Quote Originally Posted by Xexist View Post
Im not actually a trader. I just want to start ranking in fat coin so I can spend it
As of right now, that won't happen as a non-trader. I believe they are working on a major overhaul of the economic system that reduce the trader's monopoly on resources, but who knows when that's going in. I'm pretty convinced it isn't even possible for a Warlord to afford its end-game ship. The researcher fares a little better, but the trader still dominates in that department.

Also, keep in mind, Ningal is over a week old now. Assuming you've actually been playing regularly, at this stage you should have a lot of techs researched (you know you can queue up a bunch at a time, right?), and definitely something in the combat or fleet categories. You could maybe get away with delaying combat skills if you started in an uncontested area, but by now a lot of people are going to have big fleets of cruisers, and possibly better if they are focusing on combat. You may also have an aggressive neighbor. There is no point focusing exclusively on resource boosting stuff if you're not going to be able to defend your resources.