A Little help about WTLPD

[-Jrabbit]

Demand cities are somewhat ephemeral by nature. Don't get hung up on it, just make reasonable efforts to take advantage. In the long run, you will be better off concentrating on distance, best-path roading, city size (beaker count), and the like -- because you completely control them. I always check demand when deciding caravan type and try to send needed goods to distant cities, but I won't go much out of my way when there's a nice size 8+ coastal city without demand that I can easily access.

Best way to control this is to work with shipchains and RRs so that you can deliver at great distances on the same turn you build. A caravan that takes a couple hundred years to reach its destination should not be surprised to see that conditions have changed...

[Edgeblade]

lol

but even so, in most of the games i play all the players are on different continents so it makes trading harder...

[-Jrabbit]

If you're fortunate enough to find a nearby continent/island, establish a city there for 2-continent trading bonuses.

Rush toward early sea travel.

Some like Lighthouse. (I think it expires too early and prefer to head for caravels.) Establish a shipchain to a distant empire and trade like mad. With any luck, you'll have a repeater like Hides and you can pave the AI streets with leather!

[Bloody Monk]

Originally posted by Edgeblade
lol

but even so, in most of the games i play all the players are on different continents so it makes trading harder...

But this is what a trader dreams about; it is just exactly what you want. Trading with a smaller off-continent AI pays much better than trading with your own, even larger cities on the same continent. This is how you race through the tech tree. Once you learn how to create ship chains, your trading will be easier, not harder, and definitely more profitable, both in coin and beakers.

On the city changing demand on you, this problem is covered in several threads by samson and solo dealing with demand factors, and I think in the EL Guide, too. When and how demand/supply lists change is a function of several factors including time. Approxamately every 16 turns a city can get a shift; but, I find that keeping track makes my hair hurt and I seldom bother. As Sir Rabbit suggests, having demand change on route is just part of the game that you learn to deal with.

For non-conquest games, getting a good handle on trade is the best way to improve your game. It will be worth the effort, I think.

Good luck
Monk

[Elephant]

Regarding demand changes, read through the formula for the particular commodity you are sending out for a long-travel journey. If the demand is based on issues that can change quickly, such as size of city, number of techs, roads, etc consider the likelyhood of it changing enroute. Travel by sea in the early and mid part of the game is usually faster, and can be made almost instantaneous with ship chains. RR in mid to late games equalizes the land side of things.

[Edgeblade]

is there a list of the trade things showing which is move valuable etc?

and is there some formula, which will give you an idea of how much you will get by using city size, position etc


and whats the bonus for 2-continent trading?? (what does it equate too)

ie if you have two 20 cities on opposite sides of a long island with road inbetween, do you get more for your route if say you traded in wool (which was in demand) or do you get more by taking it to a city size 4 on another continent etc???

in total what factors affect trade and by how much?

[Elephant]

Most of the questions you ask were answered by Samson in this thread:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64729

You need the Base Trade value for each city, which can be tricky to get for an AI city; I often use a "guess" of 1 arrow for each citizen, with an add-on if there is Whales or Silk in the city radius. For the rest the AI seem to focus on Food and Production, not Trade.