Character balance?

[GeeWhiz]

Battleship was 100 rare and now it is 720? Am I reading the chart correctly?

I do not understand the point in raising the costs? I have to survive the traders battleship fleets. I know one trader had hundreds of them early in the game. Without a way to meet a trader's production it really does not matter what the costs are in a sense.

The priority of the game right now (to me at least) is balancing the character's abilities. I do not want to nerf the trader as much as boost the other two.