Suggestion: diplomatic trade goods

[TomBombadil]

I realise it's early to make such suggestions before the game comes out, but I think it'd be a great mechanic as part of an expansion.

So my idea is inspired by an episode of Enterprise in which the crew are trying to get hold of some Trellium-D. They find an alien trader with some, but he's not willing to part with it without something incredibly valuable in return. So Malcolm Tucker presents him with a hermetically sealed briefcase which, when opened, reveals a set of little pots containing various powders. Malcolm announces that on our homeworld, humans have fought wars over these. He points to them and says "this one is called 'paprika', this one's 'mustard', and this one, 'black pepper'..." etc. The trader is thrilled and hands over the Trellium-D for a suitcase of hermetically sealed cooking spices.

This gets me thinking, throughout history, empires have been dramatically impacted by the appearance of of valuable trade good one country has, that another hasn't.

The Chinese monopoly on tea production almost brought the British empire to its knees, as the Chinese would only accept silver in exchange for tea, Britain was rapidly exhausting its silver reserves buying up a good the Chinese simply grew in the ground, and that the British destroyed while consuming it. In the end, the British first introduced Opium (a highly addictive drug) to China, to try and reverse the trade inbalance. When the Chinese tried to ban Opium as a result, the British fought the Opium Wars to force China to reconsider. Finally, the British sent a spy named Robert Fortune to steal tea plants, and the secrets to preparing tea itself, so the British could plant it in India and gain control of tea production.

There are other examples. The native Americans famously traded land for beads. When the Dutch East India Company took control of the islands where nutmeg was produced, they killed every native they could find and sought to destroy every single nutmeg tree in the wild to gain a complete monopoly on nutmeg production in their islands.

So wouldn't it be cool if in contacting alien species, you have a chance to discover a trade good such as a spice or drug that the other side possesses and that your people desperately want. Based on this, decisions can be made whether to restrict supply, share it, trade it for monthly resources, fight for it or even steal it. The other side gets unhappy pops if they can't get enough of the good, but happiness boosts if they can. Either side could find itself in a diplomatic crisis if they can't protect themselves from being harmed by the other. It could be a reason to send your war fleets half way across the galaxy just to deal with it, instead of almost exclusively warring your neighbours to expand your borders.

Maybe even fallen empires take an unusual interest in you based on this. Normally, a particular fallen empire should ignore everyone unless they start experimenting with AI tech, but they suddenly call you up asking about catfood. And you're thinking "eh? It's just catfood..." but they warn they'll throw the full might of your fleet at you if you if you don't send them some RIGHT NOW. Maybe if your empire's strength weren't completely pathetic, they'd agree to a non-aggression pact for it... for now.

 

[Slug-thing]

I too would like to see that sort of trade goods. What I want is to be surprised when that marginal world I decided to colonize becomes a major economic centre because it has powdered prickleseed that the Frezuninans are desperate for, and what I expected to be a boring farmworld becomes a major tradeport due to its position along some hyperspace lanes. I can do without having to design and build freighters, but choosing to build a trading station, or making a diplomacy decision about selling addictive drugs, would be welcome. The trading system I'd like is more for offering diplomatic possibilities and problems than as something critical to my empire's economy.

If trade--or espionage or anything else along those lines--is added later, I think it might be better to have affecting traits and their points in a group separate from the existing traits. Thus a DLC would offer several trade traits to spend 3 points on, rather than adding them to the existing traits. The more traits to choose from, and points to spend, the more opportunity to create overpowered builds.

 

[S.C. Watson]

Along with in game, physical, raidable / tradeable resources, species unique trade goods would be awesome. I'd love to see something like that.

 

[Slug-thing]

It might not be necessary to wait for a DLC. It might be possible to add trade just by modding. It would be simple enough to add trade goods as anomalies. Instead of just money as most 4x's do, Stellaris offers great possibilities for what goods offer: you might effectively trade migration time for happiness, or leader lifespan for engineering output, although it might be tricky limiting the effects to one planet. There are also lots of options for limiting who the trade deals appeal to. Example: "You have discovered that this planet provides prickleseed, which may be a desirable commodity. When traded to a <sedentary> <reptilian> customer with a <divine mandate> government, you will receive <ethics divergence -2%> while the purchasing planet receives <growth rate +3%> Prickleseed may have hallucinogenic properties for some races <random yes/no 'and be addictive'>.".

The problem is finding suitable hooks to get the AI to propose/accept trade goods. We'll have to wait to see what's available via modding. It might be amusing if the way to get the AI nations to trade is through the insult function. "You slimy molluscs have gone too far! In response to your execrable acts, we insist on purchasing 2 years worth of your stinky cheese! That will show you we are not to be trifled with!"

For added complexity, the system might allow you to be a middleman, finding a trade good offered within your range, and a customer beyond range of it (a hyperdrive race might be a middleman for a warp drive race). You'd get a bonus, but also a responsibility to maintain the trade route, with possible penalties for failure. Hmm, maybe too complex to add, but nice to think about.

One way to handle trade is to have lots of potential trade deals which could each be good, bad, or both, and each nation has to decide which ones to chose. Unfortunately, this is something hard to program an AI to do, so it would just give human players a major advantage. Thus it would be better to have fewer potential deals offered, and have them good for both parties, so that the AI will only refuse ones that are easy to recognize as not good for them at that time. Likewise, the AI will know to offer any discovered trade goods to any suitable customers, maybe with some simple rules such as not selling militarily valuable goods to a nation that is considered a threat. We simply have to take AI limitations into account.

On a more global scope, I'd like the trade system to make me smile with satisfaction when one of my worlds adds a trade deal/route/station due to my policy decisions, and make me worried (enough to start considering how to deal with it) when trade is threatened, ... and make me laugh when a nation buys something humorously inappropriate (The big ferocious militarist nation just bought 2 million pink bunny slippers). As I said before, it should add to the diplomatic strategy part of the game, rather than being a goal in itself.

 

[LastLeviathan]

I understand it's not quite on the level you're thinking of, but the strategic resources system may work in the way you're imagining things.