The confusing mechanics around the "trade" concept in Civ V

[Big J Money]

Civ V now boasts no less than 3 separate mechanics for trade:

Spoiler :

1) Trade between your own cities provides gold when you connect them up to the capital via roads or harbors

2) Trade between foreign civilizations provides happiness when you make diplomatic negotiations to exchange resources for each other or resources for gold

3) Trade between both your own cities and foreign civilizations and city-states provide numerous bonuses when you set up routes with caravans and cargo ships.

It's all trade, but it all works differently. Us vets will work it out, but this couldn't be more confusing to a new player!

My hope is that in Civ VI, they'll intertwine these principles a bit, but my pipe dream would be for them to go ahead and do it in BNW.

How would you guys do it? Personally, I would say that all trade should begin with the caravans and cargo ships that carry the goods and loot.

1. If you have an internal trade route, you can connect it with roads and get a boost of gold in addition to the food or production you are channeling internally.
2. You can't make diplomatic trade negotiations with another civ unless you have an open trade route with them.

Is this too harsh? Unnecessary? I feel like the disparate trade systems could do with some unification. It's all really fun but it's all really messy.

 

[stealth_nsk]

I think with some concept revision it's possible to join resource/gpt trade with international trade routes. So if you trade resources/gpt with someone you actually establish a trade route which provides additional bonuses to both parties and needs protection for the length of the agreement. In this case there shouldn't be any one-time things like gold in this trade, only per-turn items. One-time gold should be fully reserved to demands and peace negotiating.

Speaking about city connections, they have their design role (influencing players to build roads and develop their cities). This role could be fulfilled without referring to trade. For example, with different resource system, city connection could grant cities resource access.

Speaking about internal trade routes, they have their role as well - with trade route limit it's important to provide different use for those who don't play diplomacy. There could be different options, but generally this concept needs to stay.

P.S. In any case, trade is tied to too many different concepts in the game. So speculating about trade in Civ 6 is quite pointless