I need Trade help

[Dragonetz]

I know this may sound very stupid to some and it might be the most simple thing to do and I'm just missing something. I can not figure out how to trade. I will have a port and I will have a merchant. I will be on friendly terms with another faction I want to trade with and I will have ships in all the waters to their port and nothing will happen. I will have different goods than their own still nothing. I've never shown any profit from trade. What am I doing wrong. I even had an entire row of ship markers from my port to theirs connected in a line but still nothing. Any and all advice on this would be very valued. The best I can do with no trade and take over northern Russia/Asia and Northern Europe and the British Isles as the Danes then the money just runs out.

[IrishMike]

Are their any enemy ships in your line of ships between ports?

[Dragonetz]

These are the Facts
I am playing as the Danes.
There are no enemy in waters surrounding me.
I am allies with HRE, Polish, English, and French.
Their areas have ports and I have ports plus merchants.
Every body of water I have a ship.
Most times I am the only ships.
No profit from trade is showed and I've waited centuries on the game all the while maintaining good relations with those whom I wished to trade with.
Countries I owned Denmark, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and still nothing would happen.
My tradeable goods were different than theirs still nothing.
I would have ports and merchants in every country.
The largest about amount of profit from taxes (very high taxes on all countries) I've ever had was 2200 and that was with no building and no unit creation taking place. Once you get into the later years and the whole map goes wild west the money runs out fast trying to stave off invasion. So if I'm doing something wrong I would really like to know. I've never even gotten close to beating the game without the cheats.

[Tricky Lady]

Check also the ocean lanes by hitting the "V" button. If one of the sea regions is red, then your trade chain is blocked by an enemy ship.
The green regions are in your control, so they can link you to a trade network.
When the sea regions are yellow, this means that you can "occupy" this region and make it "green" in the next turn by moving one of your ships to that highlighted region.
Good luck!

[Dragonetz]

when I push and or hold the v button on my keyboard nothing happens.... when I push shift v on my keyboard my countries light up green but no bodies of water light up as any color red, yellow or green

[Tricky Lady]

Ow.

Perhaps I was wrong there.
Been away from MTW for several weeks, which may explain why some of my suggestions are a bit -err- wrong...

Nevertheless, was quite sure about the 'V' button function.

Can anyone correct me and tell me which button to push to highlight the sea regions?

(sorry that I couldn't help you any better Dragonetz)

[Dragonetz]

No I am just very glad someone is helping out. Tell me what is an average profit range per year for you guys that win on this game?

[AlexPeters]

No, you've been right. Click on a sea region and then press V and all sea regions you've placed ships in are highlighted.
I didn't knew this before - nice feature, thanks Tricky Lady.

[KukriKhan]

It is the "V" button, but I think that feature was introduced in the first patch. If you don't have the patch, find it here:
http://www.mizus.com/Files/k0rgs8gVt/Patches.shtml

[katank]

you don't even need to click on sea zone first

I check before end of each turn using shift and v keys to see no rebellions and trade lanes open.

I get 60k income and around 50k+ profit a year.

antioch, venice, const. etc. can generate 5-6k apiece when upgraded and often even higher.

be careful about killing off factions that can be potential trade partners though.

[Dragonetz]

I have MTW V1.00 and I am downloading the patch now... thanks for the heads up about the patch. That could be an issue because the sea regions never light up for me.... and I had heard of people making 2 to 7k on one countries trade yet all I was using was very high taxes and it made it so I couldn't hardly upgrade much less win the game. Seeing all these other countries build up so huge I thought wow is the AI side that favored?... Thanks for the help and I will apply the patch and see if that helps and if I have any more questions I'll post. Thanks

[Louis VI the Fat]

No profit from trade is showed ...... The largest about amount of profit from taxes (very high taxes on all countries) I've ever had was 2200

You seem to be doing everything right, and you should get trade income even when playing unpatched.

The one thing I can think of, especially from reading the above quote, is that you do get your income trade, but perhaps have not found out where to look for it. Trade is included in your total tax income. If you want to find out how much of your total tax comes from your trade routes, right-click your merchant (the building). Or click the 'coin'-information button on the down left corner of the screen, then click on a province to see its trade.

[Procrustes]

I had a similar problem when playing a GA game as the Danes (vi, unpatched). Finally gave it up. I've patched it since, and plan to go back if I still have a saved game.

I think that one mistake I was making was looking for my trade income by clicking on the port - it always said it was earning 0 florins. I learned later that to see the trade income I should click on the merchant instead.

Which makes me wonder - I've noticed that in trading provences I never seem to have any port income, but in provences that don't trade but that have a port I will earn a very small amoung of money (~10f) per turn. Certainly not worth building ports just for that, but it's the only time I see them earning anything. Is this what others find, too?

P.

[Sid_Quibley]

To check your trade income,click on coin icon at bottom left of screen, this brings up a list of provinces and sea regions,then click on aprovince with tradeable goods such as finland or norway,then you will get a list of provinces that this province is trading with.

[mfberg]

The most I have ever seen a port get was about 120/year playing as Turks, the Italians, Sicilians, and Alhomad were all doing a little to help. (You only get 20% of what they get, so altogether they were making 600/year off that port.)

mfberg

[Blodrast]

Uhm, other ppl have mentioned that clicking on the port shows you the amount of money you are making from imports. Which is a lot less than your main source of income: the exports.
Good provinces like Antioch, Tripoli, Flanders, Const, Egypt should turn in around 7-8k (more for Antioch and Tripoli) per turn in trade only (depends on how many provinces you're exporting into, and your governor's and king's acumen and virtues, of course).
You can see the money from trade as pointed above: click on the coin symbol on lower left corner, and then click on a province: it will show you all the money it makes from trading.

[Dragonetz]

Well everyone I applied the patch.... the sea regions do turn green a yellowish green and red depending on if my ships are there or an enemy has vessels there. So now I see what Tricky Lady was explaining to me when I push the "v" button. About trade coming in patched or unpatched... I did see a trickle maybe 50 to 100 fl. coming in before patch... I had the same ship placement as I do now... after patch I'm seeing 1000's of florins difference... either the patch helped somewhat or I'm able to spot friendly waters easier but something big changed... I would like to thank you all for your input and time because now I'm enjoying the game like never before... because I have a trade aspect that was never their before... it was neat to see the AI attack my ships and screw up my trading and I have to build my network back again... it's like the game has added a new twist rather than build the army kill the army.... for instance I killed the King of England and his heirs with my death force of ninja (my name of them).. it destroyed the entire faction and magic... my trade routes were free of the English dogs... I'd never used killers except to kill spies or the odd inquisitor in my country... thanks again folks