How does TRADE work in the game?

[Foz]

Foz: I think export only takes one of the fleets of the exporting cities, and trade routes aren't two-sided (so you can have cities that export to a city but not import from it and vice-versa). This would make sense because you can only export specific resources.

Is there no difference then between "export routes" and "trade fleets available?" The chart Sapi posted (by ArchieGremlin) says that the Port series gives the former, while the Merchant's Wharf series gives the latter. It's been my experience that building the Port series gives smaller boosts to trade (though still better than land usually) while the Merchant's Wharf series gives absolutely HUGE boosts to my sea trade. I was rolling with the assumption that they are in fact two different things.

In fact I would've said I think the following:

Export route - a single resource trade route, exported to the most profitable place. Agreed these are one-way. I'm not sure each is for one resource only, but that's been my impression.

Trade fleet - gives a full trade lane with another settlement, the two then exchanging all possible resources (i.e. every resource the other does not have). IMO this would be the only way to explain the massive numbers of resources I usually see being traded by sea on the trade details scroll - it's generally WAY more than how many exports I'd be allowed. It's not entirely clear if they go both ways.

So that's what I've been assuming is going on...

[alpaca]

Is there no difference then between "export routes" and "trade fleets available?" The chart Sapi posted (by ArchieGremlin) says that the Port series gives the former, while the Merchant's Wharf series gives the latter. It's been my experience that building the Port series gives smaller boosts to trade (though still better than land usually) while the Merchant's Wharf series gives absolutely HUGE boosts to my sea trade. I was rolling with the assumption that they are in fact two different things.

In fact I would've said I think the following:

Export route - a single resource trade route, exported to the most profitable place. Agreed these are one-way. I'm not sure each is for one resource only, but that's been my impression.

Trade fleet - gives a full trade lane with another settlement, the two then exchanging all possible resources (i.e. every resource the other does not have). IMO this would be the only way to explain the massive numbers of resources I usually see being traded by sea on the trade details scroll - it's generally WAY more than how many exports I'd be allowed. It's not entirely clear if they go both ways.

So that's what I've been assuming is going on...

Never heard of export routes to be honest, afaik (and can tell from edb) the port series simply increases the trade income for each route you have, the merchant wharfs add fleets.

[Foz]

Never heard of export routes to be honest, afaik (and can tell from edb) the port series simply increases the trade income for each route you have, the merchant wharfs add fleets.

Yeah it's not in the EDB, but definitely in the game. At the very start of the game, if you check a settlement right after you build a port for it to see what it's trading, it'll show some sea trade even though it obviously doesn't have any wharfs yet. In fact I doubt there's any wharfs anywhere in the world that could be trading with it, so that pretty much guarantees that some sort of sea trade "fleet" for lack of a better term is granted by the port. I'll see if I can figure out more about how the export routes (granted by ports) are different from trade fleets (granted by wharfs) tomorrow, if they are at all.

Note: I'm sticking with ArchieGermlin's naming conventions here for the sake of clarity, not because I'm set on them being correct. It just seems more simple to call whatever trade is granted by ports "export routes" and whatever is granted by wharfs "trade route." So, hopefully that will head off some potential confusion, and help keep everyone on the same page.

[alpaca]

Hmm there's indeed a bug, I just tested this a bit, and it appears that the trade fleets don't change anything (not even the value of trade routes), whereas the actual fleets you have at your disposal are linked to the port building.
I remember noticing it before, but I didn't play the game for a while ;)

[Foz]

Hmm there's indeed a bug, I just tested this a bit, and it appears that the trade fleets don't change anything (not even the value of trade routes), whereas the actual fleets you have at your disposal are linked to the port building.
I remember noticing it before, but I didn't play the game for a while ;)

I just played with this for a while last night, and agree with you. And here I thought I was doing myself a favor rushing to build those silly wharves...

They have some impact on trade though - the details scroll correctly predicts how much they raise the city's trade by...

A related problem is that the port series has no idea how to correctly tell you how much it will raise trade by. It gives an amount (via the usual grayed out icon that tells you the result of whatever building is in production) but the amount is always off - the game fails to account for the new trade route that will spring up when the building completes. It's relatively misleading, and it would sure be nice to know what you're getting ahead of time.

[socal_infidel]

Just wanted to add something I discovered recently.

The maximum distance trade fleets may travel between ports is controlled by the descr_campaign_db.xml file.

If you increase the value from the default value of 100, you can increase the number of ports available to trade with, as the fleets can travel greater distances.

Here are some screens I took last night

Value set at 100:




Value set at 400:

[socal_infidel]

(Don't know how to edit my own post)

Forgot to add that it's the port_to_port_mp_min float line in the descr_campaign_db.xml that controls the distance between ports.