We all discuss about trade and politics for Stellaris, so I will give a stab on a system for Trading that takes parts of EUIV into it. However a big issue is naturally that as stellaris is generated each game that no games will be identical. This of course means traderoutes like EUIV had isn't an option. Besdies I felt that the static nature of traderoutes were just a pain, if you got a bad spot (anywhere but europe) you couldn't in anyway terminate it, someone was always gonna start dragging money away. Well here is my idea that is dynamic, changing and somewhat controllable.
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Let us start with an example of 4 assigned systems, this is taken from a game of mine I did but it's purely for conceptual representation.
Now the idea is focused on 2 objects, Trade stations which can be built in rich systems, where you have no colony, and trade modules for spacestations. These will be unique to the system so you can only have 1 per system so in a system with plenty of colonies, you have to be strategic!
Why strategic about it? Because these stations are assigned a "mass" or "weight" to them where several factors play in. The idea behind the mass here is that it determined the trade value. Rich systems is more attractive to do trading at, to and from. Richness is determined by the population of the planet it orbits around (if any), the population of the system, the minerals/energy credits produced and any rare resources in the system. They all together build up the trade value of the station and hence gives it mass.
Why am I calling it mass, when trade value suffices? It is mostly for the next bit. We've all seen the pictures of gravity curving space where it sinks into the rubber making it deeper. That is how I imagen it would be here. Why is that? The idea is that money/trade would flow from the ones "higher up", or being of less trade value here, to those "lower down" or having high trade value. For example if we let A have TV(trade value) of 35EC (energy credits) and C has TV=20EC, then the flow of trade could not go
A -> C
As that would mean it is climbing upward, but
C -> A
is allowed as the money reaches a "lower state" so to speak.
Another reason for having this is to prevent the occurence of "trade circles" where trade is going around and around which spirals out of control. This however does equally mean that the "heaviest" trade station will get ALL the trade from the galaxy, makes no sense! So of course there is a check of "do they know of the empire?" for each trade station, if they don't how can trade flow there? However once all is discovered, same problem! Well I am also thinking there is a distance cost. After all the longer the distance between the station the more fuel the trade ships must use to travel there, less profit, less interest! This can be illustrated by this diagram
Where the left axis is their value, the bottom axis is just for placement, as we can see there is a bump in the middle that it must climb over. If the bump is too big the trading won't occure as it's a net loss for the traders. In this example we have the bump only being 5EC while the "fall" is 20EC, so a net gain of 15EC is acquired there.
Here however, the drop is 10EC but the climb is 12,5EC, a loss of 2,5EC and as such no trading is even plausible here. I'd say that a station can have 4 incomming routes and 3 outgoing. One thing that would happen is also that as money flows from C to A, A's TV increases while C's decreases somewhat. The programmers would have to do so it's not looping but that's not our concern here. Why is that even relevant? Well more money is flowing into a system making it more attractive! More trading, more money can be earned there for selling your goods!
There is however a strategic reason for that also, i'll get into it in a moment. A feature these stations would have is for the state (you, AI computers etc) to establish government funded routes. What these do is lowering the transportation cost for our imaginary traders by saying "We'll pay part of your journey". This has the effect of our bump getting smaller and hence allowing more trading and hence increase the chance a natural traderoute forms inbetween the stations that will direct money there. This service of course will be a cost that comes monthly. And it goes from 0% to 200% in value, where value is the bumps value between the source and target. At 0% we have the graph like this
The bump exists and annoys, at 100% where you, the state, take the punishment of the bump, we get this instead.
Where it no longer adds to the calculation.
Finally, at 200% you are not only covering the costs, you are paying them some extra to go that route! This has the effect of increasing the target stations value such that we get this diagram
and hence is even more attractive, but ONLY between the target and source stations, no others.
Now I said there was a strategy to that stations gained/lost TV through the routes. It's like this, assume we have a chain like this
A -> B -> C
and also D -> B, if you manipulate this route from D to B such that enough flows from it to B such that B's trade value increases sufficiently enough that it's value is above the threshold value that is keeping B -> C active, then the traderoute B -> C withers and dies, leaving you only A -> B and D -> B remains. This is of interest if C lies not in your border and is draining from you. As such by investing enough money you can after a short while terminate a trade route. I would say it takes sometime before it dies and isn't just suddenly gone. At this point, Bs TV might have grown with both of A and Ds trade flows that even when you go back to just 100%, or even 0% guiding, B is too massive to establish toward C and it might even start flowing in the opposite direction.
A natural lingering question is why would anyone want to risk this? It can be a demand from people, this is where xenophobes could get an advantage, their people simply do not care. If no trading happens when it could then the pops get unhappy if it's not within some distance, a traderoute or something. Another possibility is that a trade station boosts productions by some amount that makes it worthwhile and the game becomes more about making sure you get the biggest bonus possible and not helping your foes.
This system would allow for a dynamic trade route system to exist where routes are not permanent, they change and such as the game progresses and population moves, change, discoveries are made and much else. What starts out as a good trading post in early game ends up just being an outgoing one later and nigh worthless at end game while others picked up value.
------------------------------------
Let us start with an example of 4 assigned systems, this is taken from a game of mine I did but it's purely for conceptual representation.
Now the idea is focused on 2 objects, Trade stations which can be built in rich systems, where you have no colony, and trade modules for spacestations. These will be unique to the system so you can only have 1 per system so in a system with plenty of colonies, you have to be strategic!
Why strategic about it? Because these stations are assigned a "mass" or "weight" to them where several factors play in. The idea behind the mass here is that it determined the trade value. Rich systems is more attractive to do trading at, to and from. Richness is determined by the population of the planet it orbits around (if any), the population of the system, the minerals/energy credits produced and any rare resources in the system. They all together build up the trade value of the station and hence gives it mass.
Why am I calling it mass, when trade value suffices? It is mostly for the next bit. We've all seen the pictures of gravity curving space where it sinks into the rubber making it deeper. That is how I imagen it would be here. Why is that? The idea is that money/trade would flow from the ones "higher up", or being of less trade value here, to those "lower down" or having high trade value. For example if we let A have TV(trade value) of 35EC (energy credits) and C has TV=20EC, then the flow of trade could not go
A -> C
As that would mean it is climbing upward, but
C -> A
is allowed as the money reaches a "lower state" so to speak.
Another reason for having this is to prevent the occurence of "trade circles" where trade is going around and around which spirals out of control. This however does equally mean that the "heaviest" trade station will get ALL the trade from the galaxy, makes no sense! So of course there is a check of "do they know of the empire?" for each trade station, if they don't how can trade flow there? However once all is discovered, same problem! Well I am also thinking there is a distance cost. After all the longer the distance between the station the more fuel the trade ships must use to travel there, less profit, less interest! This can be illustrated by this diagram
Where the left axis is their value, the bottom axis is just for placement, as we can see there is a bump in the middle that it must climb over. If the bump is too big the trading won't occure as it's a net loss for the traders. In this example we have the bump only being 5EC while the "fall" is 20EC, so a net gain of 15EC is acquired there.
Here however, the drop is 10EC but the climb is 12,5EC, a loss of 2,5EC and as such no trading is even plausible here. I'd say that a station can have 4 incomming routes and 3 outgoing. One thing that would happen is also that as money flows from C to A, A's TV increases while C's decreases somewhat. The programmers would have to do so it's not looping but that's not our concern here. Why is that even relevant? Well more money is flowing into a system making it more attractive! More trading, more money can be earned there for selling your goods!
There is however a strategic reason for that also, i'll get into it in a moment. A feature these stations would have is for the state (you, AI computers etc) to establish government funded routes. What these do is lowering the transportation cost for our imaginary traders by saying "We'll pay part of your journey". This has the effect of our bump getting smaller and hence allowing more trading and hence increase the chance a natural traderoute forms inbetween the stations that will direct money there. This service of course will be a cost that comes monthly. And it goes from 0% to 200% in value, where value is the bumps value between the source and target. At 0% we have the graph like this
The bump exists and annoys, at 100% where you, the state, take the punishment of the bump, we get this instead.
Where it no longer adds to the calculation.
Finally, at 200% you are not only covering the costs, you are paying them some extra to go that route! This has the effect of increasing the target stations value such that we get this diagram
and hence is even more attractive, but ONLY between the target and source stations, no others.
Now I said there was a strategy to that stations gained/lost TV through the routes. It's like this, assume we have a chain like this
A -> B -> C
and also D -> B, if you manipulate this route from D to B such that enough flows from it to B such that B's trade value increases sufficiently enough that it's value is above the threshold value that is keeping B -> C active, then the traderoute B -> C withers and dies, leaving you only A -> B and D -> B remains. This is of interest if C lies not in your border and is draining from you. As such by investing enough money you can after a short while terminate a trade route. I would say it takes sometime before it dies and isn't just suddenly gone. At this point, Bs TV might have grown with both of A and Ds trade flows that even when you go back to just 100%, or even 0% guiding, B is too massive to establish toward C and it might even start flowing in the opposite direction.
A natural lingering question is why would anyone want to risk this? It can be a demand from people, this is where xenophobes could get an advantage, their people simply do not care. If no trading happens when it could then the pops get unhappy if it's not within some distance, a traderoute or something. Another possibility is that a trade station boosts productions by some amount that makes it worthwhile and the game becomes more about making sure you get the biggest bonus possible and not helping your foes.
This system would allow for a dynamic trade route system to exist where routes are not permanent, they change and such as the game progresses and population moves, change, discoveries are made and much else. What starts out as a good trading post in early game ends up just being an outgoing one later and nigh worthless at end game while others picked up value.
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I also put it into the suggestion folder so they could see it
