you don't really need to base build, except perhaps for the exocraft. you can find buried tech, summon the space anomaly and trade for blueprints. there is a second set that you get by breaking into research stations. and once you have visited enough stations, you can go to about 20 or 30 of them and collect all the scan/feed/kill mission. then go to a planet and scan/feed/kill and they will all complete at once. easy way to get tons of money, nanites and standing. and of course there are trade routes, but even easier is market crashing by selling wiring looms, buying them back at vastly reduced prices and repeating in the next star system.