Are actual trader units in Civ7?

[Tanel]

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?

Trade routes are supposed to provide you with copies of resources of the target city (not sure whether you get all the resources or there is a limit of resources per trade route). Presumably if you want to import resources from multiple cities you would need multiple trade routes with that civ.

 

[AriochIV]

Also, resources are no longer a "you only need one" deal. When you acquire a resource through whatever means, you assign it to a specific city, and its benefits go to that city only (cities have a number of slots to accept resources that can be increased through buildings, etc.). So getting more copies of a resource lets you assign that benefit to more cities.

When you create a trade route with a foreign city, you get a copy of the resources that are being produced in that specific city. So ideally you want to create trade routes with every city you can. It's not clear what limitations there are on how many trade routes you can have.

 

[Bate1999]

So, it sounds like a unit “merchant” does travel to a destination city and that enables actual resources to be traded or something like that. This “merchant” can be pillaged/ stopped on the way there and I did not catch what could be pillage after the trade route is set up. Another big one, do trade routes expire eventually?

I am sorry my information is lacking.

 

[aieeegrunt]

Sounds like civ 1 one time trade caravans?

I had the same thought

Also, resources are no longer a "you only need one" deal. When you acquire a resource through whatever means, you assign it to a specific city, and its benefits go to that city only (cities have a number of slots to accept resources that can be increased through buildings, etc.). So getting more copies of a resource lets you assign that benefit to more cities.

When you create a trade route with a foreign city, you get a copy of the resources that are being produced in that specific city. So ideally you want to create trade routes with every city you can. It's not clear what limitations there are on how many trade routes you can have.

I really like this idea

 

[Willie5000]

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.

We might also be going back to the Civ V system where and sea traders are separate units.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

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.

In the latest Antiquity Game Play Video they showed a 'Trade Route' which looked pretty bare - a line with, I believe, some arrows in it.

Frankly, it looked to me like a Place Holder that may be replaced by a better graphic before Release, hopefully with caravans/trade ships moving on it. I seriously hope that they don't allow 'pillaging' to completely destroy a Trade Route, because that is simply Fantasy. If a route got raided, it got moved to another route, either water or land, not shut down unless there was simply no way to make a profit on it any more.

 

[AriochIV]

In the latest Antiquity Game Play Video they showed a 'Trade Route' which looked pretty bare - a line with, I believe, some arrows in it.

Frankly, it looked to me like a Place Holder that may be replaced by a better graphic before Release, hopefully with caravans/trade ships moving on it. I seriously hope that they don't allow 'pillaging' to completely destroy a Trade Route, because that is simply Fantasy. If a route got raided, it got moved to another route, either water or land, not shut down unless there was simply no way to make a profit on it any more.

My supposition was that the line traced the route that the trade unit was going to follow, but that's just a guess. I didn't see any trade units but I'll look more carefully when I get around to rewatching that section.

 

[Trengilly]

My supposition was that the line traced the route that the trade unit was going to follow, but that's just a guess. I didn't see any trade units but I'll look more carefully when I get around to rewatching that section.

They specifically mentioned that you could use your traders to manually build roads . . . to fill in gaps where they weren't being created automatically. So there would have to be a manually controlled trader unit at least some of the time. I assume they would move automatically along trade routes.

 

[AriochIV]

They specifically mentioned that you could use your traders to manually build roads . . . to fill in gaps where they weren't being created automatically. So there would have to be a manually controlled trader unit at least some of the time. I assume they would move automatically along trade routes.

They were talking about the Merchant, which is a manually controlled unit that sets up the trade routes. We're talking about whether there is a separate trade unit that actually follows the route autonomously.

I mean, I guess it's possible that the Merchant itself follows that route. But that would be a little weird gameplay wise. And Aksum has a "unique Trade Ship" unit while Songhai has a "unique Merchant" unit, so it seems clear they're two different units.

 

[AriochIV]

Okay, I rewatched that part of the stream and I think I understand part of what is going on there.

What they showed was a Roman Merchant sitting near his own city, and they sent him out toward a foreign city to establish a Trade Route. There is a special UI which shows available cities and routes, but it's just a helper to send the Merchant there -- the arrow path is just a "move to" command. The Trade Route isn't set up yet, and won't be until the Merchant gets there and manually sets up the route, as seen in the first gameplay trailer. Unfortunately, we don't actually see the Trade Route get set up, so that doesn't answer the question about how the route works afterward.

They did say though that trade can be interrupted by either a) preventing the enemy Merchant from getting there in the first place, or b) pillaging the Trade Route afterward. No word yet on how the latter works.