trade system

[biru biru]

Can someone summarize what we know about how the trade system will work for me? sorry if this is covered elsewhere...

I really liked the resources in civ III, but I missed the range of strategy options that caravans gave the player in civ II. Also, are there details on how trade will be managed through foreign policy? civ III made it almost too easy to direct-trade I thought.

Thanks

[KyuuA4]

It'd be nice to have a system where trade is done on a city to city basis... BUT... that's way too much Micro-management and/or Processing requirements.

[The_Aussie_Lurker]

The Civ3 system had many good elements to it but, for my money, the CtP I and II system worked MUCH better from a strategic level-as trade routes were something you could see-and attack-neccessitating some kind of defense. However, even THIS system was not perfect, as it was TOO easy to pirate and disrupt trade routes.
So I would personally like something between Civ3 and CtP I and II. Trade routes which are visible to the trading partners when they want to see them, but are only visible to others under certain circumstances.
Then once a trade route is visible, it should be possible to pillage and/or blockade said route-but attempts should not yield automatic success.
All we really know, in regards to Civ4, is that your trade routes CAN be made visible using an appropriate filter, but that is all!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

[biru biru]

Right on! The visibility via filter clue is hopeful...

[Vince278]

The current trade system is a huge drain on PC resources.

[DerSchwarzfalke]

I would love to see an upgrade to the resources distribution on random maps, too. How many games did I start over because iron or saltpeter was nowhere in sight and impossible to capture because the people who had it also had iron and gunpowder units far superior to mine ...

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by Vince278
The current trade system is a huge drain on PC resources.

Yup. Bombarding a harbour on a huge map with many civs and see he comp freeze for a while isn't any fun.

[Cvetin]

has anyone proposed involving something like the orion trade concept, but not for resources and luxuries. how about a trade agreement which would generate cash for both sides, depending on the size of cities and mfg? when signed, the game would compute how much money will such a deal be worth (say 100gp) and the better developed side would get like 65 and the underdeveloped - 35 gp per turn. it would force you to make and keep friends, the AI should be reluctant to trade with you, even though it will bring her money, if you're aggresive. but you will also be able to force someone into this agreement, like the US did to Japan and I know Britain did the same to France after the 100 or the 30 year wars, not sure which.

for resources, imo, the popularity og age of discovery conq proves that piracy (attackable see and land trade lanes) is a must

[DeathByTheSword]

Originally posted by The_Aussie_Lurker
The Civ3 system had many good elements to it but, for my money, the CtP I and II system worked MUCH better from a strategic level-as trade routes were something you could see-and attack-neccessitating some kind of defense. However, even THIS system was not perfect, as it was TOO easy to pirate and disrupt trade routes.
So I would personally like something between Civ3 and CtP I and II. Trade routes which are visible to the trading partners when they want to see them, but are only visible to others under certain circumstances.
Then once a trade route is visible, it should be possible to pillage and/or blockade said route-but attempts should not yield automatic success.
All we really know, in regards to Civ4, is that your trade routes CAN be made visible using an appropriate filter, but that is all!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

maybe make it the same as ctp but only pilageable near the city of orgin and the target city...seeing as on the big wide open ocean it is hard to find one ship but you all know where they are going...thus making coastal defence much more importent...tech advances can widen the area of pirating...

[alms66]

Originally posted by Cvetin
has anyone proposed involving something like the orion trade concept, but not for resources and luxuries. how about a trade agreement which would generate cash for both sides, depending on the size of cities and mfg? ...

Multiple levels of these types of treaties would be nice:

Trade Agreement - +10% to both sides
Free Trade Agreement - +20% to both sides
Common Market - +25% to Common Market partners, -5% to other trade partners*

*The penalty to other trade partners should cause a slight negative to diplomatic relations.

This in addition to a CTP2-like trade system would be preferable...

Originally posted by DeathByTheSword

maybe make it the same as ctp but only pilageable near the city of orgin and the target city...seeing as on the big wide open ocean it is hard to find one ship but you all know where they are going...thus making coastal defence much more importent...tech advances can widen the area of pirating...

...add this in and the system would be darn near perfect.

[Sandman]

How about a centre of trade system, like in EU?

[fuji]

If there were artificial choke points on both land and sea, trade pillaging could be implemented.

I would wager that most of the worlds tradable goods are moved on specific routes over land and the shipping lanes are well defined across the ocean.

Perhaps that should be implemented, something similar to the CTP system. It wouldn't necessarily need to be harder to pillage, it would need to be easier to defend automatically without micromanagement.

[Vince278]

The nice thing about CtP is the trade routes were graphically illustrated.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Vince278
The nice thing about CtP is the trade routes were graphically illustrated.

Yes, I used to like seeing which goods were going where without having to scroll through a lot of cities or check each city individually.

Admittedly it was exasperating when trade routes were being pillaged by ships on several oceans away, or by barbarians two continents away.

And of course it's not like your trading partners ever did anything to take care of the pirates...


It would be interesting to see if some kind of protection could be implemented like that provided along the Silk Road, or for caravans to Mecca, or like the caravanserai system in the Ottoman Empire.

[Vince278]

I'm amazed that real trade routes, like the Silk Road, even managed to exist.