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Yes, I’m forgetting that MP players are pressed for time. In MGE “Find City” does not list cities chronologically, either, making a city’s cycle turns more difficult to determine.
However, just having the knowledge that demands are updated every 16 turns can often be enough to determine if a delivery can be made in time. For example, you may have a coal caravan, and having been checking for demand for a few turns, and then it does show up in a city. If the new demand for coal was not triggered by another delivery to that city, it was probably that city’s cycle turn that caused the list to be updated. If so, now you know that if there are not any other intervening triggering events, you will have 15 turns left to deliver coal to that city.
A few more things can be done by MP players to increase the chances of delivering demanded commodities:
1) Since not getting far enough in time is usually the reason for expiring demand, give preference to factors other than distance that increase payments. For example, a demanded cargo delivered to another civ on another nearby continent will pay very well.
2) Give preference to wildcard commodities when conducting trades. When you click on a city, the middle commodity is almost always going to be the wildcard commodity. When the demand list is updated, they are most likely to remain on it, unless the civ’s tech total has reached 32, which is when wildcards change. In the early game, remember that only 7 commodities can appear as wildcards: hides, beads, salt, copper, wine, silver and gems, so try to pick these for making trades. Avoid trading wool and cloth, which can never be wildcards. When wildcards change after most civs have 32 or more techs, avoid trading hides, wool, beads, cloth and salt, since they can no longer be wildcards.
3) For non-wildcard commodities, the left hand commodity on a city’s list is more likely to remain in demand after a list update than the one appearing on the right.
4) Try bringing caravans to a destination in pairs, and if possible, have dye or copper as one of the commodities, and your “demanded” cargo as the other. If demand expires before you arrive, it’s likely that dye or copper became part of the the demand list, “covering” this demand. Trading the dye or copper first may reestablish the demand that just disappeared.
5) Due to the “dye/copper” bug a good rule of thumb is that demand for one or both may appear after a trade if it wasn’t there beforehand. Otherwise, a trade is most likely to eliminate pre-exisitng demand.
Before the recent discoveries about demand list properties, it was equally frustrating to approach a city with two demanded cargos and not knowing which one to deliver first, since the first delivery often erased the demand for the other commodity. Often, reversing the order of the trades is all that is needed to cash in on both bonuses.
However, just having the knowledge that demands are updated every 16 turns can often be enough to determine if a delivery can be made in time. For example, you may have a coal caravan, and having been checking for demand for a few turns, and then it does show up in a city. If the new demand for coal was not triggered by another delivery to that city, it was probably that city’s cycle turn that caused the list to be updated. If so, now you know that if there are not any other intervening triggering events, you will have 15 turns left to deliver coal to that city.
A few more things can be done by MP players to increase the chances of delivering demanded commodities:
1) Since not getting far enough in time is usually the reason for expiring demand, give preference to factors other than distance that increase payments. For example, a demanded cargo delivered to another civ on another nearby continent will pay very well.
2) Give preference to wildcard commodities when conducting trades. When you click on a city, the middle commodity is almost always going to be the wildcard commodity. When the demand list is updated, they are most likely to remain on it, unless the civ’s tech total has reached 32, which is when wildcards change. In the early game, remember that only 7 commodities can appear as wildcards: hides, beads, salt, copper, wine, silver and gems, so try to pick these for making trades. Avoid trading wool and cloth, which can never be wildcards. When wildcards change after most civs have 32 or more techs, avoid trading hides, wool, beads, cloth and salt, since they can no longer be wildcards.
3) For non-wildcard commodities, the left hand commodity on a city’s list is more likely to remain in demand after a list update than the one appearing on the right.
4) Try bringing caravans to a destination in pairs, and if possible, have dye or copper as one of the commodities, and your “demanded” cargo as the other. If demand expires before you arrive, it’s likely that dye or copper became part of the the demand list, “covering” this demand. Trading the dye or copper first may reestablish the demand that just disappeared.
5) Due to the “dye/copper” bug a good rule of thumb is that demand for one or both may appear after a trade if it wasn’t there beforehand. Otherwise, a trade is most likely to eliminate pre-exisitng demand.
Before the recent discoveries about demand list properties, it was equally frustrating to approach a city with two demanded cargos and not knowing which one to deliver first, since the first delivery often erased the demand for the other commodity. Often, reversing the order of the trades is all that is needed to cash in on both bonuses.
Two empires?
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