dolutarch
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2016
- Messages
- 1
Most districts – specifically all specialty districts that have a unique variant – are contributing twice as much yield to trade routes as they’re supposed to. This causes trade routes to provide around 50-75% more value than intended, depending on your district selection.
To preface: trade route yields are determined almost entirely by the districts that are present in the destination city. You can see each district type's yield contribution in the districts tab of the civilopedia. Certain wonders, policies, city-states, great people and UAs can impact your yields too (and trading posts will sometimes contribute a few gold) but under normal circumstances districts are the sole determinant of the quality of your routes.
For internal trade routes, the city center gives 1 food / 1 production, and each additional specialty district adds either 1 food or 1 production. I noticed that my capital, with 6 districts constructed, was giving 7f/6p, but another city with 6 districts was giving 6f/6p. A city with 6 districts should be giving a combined total of 8 food and production, so these were both way more valuable than expected…but by different amounts. Every trade route, both internal and external, was nearly (but slightly under) twice as good as it should have been.
I assumed I was missing a mechanic that was not mentioned anywhere in the civilopedia/UI, and determined to figure it out. I confirmed in the XML that cities were supposed to be contributing a single food/cog to the routes. Cities with the exact same districts always gave the exact same yield, even if one was 9 pop and the other was 17, and regardless of how many bonus, luxury, or strategic resources were present. Buildings constructed, wonders built, tiles improved…none of it mattered. I noticed, however, that the least overvalued cities all had campuses or encampments in them. Eventually, I found that only 3 of the 8 specialty districts (along with the city center) were contributing the correct amount of yield, and that the other 5 were contributing exactly two times their stated yield.
The industrial zone, harbor, theater square, entertainment hub, and holy site all give double the boost to trade routes they’re supposed to. It’s consistent in both internal and external routes – the harbor gives 2 production internally and 6 gold externally, for instance. International routes to cities with both a theater square and a campus give 2 culture, 1 science.
These are the exact specialty districts that have unique replacements. The commercial hub, campus, and encampment, which have no unique variant, are comparatively underpowered. I can’t be 100% certain that’s the cause – but it seems extremely likely as it’s the only common thread between those 5 districts. If so, it should be fixable with a mod – and I think we can all agree that trade routes are just a tad on the OP side right now. The reason it took me so long to figure out that commercial hubs were one of the “bad yield” districts is because I had them in virtually every city in all my saves, heh.
If playing the game unmodded, this should certainly inform your district selection in large cities. Campuses and encampments aren’t exactly top-tier to begin with, and should probably be avoided in the cities you’ll be using as the destination for your internal routes. You were probably building industrial zones and harbors whenever possible anyway, but they’re incredibly valuable since they provide 2 cogs each per trade route. Whether it’s worth skipping/delaying a commercial hub and losing a route to improve the value of your other routes is harder to say…
To preface: trade route yields are determined almost entirely by the districts that are present in the destination city. You can see each district type's yield contribution in the districts tab of the civilopedia. Certain wonders, policies, city-states, great people and UAs can impact your yields too (and trading posts will sometimes contribute a few gold) but under normal circumstances districts are the sole determinant of the quality of your routes.
For internal trade routes, the city center gives 1 food / 1 production, and each additional specialty district adds either 1 food or 1 production. I noticed that my capital, with 6 districts constructed, was giving 7f/6p, but another city with 6 districts was giving 6f/6p. A city with 6 districts should be giving a combined total of 8 food and production, so these were both way more valuable than expected…but by different amounts. Every trade route, both internal and external, was nearly (but slightly under) twice as good as it should have been.
I assumed I was missing a mechanic that was not mentioned anywhere in the civilopedia/UI, and determined to figure it out. I confirmed in the XML that cities were supposed to be contributing a single food/cog to the routes. Cities with the exact same districts always gave the exact same yield, even if one was 9 pop and the other was 17, and regardless of how many bonus, luxury, or strategic resources were present. Buildings constructed, wonders built, tiles improved…none of it mattered. I noticed, however, that the least overvalued cities all had campuses or encampments in them. Eventually, I found that only 3 of the 8 specialty districts (along with the city center) were contributing the correct amount of yield, and that the other 5 were contributing exactly two times their stated yield.
The industrial zone, harbor, theater square, entertainment hub, and holy site all give double the boost to trade routes they’re supposed to. It’s consistent in both internal and external routes – the harbor gives 2 production internally and 6 gold externally, for instance. International routes to cities with both a theater square and a campus give 2 culture, 1 science.
These are the exact specialty districts that have unique replacements. The commercial hub, campus, and encampment, which have no unique variant, are comparatively underpowered. I can’t be 100% certain that’s the cause – but it seems extremely likely as it’s the only common thread between those 5 districts. If so, it should be fixable with a mod – and I think we can all agree that trade routes are just a tad on the OP side right now. The reason it took me so long to figure out that commercial hubs were one of the “bad yield” districts is because I had them in virtually every city in all my saves, heh.
If playing the game unmodded, this should certainly inform your district selection in large cities. Campuses and encampments aren’t exactly top-tier to begin with, and should probably be avoided in the cities you’ll be using as the destination for your internal routes. You were probably building industrial zones and harbors whenever possible anyway, but they’re incredibly valuable since they provide 2 cogs each per trade route. Whether it’s worth skipping/delaying a commercial hub and losing a route to improve the value of your other routes is harder to say…
