Translation: the "better" players relied on features which the developers have since changed to be more in line with their idea of what makes a fair, fun game.
Right so the dev idea of balance is you must get tradeports, resoruce income is secondary/meaningless, and only TEC is allowed to have easy early tradeports without leaving themselves open for a rush.
No badken, we are not crying because something isn't to our liking. I play random, even post patch where TEC is clearly the favorite, because I love all 3 factions. I want each to have their own unique strategies. When one strategy is clearly the favorite, and also circumvents a huge part of the game (like neutral extractors and resource extraction techs) then I have problem with it. And when one faction is clearly the best in doing said strat, then I really have a problem with it.
The truth is that in 1.02 black market worked more than 1 way, now it does not. Selling resources to the market is stupid, as is anything that increases your resource income where you could instead increase your credit income. For example, with 600 credit 50 metal and 100 crystal I can increase crystal extraction by 5%, which would in a game where I have 2 crystal a second income be equal to .1 crystal per second. Or I can for 750 credits 100 metal and 125 crystal build a tradeprot which can fetch me between 1.1 to even 3 credits a second. Tell me which one is a no brainer?
But I need the crystal to build stuff right? WRONG. In 1.02 crystal was de facto limiting agent. While it was not perfect because of random ice or volcanic issue next to your homeworld, it worked better than having credits be the only limiting factor. If I need crystal now I can buy it for 330 per 100 if I wait, 550 for 100 if I can't wait. Those are pretty good rations considering credits are 10x easier to come by, as you can calculate from my previous paragraph.
SO yes the game is imbalanced. No we are not making crap up because we think we are the best. We are speaking the truth because we love this game, and we want it to have multiple strategies for success, not one golden brick road, and a few dusty trails that may lead to victory against a total noob.
