Trade Routes

[JonoLith]

Hello All,

I was looking through AriochIV's Analyst site (Big props btw), and came upon the special ability for the Arabian Empire.

Trade Caravans (Arabia): +1 gold from each Trade Route, and Oil resources provide double quantity.

Now, I hate how Trade Routes work in Civilization 4. I find the system extremely opaque. I dislike how little control you have over them. I had been running on the assumption that Trade Routes as we knew them were largely gone, but this line has thrown a wrench into that.

I'm creating this thread to ask two things.

1) Is there any more information on how Trade Routes function in Civilization 5?

2) Does anyone have any thoughts on how Trade Routes could function to not be frustratingly opaque or overtly difficult.

 

[kdr777]

Looking at how all the rest has been streamlined (hapiness global, no religion, no espionage, ...), I guess the trade route will remain an automated feature similar to what it was in civ 4.

 

[Aramel]

We won't have as many, I think, and they'll all be visible on the map, where you can pillage them.

 

[Celevin]

We won't have as many, I think, and they'll all be visible on the map, where you can pillage them.

I haven't seen a single piece of evidence for this, and want a citation, and am praying it's true.

 

[PieceOfMind]

What will trade routes produce? It can't be commerce anymore.
Gold? Beakers?

What if they don't even (magically) produce anything anymore, but rather are stuff moving around?

 

[edpovi]

I'd bet that trade routes generate gold. From the limited information so far, it seems trade routes are from city to capital. So you do have some control over them, you have to build a road / harbor / (maybe airport) to connect your city to the capital.

I’d assume this can be improved with the selection of specific social policies, techs, and wonders.

So, overall I'd think you will find it clearer, but we really don't have the details yet.

 

[Jaybe]

What will trade routes produce? It can't be commerce anymore.
Gold? Beakers?

What if they don't even (magically) produce anything anymore, but rather are stuff moving around?

Grain? Metals? A route gets pillaged: food and production gets reduced.

 

[Aramel]

I haven't seen a single piece of evidence for this, and want a citation, and am praying it's true.

Evidence? Ugh... there was one screen where the mouse was hovering over a trade route on the map; I don't know how to find it though.

 

[mjs0]

Here is an example I remembered from the Official E3 Trailer Video.
The mouse cursor is hovering over the tile immediately south west of Orleans.
The information box in the lower right contains the words "Trade Route!!"

 

[AriochIV]

The line from the Harbor building is: "Forms a Trade Route with the Capital over water (if they're not already connected by land)."

It seems that connecting via roads also forms a trade route with the capital. It's not clear whether there are ways of forming additional trade routes with other cities, or what the rewards are (though Gold is assumed).

 

[Schuesseled]

at the moment we only know one way of obtaining a single trade route, and that is to build a road or a harbour, im guessing there are ways of having multiple trade routes, but no info on that as of yet.

 

[oChuckles]

Do trade routes only go to capital cities?

It seems like capital cities are far more important in 5...

 

[thwump]

Evidence? Ugh... there was one screen where the mouse was hovering over a trade route on the map; I don't know how to find it though.

It looks like in that screenshot there is a road there. So pillaging could destroy the road which would cut the trade route, but its not really pillaging the trade route.

 

[JonoLith]

Hrm,

So it seems to me that, thus far, all the information we have is that trade routes are formed by building connecters (Roads, Harbor) to the capital. We can assume that similar benefits will apply, as they have in the past, in regards to resources. Iron, dye, corn, ect. ect. ect. will become available once a road gets connected from the resource to the capital.

It's this gold business that's throwing me. Perhaps it will be a simple system. My hope is that it will seem something like this;

Create a trade route via road or sea, or perhaps air in the late game. This will create a route with your capital, and your capital alone, rather then with other cities all over the place. The longer the route is, per tile, the more beneficial the route is. You can get policies, and buildings, to effect how much you get from a trade route.

My hope is that the development team sees how silly the old trade route system is, and decides to do something alot more streamlined, as they've done with most everything else thus far.

 

[Calouste]

I believe rivers also serve as connectors for trade routes.

 

[Countmonte8242]

Now, I hate how Trade Routes work in Civilization 4. I find the system extremely opaque. I dislike how little control you have over them. I had been running on the assumption that Trade Routes as we knew them were largely gone, but this line has thrown a wrench into that.

I'm creating this thread to ask two things.

2) Does anyone have any thoughts on how Trade Routes could function to not be frustratingly opaque or overtly difficult.

I agree with your premise that creating your own trade routes in older civs was actually fun compared to just getting them handed to you and having no control.

Off the top my head, here's an idea on how they might be implemented to fit in with the more (so we've heard) simplified model of Civ 5:

All trade routes are based off resources (like they were in Civ2 I think?). But here would be a nice difference: you don't build the caravans. Instead, when your workers have finished improving a resource square, a caravan automatically pops up in that square and then you get to decide what you want to do with it.

 

[JonoLith]

Greg threw this at us on this issue.

If a city is connected by a road and/or harbor to your capital city, that city has a “trade route” with the capital. Each trade route is worth a certain amount of gold each turn, determined by the size of the two cities.

This means that city SIZE is very important to how valuable a trade route is.


Let us continue speculationing!

 

[AriochIV]

I believe rivers also serve as connectors for trade routes.

This would be logical, but only roads and Harbors have been specifically mentioned as forming a Trade Route, and there is nothing in the Harbor description about rivers.

 

[Calouste]

This would be logical, but only roads and Harbors have been specifically mentioned as forming a Trade Route, and there is nothing in the Harbor description about rivers.

There's nothing in the Harbor description about roads either, it just says "over land"

I thought I had seen a screenshot where it showed a traderoute in the hex description, but I probably misread the one higher up on this thread. Having trade routes along rivers would also make blocking them a lot harder.

 

[Thyrwyn]

Losing your capital is going to hurt. . .

This also clarifies the Arabian Special Ability - basically +1 gold/turn for each city connected to your capital. That is certainly nothing to sneeze at: expansion will be less painful for Arabia.