However, I would like to point out that DSE is heaven compared to Cryer, Planetform, or Synth Foods when it comes to shipping options; we have several profitable routes. Don't try too hard giving DSE more love, focus on the truly neglected corporations.
I've been thinking that perhaps the easiest way to balance problem areas in the trading system, such as factions without many routes, would be to simply add many more commodities. Each added commodity would need to be balanced over the currently existing ones but I can't imagine that being terribly difficult. Each added commodity would, on the other hand, create additional options at more bases.
As they exist today, commodities are quite general. It would be simple to create more specific derivations of existing commodities, such as more types of liquor, different types of Synth Paste, different Pharmaceuticals, more medical commodities, and so on. These could be added to bases that don't have exports or imports and efficiently patch holes in otherwise broken or awkward routes.
The lack of commodities seems to be the fundamental problem with the mentioned corporations, so it would likely help them quite a bit. Also, more specific commodities would perhaps make it easier to recognize which bases they would be bought and sold on.
I also think that adding many more commodities will make balancing the trade system easier. If there are more commodities, fewer bases close to each other would sell the same commodity and the prices could be balanced more purely proportional to the distance traveled (which is the essence of trade route balancing). Several types of Robotic Components (merely taking from the infocard: gyros, stabilizers, sensors, manual manipulators, etc) for example, could allow several bases all over Sirius to manufacture and export Robotic Components with the high-profit selling locations being far away without the other manfucaturers breaking (or affecting at all) the routes.
Bringing this into context, Synth Foods could produce different types of Synth Paste in different parts of Sirius. This might not be intuitively in-RP but could still be explained, and could even be qualified with another commodity: Cellulose, and perhaps even more of the raw ingredients Synth Foods uses. They could be shipped to plants here and there that could produce the various types (colors?) of Synth Paste that have over the centuries become favored in different parts of Sirius. Blue might be highly saught after in Liberty, Green in Rheinland, Brown in Bretonia, and Yellow in Kusari for example. Each respective production facility could be located reasonably far away from the populations that adore each paste.
For Cryer, different types of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment can be produced in scattered plants much like the Synth Paste, and sold in much the same way.
For Planetform, Terraforming Gasses could be easily diversified and handled the same way.
These corporations fit a solution like this better than most, I think, since they have bases in several different parts of Sirius. If this solution was implemented they could very well get the visibly high populations that would be so beautifully in-RP.
Of course it is possible that this solution is not at all feasible due to some aspect of it that I have overlooked or am oblivious of. If that is the case, that's too bad, but I think all possible solutions should be explored before being discarded.
