Trade Bug/Econ Ruined

[Kydon]

I'm currently running a super high-powered trade econ with the Houses. All planets, excluding FOBs, generate at least 10 TP and CP. I also have two trade alliances running, Song-Thulun and Javat-Thulun. This generates a good 1.5k a turn, making me rich.

The problem came when loading the game one day. Instead of making +1.5k per turn, I'm making -215. My heart sank. I checked, and both the Trade Alliances are still active, so I should be making $4 per CP per TP every turn. Maint costs are high, but they are not THAT high. Someone please tell me how to correct this also, if possible.

[tenbsmith]

You'll need to gather information and report back.

1) Go to the Empire Summary screen,
--look under Colony Status and tell us the Colony Maintenance Rate: If this is high, you need to improve Morale of some or all of your colonies (see #2 below)
--look under Fleet and tell us Fleet Maintenance Rate: If this is high, you should move ships onto green squares.
--Click on Politics and confirm that you only have the two Trade Alliances, there is no third Faction Politics. In my experience, a rapid change in income like you describe is usually due to an outbreak of negative faction politics like a Solar War  or Trade War. If you have a negative faction politics, then you'll need to the correct treaty/diplomacy to end it.

2) On the All Colonies screen check the Morale and Income of each colony.
--Improve Morale by ensuring plenty of Spice and Hab Units.

If you do all that, and it is not enough, here are some other approaches to consider in descending order of preference. That is, the ones at the top of the list are preferable.
--Idle CP provides additional incomes, so increase it by NOT initiating new Colony Projects, and/or...
--Aborting non-essential Colony Projects.
--Demolishing ships decrease ship maintenance costs. Since ships with Hull damage or low water-fuel have higher maintenance costs, demolish these first.
--Demolish colony buildings. This is generally a last resort, unless you've overbuilt.

[CdrPlatypus]

tenbsmith Is exactly right @kydon .

Also it would help if we knew what you did your last turn. If you have some massive factory worlds that are usually idled that you just ordered into production that make a major dent in your economy. The other thing is you say your economy is TP based. These tend to be more sensitive then economies with a lot of mining infrastructure. Longterm its best to have both of course.

[Kydon]

Sooo, bit of an update on this I guess, apparently there was a trade embargo. The politics UI never alerted me to it, nor did it show there was one. I only found out because a few turns later, after a bit of hair pulling and optimizing of expenses, the turn update says "a 'trade embargo' has ended". Everything's good now, kinda weird that it happened. Afterwards though, my income went from the +1.5k previously to +3.3k the turn after the "ghost embargo" ended.