Making great merchants most profitable

[Koning]

Great merchants are welcome great people, since you can cash in heavy with them if you conduct a trade mission. You can finally afford a full upgrade round of your best promoted units, or just run 100% science for many many turns.

Well, how to max out profit with them? I always assumed that the biggest city, most distant from your capital generates the most profit, preferrably on another continent. But in my last game, it wasn't!
I had my private island and shipped a GM to the overseas big continent populated by six civs. When I traveled towards the luring size 17 Constantinople on the other side of the continent I noticed all cities underway would yield 1500 gold regardless their size and distance (including the size 4 coastal city much closer to my capital). And to my dissapointment, Constantinople also gave me the same amount!

So, how's the gold amount really determined (in BTS 3.19)
Can you just settle in the closest city on another continent to gain maximum profit?

 

[Koning]

Hmm, this tread pretty much answers my question: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=294707

The profit of a trade mission is calculated as:
[pre]Profit = 500 + 200*CapitalTradeProfit[/pre]CapitalTradeProfit is the income this city would get for a trade route to your capital. All modifiers are factored in (Harbor, ToA, CitySize, ConnectionToCapital, OverSeas, Foreign, PeaceTime). Thus the ToA-city is often optimal, but not if it is an inland city close to your capital on the same landmass. Since the Base Profit of a trade route is Min(SizeOfOtherCity, PlotDistance)/10 you should always attempt to have a big capital (wait for growth before starting missions).

What does ToA stand for?

 

[Firewind]

Temple of Artemis, I believe.

 

[Yamps]

I've been interested in that as well about a month ago, here you are:

great merchants

You see discrete values because of rounding and discrete trade_value in the equation. Aim for Temple of Artemis city, although big and distant also matter.

EDIT: Oh, I didn't know that DanF5771 already answered that. And I've been struggling with the code...

 

[Shafi]

I used to be a big fan of Trade missions too, however now i tend to settle them more often than not (in my future wall street city), i believe the returns are higher in the long run.

However in some situations Trade missions are useful, like if you need to upgrade your army in a hurry.

 

[Silu]

I used to be a big fan of Trade missions too, however now i tend to settle them more often than not (in my future wall street city), i believe the returns are higher in the long run.

Of course they are, but the main advantage is to run higher science slider at the critical part of the game to gain a winning advantage. Of course#2, if there's no clear winning advantage to shoot for just at the time, settling is better.

 

[TheLazyHase]

Of course#2, if there's no clear winning advantage to shoot for just at the time, settling is better.

Trade mission is also much better if you are cose to win. 9k+ gold will be a lot more handy than +1 food and some gpt if you have three city at 30k culture or are near space ship launch.