Now, trading is kind of clunky and it needs an overhaul of sorts. An idea I had would involve setting up 
trade routes between countries and the routes set up would automatically pool the resources of the countries involved, so everyone gets the benefits involved, but you could only physically trade the resources you have.
Specifically, if you have a city that need pearls, and you set up a route with a civ that has pearls, the city will get pearls and all the benefits, but you wouldnt be able to trade pearls with civs not in your network.
Now, the silk road was a network of trade routes in europe and asia going clear across the continent. So, the Silk Road Achievment would be achieved by being part of a trade network that goes across the continent/pangea sea to sea. Obviously this wouldnt work on archipelago games, but no one plays them and if they do, it's for naval warfare.
The Silk Road achievment would be like the magellan achievment for uncovering a set of tiles that circle the world and the benefits apart from the increased trade resources would be faster speeds
for a new "Trade Caravan" unit that symbolizes resources going across the route. (Attack your enemies for 
and a random resource benefit for Xturns.) It would also offer railroad like speed through allied countries for military units.
Obviously these trade routes would lose some benefits and there would be some changes in appearance. When you hit Renessaince there will be a boat added that transfers resources, at industrail the caravan turns into a train. Then during the modern era your trade units change into a plane and a more modern boat. The future era will just teleport the resources to you. Now you could still intercept the trade units up until the future era, it just gets harder and harder and it might be wise to have some escorts for the caravans just in case. As for the specific benefits they lose, since the units travel more often and with lighter loads, instead of stocking up for longer journeys you get less resources and you will incur the technologically advanced wrath of your enemy.
Of course, you could also use spies to reroute the enemy trade routes.
As far as leaving a network, I'm not sure what sorts of penalties should be incurred or benefits given but what do you think of the idea so far? This could go great with an Economics and Enviroment pack or something.
I figure the environment section should downplay global issues so much as more pollution means your civ suffers for various reasons.
trade routes between countries and the routes set up would automatically pool the resources of the countries involved, so everyone gets the benefits involved, but you could only physically trade the resources you have. Specifically, if you have a city that need pearls, and you set up a
route with a civ that has pearls, the city will get pearls and all the benefits, but you wouldnt be able to trade pearls with civs not in your network.Now, the silk road was a network of trade routes in europe and asia going clear across the continent. So, the Silk Road Achievment would be achieved by being part of a
trade network that goes across the continent/pangea sea to sea. Obviously this wouldnt work on archipelago games, but no one plays them and if they do, it's for naval warfare.The Silk Road achievment would be like the magellan achievment for uncovering a set of tiles that circle the world and the benefits apart from the increased trade resources would be faster speeds
for a new "Trade Caravan" unit that symbolizes resources going across the route. (Attack your enemies for and a random resource benefit for Xturns.) It would also offer railroad like speed through allied countries for military units. Obviously these
trade routes would lose some benefits and there would be some changes in appearance. When you hit Renessaince there will be a boat added that transfers resources, at industrail the caravan turns into a train. Then during the modern era your trade units change into a plane and a more modern boat. The future era will just teleport the resources to you. Now you could still intercept the trade units up until the future era, it just gets harder and harder and it might be wise to have some escorts for the caravans just in case. As for the specific benefits they lose, since the units travel more often and with lighter loads, instead of stocking up for longer journeys you get less resources and you will incur the technologically advanced wrath of your enemy.Of course, you could also use spies to reroute the enemy trade routes.
As far as leaving a network, I'm not sure what sorts of penalties should be incurred or benefits given but what do you think of the idea so far? This could go great with an Economics and Enviroment pack or something.
I figure the environment section should downplay global issues so much as more pollution means your civ suffers for various reasons.
