I have a few ideas for Water World that will make it somewhat viable as a trading colony.
One of them is the Cargo Port
Cargo Port
2×4
Tech Req: Water World Base, Large Scale Construction, Galactic Commerce
Built on water
"This Cargo Port provides access to the galactic equities market, and provides greater trade with other water worlds."
Built by: Megabot, Megabot Deluxe
Cost: 2.000 ore, 350 steel, 150 microchip, 200 aluminum, 500 gold, 250 wheel, 100 wood, 2.500 money.
Utilities: 25 Power
Can build: Sea Rover, Sea Rover Deluxe, Sea Rover Premium.
Allows access to GBT trades
Allows importing and exporting
Can import (offline): Fish, Salt Water, Ore, Regolith, Steel, Food, Water, Gold, Aluminum, Microchip, Diamond, Oil, Plastic, Antanium, Toy, Robot.
Provides Gifting Capacity: 50.000 (for other water worlds), 5.000 (for everybody else)
Special: Allows for you to gift 5x the gifting capacity of the recipient, ignoring your own gifting capacity. This becomes 10x the gifting capacity for other colonies on a multiplayer region. This only applies to water worlds.
Employs: 36
Occupation: Blue Collar
Tax Value: $30
And its Large counterpart:
Large Cargo Port
5×10
Built on water, next to shore
Tech Req: Water World Base, Tall Construction, Galactic Finance Theory
Built by: Sea Rover, Sea Rover Deluxe, Sea Rover Premium
Can Build: Cargo Ship
Cost: 200.000 ore, 150.000 steel, 100.000 gold, 50.000 microchips, 10.000 aluminum, 5.000 software, 2.500 wheel, 50.000 wood, 3.000.000 money, 5.000 civics.
Utilities: 2.000 power, 600 bandwidth
"A massive undertaking to build, this large cargo port is the ultimate in sea-based trade."
Allows access to GBT Trades
Allows importing and exporting
Provides Gifting Capacity: 50.000 (Base), 5.000.000 (water worlds)
Special: (Improved): 5x recipient's gifting capacity, regardless of world type. 50x Recipient's gifting capacity (mp regions). (New): 50% less commission fees (Becomes extremely useful end-game) (New): 25x recipient's gifting capacity, water world only. (New): Present Cargo Ship units add 5% to gifting capacity.
Workers: 360
Occupation: Blue Collar
Tax Value: $15.000
The Spice must flow.