Trading monopoly

[Shahed]

Greetings All !

I'd like to know the mechanics of how a monopoly is achieved. According to the export_descr_character_traits.txt there is a trigger:

Trigger agents33
WhenToTest CharacterTurnEnd

Condition AgentType = merchant
and TradingMonopoly

Affects Monopolist 1 Chance 100

I assumed monopoly means your trader is the only one trading a resource in a province. However I have a few traders with monopoly (as per the definition I provided) for about 5 years now but they are not monopolists or market controllers i.e they don't have that line.

Is the trigger not working or have I got the monopolist definition wrong ?

EDIT: I'd also appreciate of someone could tell me where I can find a description of "tradingmonopoly" in the game files.

Many thanks !

Salute !

[Askthepizzaguy]

Monopoly: Having two or more merchants trading a resource that no one else is currently trading (i.e. amber, silk, etc.)

Works well with fish. A couple merchs trading fish for a while will get a monopoly because... fish suck and no one trades them. Or timber.

I must warn you... timber is known to charge when frightened.





edit: This may in fact be my first post ever on this forum....

[Shahed]

Having two or more merchants trading a resource that no one else is currently trading (i.e. amber, silk, etc.)... in one province or worldwide ?

[alpaca]

You don't need two.
According to my observations, the requirements for a monopoly are:
- The trader has to trade a resource in a region that has at least two supplies of that resource type
- No foreign traders can trade that resource type

You can easily see the difference in game, because the monopoly also doubles your merchant's income per turn.

Note that you can't get monopolies with resources that have only one supply in that region.

[Shahed]

Great. Thanks.

[Foz]

You don't need two.
According to my observations, the requirements for a monopoly are:
- The trader has to trade a resource in a region that has at least two supplies of that resource type
- No foreign traders can trade that resource type

You can easily see the difference in game, because the monopoly also doubles your merchant's income per turn.

Note that you can't get monopolies with resources that have only one supply in that region.

That's what I've observed, too. You can easily notice this with wine in France, for instance. Some of the wine is only 1 per region, and has a given value x. If you highlight other wine with the same merchant, though, the value shown is sometimes 2x. Those particular wine supplies have at least 1 other supply in the same region they are, and will grant monopolist trait line if you hoard them. England actually has a couple of natural monopolist-training spots (tin & wool that I recall, maybe coal), making it an easy nation to train up good merchants with, especially since they're protected from mainland Europe where other traders would attack them.

As for "no foreign traders can trade that resource type" it means exactly what it says, and no more. It doesn't preclude using two of your OWN merchants on the same resource type in that region - they'll both gain the monopolist trait line if you do that. That's definitely the easiest way to make sure no one else is horning in on your monopoly too - simply cover all the access points with your merchants.

Also, with 1.2 many more metallic resources are allowed to support mines. This can be an easy giveaway that a region can be used for monopoly training. IIRC most (maybe all?) mines will have 2 shaft buildings, which are easily visible on the campaign map (maybe even in unexplored areas). Each shaft sits on a supply of the resource being mined, so if there are two shafts then the resource being mined has two supplies in that region, and you can simply camp merchants by the mine shafts to train up their monopoly skills.

[Shahed]

Thanks.

Also in the trait description 'threshold' refers to turns I suppose?

Trait Monopolist
    Characters merchant

    Level Capitalist
        Description Capitalist_desc
        EffectsDescription Capitalist_effects_desc
        Threshold  4 

        Effect Finance  1 

    Level Market_Controller
        Description Market_Controller_desc
        EffectsDescription Market_Controller_effects_desc
        Threshold  8 

        Effect Finance  2 

    Level Monopolist
        Description Monopolist_desc
        EffectsDescription Monopolist_effects_desc
        Threshold  16 

        Effect Finance  3 
        Effect PersonalSecurity -1

So this means you have to leave a merchant for 16 turns to get monopolist ?

[Foz]

Thanks.

Also in the trait description 'threshold' refers to turns I suppose?

Trait Monopolist
    Characters merchant

    Level Capitalist
        Description Capitalist_desc
        EffectsDescription Capitalist_effects_desc
        Threshold  4 

        Effect Finance  1 

    Level Market_Controller
        Description Market_Controller_desc
        EffectsDescription Market_Controller_effects_desc
        Threshold  8 

        Effect Finance  2 

    Level Monopolist
        Description Monopolist_desc
        EffectsDescription Monopolist_effects_desc
        Threshold  16 

        Effect Finance  3 
        Effect PersonalSecurity -1

So this means you have to leave a merchant for 16 turns to get monopolist ?

Well, it refers to turns indirectly, yes. All the trait thresholds refer to amounts of trait points, which are granted by triggers. The trigger you showed earlier grants 1 Monopolist point at the end of every turn a merchant has a monopoly, which as it turns out does mean the levels correspond to 4/8/16 turns. Note that they needn't be continuous, though: if you leave the resource, your merchant knows exactly how many turns he was on it, and picks up right there when he next has a monopoly on any resource. This can be very useful if enemy merchants come nearby: you can leave to fight them, then resume training the monopoly after you beat them down (hopefully). Also it is sometimes possible to train the merchant on the way to his ultimate destination: simply ending the turn on a monopoly gets you 1 monopolist point, and you can sometimes string together many such places into a journey, or at least most of one. I don't recommend this unless the merchant was pretty good to start with though: often you'll need the monopolist points to ensure your merchants can survive on their way to the destination and don't get taken over as soon as they get there. One possible compromise is to train the merchants to +2 monopolist, then send them off to the far corners of the world, allowing them to train the remaining point on-site. Many desirable locations are of course monopoly locations too, so this is largely possible, and may be the best plan overall since it affords some protection while delaying them from their goal less.

[Shahed]

That is a brilliant explanation Foz. Thank you so much.

[Magraev]

I'd just like to thank Sinan for posing some very interesting and relevant questions, and for the good people of the guild for answering

[Furious Mental]

Well if that's the way it's supposed to work it's broken because I sent one merchant to trade gold in the Sahara on his own and he got the monopolist trait after one or two turns.

[FactionHeir]

Well if that's the way it's supposed to work it's broken because I sent one merchant to trade gold in the Sahara on his own and he got the monopolist trait after one or two turns.

He might have sat on another resouce before or even on the way to the gold.
Or you might have vnv file modifications installed.

[Kryptonitus]

Great stuff!!!! I will put this into play immediately.

[Foz]

That is a brilliant explanation Foz. Thank you so much.

Happy to be of service.

[Shahed]

Now that I got that figured out (again! had'nt played in a while)... my merchants are all above 4-5 Finance skill within a short period of time. Got a couple at 9.

Btw you would'nt happen to know how to fix the Woodsman's Guild (units trained at below documented experience) bug would you ?

[Furious Mental]

He definitely did not sit on any other resources before that- he was the first merchant I trained and I sent him straight there.