Are actual trader units in Civ7?

[Bate1999]

Has anyone seen trader units like what we had in Civilization 6 so far in Civilization 7? I like the aesthetics of seeing an actual trade unit traveling back and forth. I also like the game play of assigning them to a city to help bring up productivity, food, and other stuff. I enjoyed that, you could actually hunt them down doing a war and gain some gold.

Lastly, I would like to see a few modification if the trade route system and trader units come back. The ability to diplomatically block trade units from other civilizations and by default any trader unit traveling to another civilization seeing that civilization gain a benefit from the trade as well (so like a double edged sword as you help that player city in addition to yours). All this to help at add emphasis to being on, good terms with the AIs and other players and so on.

 

[playshogi]

Trader units are not in the antiquity age but may make a comeback in the other ages.

 

[moysturfurmer]

Trader units are not in the antiquity age but may make a comeback in the other ages.

Well Merchant units are, and they seem to fill a similar niche. But as far as I can tell, they’re actively controlled by the player, not sent off to a new city from a trade menu. I think the Songhai special abilities make mention of Merchant Ships as well. Not sure if that’s a new unit or an embarked merchant.

 

[AriochIV]

The Songhai unit is specifically referred to as a "Trade Ship" so it's not clear how it's different from the Merchant. Presumably Merchants can embark on water, so one would suppose that there's something significantly different about the Trade Ship more than just being an ocean-going Merchant.

 

[Disgustipated]

From what I understand the merchants have to be manually guided to their destination city. But the rewards are pretty good. I am hearing they are still working on this system, however.

Traders are not in. So I'm not sure if there is any way to plunder trade routes in this game.

 

[greenOak]

From what I understand the merchants have to be manually guided to their destination city. But the rewards are pretty good. I am hearing they are still working on this system, however.

Traders are not in. So I'm not sure if there is any way to plunder trade routes in this game.

Songhai had an ability that their "trade ships" could not be plundered on navigable rivers so I'm assuming there's some sort of plundering mechanic in the game.

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

I'm keen to hear more about trading. There must be some sort of unit because, as mentioned, they're referred to in the Songhai ability, but I think we've been told that you get one free trade route with every Civ? Presumably this isn't just a Merchant/trader unit that you can control, otherwise you could send that unit anywhere, right?

We know that trade routes are how you get resources from other civs now, what I didn't understand was the benefit of having multiple routes, has this been mentioned anywhere?

 

[AriochIV]

I guess it's possible that after Merchants set up a Trade Route that there are still automated trader units that go out on the map and can be plundered.

 

[Arent11]

From what I understand the merchants have to be manually guided to their destination city. But the rewards are pretty good. I am hearing they are still working on this system, however.

Traders are not in. So I'm not sure if there is any way to plunder trade routes in this game.

Sounds like civ 1 one time trade caravans?

 

[Disgustipated]

Sounds like civ 1 one time trade caravans?

I believe Civ 2 had a similar feature. I just remember I was lazy about building them back in those days. But they really did power your economy.

It's possible there are trader units and the merchant units. I believe one of the streamers said this feature is kind of clunky and they are still working on it.

 

[Krikkit1]

One thing to remember, Civ7 doesn’t have a trading system. Civ 7 has 3 Trading systems, one for each era.

Hopefully they talk about how those work after they show ploying through an Age transition.

 

[Uberfrog]

We have seen what looks like a trade ship on the navigable river in the very first gameplay footage they released:

Whether this is Merchant unit or a distinct Trade Ship is unclear, but trade units of one kind or another are definitely visible on the map.

 

[AriochIV]

A Trade Ship wouldn't have a special ability to be unpillagable if it didn't appear on the map.

 

[Olleus]

I hope its not too like the Civ2 Caravan. I remember those as being dull, uninspired micromanagement (though very powerful).

 

[stealth_nsk]

I hope its not too like the Civ2 Caravan. I remember those as being dull, uninspired micromanagement (though very powerful).

Yeah, overall Civ 7 theme seem to be micromanagement removal, so I'm quite surprised to see player-controlled Merchant units.

One of the theories I have is what Caravans (and Trade Ships) are not the same as Merchants. Caravans and Trade Ships could be automated like Civ 5 or 6, while merchant are more like Great Merchants of Civ 6. As I understand, we haven't seen great people so far, but seen some units in their role (Commanders as Great Generals). So, Merchants could be the same

 

[Zaarin]

we haven't seen great people so far

We know Egypt has a unique great person, which to me means ordinary great people have to be in the game.

 

[stealth_nsk]

We know Egypt has a unique great person, which to me means ordinary great people have to be in the game.

Tjaty don't work like previous great persons, they are built, similar to Commanders and Merchants. So, probably both follow the same convention - they are built as regular units, but have names.

 

[Zaarin]

Tjaty don't work like previous great persons, they are built, similar to Commanders and Merchants. So, probably both follow the same convention - they are built as regular units, but have names.

That's possible. I believe Tjaty point to great people being in the game; hopefully we'll see something more concrete in the livestream.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

One way to have 'pillageable' trade routes without specific Trade Units, which would also be a better reflection of the results of raiding trade routes, would be to have the micro-management of sending a Merchant be required to set up the route, then the route generates a Trade Route Caravan marker for eveery turn it is in existance, spaced along the route (and possibly moving, just to keep it interesting).

\When some kind of raiding unit attacks the Trade Route, they attack one (or more) of those Markers, and for reach Marker they Pillage, you lose one turn's worth of benefits from the Trade Route.

Because no pirate or raider, no matter how powerful, ever wiped out a Trade Route just by raiding it: they made it unprofitable (which this would represent better) and so forced the route owner to react in some way - either by finding a new Route (cue a new Merchant unit) or sending out military units to attack the pirates/raiders.

Trade Ship, to me, implies a Water-Only Trade Route, which could be both much longer and carry much more than any route including land transport before steam engines. Since we know that sea-borne trade was happening from before the nominal Start of Game (4000 BCE) this could be a major boost to the benefits of that trade route: even the earliest Bronze Age ships recovered (Black Sea bottom) could carry up to 20 - 30 tons, or as much as 100 - 200 pack animals, and sail at 5 - 8 knots, or at least twice as fast as plodding donkeys (the Camel, FYI, was not domesticated until long after Start of Game). It would be Real Nice to see that watery advantage reflected explicitly in the game, even if only for one Civ.

 

[AriochIV]

I thought it was pretty obvious that the Merchant only sets up the route. Whether there is an automated trade unit that transits that route on the map is what we don't know.