Advanced Trade Rules.

[marciv]

I recall that in the past I have played Civ2 under the "Advanced Trade Rules" this rule thus provides the player who sends a caravan carrying for example Coal to an opposition city demanding Coal, with a great deal more cash for the transaction.
I am playing MGE and cannot recall how I managed to change these rules. There does not appear to be the opportunity to change this rule in the options menu. Perhaps I was using C2 vanilla when I obtained stacks of cash for supplying demanded goods. (Maybe I should revert back to the Vanilla version as I don't play MP)
Can someone assist me with this. Thanks in anticipation.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

To the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing as an "Advanced Trade Rules" for civ 2, nor do MGE trade bonuses differ from classic (with the possible exception that the determination of city supply and demand have different bugs in each version). Trade payouts depend on a fairly large number of things, and missing one might cut down payout significantly.

1: If you deliver to a city that "demands" a commodity, you get between 2 and 4 times the "regular" value for that delivery in bonus payment, depending on the commodity -- so delivering demanded salt gives less than demanded oil, all other things equal.

2: Delivering to a foreign city, and delivering to cities on different continents each double the bonus.

3: Airports (if both cities have them) and superhighways both increase the payout.

4: The bonus depends on distance, so if you deliver to cities close together, it may substantially reduce the payment.

5: The bonus depends on the base trade of both cities, so if the cities in the transaction have little trade (because of government or AI allocation of workers) the payout is reduced. To increase the bonus, rearrange the workers in your city for max trade just before the delivery, then put them back the way they were before afterward. Also, give preference to civs in republic or democracy if possible.

6: Certain technologies (Railroad, Flight, Navigation/invention) reduce the bonus, so, if you have been trading after flight, for example, it may not be surprising that the payouts seem low.

7: Trade bonus is capped at 2/3 your current science cost (though in most cases, that penalty should still be giving you lots of cash).

If you have been combining a number of these penalties in your deliveries, then it may explain why your trade doesn't give you as much as you expected.

 

[marciv]

Thanks Prof for a very comprehensive explanation.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Prof. Garfield is right. However, there is plenty more to be said on Trade, which is arguably the most powerful aspect of the game in Civ2. Search for it on the forums. There are plenty of good reads on the subject here.

 

[marciv]

Thanks, will do.