Trade Agreements

[Brutus66]

Does anyone else think that 20 turns is too short of a period for trade agreements? I feel like I am constantly having to remake the same deals, over and over, during the course of a game. It would have been nice to have some flexibility as to the duration of these agreements. And as for agreements like Open Borders, just leave them in place until one party desires to end them.

[Wiglaf]

The agreements don't do anything anyway, why would you renew them?

[pdxsean]

I'm with you on this Brutus, although playing on Epic level they last 45 turns which is a little more reasonable. Still, it'd be nice if they didn't have any expiration at all (or that it could be variable).

[kmj]

Wiglaf: Trade agreements are awesome if you like keeping your people happy and don't want to spend all your money on buildings. In my current game, I'm picking up an extra 20 or so happiness from them, which pays into my golden age and culture stockpiles. Also, if you're not going for a military victory (and so don't want to waste time waging war), the other civs seem less likely to declare war on you if you trade with them.

Having to renew trade agreements only takes a few seconds, so while it is something extra you have to do, I don't find it very annoying. I do think they could simply prompt each person at the end of 20 (or 30) turns asking if they'd like to continue the agreement. If either party doesn't, it gets canceled. Then again, I guess I don't see a downside to making them permanent until one party decided to cancel them. Is there any?

[Ming]

I find the limit on open borders to be annoying. There is one agreement I wish stayed in place until one side cancelled it. I've had units crossing my buddies land only to have them end up where they started because of an open borders agreement ending.
You really have to pay attention to when they are going to end if you are moving units.

[Brutus66]

The only advantage to short-term agreements that I know of is when you're making one that you don't really like.

Cities seem to be fickle about what luxury they want. For example, suddenly cotton becomes fashionable and half of your cities demand it. When you go to trade for it with the only civ that has it, the AI player always seems to know how much it's worth to you and tries to extract as much as they can for the deal. You have to hope that by the time the agreement expires your cities find something else they want more.

[Hermann the Lombard]

Wiglaf: Trade agreements are awesome if you like keeping your people happy and don't want to spend all your money on buildings. In my current game, I'm picking up an extra 20 or so happiness from them, which pays into my golden age and culture stockpiles. I guess I don't see a downside to making them permanent until one party decided to cancel them. Is there any?

Trade agreements are also awesome for getting a lot of gold with which to bribe City States to friendship or alliance, and having the limit on time means you can get another dose of gold . . . until the AI runs out, of course.

[MxM]

I do not understand why they decided to go away from Civ IV model. Just can't...

[Hermann the Lombard]

You really have to pay attention to when they are going to end if you are moving units.

Is there a way to tell when an agreement will end? I haven't seen that info. ("It just ended" doesn't count!)

[kmj]

Is there a way to tell when an agreement will end? I haven't seen that info. ("It just ended" doesn't count!)

Doesn't the "deal history" window (or whatever it's called) in the diplomacy overview tell you when it ends (or at least when it started, which is just as good)?