filli_noctus
Hmmn
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2010
- Messages
- 2,221
(Polished and expanded version of the idea I originally brought up in this thread)
Before I outline the idea please note that there are some new concepts and some concepts that are changed from the implementation in Civ V. Whenever a word appears in red it indicates that it is a new or altered concept and a full explanation can be found in the concepts section at the end of this post.
This idea is designed to completely overhaul the trade route system as it currently exists in Civ V. Trade routes will no longer be focused solely on the capital, international trade will be accounted for and trade will become something to compete for. Merchant specialists are reworked and a trader specialist is introduced. Both specialists work trade routes. Merchants work internal trade routes which generate a small amount of gold but mostly exist to serve international trade routes, which are worked by traders and generate larger amounts of gold. Both specialists earn gold for the city they come from but also add gold to the city they trade in. The amount of gold a specialist earns for their home city is based on gold output and resources of the city they are trading in and the amount of gold they contribute to the host city is based on the gold output and resources of their home city. Both types of specialist add the improved resources of their home city to those available in the city they are trading in.
City-States will act in international trade as any other city (with the exception that their trade routes will only be blocked by borders of nations they are at war with). They can also take part in internal trade, sending merchants to and receiving them from the civilisation that has the highest influence level with them and has a trade route to them.
This proposal would make trade a competition. A civilisation would have to work to keep its’ trade income high by creating a powerful trade centre with a wide variety of available resources, high income and which can accommodate lots of foreign traders.
It would also make trade a source of conflict, both military and diplomatic. Wars could be started to cut off trade routes to powerful trade cities, attempting to divert the most valuable traders to ones own cities. Having open border treaties would become more important and the security risks of allowing a foe to scout your lands would have to be balanced against the economic risks of not having that civilisation’s traders in your cities, but giving them open borders may grant them access to a third parties trade centres. In addition an ‘embargo’ diplomatic option could be included, preventing either civilisation trading with a specified third party. To aid keeping track of these things some UI additions would be added, two panes in the city screen – one to tell you where that city’s merchants/traders have gone and one to tell you where any merchants/traders trading in the city have come from – and a list of the worlds most powerful trade centres listed by trade income.
Concepts
Trade Routes: Trade routes are connections between cities. They are formed through roads/railroads, sea/ocean (with a harbour in both cities, coast only until astronomy researched) and rivers/lakes (with a jetty in both cities, requires sailing). Different types of trade routes can be chained together through different cities.
For example City A is an inland city on a river with a jetty and City B is another inland city on a different continent. To form a trade route between them another two cities are required. City C is a coastal city on the same continent as City A. It is situated on the same river and has a jetty and a harbour. City D is a coastal city with a harbour on the same continent as City B and has a road link to City B. Cities A & B have a trade route between them from the river connection between A & C (as both have jetties), the sea connection between C & D (as both have harbours) and the road connection between D & B.
If a trade route passes through another civilisation’s territory (either because it runs through one of their cities or because part of the route is in their cultural borders) then an open borders agreement is required to form a trade route. If it passes through a City-States territory then you must be able to move units through their territory without suffering an influence penalty.
Trade routes come in two varieties, internal and international. An internal trade route is a trade route between two cities of the same civilisation and is worked by merchants. An international trade route runs between cities of different civilisations and is worked by traders. To send a trader to another civilisation’s city you require open borders from that civilisation (and any intervening civilisations), it is not required that they have open borders from you (or any intervening civilisations).
Merchants: Merchants are a type of specialist slot made available with a market. The standard Civ V merchant specialist is replaced with this new merchant along with traders. Merchants work internal trade routes, they will trade in whichever city will give them highest income based on it’s gold output plus improved resources.
Traders: Traders are a type of specialist replacing standard merchant slots in all buildings except the market. They work international trade routes, they will trade in whichever available city will give them the highest income based on it’s gold output plus available resources.
Trade: A merchant or trader earns and generates gold by trading in a city.
Any number of merchants may trade in a single city. They earn gold for their home city based on the gold output plus available resources of the city they are trading in. They also generate a smaller amount of gold to the receiving city based on the same criteria applied to their home city and make the improved resources of their home city available to the receiving city.
A city can only support a certain number of incoming traders. An unimproved city can support a single incoming trader. Buildings with merchant or trader specialist slots allow a city to support additional incoming traders equal to those slots. The Palace will also support a single incoming trader. Wonders and Social Policies will also allow additional incoming traders.
Dispersal of traders and merchants will be calculated automatically at the beginning of player one’s turn, not recalculated every player turn. A priority list is created for each trader and each city based on how much gold will be earned/generated by a particular trader going to a particular city, accounting for resources they will make available. If any traders are not placed because all available cities have all their trader slots filled with higher contributing traders they will be assigned to an internal trade route, they will act as a merchants. Merchants are assigned to whichever city will give them the highest income.
Once all traders and merchants are assigned a city the resources they make available are determined and then the gold they earn is calculated based on the city’s gold output plus available resources and the gold they generate is calculated based on their home city’s gold output plus improved resources. The gold generated by merchants and traders is calculated and applied at the same time, if a player makes adjustments it will apply to the next turn cycle. Merchants earn/generate less gold than traders in identical circumstances.
Gold Output: For the purposes of calculations here a city’s gold output is calculated in different ways depending on what kind of specialist is trading. For a merchant the gold output of a city is that generated by worked tiles and buildings plus any percentage modifiers. For a trader the gold generated by merchants is added to the base output. When viewed by the player the city screen will show the estimated gold generated assuming the same traders will be in the same city.
Resources: Luxury, strategic and resources are considered when calculating gold earned/generated. All resources in a category are considered to have equal value. Luxury resources are most valuable, bonus resources least. Although not adding to the gold output of a city they add a bonus when calculating how much the merchant or trader earns/generates. Every instance of a resource adds a bonus based on its’ category. In addition a bonus is added for every unique type of resource based on its’ category. If a particular type of available resource is not present in a particular merchant or traders home city its’ type bonus is doubled when calculating how much that merchant/trader earns. When calculating merchant distribution only the improved resources of the receiving city are considered. When calculating merchant distribution only the improved resources of a city are considered. When calculating trader distribution (including traders acting as merchants) the improved resources of the city and the resources supplied by merchants are considered. When gold earnings/generation are calculated all available resources are used by merchants and traders. The resources a merchant or trader makes available from their home city are not used when calculating how much gold they make. If multiple merchants/traders from one city are trading in the same city the resources of the home city are only made available once (this is considered when calculating trader dispersal).
Before I outline the idea please note that there are some new concepts and some concepts that are changed from the implementation in Civ V. Whenever a word appears in red it indicates that it is a new or altered concept and a full explanation can be found in the concepts section at the end of this post.
This idea is designed to completely overhaul the trade route system as it currently exists in Civ V. Trade routes will no longer be focused solely on the capital, international trade will be accounted for and trade will become something to compete for. Merchant specialists are reworked and a trader specialist is introduced. Both specialists work trade routes. Merchants work internal trade routes which generate a small amount of gold but mostly exist to serve international trade routes, which are worked by traders and generate larger amounts of gold. Both specialists earn gold for the city they come from but also add gold to the city they trade in. The amount of gold a specialist earns for their home city is based on gold output and resources of the city they are trading in and the amount of gold they contribute to the host city is based on the gold output and resources of their home city. Both types of specialist add the improved resources of their home city to those available in the city they are trading in.
City-States will act in international trade as any other city (with the exception that their trade routes will only be blocked by borders of nations they are at war with). They can also take part in internal trade, sending merchants to and receiving them from the civilisation that has the highest influence level with them and has a trade route to them.
This proposal would make trade a competition. A civilisation would have to work to keep its’ trade income high by creating a powerful trade centre with a wide variety of available resources, high income and which can accommodate lots of foreign traders.
It would also make trade a source of conflict, both military and diplomatic. Wars could be started to cut off trade routes to powerful trade cities, attempting to divert the most valuable traders to ones own cities. Having open border treaties would become more important and the security risks of allowing a foe to scout your lands would have to be balanced against the economic risks of not having that civilisation’s traders in your cities, but giving them open borders may grant them access to a third parties trade centres. In addition an ‘embargo’ diplomatic option could be included, preventing either civilisation trading with a specified third party. To aid keeping track of these things some UI additions would be added, two panes in the city screen – one to tell you where that city’s merchants/traders have gone and one to tell you where any merchants/traders trading in the city have come from – and a list of the worlds most powerful trade centres listed by trade income.
Concepts
Trade Routes: Trade routes are connections between cities. They are formed through roads/railroads, sea/ocean (with a harbour in both cities, coast only until astronomy researched) and rivers/lakes (with a jetty in both cities, requires sailing). Different types of trade routes can be chained together through different cities.
For example City A is an inland city on a river with a jetty and City B is another inland city on a different continent. To form a trade route between them another two cities are required. City C is a coastal city on the same continent as City A. It is situated on the same river and has a jetty and a harbour. City D is a coastal city with a harbour on the same continent as City B and has a road link to City B. Cities A & B have a trade route between them from the river connection between A & C (as both have jetties), the sea connection between C & D (as both have harbours) and the road connection between D & B.
If a trade route passes through another civilisation’s territory (either because it runs through one of their cities or because part of the route is in their cultural borders) then an open borders agreement is required to form a trade route. If it passes through a City-States territory then you must be able to move units through their territory without suffering an influence penalty.
Trade routes come in two varieties, internal and international. An internal trade route is a trade route between two cities of the same civilisation and is worked by merchants. An international trade route runs between cities of different civilisations and is worked by traders. To send a trader to another civilisation’s city you require open borders from that civilisation (and any intervening civilisations), it is not required that they have open borders from you (or any intervening civilisations).
Merchants: Merchants are a type of specialist slot made available with a market. The standard Civ V merchant specialist is replaced with this new merchant along with traders. Merchants work internal trade routes, they will trade in whichever city will give them highest income based on it’s gold output plus improved resources.
Traders: Traders are a type of specialist replacing standard merchant slots in all buildings except the market. They work international trade routes, they will trade in whichever available city will give them the highest income based on it’s gold output plus available resources.
Trade: A merchant or trader earns and generates gold by trading in a city.
Any number of merchants may trade in a single city. They earn gold for their home city based on the gold output plus available resources of the city they are trading in. They also generate a smaller amount of gold to the receiving city based on the same criteria applied to their home city and make the improved resources of their home city available to the receiving city.
A city can only support a certain number of incoming traders. An unimproved city can support a single incoming trader. Buildings with merchant or trader specialist slots allow a city to support additional incoming traders equal to those slots. The Palace will also support a single incoming trader. Wonders and Social Policies will also allow additional incoming traders.
Dispersal of traders and merchants will be calculated automatically at the beginning of player one’s turn, not recalculated every player turn. A priority list is created for each trader and each city based on how much gold will be earned/generated by a particular trader going to a particular city, accounting for resources they will make available. If any traders are not placed because all available cities have all their trader slots filled with higher contributing traders they will be assigned to an internal trade route, they will act as a merchants. Merchants are assigned to whichever city will give them the highest income.
Once all traders and merchants are assigned a city the resources they make available are determined and then the gold they earn is calculated based on the city’s gold output plus available resources and the gold they generate is calculated based on their home city’s gold output plus improved resources. The gold generated by merchants and traders is calculated and applied at the same time, if a player makes adjustments it will apply to the next turn cycle. Merchants earn/generate less gold than traders in identical circumstances.
Gold Output: For the purposes of calculations here a city’s gold output is calculated in different ways depending on what kind of specialist is trading. For a merchant the gold output of a city is that generated by worked tiles and buildings plus any percentage modifiers. For a trader the gold generated by merchants is added to the base output. When viewed by the player the city screen will show the estimated gold generated assuming the same traders will be in the same city.
Resources: Luxury, strategic and resources are considered when calculating gold earned/generated. All resources in a category are considered to have equal value. Luxury resources are most valuable, bonus resources least. Although not adding to the gold output of a city they add a bonus when calculating how much the merchant or trader earns/generates. Every instance of a resource adds a bonus based on its’ category. In addition a bonus is added for every unique type of resource based on its’ category. If a particular type of available resource is not present in a particular merchant or traders home city its’ type bonus is doubled when calculating how much that merchant/trader earns. When calculating merchant distribution only the improved resources of the receiving city are considered. When calculating merchant distribution only the improved resources of a city are considered. When calculating trader distribution (including traders acting as merchants) the improved resources of the city and the resources supplied by merchants are considered. When gold earnings/generation are calculated all available resources are used by merchants and traders. The resources a merchant or trader makes available from their home city are not used when calculating how much gold they make. If multiple merchants/traders from one city are trading in the same city the resources of the home city are only made available once (this is considered when calculating trader dispersal).
