Any Good Observations About Trade Routes?

steveg700

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So, this is a general discussion forum, so how about a fairly unspecific discussion about trade routes?

I noticed a nearby city-state started sending its own trade route to my capital. Pretty neat. Made me wonder if CS's will do that frequently and if there's some way to nudge them into it. Does it have the same range, the ability to create trading posts, and if so will it try to reach past to other cities over time? Other CS's, similarly-isolated, have not bothered with trade routes. It's the only I've seen. Such little mysteries make playing a new edition of Civ VI fascinating, despite the inevitable opening-night blemishes.

I have not seen too much of other civ's trade routes on the whole. Are they just not prioritized highly in this game where production cycles are at a premium? Since you can different yields from them, I have to wonder what a player could do to attract traders to their cities.

If There's anything disappointing about trade routes in Civ VI, it's that they still have that tacked-on feeling where they're not tied into diplomacy, nor are they tied in any way to resources. If you want to get silk or spices from India, you don't try to establish a route that reaches them and then negotiate a trade relationship. Rather, you just bypass all that time and effort and simply open a window and conduct a quick deal. There's a weird lack of integration in all of that.

How about the rest of you? Any noteworthy observations?
 
Okay, well, I guess it's more fun to make posts complaining about the state of the game or telling the complainers they're wrong to complain. Fair enough.

Anyway. I noticed that looking at the trade routes info panel that cities receiving trade routes actually get no benefit from them. The route comes to your city, receives a bunch of bonuses, and you get...nothing? This seems rather anti-intuitive to what the term "trade" mean

Am I missing something? Is there a way to make incoming trade routes profitable?
 
There are some abilities and perhaps policies that give bonuses to the receiver of a trade route, ie Cleopatra's (trade routes to Egypt will yield 2 food for the other and 2 gold for Egypt). But yes it's quite a contrast to Civ5 where there was also a benefit to both side. So the best way to make an incoming route profitable is to choose Egypt, right now lol.

I'm pretty sure the yields you get otherwise depend greatly on city size and districts on the receiving end. As well as policies etc that give more yields in some cases.

I like the fact that internal trade routes are viable for growth and production, before getting specific buildings. I like the fact that some city-states give huge amounts of gold, it's always good to send some routes to them to boost the economy. I've gottne some good trade routes to the AI civs too, and most important there, when you or they declare war on you, you do NOT lose the trader units, you just get to re-assign them.
 
Have we checked if there is any civic that makes incoming trade routes profitable?
 
Some early great merchants boost trade routes for the receiver.
 
An observation I've made, and I hope I'm wrong and people can correct me or direct me on how to uncover it, but when I sent inra-civ trade routes (i.e. one of my cities to another of my cities) for production it actually isn't making any difference what-so-ever. I tried it out and was adding 25 hammers and yet the district build times were not going down and after each turn I checked the hammers currently/ hammers needed and it didn't change by the hammers produced in the city + hammers coming in from trade routes. So, is this a bug, is something off, or am I just a dunce and missing it? Would appreciate if someone could also test this in the later eras.
 
An observation I've made, and I hope I'm wrong and people can correct me or direct me on how to uncover it, but when I sent inra-civ trade routes (i.e. one of my cities to another of my cities) for production it actually isn't making any difference what-so-ever. I tried it out and was adding 25 hammers and yet the district build times were not going down and after each turn I checked the hammers currently/ hammers needed and it didn't change by the hammers produced in the city + hammers coming in from trade routes. So, is this a bug, is something off, or am I just a dunce and missing it? Would appreciate if someone could also test this in the later eras.

It might be added the next turn?
Or: did you check the correct city? ;)
 
If There's anything disappointing about trade routes in Civ VI, it's that they still have that tacked-on feeling where they're not tied into diplomacy, nor are they tied in any way to resources.

There is some diplomacy involved in using the trade routes.
If you want to raise your standing with another leader, you should send some trade routes to his/her cities. Eventually, your relationship will start being positive.
 
There is some diplomacy involved in using the trade routes.
If you want to raise your standing with another leader, you should send some trade routes to his/her cities. Eventually, your relationship will start being positive.

But... why? He is getting nothing from it right?
 
But... why? He is getting nothing from it right?

He may get a new allied?

Either way. I thought we where just discussing trade routes generally, not just if we can get anything from other civs sending traders to us?
If that is the case, my bad and I am sorry.

EDIT: You should never post another message again. Keep that message count.
 
I can also confirm this seems to be the case but have just tested once now

An internal trade route does not show any increase in stats nor visible benefit in build times. I was not amused but got a road I guess.

Another point... I met a city state wanting a trade route that was literally the opposite side of my second city. When I made the trade route I was expecting it to naturally go through the second city as path of least resistance but it did a nice curl one hex off the city. A programmatically elegant way of avoiding me manipulating the rules by pure accident?, A bug? or perhaps one surmises ones town is not as elegant yet as one might hope.
 
I checked over 10 turns and yes the right city. Checked all the trade routes in the trade route screen.

You do know that the trade routes basicly work the opposite way of how they worked in civ5?
The city where the trader is when starting the trade mission is the city that gets the bonus.
 
He may get a new allied?

Either way. I thought we where just discussing trade routes generally, not just if we can get anything from other civs sending traders to us?
If that is the case, my bad and I am sorry.

EDIT: You should never post another message again. Keep that message count.
I think he was just saying it's odd to a positive diplo bonus when you in actuality did nothing for the civ by sending a trading route to it.

You may be referring to the trade relationship bonus that appears when you make a deal--a form of trade unrelated to trade routes....although it really shouldn't be.

I was looking for some economy card that would provide a bonus to the recipient, but have not seen one.

Just weird.

Maybe to even make a deal for a resource, you should have to reach the city with it by a trade route.
 
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You may be referring to the trade relationship bonus that appears when you make a deal--a form of trade unrelated to trade routes....although it really shouldn't be.

No, I was not referring to that. By sending trade routes to other civilizations, you are gaining better standing with them.
 
An observation I've made, and I hope I'm wrong and people can correct me or direct me on how to uncover it, but when I sent inra-civ trade routes (i.e. one of my cities to another of my cities) for production it actually isn't making any difference what-so-ever. I tried it out and was adding 25 hammers and yet the district build times were not going down and after each turn I checked the hammers currently/ hammers needed and it didn't change by the hammers produced in the city + hammers coming in from trade routes. So, is this a bug, is something off, or am I just a dunce and missing it? Would appreciate if someone could also test this in the later eras.

Given that I've been using trade routes to speed up my production in newer cities in every game I've played so far I'm more likely to chalk this up to "user error" than anything else. Notice they work a bit differently than Civ V in that the trade route needs to originate at the city you want to benefit.

I have some nice screenshots on my home computer of +70 or more production from trade routes in my city building spaceport projects, etc.. They are crazy strong. I spam commercial hubs and harbors everywhere I can. It's the difference between a newly-settled city getting its first district out in 8 turns or 30 turns.

As for diplomacy--I've noticed there's a "+2 favorable trade relations" modifier for sending trade routes to an AI civilization. It doesn't really seem worth it unless this grows over time, but I can't be arsed to do it except at the very end of the tech tree when the E-Commerce policy enters the picture.
 
As for diplomacy--I've noticed there's a "+2 favorable trade relations" modifier for sending trade routes to an AI civilization. It doesn't really seem worth it unless this grows over time, but I can't be arsed to do it except at the very end of the tech tree when the E-Commerce policy enters the picture.

I read that these modifiers are working on a turn by turn basis. You add together all the positive and all the negative modifiers, if the sum is positive, your relation with that civ will grow every turn, if it is negative, the opposite will happen. Here I am talking about the bar with an icon above these modifiers where angry is to the left and happy is to the right.
 
I read that these modifiers are working on a turn by turn basis. You add together all the positive and all the negative modifiers, if the sum is positive, your relation with that civ will grow every turn, if it is negative, the opposite will happen. Here I am talking about the bar with an icon above these modifiers where angry is to the left and happy is to the right.

I have heard this but I don't buy it, because when I declare war I tend to get denounced immediately. It's not taking several turns for that warmonger penalty to kick in and overwrite the positive diplomatic modifiers I've built up for years, it happens right away. I'd love to hear that one explained using this hypothesis.
 
So, this is a general discussion forum, so how about a fairly unspecific discussion about trade routes?

I noticed a nearby city-state started sending its own trade route to my capital. Pretty neat. Made me wonder if CS's will do that frequently and if there's some way to nudge them into it. Does it have the same range, the ability to create trading posts?

yes.

I checked over 10 turns and yes the right city. Checked all the trade routes in the trade route screen.

I can also confirm this seems to be the case but have just tested once now

An internal trade route does not show any increase in stats nor visible benefit in build times. I was not amused but got a road I guess.

I must say that I haven't checked in detail, but that is due to the fact I did notice an increase in production without going to check if the exact numbers were correct. Are you two sure that you aren't mistakenly using internal trade routes like they worked in Civ5? The trade route must start from the city that needs the bonus.
 
As for diplomacy--I've noticed there's a "+2 favorable trade relations" modifier for sending trade routes to an AI civilization.

How did you come up with the conclusion that the bonus is from trade routes? It is my impression it is from a diplomatic exchange. And IIRC this bonus was present in Civ5 as well.
 
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