More insight into trade in Civ3 from the CVG article

[korn469]

warm beer

i think the only reason that you only need one resource is that it is easier to manage logistics that way, if every city needed an iron resource to build swordmen then you might get to the point where a number of your cities couldn't build anything...still if resource depletion was directly determined by usage then you would still need to secure several resource tiles or risk running out of a resource

i also think that earning gold from trade routes would be just another reason to encourage trade between civs, if civs don't trade then the great civ3 overhaul of trade might have been alot of wasted time that they could have spent on other things

also since trade is directly dependent on diplomacy then the AI is going to need an upgrade to understand how to best use trade, what is the point of a number of trade options if the AI refuses to use them

[Rommel393]

Korn I agree with what your saying about the trade except that I read something that says you can either pay a lump sum(gold), an annual fee(again, gold), or some any other kind of unit, tech, etc. In the bartering screen. You will have to pay for the resource coming in in some way or form. Im pretty positive the SMAC kind of trade will not be included. Again, I READ this. I'm pretty sure theres something at the old Civ3 official web site. Look there if you want to see for yourself.

[korn469]

I read something that says you can either pay a lump sum(gold), an annual fee(again, gold), or some any other kind of unit, tech, etc. In the bartering screen. You will have to pay for the resource coming in in some way or form.

yes there are screenshots that even show what you are talking about but i am pretty sure that this doesn't refer to trading special resources...if it does then this makes trading special resources even worse

why are you going to pay 2 or 3 gold a turn for spices, when you could build two or three temples that increase culture and make your empire happy?

and the AI usually never understand the vaule of a resource, and it will always overvaule what it has and undervalues what the player has

i could see the AI never wanting to trade...plus this means that trading is a burden on your economy instead of a help to it

[TechWins]

I some questions, if you are trading lets say silk for iron with another civ. You are only harvesting one silk resource. How is determined on how much of that resource you are giving away and how fast is it deteriating? Are you trading one whole silk resource tile for one whole iron resource tile? Can that tile of silk be depleted by another Civ? Will different resources last longer than others if they resources are to be depletable? Are resources depletable? If resources are depletable how many times would it take for you to deplete one iron resource when building a legion? Do certain units require more than one resource? What are all the resources you will need to build every single unit? Will wood need to be a resource to build warriors? If a silk resource is in your city radius and cultural borders can it supply the same function as it did in Civ2 and give the same function as it is supposed to in Civ3? Obviously, I have a lot of questions that if answered correctly could change the whole way we think about the resource/trade system.

[SerapisIV]

Unfortunately I think some of the questions you just asked won't be known until the actual release and you're able to actually playtest the resource engine yourself. I doubt any previews or Firaxis info would be so detailed. Trade, even simplified to only 8 resources and 8 luxuries could possibly be very deep game dynamic, maybe as deep as the variable SE choices of SMAC, which were not fully explored till well after the game's release.