Extensive Port Upgrades

[Swordmaster]

In some places, that extra fleet can yield 500 mnai/turn, which means that if your upgrade cost 36,000, it'll take 72 turns to return the investment, which is only 18 years. Not very much IMHO, so I build them when I got most other important buildings constructed.

[QuintusSertorius]

I always put them in when a settlement is almost completely developed, and I need somewhere to sink money.

I also use them in my building queues when I'm awash with cash to simply tie up funds and prevent my treasury growing too large.

[Cambyses]

From my experience:

Some of the factions with more limited economic opportunities (ie Lusotannan) find the upgrades to be really useful to help raise their quarterly income.

People like Romans with such a large build tree tend to build them only much later on when the economy is massive already and they are less necessary.

[kingsword]

They certainly do. As pointed out above, you'll be getting your investment 10 times over the course of the game. As naval trade always makes the most money in TW games, what better to invest in anyway?

[QuintusSertorius]

They certainly do. As pointed out above, you'll be getting your investment 10 times over the course of the game. As naval trade always makes the most money in TW games, what better to invest in anyway?

Personally, the issue of investment is not the cost of building, but the 20-40 turns they take. That's a very long time not being able to build anything else, and also a long time of not being able to soak up cash through new buildings.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

The port upgrades are somewhat bugged.
As it turns out, RTW ports and their trade fleets are hardcoded. The first level (clearance) will give you one trade fleet. The second level (which says it is the first level to give trade fleets) will give you two trade fleets. And the third level will give you three trade fleets. Since some of the extensive port upgrades are level four or five of ports, they actually end up giving no benefits. Though, the small trade port upgrade ends up being level three for some towns, meaning it will give benefits.

For the most part, I just role-play extensive port upgrades. I'll just ignore the bug and build them for role-playing purposes even if I know they have no benefit.

[abou]

Didn't we change things around in the internal build by giving more trade bonuses after the third fleet is added? I think that was how we got around that limitation.

[kingsword]

Personally, the issue of investment is not the cost of building, but the 20-40 turns they take. That's a very long time not being able to build anything else, and also a long time of not being able to soak up cash through new buildings.

I don't build them till I place everything I want, surely they should be left alone till then.

As for soaking cash, buildings don't help much for that after a certain point. Lots of army stacks are there for that reason. :)

[General Appo]

As most people do, I only build them when there´s nothing else left to build in a city. I don´t do the soaking up cash though, usually when I´ve gotten so much money that I need to lose some I´ve got a big empire, and so a little corruption and decadence is only fitting. Though I´ll admit, having 250+ corrupted fatsos and -2 competent FM´s in my Romani campaign is a bit annoying.
Besides, the whole thing with creating huge armies that you don´t need is just to much a bother. Instead I made the Vallia Aurelia (or something like that), an extensive series of forts covering every single crossing of the Rhine and Danube all garrisoned with a single legion (3 Marian Legionaries, 1 Antesignani and 1 local auxiliary cavalry) plus the Vallia Appia after Caivs Appivs Cotta, a series of forts covering many strategic positions in eastern Anatolia and the Levant, garrisoned in a similar manner. To add to this, a full stack is never more than 3 turns marches away. Now that´s a stable frontier.