Steering trade and Collecting

[ejones44]

When you are "protecting trade" riseordie, you are massively increasing your trade power in that node.

You then use your trade power to be able to steer more trade.





My example:
Playing as Ottomans. I want to collect trade in Constantinople (my capital): Send one merchant there to COLLECT.

Looking at the Constantinople trade node there are tabs at the top listing connected nodes (in order of amount of money) with incoming on the left and outgoing on the right.
Alexandria is a large node that is incoming to Constantinople, so I decide I will compete there to STEER more money towards Constantinople. I send a merchant there to do this.

The amount I steer and the amount I collect (out of the total value of each node) is affected directly by my relative power in each... so I will send light ships to both to increase said power.


edit: funny riseordie has been a complaining, super negative troll the last few days... and now he's completely clueless asking for help on basic things :/

 

[Hiiri]

Doesnt this also have an effect then on collection since your increasing your trade power n the node.

I guess so, but if you already get a big chunk from a certain node, it might not be as effective and the ships could be better used elsewhere.

 

[Chieron]

How do you steer using ships?

All i could do with my ships was protect trade of where my merchants were placed.

I think that ships give extra tradepower.. at least it looked like that in my Ottoman try. (It went from 180 to 250 or so in Constantinople when I ordered the ships to protect trade there).
Steering trade from Alexandria to Constantinople was better than collecting there, IIRC.

 

[Red_warning]

Steered wealth gets a bonus in its value, and trade in your capital's region will give a really hefty bonus. This makes it so that the player should aim for steering as much trade as possible to the capital. But I have a feeling that trade isn't going to be all that lucrative early on until the European powers have explored the world a bit and invested in their trade.

 

[RX2000]

Good to see I'm not the only one having problems understanding the new trade system.

Its kind of annoying too, because it doesnt look like its all that deep, but its just not really explained well. Such is the way with most things in Paradox games tho.

 

[ejones44]

Good to see I'm not the only one having problems understanding the new trade system.

Its kind of annoying too, because it doesnt look like its all that deep, but its just not really explained well. Such is the way with most things in Paradox games tho.

The tutorial explained it fine for me :blink:

 

[TrojanAC]

There is also the fact that steering increased the value of trade, i don't know exact numbers but if you steer 4g from alexandria 5g will arrive in byzanz and your collector there will make a greater profit when he collects his bigger share at home

 

[RiseOrDie]

Could one not use their ships to steer from another node where his merchants are not operating?

for example

- using 1 merchant to collect in node A
- using 1 merchant to steer in node B
- using light ships to steer in node C

 

[Zarine]

Could one not use their ships to steer from another node where his merchants are not operating?

No you can't. I guess it's for balance, otherwise you could send ship in every trade node and be a plague for everyone.

 

[Hiiri]

Could one not use their ships to steer from another node where his merchants are not operating?

for example

- using 1 merchant to collect in node A
- using 1 merchant to steer in node B
- using light ships to steer in node C

I don't think so. After all, light ships only protect what your merchant is delivering, they don't do the haggling and trading.

Edit:

Its kind of annoying too, because it doesnt look like its all that deep, but its just not really explained well. Such is the way with most things in Paradox games tho.

The tutorial explains it nicely. River is a pretty good analogue for the system; money flows from a point X, trade nodes are intersections in the river and you'll want to channel as much of it towards your home as possible.

 

[RiseOrDie]

edit: funny riseordie has been a complaining, super negative troll the last few days... and now he's completely clueless asking for help on basic things :/

well, it seems that I have overlooked everything due to my high expectations; its really so simple and limited, even if you choose the trade route as your focus and gain extra merchants, there isnt much to do once you've placed them. Again i could be wrong, at this point I have no clue how far and indepth things go in the game. This is just a demo, and we've seen beta gameplay only, so perhaps there is more to trade than just collecting, steering, protecting, and building to improve your trade income.

reading about EU3, it sounds like you can have trade league wars, trade rights to certain products, and send merchants across the world to build a massive trade empire. Hopefully they will add this to EU4 in the future

 

[Zarine]

reading about EU3, it sounds like you can have trade league wars, trade rights to certain products, and send merchants across the world to build a massive trade empire. Hopefully they will add this to EU4 in the future

EU3 trade was kinda broken because of that.

 

[Kaiser Ludwig]

no there will be 2 merchants and 2 diplomats even in the final game. Ideas will give you more depends what you focus on.

But thats the point, I am sure the team has tested and found out that 2 is the most balanced.

What would happen if lets say we increase/mod merchants to 3, would that knock the the balance out of the game if everyone had 3 merchants?

Maybe, given that if you see them as a percentage increase it'd make the trade ideas and merchant republic bonuses less powerful vs. the standard start. 1 Extra Merchant is a 50% increase if there are 2 from a base, but "merely" a 33% increase if there are 3 as a start.

 

[RiseOrDie]

Maybe, given that if you see them as a percentage increase it'd make the trade ideas and merchant republic bonuses less powerful vs. the standard start. 1 Extra Merchant is a 50% increase if there are 2 from a base, but "merely" a 33% increase if there are 3 as a start.

now if we increase the merchant republic bonus to +2 merchants that would balance it in a way.
this gives players and AI more dynamic options over trade, steer from 2 nodes instead of 1. while a merchant republic can enjoy better bonuses with more merchants

If I play as Portugal, and I steer through the Mediterranean to collect at Seville, will my steering help Castille too? ( in the sense that i steer to their home node)

 

[Zarine]

If I play as Portugal, and I steer through the Mediterranean to collect at Seville, will my steering help Castille too? ( in the sense that i steer to their home node)

Yes, steering helps the following node, not yourself.

 

[RiseOrDie]

Yes, steering helps the following node, not yourself.

thanks Zarine

 

[Sn3ipen]

Can a country have more than 100% trade power?





Is it just a waste or do I get more income if there are competitors?

 

[Xeorm]

As far as I know, there's no way to get 100% trade power unless you're the only competitor. The other nations will always have some percentage of the trade if they want it, however small. In your screenshot though, remember that Venice and Antwerpen are special nodes that have no outgoing lines, and so all their trade is retained by default. Trade power is still useful in deciding how much money you take home though, which judging by the second pie graph, you have about 50% of that.

Of course, whether it's a waste or not is more dependent on what's happening upstream. It may be more profitable to bring in more cash from upstream, rather than trying to pull more out at Venice.

 

[Chieron]

Can a country have more than 100% trade power?



Is it just a waste or do I get more income if there are competitors?

I think that simply means that all trade power active in that node (Venice) is used to get money, instead of trade steering. (otherwise, there would be some note saying that a fraction is used for steering)
The individual powers add up to these 100%. Thus, you can't have over 100% power, as it will always be a proper fraction of powers present in the node. (The actual power value can be any nonnegative number, however)

 

[Pokka]

I think that simply means that all trade power active in that node (Venice) is used to get money, instead of trade steering. (otherwise, there would be some note saying that a fraction is used for steering)
The individual powers add up to these 100%. Thus, you can't have over 100% power, as it will always be a proper fraction of powers present in the node. (The actual power value can be any nonnegative number, however)

Cause Venice, like Antewep, are end nodes. That's why you got 100%