The effect of trade..

More ressources is always better... even if you are the bigger empire!

All across the board: minerals, bio, and radioactives.

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Gives you a lot more resources if you are friendly to the other player/AI.

Ie, if you have 3 trade agreements for 30% each, and your trade partners are all 1/2 the size of you, you can rake in another 45% of your resources base... which is pretty helpful.

One reason if you are playing single player to not declare war on every AI on first contact...

The same... they benefit by getting extra resources as well. The amount for both trading partners is the same.

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Space Empires Depot | SE:V Balance Mod

I do not believe that this game ever claimed to follow "basic accounting rules."

On the contrary, it has an extremely simplified economic system that ignores even the concept of "currency."

It's not like there is a common galactic currency between the empires (That would be a good idea for alliances though!), since they just met.
Trade is probably in the form of barter... and simulates your both empires getting goods that are rarer in the other empire.

I don't agree, let's say Great Britain has trade agreements with Cyprus, the amount of trade must be limited by the size of Cyprus' economy as it is smaller. The benefit is the same for both sides (most trade deals work that way) but as a % of Britain's Gross Domestic Product the benefit would seem small, whereas to Cyprus it would seem greater. And in SE5 all of this is reflected. The things that aren't reflected are strategic/valuable resources owned by one empire.

"Things are only impossible until they're not." Cpt Jean-Luc Picard

As an accoutant let me tell you most of us are demented anyways....

I am playing a small galaxy game with 20 opposing races and i have trade pacts with 6 or 8 of them. My resources have never dipped below maximum storage for the entire game, I build whatever i want every turn. Trade rocks.

If your resources never dip below maximum then you're not building enough stuff Make more spaceyards! Build more ships! Attack more planets! At the very least you can scrap some mining facilities and replace them research centers.

IMHO ressource storage (empire and facilities) should hold 10 times what it does now. Ressource storage facilities cost too much, you would be better building research centers instead, even if you take the risk of halts in production from time to time.