How does Trade exactly work?

1. Whether a trade route is created by me or another civ, the trade benefit applies for both sides?

2. How do I maximise the advantage of Economic starbases for trade routes, by trying to overlap as many trade routes as possible? Does the overlap bonus apply for my trade routes only? Does the bonus apply only if the trade freighter is currently moving within the starbase region?

3. Max profit is obtained by maximizing population and distance? Does Homeworld have any impact?

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trade in galciv2 is just a way to have diplomacy bonuses with other races

trade revenues aren't worth enough to warrant the investment in trade modules for economy starbases ...

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1. Both sides do get a benefit from a trade route but there is a difference. The one sending the freighter gets a variable benefit - the game will inform you of the range when the route is formed - which will increase over time, I believe. The side receiving the freighter gets a fixed income which I think is the base value of the route without the variable part. I don't know if that increases over time.

So, both sides benefit from trade but the one sending the freighter gains more.

2. The economy starbases can improve trade routes by installing trade modules (unlocked by the trade tech tree). Their benefit only applies when the little freighter is within range of the starbase. This puts you for a choice: do you build starbases around one planet that acts as the centre of your trading empire so they cover all routes at the base? Or do you build them at the end where the net result is higher but you probably won't have much use for the production modules? Obviously, you can just do both. Just wanted to point out the choice you have.

3. The distance affects the maximum value of the trade route, not the base value. I'm not sure if and how population affects the value. I send my freighters from my homeworld but that's just me.

Hope this helped you a bit.

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The diplomacy bonus is a very large part of trading, but it's not the only advantage. On maps where habitable planets are few and far between, trading can be the primary money maker. However, trade income tends to wind up at the same general level regardless of your empire's size, so in a planet-heavy game you'll far surpass trade income with your tax income.

I find trade to be most useful very early on, when income is hard to generate. Every percentage point you can boost spending is valuble, and early on trade can easily exceed taxes. If you can manage it, stacking multiple routes between two close planets and saturating the area with trade-boosting starbases is a viable moneymaker- Minor races work well for this since they won't flip. Unfortunately, a few dedicated economic planets can generate absurd income once your economic bonus starts climbing. It's far better to use the constructors on Economic resources, but if you get shut out of the resource grab, the short boosted trade routes may be your next best bet.

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"stacking multiple routes between two close planets"

-So does that mean it is possible to establish more than one trade route between the same two planets? If so, is there a limit to how many? Presumably it would be more profitable to do such a thing between two economically strong worlds?

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the "limit" is just your maximum trade route limit

meaning if you can do 9 trade routes, then you can do 9 trade routes between these two worlds

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