First off I'm obviously aware that Hearts of Iron isn't setting out to simulate governing a nation, much less is it trying to simulate global economics and trade - everything in the game is slanted towards the inevitable world war and what economic and industrial policy exists is purely there to simulate the need during the war for powers to out-produce each other and ship in resources at a fast enough clip to pull that off.
This wasn't an issue, either, until I started playing online with a friend recently and we really started to consider the practical implications of the trade mechanics. Even if we were ideologically opposed in-game, so long as we weren't at war we had a standing agreement that if the other player produced a resource we need we'd buy from them, to give them all too crucial civilian factories.
This raises a question: Why can we manually shop for producers to import from, but we can't do the same for possible export destinations? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the AI appears to simply import from the first nation on the resource list (always the one, of course, producing the most of that resource), and means that even if you're a slightly smaller country with a surfeit of, say, Steel, you'll basically never be able to trade it until all other exporters are tapped out.
Maybe I'm wrong about all this - maybe there's a mechanic I'm overlooking and I'm about to be corrected and if so, good. But, it seems to me that there should be a way to actively seek trading partners to export to, and there should be a way to lobby to have your exports win out over another (I know there's a mechanic already that would govern this, I think it's called trade power or something?).
This way even if you're not playing the United States with Free Trade laws in place you can still try to export what you do have to shore up some nice factory space. I think it'd make the game a little more immersive as well, so that running the economy feels like you're actually doing something and not simply letting your exports go on autopilot.
With that said I feel there should also be a way to embargo countries without having to wait for specific and often unique national focuses (in fact thinking about it I feel as if the United States might just be the only country that has any sort of options when it comes to embargoes; I think the UK gets to do it to, but otherwise that's it as far as governing who your resources ship to goes). There needs to be some sort of balancing mechanic, of course, otherwise American players could simply cut off all Japan's oil from 1936 and watch them try to piece it together from elsewhere (Even though, admittedly, Japan can just as easily do business with Venezuela without batting an eyelid, at least until the US Navy shuts down the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping when war breaks out).
Of course I might just be overlooking something. I already mentioned I'm aware trade power exists even if I'm not sure what it does. My assumption is that if a country is tapped out of resources and two countries are competing for the last few units, the country with the larger trade power gets the export agreement. If there is another way trade power can be used so players can have more of a say in where our exports go, then I don't know it.
This wasn't an issue, either, until I started playing online with a friend recently and we really started to consider the practical implications of the trade mechanics. Even if we were ideologically opposed in-game, so long as we weren't at war we had a standing agreement that if the other player produced a resource we need we'd buy from them, to give them all too crucial civilian factories.
This raises a question: Why can we manually shop for producers to import from, but we can't do the same for possible export destinations? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the AI appears to simply import from the first nation on the resource list (always the one, of course, producing the most of that resource), and means that even if you're a slightly smaller country with a surfeit of, say, Steel, you'll basically never be able to trade it until all other exporters are tapped out.
Maybe I'm wrong about all this - maybe there's a mechanic I'm overlooking and I'm about to be corrected and if so, good. But, it seems to me that there should be a way to actively seek trading partners to export to, and there should be a way to lobby to have your exports win out over another (I know there's a mechanic already that would govern this, I think it's called trade power or something?).
This way even if you're not playing the United States with Free Trade laws in place you can still try to export what you do have to shore up some nice factory space. I think it'd make the game a little more immersive as well, so that running the economy feels like you're actually doing something and not simply letting your exports go on autopilot.
With that said I feel there should also be a way to embargo countries without having to wait for specific and often unique national focuses (in fact thinking about it I feel as if the United States might just be the only country that has any sort of options when it comes to embargoes; I think the UK gets to do it to, but otherwise that's it as far as governing who your resources ship to goes). There needs to be some sort of balancing mechanic, of course, otherwise American players could simply cut off all Japan's oil from 1936 and watch them try to piece it together from elsewhere (Even though, admittedly, Japan can just as easily do business with Venezuela without batting an eyelid, at least until the US Navy shuts down the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping when war breaks out).
Of course I might just be overlooking something. I already mentioned I'm aware trade power exists even if I'm not sure what it does. My assumption is that if a country is tapped out of resources and two countries are competing for the last few units, the country with the larger trade power gets the export agreement. If there is another way trade power can be used so players can have more of a say in where our exports go, then I don't know it.
