I dont understand, where should i construct trading posts

[Finchie]

Any citizen working a desert tile is definitely better off working as a specialist.

Ah, my bad. I'm not really well-acquainted with the use of specialists, and hardly ever specialize my cities in-game. :|

I figure it'd be good to build a trading post on desert in a small city (with no specialists) or a really big one (with so many citizens, all specialist slots are filled).

 

[Mustakrakish]

Personally, I never build them. I find the graphic so horrendously ugly that I can't bring myself to sully my empire with them.

Here's hoping an enterprising modder does it some justice.

Trade posts should be either renamed "wandering circus" or transformed into villages or towns with appropriate graphics

I still build them as I'm forced to, otherwise my economy goes to hell. In fact my economy is constantly in hell early game after the patch, which in turn leads to people attacking me, because I'm forced to continuously spam new cities in order to get some money (if I don't, I can't even support a few units) , and all that while naturally, having no sizable army. = Neighbors ganging up and attacking early.

Or maybe I just suck.

I only build them inland, because they look even more horrifying on the coast.

 

[greggbert]

It's not the terrain that should determine where you build your improvement (different from civ4) it's the type of city. I always build a lot around puppets, since they are set to GOLD by the AI. When I need to slow down growth I turn farms into trading posts.

You can also use improvements to influence the automatic governors to work certain tiles over others. For example, if you are set to gold but you want to have good production also, then put trading posts on hills and put farms beside rivers.

 

[Nares]

I find the graphic so horrendously ugly that I can't bring myself to sully my empire with them.

I found them resource hogs, and perceived better performance when I minimized the number I built.

Non-river grasslands or the occasional non-river plains were where I built them, aside from riverside jungles in cities with a university. Now, probably just in those jungles.