Settling cities based on lucrative trade partners? Will we have the Carribean?

[Big J Money]

With the distance limits for both land and sea routes, anyone expect that a new factor in city placement will be trade partners?

For example, will you be more likely to hit those remote lucrative sites than before because they're close enough to trade with another civ's capital? And thus likely to generate more gold than routes in other cities?

This could be pretty big, actually.

I'm especially interested in the concept of distant islands than mimic the real-world Carribean. Risky and hard to protect without a navy, but potentially worth it.

I like the risk vs reward mechanic this introduces.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Proximity to markets will certainly be a factor in city placement. I don't think it will be a prime factor though. Availability of resources will strongly affect Trade Route profits, so placing a city in a crappy location just because it's close to a bunch of neighbors doesn't guarantee its success.

 

[Big J Money]

Right, that's implied by the history of the Caribbean being one based on truly valuable ports. There were spices and other goods that were unique to the area.

So if I understand correctly, the ideal factors will be:

-) City is within range of target ideal city
-) City and target city both have lots of luxury goods within borders
-) Luxury goods between the 2 cities are different
-) Both cities have high pop for high taxes to raise local base revenue
-) Both cities build commerce related buildings to raise local base revenue

Am I making an error here? Other than the typo in my thread title

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I think you have it about right. Ideally, you should have multiple trade partners within range, not just one.

 

[Viregel]

This could make for more importance of well-placed cities. At last we have a reason for the UK keeping the Falklands (that and oil)

 

[Depravo]

This could make for more importance of well-placed cities. At last we have a reason for the UK keeping the Falklands (that and oil)

Stanley isn't exactly a throbbing commercial entrepot though.

 

[DeutschDachs]

Cool scenario idea could be to combine sid meiers pirates! with BNW for some sort of carribbean map

 

[Buccaneer]

My guess that it will be a lower priority. Getting resources within your own territory (and preventing your opponents from grabbing those), as well as settling strategically (choke points, coast, etc,) will easily trump the trade route mechanics.

 

[Viregel]

Stanley isn't exactly a throbbing commercial entrepot though.

True. I hear that the penguins had a fabolous commercial empire. Before the British came and took over the world, anyway.

 

[Big J Money]

My guess that it will be a lower priority. Getting resources within your own territory (and preventing your opponents from grabbing those), as well as settling strategically (choke points, coast, etc,) will easily trump the trade route mechanics.

That depends on the cost vs benefits analysis. A new resource gets you 4 (potentially 6) happiness, which can be traded for ~8 gpt in SP. A lucrative trade route could give more than that. I don't see where your confidence comes from.

But more to the point, I didn't say "settle a city where there are fewer resources but a good trade route". I said "settle a city in a prime spot but that's very far away". By prime spot I meant one that is within trade reach of a good city and has new luxes or strategic resources. A city you might have passed up for a similar value one that's closer to home.

Assume everything is equal except two things

1. The city is within trade reach of a major foreign city
2. It's potentially very far away

So I guess ultimately this thread is about Trade VS The Safety of Closeness.

 

[werothegreat]

This strategy is perfect for Indonesia, since they'll get a free luxury for plopping down on a remote island, so trade with them would actually be lucrative.

 

[Ll1442]

im a missing something here?
doesn't greater distance also increase income from trade routes?
and as ships can go 45 tiles in later eras, that cant be such a big isue.

 

[Big J Money]

Hah, I guess the question is: am I missing something here?

I don't remember any mention of distance affecting foreign trade gpt, but maybe I'm selectively remembering

 

[SamBC]

Hah, I guess the question is: am I missing something here?

I don't remember any mention of distance affecting foreign trade gpt, but maybe I'm selectively remembering

IIRC, an early interview with Dennis and/or Ed said something about range getting progressively longer, allowing more lucrative routes. People have inferred from that.

 

[Big J Money]

But we've already seen the tooltip where calculations are made and this wasn't present, right?

Another interpretation of "allowing more lucrative routes" would be the most direct one "allowing you access to more routes, some of which are more lucrative than your current ones" (not because they're longer, but for other reasons).

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

On the Tooltips shown in the Trade Routes menu, distance is not a factor listed as affecting the profit.

ninja'd