Community Feature: Gold!

[migkillertwo]

So what happens when you run out of gold?

This guy tells you to spend even more gold.

 

[Celevin]

But 2 isolated cities trading amongst themselves while the imperial capital is under blockade is not going to fill the imperial coffers. Further, such a blockade would restrict the ability to maintain control of the empire which would reduce revenues.

I think it's a perfectly valid way to abstract the importance of the imperial capital.

Well my entire angle and argument was from a gameplay standpoint. I'm not against the mechanic from your argument there.

 

[Carver]

This guy tells you to spend even more gold.

And with a fiat money system that can be a useful option.

 

[Buccaneer]

Still yet another unrealistic indicator of the over-importance of the "capital" for Civ5. The "capital" city should not always be the first city created, nor its most importance strategically, nor the most productive city, nor the center of trade. It can be some or all of these, but geopolitical and economic realities should alter that. For example, no reason you cannot decide to move your capital inland to be more strategically centered for your trade routes (i.e., faster connections to other cities and resources). Not to mention perhaps better defense against trade barriers (e.g., blockades, raids, etc.).

 

[YoHo]

I wonder, if your capital has a road linking it to a city on an ocean with a port, does that count as the capital having that port?

 

[Tregon]

I wonder, if your capital has a road linking it to a city on an ocean with a port, does that count as the capital having that port?

That is what I want to know too.

So Greg...

Can trade routes go through other cities or do they have to be direct?
If capitol is blockaded by sea, can trade continue through unblockaded port of another city which is connected to capitol by road?

I myself would hope that as long as one route is open, you can trade.
That way to blockade capitol properly, you have to put real effort to it.

 

[YoHo]

Perhaps there is a loss for each city it must cross through? That would mimic the effect that a blockade really would have.

 

[stealth_nsk]

I wonder, if your capital has a road linking it to a city on an ocean with a port, does that count as the capital having that port?

Trade routes will surely go through other cities - otherwise civilization with non-naval capital would be unable to connect with islands at all.

 

[TM Moot]

Don't forget that roads cost maintenance now! It's very possible for it to be more efficient to use a harbor to generate a trade route rather than linking a city by road to your capitol.

It will be slightly limiting if you need to have a coastal capital city every game just to reduce building roads to every other city...

I always thought trade should be a large part of civ (more so then espionage, religion, even culture), fingers crossed it will be in CivV

 

[Schuesseled]

i'd strongly imagine that routes don't have to be direct, just connected.

 

[Provost Martin]

It will be slightly limiting if you need to have a coastal capital city every game just to reduce building roads to every other city...

I always thought trade should be a large part of civ (more so then espionage, religion, even culture), fingers crossed it will be in CivV

You'll always have rivers to connect your cities with. Historically roads were more or less useless (bar a few examples, and not to be confused with caravan routes) until the 20th century. Hence the big craze to build channels, railroads, maintain sea routes and such.

I definitely agree that trade is underutilized in Civilization. It should be one of the most important aspects of the game IMO.

 

[The_J]

@cottage/trading post spam: You guys forget, that science will not be maintained out of your gold treasure .
There's no need to produce tons of gold to advance in science, so cottage/trading post spam is not that probable .

 

[Dunkah]

@cottage/trading post spam: You guys forget, that science will not be maintained out of your gold treasure .
There's no need to produce tons of gold to advance in science, so cottage/trading post spam is not that probable .

My hope is that the rest of the "improvements", other than Trading Posts and Farms will be important enough to actually have to/ want to build!

 

[Schuesseled]

@cottage/trading post spam: You guys forget, that science will not be maintained out of your gold treasure .
There's no need to produce tons of gold to advance in science, so cottage/trading post spam is not that probable .

on the other hand gold is necessary (or it will come out of science ) to pay for the maintenance that would allow you to maximise buildings, units and roads.

So now you'll be spamming for those reasons rather than for science.

 

[bjbrains]

on the other hand gold is necessary (or it will come out of science ) to pay for the maintenance that would allow you to maximise buildings, units and roads.

So now you'll be spamming for those reasons rather than for science.

Define spam. I seriously doubt people are going to be building these like they did cottages. Sure, they'll be an important improvement, but that's not really a problem, is it? "TP" spam probably won't be a high-level strategy, since you'll be giving up production, population, and science/specialists in favor of gold.

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Well, TP appears to be a balancing TI to landlocked cities versus coastal cities !

 

[dagriggstar]

Trading is a huge part of the game, and it's done via diplomacy. You can definitely still be a "trading" focused civ, by focusing on generating gold and using that to do deals with other civs.

Diplomacy is not trade in the sense that I'm thinking of it. In any case, I want to sell some spices to another civ - ok, I'll just click through every civ to see who offers me the most money, do a deal with them, then wait 10 turns for it to expire and do it all over again. Thrilling gameplay...

Sorry, I just don't really buy that. Being a trading civ means that you generate money from trade; not using money to lever advantage in diplomacy. All that you are saying is that if you are a very rich empire, you can do more trade and use that to gain other advantages (allies, more land, ect...)

That's not really trade though? Being a trading civilisation means that you focus city placement, city development, tech path, ect... ect... On increasing the amount of trade and hence wealth of your empire.

From what we've been told so far, it doesn't seem possible to do this in Civ5; other than growing your capital as large as possible. I hope something comes out and proves me wrong.

What Olleus said.

 

[Calouste]

Diplomacy is not trade in the sense that I'm thinking of it. In any case, I want to sell some spices to another civ - ok, I'll just click through every civ to see who offers me the most money, do a deal with them, then wait 10 turns for it to expire and do it all over again. Thrilling gameplay...

And of course Civ5 is going to be exactly the same game with exactly the same mechanics as Civ4

 

[stealth_nsk]

Diplomacy is not trade in the sense that I'm thinking of it. In any case, I want to sell some spices to another civ - ok, I'll just click through every civ to see who offers me the most money, do a deal with them, then wait 10 turns for it to expire and do it all over again. Thrilling gameplay...

You could trade resources now. And with the new resource system that should be more often, if trading partner is chosen wisely. This looks much more like international trade than automatic trade routes in Civ4.

 

[dagriggstar]

And of course Civ5 is going to be exactly the same game with exactly the same mechanics as Civ4

and same mechanics as in civ3...I don't think we've seen anything so far to the contray ? Would be nice if there was sortof a marketplace where you could auction off resources...

You could trade resources now. And with the new resource system that should be more often, if trading partner is chosen wisely. This looks much more like international trade than automatic trade routes in Civ4.

Yea, cos the silk road was an agreement between the Roman and Chinese emperors...The Sri Vijayan empire was hardly mentioned by China, India, Arabia, yet managed to amass massive amounts of gold from the international trade routes between those countries...