Civ7 live stream - Merchants and trade routes

[Evolena]

But aren't settlements automatically connected? A road is built upon placing a new settlement, right? Or am I misremembering?

I think they said only within a certain range, not if the settlement is too far away.

 

[Krikkit1]

But aren't settlements automatically connected? A road is built upon placing a new settlement, right? Or am I misremembering?

I think it's fine, personally, the interest with resources will be choosing where to place them for maximum effect.

If you place them too far away they are not.
(and then you use a merchant to build an “internal trade route” ie a road)

 

[AriochIV]

They said that roads are built automatically between your cities that are within about 10 tiles of each other, but they didn't say anything about whether this road connection has any economic impact in terms of trade. They have used the term "connected" in some of the ability descriptions, but it's not clear whether this has anything to do with roads. They've said that Merchants have an option to build roads independent of a trade route, but I don't think they can set up trade routes with your own cities anymore, since this would allow you to multiply your own resources.

I think they intended to demonstrate the trade route system in the Antiquity stream but ran out of time. It's unfortunate that they've largely ignored it since.

 

[Bate1999]

So, based off of the “Songhai - Exploration Age Civilization” https://civilization.2k.com/civ-vii/game-guide/civilizations/songhai/ info it really does sound like the merchant unit(s)/ trade ships will be acting very similar to the old trade unit, which is nice.

My main reason for posting this is to see if anyone else has any additional information or can maybe help ask questions during the next live stream whenever that is.

 

[AriochIV]

So, based off of the “Songhai - Exploration Age Civilization” https://civilization.2k.com/civ-vii/game-guide/civilizations/songhai/ info it really does sound like the merchant unit(s)/ trade ships will be acting very similar to the old trade unit, which is nice.

My main reason for posting this is to see if anyone else has any additional information or can maybe help ask questions during the next live stream whenever that is.

As I mentioned in my post earlier in this thread, it appears that you manually send your Merchant units out to establish trade routes, but once established they appear to function pretty much the same as trade routes in Civ5 and Civ6, with an automated trade unit traversing back and forth which can be pillaged by an enemy. There is no new information since then that I'm aware of; it's not clear how long the trade route lasts or whether it consumes the Merchant.

 

[Bate1999]

As I mentioned in my post earlier in this thread, it appears that you manually send your Merchant units out to establish trade routes, but once established they appear to function pretty much the same as trade routes in Civ5 and Civ6, with an automated trade unit traversing back and forth which can be pillaged by an enemy. There is no new information since then that I'm aware of; it's not clear how long the trade route lasts or whether it consumes the Merchant.

Okay and thanks for the info, it is much appreciated!