Three questions for you pros

[Grandpa Kim]

bbq, Slynky's right, the others are wrong. Natural Merchants is second only to Advanced Storage but only if you make a habit of capturing rather than destroying enemy planets.

If all goes well, I can "consolidate" and enemy system in three turns (sometimes less!) and have every planet producing for me immediately on the turn of capture. In conjunction with not having to worry about losing your spaceport, this trait is a must!

[Fyron]

Grandpa Kim said:
bbq, Slynky's right, the others are wrong. Natural Merchants is second only to Advanced Storage but only if you make a habit of capturing rather than destroying enemy planets.

If all goes well, I can "consolidate" and enemy system in three turns (sometimes less!) and have every planet producing for me immediately on the turn of capture. In conjunction with not having to worry about losing your spaceport, this trait is a must!

Again, spending those 1000 points in resource bonuses will provide much, much more benefit to your empire overall than saving 3 turns building a space port in a captured enemy system...

[Kamog]

Yeah, I usually don't take natural merchant trait. When my empire is big and I've got a lot of extra production, my plan is to scrap the space ports on some of my systems so that it keeps my score low so that I don't go MEE. If I need those resources, I'll quickly build those space ports. You couldn't do that if you were natural merchants. Well, that's the plan but I never seem to get to the point where my empire is so strong that I can do that.

[Grandpa Kim]

As you can see bbq, opinions differ, which is what makes this game great. Fyron may be right, if you do the math, but is that math right in every situation? With 12 capture fleets running around consolidating 2 or 3 systems each turn, would not natural merchants be better?

[spoon]

If you are running around consolidating 2-3 systems per turn, then you probably don't need to be worrying so much about resources...

[Grandpa Kim]

spoon said:
If you are running around consolidating 2-3 systems per turn, then you probably don't need to be worrying so much about resources...

"Never met a man so rich he didn't need more."

[Fyron]

If you are consolidating an entire system, would it not have a space port already? Unless the enemy had natural merchants, of course... If it is an enemy that practices the scorched earth policy, you have to rebuild the facilities anyways, so those lost 3 turns of production only have you lose out on a few 1000 minerals. All the while your other systems will be producing more due to having a higher minerals aptitude trait...

[spoon]

Grandpa Kim said:

"Never met a man so rich he didn't need more."

My point being, at this point it is moot if you chose Natural Merchant or not, you are already going to win. The trick is getting to the point where you can have an unbeatable invasion fleet... and taking Natural Merchant isn't going to help you as much as your other options.