[grumbler]

Well, I got the Trading Ports built by giving them the "Palace" ability and requiring "Palace" as the first build of the AI's colonies. Since "Palace" is a system ability, the AI builds only one per system.

However, it means changing AI files, not something I want to mess with unless Path tells me to.

Is anyone else playing a solitaire game? If so, could you peek in on your Ai races and see if the problem I have described (the AI not building spaceports) is a real problem?

The Centauri are a good one to check if you have them in your game. The EA is not - they are natural merchants (but if you have them as an AI player, please confirm that they have no homeworld hub).