Well now people see why I havent made any official post about this. I didnt know about it myself.

Fair enough, sounds good to me. Was angry before n i kinda lashed out, i can see now how this is needed.. and isn't the end of the world for me. Thanks for this though, good call.

i understand voomy didn't know the full specs on this so sorry for anything i may of said untoward my main complaint was notice given and not on the change its self

and do i read correct that this would mean ca30 and EE30 etc give up-to 40% more on a level 3k as game stands now

No, you misunderstood. However, because of the 125% suitability cap, CA15 is sufficient for any 75% and 100% planets. Higher levels of CA can be used to maximize lower suitability planets.

CA15 will give a 75% colony a suitability of 117%, which is quite close. If you want the extra 8%, then level your character.

hmm, to get level30 in say CA, would that need SM30? or does 21-30 all need Sm20>?

That seems to suggest taht what Elryk has said is correct....

How much SP for trade skills?

1 SP per level so 20 SP to max one.

Any idea of the stats on the trade skills? The way I have read and understood it. EE/CA will be more focused on the trade aspect while Station Mastery bases will be more for defense? Ergo StM will have higher bases bonuses? Also, what will MFM be like? I presume only bonuses for Trading slaves, what sort of bonuses are we looking at with reguards to that?

This is what the descriptions say on the current build, though I haven't checked for the actual values. While the specific numbers might be different, these are likely to be the general stats and ratios of what the new trade skills will have.

Merchant Fleet Master
Trading slaves get +2% to most stats, +10% capacity, and +10% to shields

Station Mastery
Stations get +4% shield, energy, damage, shield recharge, energy recharge, capacity, tracking, firing rate, radar, range, and cloaking.

Note: I think this is supposed to apply to permanent drones as well, though I'm not positive.

Extraction Expert
Expert at harvesting and mineral extraction. (+4.5% to bases hull space, +5% rate of extraction)

Colonial Administration
Efficiency Expert. (+4% suitability on your colonies)

Wow ok, so no station bonus for CA and EE then, interesting....

Makes galaxy development a lot more nuanced. A Station Mastery char for a trade base that can heal the now-crummy CA and EE bases. Essentially a lot more hub and spoke bases where the non-mastery are setup to be somewhat disposable. If you build a couple uber station mastery bases in support of the others you can probably get away with having some decent bases. It also makes it so you risk more if you try the ole' Adonis base to increase the suitability and it's non-mastery - one shotted. Basic non-mastery bases REALLY suck though.

My major suggestion would be that there should be some bonus on Station Research and Station Tweaking to stations statistics so that if you wish to invest the effort you can make your bases more effective. Another possibility would be to add back an aug slot to bases so they get 5 btu I think the SP/effort of getting the Tweak/Research skills should be better rewarded. As I understand it the Research skill gives one char extra base slots but NOT the account as it is currently, so it's a terribly ineffective skill...

Will high level stations still require station mastery to upgrade to? Because if so, CA and EE bases won't really stand a chance at high levels.

they arnt realy supposed to. the CA is for colony beefing and EE is for diggin shit up fast. otherwise they should be medicore bases compared to station masters who would have the kickass brutes.