Speed bonuses and mini-freighters -- help!

from Stardock Forums
I decided to try something. My trade partner is a minor, the total route length is 36 parsecs. Ok, you get the most income from the route when the freighters are in the sector with the most trade bases. Therefore my idea was to keep them *ALWAYS* in my sector. Ok, their base speed seems to be 1. 36 parsecs, so I built 35 speed boosts so their speed should have been 36. That should have returned them to their starting point, ready to repeat next turn. However, it's throwing them about 1 1/3 times around the loop. I've tried killing a few bases--no change. I added some--little if any change. (The point in question is far enough from anything that finding a one or two square difference would be hard.)

How do I get them to make exactly one complete circut a turn?
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, if you are willing to throw out 35 modules for speed boosts on what sounds like a 2 sector run, wouldn't it be easier just to have 2 starbases with the 3 trade boost modules? Value of the route depends on how far along the freighter is on the route, so always having the mini-freighters at the beginning is low return.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Agreed, it's the lowest value part of the run. Putting them at the end of the run would flip the trade partner, though. It's a three-sector run also--it cuts diagonally through an empty sector.

The point is not to have 2 starbases with 3 boost modules, but rather to have *MANY* such starbases. While they are out on the run they don't return all that much. When they are in my sector, though, each is yielding over 600/turn, and once I get the timing right (at this point I have them doing almost two complete loops, in a turn or two I should have it right) I should be getting this *EVERY* turn. There's still plenty more squares to build starbases on, I should be able to push the income to probably 30,000/turn. However, unless I give away some resource starbases the game probably won't last long enough, the AI worlds are dropping like flies because I've got every resource in the game.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
speed bonuses are really only worth it on longer trade routes. If you can find a 100 parsec trade route you can average 1000/bc using the same number of constructors.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I got it working correctly, although by trial and error, not logic. Tax rate = 0%, Spending = 100% and I'm still about 4000 credits/turn in the black. I could more than double my income without difficulty by building more bases.