Trade Route Cost vs Revenue

[NobleHelium]

Does anyone have any idea what the formula for trade route revenue is? I build my cities six tiles apart, so I'm having a hard time picturing that laying the road connection down is going to be a profit until the noncapital city is very big.

 

[snapple232]

It seems to be (size of connected city) x 1.25

The size of your capital isn't taken into account as far as I know. So all you need is a size 5 city to break even.

 

[Scramble]

From what I have seen, they never give you less than 5g, so at bare minimum the route pays for the roads, and later on even more. Not to mention you get the move speed bonus. Worth it in almost any case IMO.

Remember though that harbors accomplish the same thing and only cost 3g to maintain.

 

[NobleHelium]

Yeah but I want to upgrade to railroads later anyway for the production, so then the harbor becomes deadweight for the most part.