BTW, how much impact do dist nodes make? They cost AIP after all but has there been a cost inflation along with all the other inflations the game has suffered or do they still hold up?
I think that distribution nodes are alright as is. If I run my economy into the ground, they offer me a decent chance of getting enough resources to finish (or at least further) whatever project I'm working on that ran my economy into the ground, and paying +1 AIP for that isn't terrible. Distribution centers are also very helpful for finishing up an expensive project more quickly (Zenith Trader structures, or Spire City Hubs, or full rebuilds of your fleet), as a distribution center provides enough resources for perhaps 10% completion on several of the Zenith Trader's toys and a similar amount on a Spire City hub, and might pay for a fairly substantial number of fleet ships.
Personally I think we need to get rid of the 20% chance of them to fail. The +1 AIP Cost is price enough without making it luck-based, and would solve some early-game economy problems.
I'd rather keep both the chance to fail and the +1 AIP cost. Why?
1. AIP cost - I'd rather not have the chance at gaining resources with no trade off other than a chance at losing some of my resources, since if the AIP cost disappeared these would essentially become targets to destroy whenever you found them and your economy could use a few extra resources.
2. Chance of taking resources instead of giving resources - when I want to destroy a distribution center, my economy is usually wrecked to the point that losing resources to a Trojan distribution node doesn't actually hurt me. If I gained resources, it would have helped me, but since my economy is already on the floor I don't have resources to lose. Thus, I'm attacking the AI and running the risk of angering it for a chance of helping my economy, and if there is no chance that the distribution node will not help me, well, an extra 1 AIP is usually fairly negligible anyways.