I slightly modded your mod by adding +2 trade routes to the capital. I feel this improves early game play, and eliminates some of the annoyance of handling trade routes with cities that can only ever have one coming out.
I'd also recommend against shoving everything into the Civ5 box. BE should be balanced with everything on its own merits, not based on what worked well for Civ5.
Stalker0 said:
As far as Trade Routes go, I have been playing with another TR mod called "Weaker Trade routes", and wanted to give my feedback.
I have found the 1 TR per city to work just fine. Trade Routes are still great, I still always get them, but they no longer dominate the game.
In that mod they did a -25% to external and internal TRs (but left stations alone). I found those numbers to work very well. Again, TRs were still useful, still strong, but no longer dominant.
My main worry was that the economy would get messed up by the removal of TRs. While the pace of the game is slower, I find it is still working well. Units and buildings still build in a reasonable timeframe, I can get techs in a reasonable timeframe. I would say the only area I've had some concerns is with growth. After pop 10, a cities growth rate slows down quite a bit without that extra food...so it might require a small adjustment.
Interesting points of the above two guys...
Can someone please explain me, why TRs are considered being so boring? I see people complaining, that you have to micromanage TRs so much and that their yields are too high.
Well, guess what: Running a specialist economy is even more of micromanagement. Working-tiles-economy can also result in heavy micro.
I havn't played that much so far (27 hrs), but actually I like the fact, that trade-routes got a higher focus in BE. It's one of the things, which makes BE feel different from Civ5.
Their yield is too high, but the
amount of traderoutes is something I like.
Since Specialists are so useless in BE, they are the closest of an alternative economy, compared to working tiles (not really an alternative at the moment, since they sit on top of it).
Obviously the intention of BE is to utilize traderoutes more and I like that idea. Here is why: when you start a war you need to watch out for your routes, since they have a non-negletable impact on your economy. So putting escorts down is mandatory or you have to redirect your routes through areas, which are considered "safe". Also hitting your opponents trade routes is a viable tactic to cripple them in a war. It opens a new dimension in warfare.
Instead of reducing the number of TRs, I would love to see the new game element being
preserved, but nerfed. To borrow the words of Stalker: Reducing the yields of TRs is working with the scalpel. Reducing their number not once but twice(!) is imo the hammer-method.
It is a step to the "good old Civ5". But I don't want to play Civ5. If I would, I would play Civ5.
TRs have the potential to build up an entire new third economy-choice for the player (next to working tiles and running specialists)!
Please give them a try and balance them, without eliminating them.
TRs could be a high-risk, high-reward economy.
Here are some ideas how to establish TRs being a third alternative (given, that at some point the specialists have their comeback... otherwise TRs would be the only alternative):
- First off reduce their yields. THIS is why they are OP.
- Make Convois and Cargoships more expensive in production. It should hurt, when you loose one.
- Let Aliens be more aggressive about them. Maybe even eliminating/nerfing that ultrasonic-fence-quest-thingy (or make it work only for convois and not for ships).
That are only balance-suggestions - and it already gives interesting choices to the player: lot of TRs will need protection, this will need a lot of fighting versus Aliens. Also it opens a new weakness, which a hostile can exploit.
With game-changing alterations things can become even more interesting:
How about you need to run traders, like you run specialists, if you want to establish a trade route? Now you need to decide: do you want to work a tile, run a specialist or perform a TR with one of your guys? Even more: That guy will be bound for 20(?) turns and you can't redistribute immediately! You need to plan in advance and can't make 180ies in your economy every single turn.
It also caps spamming TRs, since you need to develop a smaller city first, otherwise it will starve.
If you still think TRs are to strong with that alterations, how about this: When you loose your TR, you will also loose that population. So are you willing to risk 3 population (in each city), when your neighbours are on the borderline to declare war on you? If you do: Well you deserve the relatively higher yields from the TRs, but don't be surprised, when the AI backstabs you and suddenly your economy is crippled...
I'm hoping this mod will help create a community of Beyond Earth players who are dedicated to making this game as good as possible, like Thal's mod did for Civ V. 
