Each of a number of races in the game has certain similarities, they all have three types of fighter craft, each has a fleet carrier and a battleship and they all have common trading staples such as a basic foodstuff, raw materials and power supply.
The actual trading system I have few complaints about. This is one of the only space trading sims I've seen released outside of the Privateer and Elite series of games, certainly the only one I can think of that's come around in the last few years. I'd love to be able to recommend this game, honestly I would.