Trade in Cities

[FuzzyBunny]

How come the carts which show how much trade my city is generating, are sometimes transparent?

[Snoil The Mighty]

If you mouse over the "solid" carts, that is how much you are actually getting in trade with the settlement as is. If you mouse over the transparent cart, that represents trade income that you could be getting - kind of helps you know when the city is ready for more economic structures in other words. Bear in mind it's not a perfect measuring stick, and sometimes it seems to be only taking the gain for o, say improved roads when in fact you could build a wharf which improves trade more than roads. Under this scenario, you'll see more 'solid' carts with a bigger number (If the wharf is added to build queue) and still see the transparent one dangling at the end of the new line of carts.

[sapi]

@snoil, are you sure about that?

I remember reading that in rtw the transparent icons indicated that you were losing that much trade that turn (from bandits/broken alliances etc)

[Multiplicity]

If the icon is transparant and it is not fading, it means that you are going to gain the value of the icon in the next turn or several turns, depending on various factors like when construction of a building is done. I am still not sure about the blinking icons, but I think it means potential gains or losses. Wish the manual actually explained what these things meant because what is the point of a bloody manual otherwise? :P

[Snoil The Mighty]

I suppose I should have posted longer at greater length. It is potential trade income that you aren't getting-for some reason and usually the answer is a building of some sort. Sometimes that trade can come from additional law buildings which boosts trade income by decreasing losses as opposed to adding trade like a road. I never see it indicating a wharf though-that always always adds another solid cart (sometimes two) in my experience when I put it into the queue. I've seen the transparent cart go solid from a lot of other buildings though. One thing that finally popped into my head, I have never checked to see the effect generals have on that little cart chart. I suppose I need to check that, I will report back once I do (though it might be a few days before I can play again but hopefully a bit tonight).

[Specky the Mad]

the transparent icons is the stuff that is about to come in effect next turn, through construction ( not sure about recruitment ), its easy to see just select a building that takes one turn to build, then look to see that changes.

[Snoil The Mighty]

To correct my previous post, the warehouse line can solve for transparent carts like all the other increase-trade buildings. Riga's stone wall completed and it had two transparent carts, the new warehouse filled one of the two transparent carts in the chart when added to queue so I have seen markets, roads, shipwrights, warehouses and town halls so far. I'll keep an eye open for an opportunity to check for any changes due to generals.