Sea and Land trade/Resources and Agriculture

Quote:

Originally Posted by Henry the Fifth

Does anyone know what are the distance limits imposed on trade? Does the amount of resource markers in a region detemine overall worth? How much does agriculture play in wealth and where can you view stats on this during gameplay?

I don't know the distances that the game uses, no. The amount of resource markers determine worth, sort of. It appears that each resource has a given base value for trade, which contributes its value to each trade route the city has. So a city exporting gold or something else of high value could possibly be more valuable than one exporting multiple less valuable items, though in most cases it seems the really valuable cities do in fact have many resources. This may be due to the trade mechanics - as a city cannot trade another city a resource that they both already have, it ends up being very beneficial to have diversity in resources in case there is resource overlap w/ trade partners.

Agriculture is of moderate importance to wealth, with its largest role played in the early game (though you will continue to notice the effects far later). Each farm level generally upgrades your farming income by about 50 florins, which is very good for the first 2 upgrades or so which will pay for themselves quite quickly. After that it's more a decision of how much you want to grow a given settlement, as the investment takes much longer to be returned, and the potential for squalor becomes a concern. That, btw, is the other economic impact of farming - population growth, which in turn generates more tax revenue. Given how miniscule 50 florins per turn is in the grand scheme of the game, the growth and additional taxes are probably the primary reason to build farms. As I said the first 2 levels are almost a given, as I've never seen them cause any instability in the late game. Beyond that, I recommend limiting higher farm levels to settlements that you intend to be near your capital forever - outlying settlements take order penalties, and thus the higher level farms often cause trouble there by upping squalor. Your near-capital settlements don't get these penalties, and so typically have public order to spare and can support higher squalor, and thus higher population.

Of course, you could probably figure out not to build farms in a border town that doesn't have them already - typically when you get such a town, there's an awful lot of things besides farms that get pushed to the top of the building priorities...