For context, Megacorp used to be one of my favorite ways to play this game (esp with the megachurch civic) however I have not rlly touched it since the trade rework. Not because I did not like the idea or the trade rework or anything; I just stopped playing for a bit around that time. Do Megacorps still feel similar to play now that trade is its own standalone bankable resource? Are there still ways to make your traders turn trade into energy automatically?
I would say that megacorps feel even better now especially if you lean into things that increase your trade value as much as possible because you can use trade value to shift you economy around and shore up deficits when needed. There is still a policy to convert trade value into energy and various other resources depending on your empire.
By default you actually get 50% trade value as energy so yeah, that still works. And pretty early on you can grab the mercantile tradition to swap that out for automatically turning trade into cgoods or unity, which is amazing. It's your trade policy in your policies. If anything megacorp feels even more Megacorp than before.
Oh nice I kinda thought they got rid of trade policies for some reason
I would argue yes.
And no, Branch Offices aren't any more useful than they used to be. Like, who needs 'em anyway?
I think they’re only bad because the AI are so incompetent at planet management.
Ironically the AI have the right idea when it comes to Branch Offices; spamming the buildings that give Empire modifiers or add trader jobs to the Capital.
Honestly AI planet management is so bad it's funny. Like I got bored of optimizing my planets in the late game once and tried autimating them, and the AI did literally nothing with my +500 per month of every resource and tier 5 ascended planets. Like jesus build a lab or something, I'd get it if the AI couldn't comprehend city specialization but like omg do anything at all.
Thats why I always liked play criminal syndicates- makes it way more fun to use branch offices
I find branch offices produce 2x to 3x more then they used to on avg if you are placing them without a single care. Able to get 4x or more if you try to synergize building branch buildings to the planet to increase trade value production. Then just crazy amounts if it is a trade world or another Megacorp!
They're a bit stronger in the beta, since everything else got nerfed into the ground.
Yeah I did a Megacorp run, and used the Trade League policy to turn Trade into Energy Credits, Consumer Goods, and Unity. I literally didn’t have any districts or buildings for Technicians or Artisans, because the Trade Policy had them both covered.
I literally only play Void Dweller Megacorp. Something about getting to choose high district habs feels great