This is a small suggestion to add trade stations to acompany the ships.


A station, build-able in every system under your empire's borders that has over 4 credits or minerals in the whole system. Once it is built, you can customize the station (similar to a space port) by researching and installing modules to it. (Say if it's in a farming colony, it would have agricultural modifications and not mineral stockpiles) There would be many research obtained upgrades to the station, such as:

1) a Hydroponics Stabilized cargo bay, (so that food in storage does not decay and can be traded between worlds.)

2) Orbital Malls, (for shopping, gaining your empire many credits depending on population of your empire, every 10 pops makes the mall value increase credit income by 0.5% Only 1 per station. Also if you have researched the Xeno Pets technology and have that resource, it increases mall credit output by and additional 0.5 per 10 pops)

3) Tourism Board, (Can only be built by colonized Ocean worlds, they work by letting civilians go on vacation, increasing pops on that planet every couple of months, and during these increases in pops trade/mining profit increases by 1.0% food consumption increases by 1% per additional pop on vacation. Basically a seasonal migration bonus. If you have a civilian access treaty with another empire, or migration access, this ads a +0.5 modifier to income and population visiting the world)

4)Import/Export bays, (Inspiration taken from Steamuser: BladeofSharpness's mod idea, an additional modification to these stations that allows them to import needed goods, or export stockpiled goods. Such as planets with low food levels can build an import dock on the station and receive food from another planet. The planet that is exporting the goods MUST have a stockpile for it to work. It will drain that planet's stockpile equal to the amount needed to bring the Import planet to a level of non starvation/negative income. Example: Export planet has 23 food. Import planet has -6 food. Export planet gives 7 food, making it's own total 16 while making the Import planet have 1 food stockpile.)

5)Galactic Banks, (These add +500 to the limit of stored Energy Credits.)

6)Private Industry docks, (These increase ship build rate(From vanilla Spaceports), upgrade rate and mining of minerals in a system by +5% Per PI Dock built. It isn't too OP because if you max out the station, 6 slots, of just these docks that's only a +30% in one system and there's some techs that do more than that.)

7)Docking Bay, (can repair ships only, at the cost of disabling the station to *ALL benefits until ships are fully repaired.)

Basic changes:

1)Station is built via construction ships in any location in a controlled system. 300 Credits and minerals to build it with 1.5 Energy credits per month for maintenance.

2)Customizable stations for each type of resource (Food stockpiles, Energy Credits, and Minerals)

3)Addition of third resource, Food. Empires march on their stomachs, meaning that if your Empire is lacking food your people will rebel, riot, and even desert your navies and armies (losing ships, AKA 'Missing in Action') and worlds that have over -10 food overthrow your government and create their own nation with their original species' traits. Food can go bad, so if one planet has a stockpile of say, 23 food per month, and it lays there it will go bad and start decreasing until the planet changes buildings or makes a trading station. The massive stockpile of food, along with decaying and decreasing the Empire's whole level of food resource, causes an effect on that planet's population where they become lazy and fat (-10% Energy credit collection, -10% mineral collection for the whole planet, increases by 0.5 per month until the food decays to a reasonable level of +6).

4)Stations can bring in varying amounts of credits depending on their make up of components. (4-6 slots for upgrading, 2,000 HP and +/- shields depending on what the user customizes.)

5) These stations are civilian use, so no weapons other than maybe point defense weapons for defenses, armor and shields.