isau
Deity
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2007
- Messages
- 3,071
I don't think a linear comparison is possible between trade yields. Let me see if I can boil down the main issues:
- Food and Hammers are local yields. They have tremendous swing value depending on the Food and Hammers already available to a city. This is why a Trade Route sent from a fairly new city is often ideal. If Hammers go from 2 to 3 in that city, that's a 33% increase (and, effectively, a 33% decrease in build time).
- Culture is both a local and global yield. Culture contributes to grabbing land tiles, which is more of an issue early in the game than later once most tiles are already claimed.
- Gold, Faith, and Science are global yields. The output of the home cities doesn't impact decision making, just whether you are lagging in one of these areas in the global sense. The real question with these yields is for me "Do I need that thing more than supporting the local yield of a young city?" Gold in particular can be tricky with regards to this question, because although it is a global yield, it allows Gold purchases of buildings, which can contribute to local effects...