Explain the way trade now works to me like I was a 3 year old...

[DukeDayve]

Despite 200+ hours of EUIV I absolutely suck at it and I suck even harder at trade. Basically what I used to do was (for example if I was playing as England) have a merchant collect trade in the England trade zone and have any additional merchants transferring trade to the England node from Bordeaux, North Sea, etc.

Now though I notice when the game starts I don't have any merchants collecting trade, just two merchants transferring trade to my home node. If I switch one of these merchants to collect while the other one steers, my trade income doesn't go up or down.

So explain to me as if I was a 3 year old: how do I into trade?

 

[TolHydra]

I suck at explanations, and I barely understand it to begin with, but here's my 2 cents:

Think of it as a big gather-up game, you need to gather the wealth. Your home node collects no matter what, but having a merchant boosts it significantly.

The more you chain transferring merchants, the more of a bonus you'll get.

Percentage it shows on a node is how effective at this you are; there are ways to get more trade power, which will boost your percentage;

Good provinces

Buildings

and of course, having light ships at the node patrolling.

This is why Ottomans expand east, where the trade flows. Or why is it so beneficial to get colonial nations.

 

[cold warpgates]

You always automatically collect in your home node, putting a merchant there just makes it a bit better. In your example, it's probably just an odd coincidence that moving your merchant from pushing trade to collecting it ends up with the same total income.

 

[Xara]

Go brush your teeth, it's past your bed-time.

 

[DukeDayve]

Go brush your teeth, it's past your bed-time.

The funny thing is I'm actually about to go and brush my teeth and go to bed!

 

[costevie]

is this a good place for an equally child-friendly description of how trade GOODS work?

 

[Thrake]

Having a merchant collect in your home node adds 2 trade power and slightly increase the overall amount you would collect otherwise. It's good to do if you are a tiny OPM with a small trade share but as GB, you should have high trade power in your home node, thus I would rather steer from another node.

Overall, you will want all your merchants to steer towards your collecting node; only exceptions are the OPM or small nations situation (as Norway from start for exemple, I will collect both in North sea and Lubeck because I have good power in both nodes; redirecting to Lubeck would end up in Hansa getting most of it or moving trade capital to North sea would make collecting in Lubeck inefficient though perhaps necessary if you have a colonial empire ie rich North sea node but Hansa still there and monopolizing Lubeck). Also, sometimes you will want to collect trade that you can't redirect to home node; for ex. it's sometimes very profitable to monopolize an African node and collect there; even with -50% efficiency you can make good profit from this. Last important part is that each merchant steering will "create" trade value out of thin air for the node you're redirecting at, thus long chains of merchants can be very profitable.

Edit:
What don't you understand with trade goods?

 

[costevie]

it's generally a mechanic i've never paid attention to so i have no idea what i'm missing

 

[Thrake]

it's generally a mechanic i've never paid attention to so i have no idea what i'm missing

Well, some are good, some are bad; what's more is there to tell?

I'm yet to go through a full AoW game to see all the events linked to goods prices to draw serious conclusions. I will add that if you are the 1st producer of a good worldwide, you will produce 0.1 more good per province. Also, having more than 20% (30%?) of a share of a good (ie how much you trade value from that good you collect in trade nodes) brings powerful benefits (cheaper infantry for grain,... not all are that good though).

 

[Landwalker]

My understanding of trade basically amounts to "Conquer all the provinces in your home trade node and steer as much other trade there as you can." I don't even have an evidence-based reason for it, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. :wacko:

 

[Karabas1543]

Think of it in steps. First wealth gets collected at each node from its provinces. This depends on the base tax of the provinces, as well as buildings. Then, the wealth gets divided between the nations at the node by the percentage of their trade power. Trade power is determined by provinces in the node, their buildings, and fleets. Then each nation sends their share of the wealth either to their coffers (if they are collecting) or downstream to the next node where the process gets repeated again.

Essentially the optional situation is to collect at the node furthest downstream while having lots of trade power in the upstream nodes to push a lot of money into the one where you collect.

 

[victimizer]

Explain the way trade now works to me like I was a 3 year old...

Well, you see when your playmate has a toy you want...

 

[Landwalker]

Well, you see when your playmate has a toy you want...

You wait until nobody's looking, sucker-punch them, and take it for yourself? (So, yeah, basically EUIV diplomacy and economics in a nutshell. )

 

[TheDecider]

Come over here and sit on papa's lap, now let me tell you a story...

Scattered around the world there are barrels of water, these barrels are known as "Trade nodes". At every barrel, there are small taps that continuously keeps filling them up with more water, these are provinces. The taps output different colors of their water to represent the different trade goods. At the bottom of every barrel can there be 2 holes, but always at least 1. One hole is used by merchants to drink the water at the current barrel, this is always there but how much the merchants drink is up to the players. The other hole which is rarely not there, leads to other barrels, this pipe also have a cleaning filter so the water becomes clean again. Likewise, at the top of every barrel there is very often pipes from other barrels, but sometimes this pipe isn't there. At the hose of the bottom of the barrel where the pipe leading to other barrels is, merchants can stand to try and take from the barrel, these merchants can also wrestle with each other to try and steer it in the direction they wan't.

Now it's time to go bed, see you tomorrow

 

[Kwami]

http://xkcd.com/1364/

 

[ACardAttack]

The more you chain transferring merchants, the more of a bonus you'll get.

Percentage it shows on a node is how effective at this you are; there are ways to get more trade power, which will boost your percentage;

When you say chain, do you mean if I have Merchant A transferring from node 1 to node 2, Merchant B transferring from node 2 to node 3, merchant 3 transferring from node 3 to node 4 and Merchant D collecting at node 4? or something else?

 

[TolHydra]

When you say chain, do you mean if I have Merchant A transferring from node 1 to node 2, Merchant B transferring from node 2 to node 3, merchant 3 transferring from node 3 to node 4 and Merchant D collecting at node 4? or something else?

Yes.