Trade in I:R

[UBERWASP]

This is a good game with great potential. I personally think that trade is an important part of this game as well as that era IRL. So I just want to highlight some of the potential improvements you can make to trading.

1)
Ability to automatically block exports for spesified. goods

Options menu that will automatically block trade requests of specified materials.

You will be able to block all the materials that you don't want to export and as a result you will only get trade requests about materials that you want to export.


2)
AI Trade improvements:

City States constantly improve their trading routes the whole game but they don't export/import anything. So they end up with 20+ trade routes only to import 1 horse.

So the reason I would want to make a city state my client instead of annexing it would be it being a wealthy and complex trading hub. Just like modern day Hong Kong. These trade hub city states should have extra wealth and trade bonuses and in that case annexing these city states would remove those bonuses hence you would want to turn them into client states instead.


3)
Provincal trade blocking/allowing option. These works the same way as highlight No.1 however this is a step forward from that. Instead of globally blocking the trade requests for a good it would be even better if we could block a certain trade good according to province.


4)
Trade Wars! Ability to put embargo on a state. Efficiency of this embargo would depend on:

- Your diplomatic reputation
- Your power level in comparison to embargo target.
- Your naval power

+ In addition to all those above if a trade route of embargo target passes directly your country you get %100 efficiency of blocking that trade route to embargo target.

Trade DLC hurray!

If you have any suggestions related to trade please write your reply.

 

[maurot12]

I would like to suggest that strategic resources be tied to unit recruitment, examples: you require 1 horse resource to recruit 5 cav cohorts, and you require 1 iron unit to recruit 5 HI cohorts and 1 wood unit to recruit 5 hexeres. As of now you just need 1 unit of each to spam an endless army of cavalry and that makes strategic resources kinda useless once you get your hands on just 1 unit of each, at most 3 of each to get the surplus & export bonus.

Edit: also buildings should require special resources like marble, stone, wood, and such. I believe i read this suggestion in another of your trade related posts though.

Also trade agreements, so we can negotiate with X country to trade Y,Z resources exclusively with us.

 

[redrum68]

City States constantly improve their trading routes the whole game but they don't export/import anything. So they end up with 20+ trade routes only to import 1 horse.

I wonder how much of this is just the AI not using its trade routes vs it not having any available goods to import? I generally have found as the game goes on it seems like its harder and harder to import goods from other nations and I'm doing more internal trading. I get the sense that number of trade routes grows faster than available goods to export which causes these issues.

 

[Magnar]

Id like buildings to require resources to give their bonuses

eg A foundry could only gives a bonus if it has metals to smelt and a library only gives bonuses if it has papyrus to keep the scrolls maintained.


This would also allow for processed trade goods eg jewelry from precious metals and gems that can only be made in cities or metros. Or at least for such things to be modded in.

 

[wingren013]

I wonder how much of this is just the AI not using its trade routes vs it not having any available goods to import? I generally have found as the game goes on it seems like its harder and harder to import goods from other nations and I'm doing more internal trading. I get the sense that number of trade routes grows faster than available goods to export which causes these issues.

Yeah there is a severe lack of trade goods later in the game because the AI doesn't know how to grow their stuff.

 

[Calardaras]

I didn’t take enough study on this, hope some can point out my misunderstanding

I think one of the biggest problem is the poor capacity of the world. Part of the reason maybe result from AI‘s bad operation. But the most I think is for the mechanic itself.

The import/export behavior actually represents trading right then you take some tax from market. So no matter import or export, you always get revenue.

Here paradox comes. When you do commerce, there acts like market; When you produce goods, there acts like state-owned enterprise, almost all society don’t participate in productions but slaves. Maybe this is the reason why capacity is so pool

I have some rough ideas
1) freeman and tribesmen can product by different effectiveness
2) The smallest goods unit should be smaller
3) When to have a surplus buff should depend on the local population. (different pop type have different needs)
4) Different goods have different surplus pop needs
5) Can export all the output, not just the surplus (even export what you import, this is important)
6) Price depends on transportation distance
7) Commerce range. You only can trade with adjacent countries or through a country that gives you Commerce Access — alike Military Access. Trade blockade can be a cassus belli, too many surplus is a big problem

 

[tribunus_plebis]

Although I don't like the idea of a Trade DLC (maybe a trade update parallel to a thematic DLC release), the proposals posted here are interesting in order to improve the trade dynamic. In another thread on the "I:R Suggestions" I proposed some Diplomacy update ideas, and there's one I believe is fundamental to be considered in the game:

1.- Link between Trade and Diplomacy
This is something I think MUST be done, as there is an indivisible relation among those 2 areas. I get quite bothered that after a bloody exhausting conflict nations can go back to trade as if nothing happened. In this regard, I believe trade should be restricted to some form of bilateral agreement based on positive diplomatic relation (at least +10) where both nations mutually agree to open their markets.
In this way, if you need a specific resource (let's say Iron, strategic and scarce) you actually can get it after some diplomatic work and not depend from chance or resort to conquest to get it. Also, this would help to create a "Complex Interdependence" among nations.
Going even deeper, subject/clients should get bonuses from trading with their overlord (and other subjects) and penalties from trading with other powers, thus giving also more flavor to the client-overlord relationship.

 

[Testeria]

Ability to ask for goods that ARE NOT available for trade.

There should be some way to shake stale trade markets. My ally should drop trade with someone else to satisfy the demand of his friend.

 

[Testeria]

I would like to suggest that strategic resources be tied to unit recruitment, examples: you require 1 horse resource to recruit 5 cav cohorts, and you require 1 iron unit to recruit 5 HI cohorts and 1 wood unit to recruit 5 hexeres. As of now you just need 1 unit of each to spam an endless army of cavalry and that makes strategic resources kinda useless once you get your hands on just 1 unit of each, at most 3 of each to get the surplus & export bonus.

Edit: also buildings should require special resources like marble, stone, wood, and such. I believe i read this suggestion in another of your trade related posts though.

Also trade agreements, so we can negotiate with X country to trade Y,Z resources exclusively with us.

That seem too harsh. I would rather rise upkeep for too many of units if there is not enough trade good locally.

 

[Foefaller]

I think requiring a military resource's presence in a province to recruit the associated cohort there is enough, unless the goal is to make the player never, ever, ever, ever want to trade it away.

I think the biggest issue of trade atm is how difficult it is for to player to import from a non-client state thanks to how quickly the AI trades away all their goods to other AI. I figure there could be several ways to do this:

-Have the option to "tag" a resource you want to import to that province and get an alert when it becomes available to trade (bonus points if it also pings if someone who is a gift away from saying yes too.)

-A little counter below the trade button on the main UI that show the number of potential trade deals, mousing over/clicking giving you info on the who/what/where (i.e. Rome is willing to export Iron from Latinum)

-Some tweaks to how the AI does trading. As mentioned in the OP, merchantile client states would be a lot more valuable if they usually got first dibs on most trade deals. Maybe Merchantile stance should get a bonus modifer to getting a trade deal with the AI, with the AI being more hesitant to trade in general?

 

[ok2useLane]

This is a good game with great potential.

1)
Ability to automatically block exports for spesified. goods

Options menu that will automatically block trade requests of specified materials.

You will be able to block all the materials that you don't want to export and as a result you will only get trade requests about materials that you want to export.

This.
I don’t want to trade grain from Latium, but I have to keep denying trade offers the entire game...annoying.

 

[UBERWASP]

I would like to suggest that strategic resources be tied to unit recruitment, examples: you require 1 horse resource to recruit 5 cav cohorts, and you require 1 iron unit to recruit 5 HI cohorts and 1 wood unit to recruit 5 hexeres. As of now you just need 1 unit of each to spam an endless army of cavalry and that makes strategic resources kinda useless once you get your hands on just 1 unit of each, at most 3 of each to get the surplus & export bonus.

Edit: also buildings should require special resources like marble, stone, wood, and such. I believe i read this suggestion in another of your trade related posts though.

Also trade agreements, so we can negotiate with X country to trade Y,Z resources exclusively with us.

Just like any other numerical value in the game, trade resources are also symbolic representations. So when you buy 1 horse you're effectively buying something like "Grade 1" or "Level 1" horse trade. You are importing "small" amount of horse. "Small" relative to importing 2 horses. When you buy second horse resourse it represents doubling of your horse imports. And surplus represents the cheapness or availability of a resource to your people. If you have a wine surplus that means your people can easily obtain wine and no one has problem buying enough wine. Because these are not 1 to 1 realistic simulations your proposal doesn't fit the whole design philosophy of the game. Your idea is not bad but it's just that it belongs to an entirely different design philophy. This is not a 1 to 1 realistic simulation that Pentagon can use to train new officers, it's a realistic rts game with representative, symbolic values.

I didn’t take enough study on this, hope some can point out my misunderstanding

I think one of the biggest problem is the poor capacity of the world. Part of the reason maybe result from AI‘s bad operation. But the most I think is for the mechanic itself.

The import/export behavior actually represents trading right then you take some tax from market. So no matter import or export, you always get revenue.

Here paradox comes. When you do commerce, there acts like market; When you produce goods, there acts like state-owned enterprise, almost all society don’t participate in productions but slaves. Maybe this is the reason why capacity is so pool

I have some rough ideas
1) freeman and tribesmen can product by different effectiveness
2) The smallest goods unit should be smaller
3) When to have a surplus buff should depend on the local population. (different pop type have different needs)
4) Different goods have different surplus pop needs
5) Can export all the output, not just the surplus (even export what you import, this is important)
6) Price depends on transportation distance
7) Commerce range. You only can trade with adjacent countries or through a country that gives you Commerce Access — alike Military Access. Trade blockade can be a cassus belli, too many surplus is a big problem

1) I made a relatively small personal mod that also includes this feature. I had experience modding Hoi4 back when I was playing that game, so I made a personal mod for I:R, changing and tweaking the game to my liking. Not to make it easier of course but to retouche the experience.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1889689960

Copy paste from the untidy mod description:
"Freemen and tribesmen now produces half of the food they need as a whole and both citizens and freemen contribute to local production, citizens a lot less than freemen tho. And slaves consume slightly more food."

2) This makes perfect sense, I hope devs consider this.

3) In the end, different pops are also human beings and wine does make all of them drunk.

5) This would be like the modern free trade we have today, I don't know of a historical example of this but sure, this also would make perfect sense trade-wise.

6) This existed in hoi4 so why not in I:R?

7) Commerce range does exist I guess? I guess it depends on diplomatic range. Other than that thanks to naval trade you don't need to have physical contact with a country to trade.