Does the price of things always go up or down?

[ElConejo]

When it comes to resources and lux, does the trade price (how much we have to pay out) go UP or DOWN? Or does it depend on supply and demand?

Anyone have an algorithim for this or is it just depend?

THANKS!

[Adagio]

IIRC the price depended on how big the buying civ is. E.g. a civ with 15 average size cities pays 50% more for a lux than a civ with 10 average size cities... or something like that

I haven't done any tests (and don't have Civ3 installed) so the above example is just a random guess

[Kloreep]

I believe it's like Adagio says, it's all about effect for the AI; so you'll rarely actually be able to do a straight swap of one lux for one lux, say, with the AI.

I'm not sure how strategic resources are calculated, but IIRC the luxes depend on their exact effect in number of happy faces. For example, if you already have two luxes, having a bunch of cities with markets (as opposed to a bunch of cities but without markets) will make further luxes more expensive since the AI knows they will be producing multiple happy faces.

[vorlon_mi]

Is the adviser ever wrong?

Sorta related...
I'm trying to decide how much I really want to haggle
for these trades, esp. luxuries. The adviser seems to give
hints..."we're getting close to a deal here" ... but going up
or down 1 or 2 gpt (or lump sum) seems to take forever.

Is the adviser ever wrong? I mean, when he says,
"I doubt they would accept this deal", can you submit it,
and the AI actually accepts it?
Is there any random component, or can you rely on the
adviser every time?

In civ 2, the AI would/could get mad at you if you
tried proposing deals too often. I often have to open
the diplomacy screen to check on active deals, like
how many turns are left in a deal. Does this have
an affect on their attitude towards me?

[Kloreep]

There is no random component in Civ3. Your advisor is always right about whether or not they'll accept a deal. (This allows you to haggle down to the gold piece if you have the patience, but you can also find a ballpark best price.)

I'm pretty sure that neither opening the trade screen nor putting stuff on the table wears out relations with the AI. I'm not sure if proposing deals does, but since your advisor is always right, that doesn't really matter.

[vorlon_mi]

Thanks! This will save me from submitting marginal
offers, and hoping the RNG gods are kind.
I will follow the advisor's guidance.

I think that I've read in other posts that the AI knows
what my economy looks like (gpt) and how many
happy faces I would get from a particular luxury.
This gives me the opportunity to rearrange things
before making contact, strike a deal, and then
put them back after the deal is done.

[Major Guz]

Originally posted by vorlon_mi
I often have to open
the diplomacy screen to check on active deals, like
how many turns are left in a deal. Does this have
an affect on their attitude towards me?

Another way of checking your deals with other civ is to open the civ interrelations screen (F4 I guess, it is the screen with al the circles with the civ leaders in them). Then just click on the civ you wish to know your active deals with (and how long they still last) and then click the tab "trade" in the legend part (by default it is set to enable disable relation lines (treaty, ROP etc).
But when set to "trade" it displays what deals you have with that civilization and for how long it (peacefully) lasts.

I hope this helps.

[vorlon_mi]

Thanks, Major. Is that feature version-dependent?

I usually am running PTW, but I also have C3C.
Why both? I have a friend who is still playing vanilla,
and PTW is similar enough that we can still swap
stories. The differences in the tech tree (and unit
upgradeability and wonder list) make it harder to
compare with C3C. I still like both, though.

[Major Guz]

I dont know if it is feature-dependent, but I am using C3C and I did not notice it in previous versions (vanilla and PTW), but that is also just because I never paid attention to the legend other than to use the "show ROP (or war or whatever) treaties" mode.
So I fear I cannot help you further on this one.

[Laertes]

I have PTW and I can also see the trades on the f4 screen. ONly discovered it recently!

[vorlon_mi]

I remembered seeing the tab on the F4 screen
to view treaties, and found that one can shift-click
on each leaderhead so that all of the colored lines
are visible. I've seen that in all 3 flavors of Civ3.

What I didn't see in vanilla or PTW was the number
of turns that each agreement has left, before one
could peacefully end it. I think that feature is
only in C3C, but someone could confirm that.