Maximum Possible Trade Routes

[damnyankees]

Has someone calculated this? For a normal civ, what's the top number? Obviously whatever that number is it will be doubled for Venice.

 

[Miravlix]

8 from tech. (Edit: Corrected by others as I originally thought it was 7)

1 from petra
1 from Colossus

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

I had 10 routes once...

But I admit I can't remember where I got the 10th one.. but I swear I Had 10 routes once....

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I count 8 on the tech tree and 2 from Wonders.

Animal Husbandry
Sailing
Engineering
Compass
Banking
Biology
Railroad
Penicillin

Colossus
Petra

 

[Bonci]

does Venice get double the number for wonders too?

 

[damnyankees]

It just seems weird that there's a limit on the number of trade routes. Trade routes aren't a "resource" in any normal sense. It's just a unit going from one city to another. What would be the problem with just making trade routes limitless? You'd still need animal husbandry for caravans and sailing for cargo ships, but the limit doesn't make any sense.

 

[Calouste]

does Venice get double the number for wonders too?

Yep. The Colossus is a high priority wonder for Venice.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

For the same reason there were limits on the amount of gold in terrain tiles prior to BNW. To keep the economy in check. An unlimited amount of Trade Routes would mean an unlimited amount of gpt which means you can buy all the buildings and all the units and all the resources ever. It would take the challenge out of the game.

 

[damnyankees]

For the same reason there were limits on the amount of gold in terrain tiles prior to BNW. To keep the economy in check. An unlimited amount of Trade Routes would mean an unlimited amount of gpt which means you can buy all the buildings and all the units and all the resources ever. It would take the challenge out of the game.

At the very least it needs to scale with map size. A total of 10 trade routes for a civilization with 20 cities is rather ridiculous.

 

[Miravlix]

At the very least it needs to scale with map size. A total of 10 trade routes for a civilization with 20 cities is rather ridiculous.

Not to mention the length need to scale, huge maps is insanely hard to get good routes on.

 

[VainoValkea]

It needs to scale but it makes sense to limit them. From a realist point of view, a city or a nation only has so much stuff to trade. From a pure gameplay point of view, managing trade routes is tedious and boring if there's too many of them.

 

[damnyankees]

It needs to scale but it makes sense to limit them. From a realist point of view, a city or a nation only has so much stuff to trade. From a pure gameplay point of view, managing trade routes is tedious and boring if there's too many of them.

I do wish there was a button to automate trade routes, and it would just default to the route which gave you the most gold.

 

[Muskie]

I do wish there was a button to automate trade routes, and it would just default to the route which gave you the most gold.

There are plenty of reasons not to do this.

1) You want to avoid your trade route going through a war zone.
2) You want to spread your religion or not receive relgious pressure back.
3) You want to prioritize science not gold.

I've chosen my trade routes for all those reasons. Reason number 4 is so and so is winning and you don't want to help them so you don't have trade routes with Civilization you're trying to catch up to. A DIY embargo if you will.

 

[damnyankees]

There are plenty of reasons not to do this.

1) You want to avoid your trade route going through a war zone.
2) You want to spread your religion or not receive relgious pressure back.
3) You want to prioritize science not gold.

I've chosen my trade routes for all those reasons. Reason number 4 is so and so is winning and you don't want to help them so you don't have trade routes with Civilization you're trying to catch up to. A DIY embargo if you will.

I agree, there's lots of reasons not to do that, and I wouldn't use the button. But I think it should be an option. Similar to how I think there should be an option to have the AI control city production (like the governor option in Civ IV).