OMG.. Don't trust Raven and Trom.. They'll kill you in the blink of an eye.. for the right resources...
Oh no wait that's Spartanius.
Actually it's pretty good advice, a trader is a really good support role, while working on earning an economic victory. Traders are great, in fact the best at acquiring the rare ores that the other specialties require. I would say the "Researcher" is probably the hardest class to play. Warlord is probably pretty easy to play, but you might not make a lot of friends.. At least you shouldn't go around killing traders since the rare ore will be extremely important. It'll be interesting to see how the gas planets play out, and if people help a trader hold gas planets since the rare ore produced as a trading resource is pretty sweet.
So.. ya I'm with them.. Trader is a pretty good not aggressive toon to play as. Although don't be fooled, I am sure Raven and Trom will agree pissing off a trader could be bad news... They can build forces fast (10% faster build times) and they can pump out a ton of ships since they aren't restricted by the rare ore issues that could hamper other players.