Looking back, I can't believe that I used to play happily along with no trade at all... but these sort of threads are really good for newer Civ 2 players in particular!
by Sodak:
Actually, it doesn't harm your trade. The trade route is worth half what it would be if the destination city was foreign - but you earn both halves. End result: same trade value
That depends heavily on your established trade structure. Often, in a long game, my trade routes are heavily biased to a very few AI cities... postponing that conquered city as long as possible is a part of the strategic plan, because a trade route typically is cut from about 32 to 16 arrows. Multiple this by 50 to 100 cities, and 3 routes, and you see it is signicant. The slightly consoling news is that it is actually a hit of only 10 to 18% of my total empire trade. And of course, I am aware of what will happen when it come time to stick a fork in that city because it's done.
Now for the good news. Often, that city will not have and Airport and SH, though I specifically ferret these cities out if they exist. This means you can recover some of the lost arrows by rush building the critical Airport and SH to get the bonuses. At that point in the game, money is no object.... tens of thousands of gold per turn anyway, so whatever you want, you buy it. Improvements are built in one, maybe two turns. This will help somewhat..
By Duke o' York:
Isn't the optimal route for the trade that Sodaq mentioned just the route that the AI follows when you put the caravan on GoTo? To work it out then just leave it be and then road any squares that it comes off the road onto.
The goto will work, but the routes are rarely symmetrical. The path from A to B is usually different than from B to A.
The path is easy to pick around gently bending coastlines, like the original starting postion in GOTM 16. Across open land, it is much harder to figure by looking, but still possible, though I don't personally even attempt it most of the time. In reality, I make 3 SSC routes with very nearby cities. I can easily put roads on this route by the Trade advance. The bonus will be fairly small, but the route value is what I'm after. I don't establish trade route with all cities in Monarchy... I hit long balls only... that is, chase the bonuses to and from the Colossus city. All other routes wait until the wonder rush is done, and by the the roads have expanded and/or sea trade is feasible. The road bonus is huge (50%), and it really pays to get it. RR adds another 50%, BTW.... making such a route as valuable as the overseas bonus of 100%.
In Republic, almost all cities trade exclusively with the Colossus city, and the results are usually staggering. Cities are generally forbidden from trading amongst themselves.... all must pay homage to the SSC or nothing.
In mid game, cities trade with big overseas AI cities, and the route values are huge. At Automobile, deliveries cease until the home city has the SH. And this takes exactly one turn for all the important cities, LOL... money is no object for critical improvements like SHs.
By Radio, the new trade rule is all cities get 3 things: big, an airport, and SHs. And the trade partner is the farthest city across the world.... I expect to see the bonuses maxed (Civ 2 limits the bonus to 2/3 of the current cost of an advance).
by Sodak:
Existing trade routes in a city can be replaced by newer routes. If you set up hides and beads, they will return less than gems or spice.
You must have made a typo in here, since I'm sure you know that's not the case.... the route values are not affected by the commodity in any way. Only the bonus is affected by the commodity. All other things being equal, to replace a hides route with a Gems route (assuming the same source and destination city) will not change the value of that trade route... but of course, you'll get a tidy bonus of gold and beakers when you establish the new route.
Here is a trade thread from last Fall:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6144&highlight=trade
