Trade Theater Income

Got an Indiaman (and military escort) parked on a trading post in Brazil. I thought I was supposed to leave him there, but I'm not seeing any trading revenue after a few turns. Or, do I have to shuttle these guys back and forth to home (Sweden) to achieve the profit? The first would of course be more realistic (it *IS* trade, after all, whcih requires movement...) but I thought this game was supposed to be "low hassle" in terms of shlepping units around the map...

Relatedly, I see how you can park a military ship on the trade routes WITHIN a theater (like Europe), but don't see any trade routes to those far off locales. Ideas?

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Trade Route Problems

We've become aware of an occasional problem with the trade route system when shipping goods with some factions to some cities. This is being addressed currently and will be fixed shortly. Which brings me neatly to my final point...

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http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic...r-Support.html

:shrug:

Trade route income is on the trade screen, for example, it would list as "Ivory Coast" for example, with ivory tusks, then these are traded out to people you have trade routes with, to make you money. In otherwords, you don't directly get money from it, just stock.

You have to make sure the trade line isn't being pirated either.

Also, yes, there is a bug in regards to sometimes it doesn't come up which I noticed. One game I had india on a trade spot but it never came up that I was.

I haven't had any problems with trade fleets. Move into the trade zone with your india merchantmen, and on the next turn pull up your trade income screen. Pretty sweet. Like tiberius said though, watch out for pirates...

I've had the same problem with trade fleets. It's a bug, and one I think CA are aware of and working to fix.

I put them on the ivory coast, and a trade line appeared.

I sent my indiaman with a military escort down to a trade theatre, and while I have the flashing money icon, the actual indiaman seems to have disappeared, without any change in the anchor icon, if I move the military units off of it. When I move the military units back it goes back to flashing a coin. I haven't got the foggiest what's going on, and the manual is, well, terse.

This is pretty annoying... I want my money back... for the eastindiamen I built in vain! ;) Guess I'll focus on conquering the lands of my enemies for now.

If its got a flashing coin sign, it should be trading.

There should also be a trade route going from the ship.

Playing as Sweden I have 2 parked in the Ivory coast, they have the coin on their flag but no trade line leaving the ship. I noticed that Portugal and the United provinces also have ships there they have the coin and a trade line.

In my trade screen under supply I only have one entry
Europe Land Lots of fur icons

Nothing for the Ivory coast.


Do I need to have a "trade route" open. I know I'm limited on how many trade agreements I can make by the number of trade routes i get from building ports. I think I've used all those trade routs up with other nations. Will I need to build a new port/upgrade a port or cancel a trade agreement to get goods from the ivory coast?


I have a trade ship on the way to brazil now, maybe i'll have more luck there....:wall:

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Originally Posted by sharkscott2

Playing as Sweden I have 2 parked in the Ivory coast, they have the coin on their flag but no trade line leaving the ship. I noticed that Portugal and the United provinces also have ships there they have the coin and a trade line.

In my trade screen under supply I only have one entry
Europe Land Lots of fur icons

Nothing for the Ivory coast.


Do I need to have a "trade route" open. I know I'm limited on how many trade agreements I can make by the number of trade routes i get from building ports. I think I've used all those trade routs up with other nations. Will I need to build a new port/upgrade a port or cancel a trade agreement to get goods from the ivory coast?


I have a trade ship on the way to brazil now, maybe i'll have more luck there....:wall:

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No. Based on my play so far the supply appears on the trade screen, but it does not create a trade route there (under exports, as I recall). The trade entries under export are from the trade agreements. We apparently get some income from just importing from the trade zones, then more when we transfer the imports offshore to trading partners. At least that's how my observations go thus far.

I haven't figured out how the supply is figured so far though. I had several trade ship in the far eastern zone and messed with shifting them around, but couldn't find a pattern in the results. The amount of imports of spices did shift, but not predictably. There may be a "time on station" effect, there may be a "per node" one, and the number of ships may factor in.

In the early game, unless you're at war with a big sea trader, escorts are optional if you watch your travel to and fro to avoid pirates. I tend to send fleets of 3 indiamen at once, just so they can handle most solo pirates themselves. Maybe...

So far I haven't had any fleets ON the trading spots attacked. I expect to see that later in as the spots fill up though.

If you're a coastal nation, get at least one Indiaman into each zone and on station asap to get the full variety of trade goods available from sea trading. It really boosts your routes from trade agreements.

So if you have an Indiaman and move it onto the trade icon, it continues to exist (and flashes a coin?)

As I mentioned, my Indiaman-Fifth Rate-Sloop-Brig fleet moved onto one, got a flashing icon, but the Indiaman is gone. When I move the Fifth Rate, Sloop and Brig off the icon they stop flashing the coin, when I move them back they flash the coin again, in spite of the apparent loss of the Indiaman. This is just a glitch (or me being crazy?)

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Originally Posted by GM1940

So if you have an Indiaman and move it onto the trade icon, it continues to exist (and flashes a coin?)

As I mentioned, my Indiaman-Fifth Rate-Sloop-Brig fleet moved onto one, got a flashing icon, but the Indiaman is gone. When I move the Fifth Rate, Sloop and Brig off the icon they stop flashing the coin, when I move them back they flash the coin again, in spite of the apparent loss of the Indiaman. This is just a glitch (or me being crazy?)

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Sounds like a glitch (bug!) I don't think I've done exactly that combination, but I can see my solo Indiamen on the nodes, flashing away.

Glitch, most likely.

Ivory Coast and the other Side of Africa both give you Ivory.

If you put a trade ship and military ship on the trade spot then split the navy by removing the military ship it breaks the trade route and causes your merchant ship to be stuck on the trade spot unable to move without producing any goods. I had to restart a United Provinces campaign when I figured this one out, luckily it was only 1706.

I'm still playing my first campaign so I don't know about this. I sent some ships to the trade zones, and all of the anchor icons already had a ship parked on them. Is there anyway to get in on the trade without destroying the ships already there then move in on the spot?

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Originally Posted by Ed TW

I'm still playing my first campaign so I don't know about this. I sent some ships to the trade zones, and all of the anchor icons already had a ship parked on them. Is there anyway to get in on the trade without destroying the ships already there then move in on the spot?

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No, you'll have to engage in a bit of economic warfare and sink them if you want to claim a spot for yourself.

Does it matter how many indiamen you have on a trade spot?

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Originally Posted by A Very Super Market

Does it matter how many indiamen you have on a trade spot?

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Yes.

I just did a bit of testing (damn them pirates!) Experimenting with the initial United Provinces East Indian trade fleet:

One Indiaman on a single node = 3 icons (20 lbs) of spices.
Two Indiamen on that same node = 6 icons (40 lbs) of spices.
Three Indiamen on that node = 8 icons (didn't catch the actual pounds).

So there may be diminishing returns kicking in.

When pirates near Madagascar parked on the trade line the yield for one dropped to 17 lbs.

I split and sent one Indiaman each to two nodes (darned pirates arrived and sank my third) and got the same effect as having two on one node.

Also noted that the pirates (this is not yet data, it's anecdote!) sailed right past a single unescorted Indiaman sitting on a node to attack one not on a node, then again to hit the 3-ship escort fleet. Based on that MAYBE ships on the nodes are effectively "in port" and a lower target priority. Need more data.

I'm tentative thinking a single trade fleet with escorts might be the way to go, one for each node of a different trade good. So far it appears all nodes in the same trade zone supply the same goods. That suggests sending fleets only for goods you aren't producing in good quantity yourself. The big Carribean powers might be wasting fleets sent to Brasil if they don't have a source of spices, for example.

No idea how supply and demand play out though. Guessing it's good to have SOME of all goods to trade. Might be good to have a monopoly on one good, but no data so far.

I get the same bug as Obadiah et al so I guess I'll have to abandon my Swedish campaign until there's a patch. Can anyone who's played as United Provinces tell me if they've experienced any economic bugs?

PS Another annoying thing about trade when you play as Sweden is that you can't trade by land with for instance Prussia even if you've got a land border at Courland. You must have continuous road links between your home provinces and the crossing between Finland and Ingria doesn't count as road.

A man could turn isolationist for less. DS

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Originally Posted by Ardri

If you put a trade ship and military ship on the trade spot then split the navy by removing the military ship it breaks the trade route and causes your merchant ship to be stuck on the trade spot unable to move without producing any goods. I had to restart a United Provinces campaign when I figured this one out, luckily it was only 1706.

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Yep, I can confirm this one. Did exactly that and now my tradefleet is stuck there and not trading and military ships cant rejoin. :furious3:

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Originally Posted by IRONxMortlock

Yep, I can confirm this one. Did exactly that and now my tradefleet is stuck there and not trading and military ships cant rejoin. :furious3:

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Same thing happened to me, it's incredibly annoying. I make huge amounts through plantations though, so it doesn't bother me now :2thumbsup:.

I think the trade theatre has it uses. Though it seems to do more in the beginning of the game rather then the later parts of the game.

For my part my ships seemed to earn more the longer I left them there. Whether do to skill, randomness, or just trade routes I don't know really.

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Originally Posted by Polemists

I think the trade theatre has it uses. Though it seems to do more in the beginning of the game rather then the later parts of the game.

For my part my ships seemed to earn more the longer I left them there. Whether do to skill, randomness, or just trade routes I don't know really.

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I think once modders work out how to srat editing bug stuff trade theatres could have their income adjusted to make them more useful.

Of course many mods are probably going to attempt to add in the trade theatres as takeable provinces, so maybe we won't need to edit them. :laugh4:

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Originally Posted by Ardri

If you put a trade ship and military ship on the trade spot then split the navy by removing the military ship it breaks the trade route and causes your merchant ship to be stuck on the trade spot unable to move without producing any goods. I had to restart a United Provinces campaign when I figured this one out, luckily it was only 1706.

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i can confirm this too same bug i reported but more clearly written out

Out of pure curiosity, could it be that the games needs a free trade route, so needs to be free sea trade route to use, for it to work?

Hence the bug.

Like the rest of you I suffer from this bug, but at least it might be resolved in the patch involving the trade theatres.
"Fixed trade nodes for those nations with resource in home region which caused unprofitable trade theatre routes eg: Sweden and Marathas."

Fingers crossed! :boxing:

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Originally Posted by Polemists

I think the trade theatre has it uses. Though it seems to do more in the beginning of the game rather then the later parts of the game.

For my part my ships seemed to earn more the longer I left them there. Whether do to skill, randomness, or just trade routes I don't know really.

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You get more money the more ships are on a spot, and the longer you trade with any given partner (usually a few hundred a turn per partner). The game also alerts me to the natural death of trade captains who's stat panel you can't access, making me think it is in fact tracking a captain character for each fleet.

The goal with trade theaters is capturing 2-3 spots early and getting a full stat of tradeships on them. While foreign navies will try and pirate routes, they don't seem to keen on attacking the trade fleets themselves.