[Civ2] Trade. Road

[Staked]

Hi
I play civ2 multiplayer gold.

Im having trouble with caravans trading.
I feel like i get less gold than I should.
Even if i have a road between my cities it doesn’t seem to count. I’ve seen something about it needs to be on the optimal path and to use the GoTo function.
When using GoTo between 2 cities with road/rail they often take the wrong path and walk off the rail, at least in 1 direction

 

[Staked]

Here is an example.
map_circumference = 75*2
map_size = 'large'

x1 = 128
y1 = 80
x2 = 133
y2 = 85
trade1 = 11
trade2 = 5
continent = 1
continent = 1
same_civ_trade = True
freight_use = False
commodity_bonus = 0
road = True
railroad = False
airport = False
superhighways = 0
invention_tech = False
navigation_tech = False
turns = 112
railroad_tech = False
flight_tech = False

With road = True. I should receive 12 gold
With road = False. I should receive 8 gold.

In practice I get 8 gold.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

There is one particular path that must have the road/rail in order to get the bonus. Try using cheat mode to add and remove roads and see if you get the bonus. It will also appear as a boost to the ongoing trade value of the trade routes, but make sure the trade in each of the cities is large enough that the 50% road bonus will be visible when you find the correct route (so at least 2 trade bonus). The path can be different for both cities.

If there is no ocean in the way, then usually the path is to go diagonally from one city and horizontally/vertically from the other city, until those two lines meet. I'll see if I can find a resource for you later.

 

[Staked]

Thank you very much for your quick answer. I managed to find the necessary path. Is there any other way of knowing if a road route is established?

Here was my problem.
Solved.
Black arrow from Cannae to Issus, road that gave the bonus.
Green arrow from Issus to Cannae, road that gave the bonus.

Would you (an experienced player) have known that these roads would need to be build to ensure the road bonus?

Also, is it possible that the game does not see a path even if one exist?

 

[Staked]

I found this image of the algorithm for trade routes. (orange lines). Source -> Center.
Green diamond = City
Middle = City
Blue diamond = Water


I want a trade route from the green diamond to the center. Is this possible? Following the orange lines i guess its not.

The red line is the road the unit takes. And no matter where i put the roads i cant seem to find a path from Green to center.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Would you (an experienced player) have known that these roads would need to be build to ensure the road bonus?

I couldn't tell you where the road has to be built to get the bonus. It is fairly unusual to try for the road/rail transportation bonus, since the delivery bonus is multiplied by 2 for delivery to a different landmass, and when trade is done properly, it will dwarf any extra trade arrows you can get by delivering to cities linked by roads.

I think that the maximum distance for getting the road bonus is 22 tiles, and you'd usually like to be delivering farther away than that anyway. If you're specifically looking to up the value of the ongoing trade route (perhaps for your Super Science City), delivering to a foreign civ doubles the ongoing trade bonus anyway, which is better than a road connection. I believe that foreign (I think non-allied) units can 'block' the path, removing the bonus, so you might as well deliver off continent for the extra delivery bonus.

I gathered some references here, though I never finished the project. There is an article on 'station cities', where you can have a city on the required road path, and the game won't check beyond that. The 22 square maximum distance is also mentioned on page 56 of the compendium, so it doesn't seem to be something that I made up out of jumbled old memories.

I played a succession game some time ago called Seafaring is Superfluous, where we didn't leave our continent, and I think we took advantage of the road bonus. You might find something worthwhile there.