Economic Supremacy?

I was wandering if it would be possible to make changes involving the economic portion of this killer game - the reason why I ask, is because I like to kill my computer opponents with gold coins AND spanish steel <err silver too>. To get to the point, I would love to incorporate a more rich <hehe pun intended> economic / trade system utilizing merchants and trade routes to develop economic strategies for controlling the computer opponents. The only problem is, im not sure if the game archetechture will allow it...if someone could shoot me an email, or send me a message on the .org, I would greatly appriciate it. Thanks in advance.

What you want to do is probably not possible although I don't know exactly what it is :laugh4:

The reason why I say this is that most of the things connected with trade are hardcoded, so you can't do that much with them (without a real lot of scripting which will be a pain in the ass)

Yes, well I do appologize for not being more specific in mentioning what it is that I would love to see implemented. Thank You for replying. To be a bit more specific, (and after having read some other posts focused on the economic side of M2:TW) I was hoping to adjust economic functionality to facilitate a deeper level of immersion and give the "money-minded" and economically savy players another way to dominate the world. Some ideas I had would be to choose which resources are traded, and from where - using merchants to build trading outposts <trading hubs> in a manner similar to the way a general builds a fort <but only buildable on resource nodes> - perhaps adding a variable that enables a certain amount of a rescource to be harvested and traded per turn - I also thought it would be a good idea to be able to covertly disrupt an enemies trade avenues, and perhaps set their farms to the torch! Now that I think about it, it would also be a good idea to be able to kidnap princessess! Damn A.D.H.D...well thanks thanks again.

Well my assumption was correct then. I don't think you can any of the things you proposed.

The only things you can do to tweak the game's trade economy are :

- boost the effect of markets, ports etc... in the descr_buildings.txt file,
- modify the way cities handle resources and trade (through the settlement_mechanics.xml file, look for SIF_TRADE and fiddle with the variable. A value of 1.0 means "settlements trade all resources for their base values every turn", set it to 2.0 and trade will double for example),
- modify the individual value of resources through the descr_sm_resources.txt file, or
- add ressources to the map through the descr_strat and descr_regions .txt files (never attempted anything like this, so don't know exactly how)

As to the rest of your ideas :
- you can park merchants in forts built by generals. Then enemy merchants cannot take them over anymore. Also, when inside a fort, all your merchants make cash from the resource, instead of sharing the resource value between them like they do when outside a fort. That's as close as you're gonna get to a trading hub.

- you can already torch your enemy's fields. It's called "devastation", and it's what brigands do, among others. Ever noticed the longer an enemy army is immobile in your lands, the wider the black/burnt zone around it grows ? And same goes for your armies in enemy lands ? That's devastation. The longer your army stays, the higher it is, and the longer it takes to go away. It affects city income negatively (check the city details when you have brigands there, it's a burning wall icon). I believe you make more of it if you target farm tiles specifically, but could be wrong as I have not one shred of evidence, only impressions.

- you can also already "covertly disrupt an enemy's trade avenues". That's called "ordering an assassin to sabotage his markets and kill his merchants" :grin:. Also, sitting your armies on his roads without a military pact cuts off trade along that road the same way blockading his ports does.

- sadly, you can't choose what to trade with whom where, but the game automatically switches your trade routes factoring distance, resources, ownership of ports and trade agreements dynamically. I assume it picks the best trade routes income-wise. Of course, your partner in trade also gets something from your routes, and I guess you could want to trade with someone less profitable, but whom you like more. Can't be done, sadly.

I thank you so much for clearing up some of those issues for me...I would still like to be able to kidnap and ransom princesses though...lol - perhaps stick her in a castle somewhere and wait for her knights in shining armour to rescue her...:laugh4: :help: <- i'm such a newb.

Thanks Kobal, for a lot of usefull information...

Sorry for Hijacking the tread Heathrow, but I have a question thats slightly similar.

I have been thinking about playing a game as Milan, but with the quirk that I will try and control as little land as possible, Milan, Genoa, and Florence as a Fortress... The only way to withstand the rest of the european powers is of course to have a healthy cashflow to support a large standing army.

To do this, I want to make an army of Merchants trading rare resourses, and taking over others business. Alas since the Agent Limit is one per grain exchange, I can only have two total.

Now, the Question: Is it possible to slightly change the way agent limit is handled, to either allow more merchants per exchange, and/or to completely remove the limit?
Also, if you or anyone else have any experience in doing this, do you know if the AI will zerg the map with merchants?

On a side note, is it possible to alter names of the nobility for factions.

To remove the limit altogether you can probably simply remove the agent_limit line.

To increase it, change the merchant_limit 1 line to merchant_limit 23 or whatever. In my custom game I'm using a progression that increases towards 3 per city, 4 if they have a merchant bank.

Thanks for the answer.

I am Sorry, but I'm still pretty new at customising. All I've done so far is unlocking most factions. Which file is it I should edit?

Haha sorry, it's in export_descr_buildings.txt

Thanks a lot...