Keep track of Trades!!!

[ironfang]

I dont know why they dont alert you about this, but make sure to keep your eye on your trade. If you establish trade with another civ in the early years, such as

You offer Ivory -------> 5 GP per turn

It will continue until you notice it. However;

You offer 5 gp per turn ------> for Ivory

The AI will definantly cancel it with you at the end of twenty turns. This can definantly burn you in the middle of the game when the AI rapes you for resources and you cant seem to keep up. Make sure to periodicaly check all Civs for "Active" treaties/agreements, and cancel the "not so lucrative" deals and make them rebid for it.

ironfang

 

[Yeti]

Aye, that's a very good point.

And a note for Verant if they're watching... this would be much easier to keep track of if there were either pop ups, and/or a nice display somewhere of current trades, and/or the year that trades were going to end was given instead of just the number of turns (since the number of years can be large and variable between turns).

I think the best solution would be for it to be displayed info on one of your advisor screens instead of having to open a trade window with a foreign diplomat, say you want to propose a trade, and then click the current button at the bottom just to see when a trade is going to run out.

 

[scadam]

I agree - you should get a message telling you which trades have passed 20 turns.

To go one step further from your tip - you should re-finance ANY trade that has gone past 20 turns:

- If the AI doesn't like the current deal it will always cancel on turn 20.
- This means that the AIs is happy with any trades it doesn't cancel on turn 20.
- This means when you cancel the trade, the AI is guranteed to offer AT LEAST the same deal, and 9 times out of 10 he will offer a few gold more.

In my experience I've ALWAYS gained at least a couple extra gold per trade and sometimes gotten upwards of +25 or even a technology thrown in. I've refinanced trades where I'm getting crazy values like 47 GP per turn for horses, and the AI still gave me a few gold more - if the AI hasn't cancelled it, he thinks he's getting a good deal, so milk it for all it's worth!

 

[GreenLantern]

How can you cancel a trade that hasn't come up for review? The manual seems to indicate that all trades come up for review.

 

[shirleyrocks]

Originally posted by GreenLantern
How can you cancel a trade that hasn't come up for review? The manual seems to indicate that all trades come up for review.

When you're in discussion with another civ, select "active" (i.e., active treaties) near the bottom of the dialouge screen.

 

[scadam]

Yes, what shirleyrocks just said. There's an "active" button. If there is a number in brackets that means that is the number of years left in that trade, and you can't select it. All the others you simply click on and that trade is put on the table. Unless a new arrangement is made, or the old trade reinstated for another 20 years, it is considered cancelled once it's been put on the table and you back away from it.

I just mentioned these extra details because cancelling active trades didn't seem very intuitive when I first started...

I remember reading somewhere that acncelling a trade early will give your reputation a hit, but I can't seem to cancel an active trade (you can't click on them). Is there no way to cancel an active trade?

 

[Jim]

In the trade advisor screen, when you scroll over the icons for outgoing trade goods a pop up window states who the item is going to. Not sure how much programming it would take but adding to the pop up would be very helpful. e.g. "horses to Egyptians for 5 more turns".
I've yet to figure out if contacting the other civs and checking active without making a deal hurts your rep or not. I do not visit them unless I think I'm close to an expiration just in case.
Also a turn pop up in the military advisor screen for Mutual Protection Pacts and right of passage agreements would be nice too.
In reference to cancelling an active trade I think declaring war is the obly way to do so.

 

[GreenLantern]

I pop through the diplo screens and bring up each rival looking for potential trades often, and I have never noticed than their attitude changes when I go away without making an offer. I am not sure if this is sufficient to judge reputation damage, but I am betting there isn't any.

 

[Dmitry]

The list of all trades should be in the advisor screen - that is why it is there IMVHO... There is a drop down in the military screen that gives you the list of forces once you get a spy - which I belive comes tooooooo late in the game, so why not in the Trade Advisor screen???

It takes a ton of time to go an check on each of the civs....

my 2 cents

 

[Gyro]

Just an idea for giving information on-screen during play:

News Ticker :crazyeyes

Somewhere on the screen, let a news ticker show most recent information. Using some sort of icons or attention grabbers to let you know somethin 'important' has just happend. And when you click on the ticker you get a newspaper style of infopage where you can choose to read the message.

 

[Sam_Catchem]

Ironfang,

You are sooo right about that. You could be missing out if you don't check back. I check everytime one of them approaches me...just to make sure. Sometimes you can increase the value of your resources big time. I think it is key for staying ahead. The interface should be better..but oh well.

 

[Flynn]

The way it should work...

Trade advisor shows exports. Mouseover on the exported good should show: Source tribe, all details of the original trade, and number of turns remaining on that trade.

Right-clicking on the good should bring up a menu (like right-clicking on units or improvements does)

Cancel deal (greyed out if turns are still remaining)
Renegotiate deal (takes you directly to the trade screen with the appropriate civ)
View Civilopedia entry for whatever (which is what right-click does now, and is almost entirely useless)

As it stands, the Trade Advisor screen might well be my least-used advisor. Such a change would make it a much more useful tool.

Then again, I could rewrite interface all over the game. (Why can't you right-click on stuff in the production choice list and get a Civilopedia entry? Does anyone else think that would be *incredibly* valuable?)

 

[Peer]

(Why can't you right-click on stuff in the production choice list and get a Civilopedia entry? Does anyone else think that would be *incredibly* valuable?)


Yes, I do

 

[Sarcastro]

Originally posted by Jim
In reference to cancelling an active trade I think declaring war is the obly way to do so.

If it's a resource, you could sever all of your roads to that resource. That should stop the deal.

 

[ajohn505]

I love the game, cause it's Civ, but I wish they would have spent more time looking at the game from the user's end.

 

[tetley]

What I hate is when 19 turns are up on your Peace Treaty and the AI asks you to renew it. Then you're forced to either renew it or declare war. So you can't surprise attack him without breaking the treaty.

 

[PaulNAdhe]

Originally posted by GreenLantern
I pop through the diplo screens and bring up each rival looking for potential trades often, and I have never noticed than their attitude changes when I go away without making an offer. I am not sure if this is sufficient to judge reputation damage, but I am betting there isn't any.

I don't know about reputation. But, I had a situation where I had 3 rubber and traded 2 of them to my buds. I kept the 3rd for me. Later it expired and I needed one of my other sources. I clicked the active and saw that both were still 10 or more turns to go. When I tried to close out, the sorry scum canceled my contract for wine and the other canceled my contract for dyes

I rebid the dyes and wine and conquered some more Egyptian territory for the rubber.

But, I, too, think we need some way to check the status of a trade without going all the way into a diplo setting. I sometimes don't like to rock the boat.