to figure out from forum posts whether they are talking about my version of the game or not.

1. I notice several other civilizations have established trade routes to my planets, and that I get revenue from their trade route with me. If I were to build an economic starbase along one of the trade routes they established with me, would I be able to magnify the amount of revenue I receive from their trade route with me? What if a trade route I estabished with another civilization runs through another civilizations economic starbase? Will their starbase trade upgrades help to magnify my income?

2. Is the effect of several overlapping economic starbases cumulative? For example, a trade route passes through a patch of space covered by 2 economic starbases, both magnifying the trade at that point by 30%. Would the effect be to magnify the revenue by 60% at that point? I assume this is so, I'm just noty sure though.

3. Would building economic starbases closer to the destination planet result in higher income for me than if I were to build that same starbase closer to the start of the trade route (on my end)?

4. I understand that there is a limit of 4 starbases per sector, or something like that. Does that mean there can be no more than 4 starbases per sector regardless of civilization (1 Drengin, 1 Torian, 1 Altarian, and 1 Terran for example), or does it mean that any one civilization can't have more than 4 starbases in a given sector.

5. Once one of my freighters establishes a trade route, do I still continue to pay maintenance costs for that freighter?

6. When I upgrade a ship, is the maintenance cost for the upgraded ship based on the cost of the upgraded design, or the cost of the original ship prior to being upgraded?

7. Can I upgrade a freighter after it has already established a trade route? If I have made some very expensive, fast, long range freighters in order to quickly establish distant trade routes, I would rather "upgrade" it after the trade route is established to a much less expensive version, in order to save on maintenance costs.

8. Finally, do starbases have maintenance costs, and if so, are these maintenance costs increased by upgrading the base through added modules?

Thanks in advance for any help!