Three questions for you pros

[Fyron]

Grandpa Kim said:
bbq, Slynky's right, the others are wrong. Natural Merchants is second only to Advanced Storage but only if you make a habit of capturing rather than destroying enemy planets.

If all goes well, I can "consolidate" and enemy system in three turns (sometimes less!) and have every planet producing for me immediately on the turn of capture. In conjunction with not having to worry about losing your spaceport, this trait is a must!

Again, spending those 1000 points in resource bonuses will provide much, much more benefit to your empire overall than saving 3 turns building a space port in a captured enemy system...