A Trade Model -- Give this a look

[Napoleon I]

Civ3 Trade Model v. 1.2

A. Background

1. The resource system of Civ2 will be kept. These resources would change as the game progresses, i.e. salt and hides will be replaced by iron and spices which will be replaced by oil and uranium, for example.

B. Domestic trade mechanism

2. Each city will have a certain number of these resources. The resources would be assigned on an adjusted random basis that would take into consideration the terrain types surrounding the city. For example, a city that has plains with game next to it would have a much higher chance of getting hides as one of the resources than a city standing on a shore.

3. The types of resources produced will also be dependent on the types of technology available to the civ. Therefore after discovery of Industrialization the types of resources produced will be changed from raw materials to a combination of raw materials and manufactured goods. This will cause significant shifts in amount of trade between different cities and will model the redrawing of economic routes in the industrial era. Furthermore, increasing the city’s industrial capacity will add resources to the city list. For example, a factory will add a random manufactured product to a city’s list of resources, and a manufacturing plant will add two more.

4. Trade will exist between each city that does not have identical resources and the amount of trade will depend on the number of different resources that each city has. For example, if two cities have two resources that are the same and one that is different, they will each have two additional trade arrows, while if two cities each has three different resources they would each get six additional trade arrows. This trade would also depend on the city size, that is the amount of trade will rise with the population and with building of certain improvements such as the marketplace or the stock exchange. This trade will be handled automatically.

C. International Trade Mechanism

5. Trade will also exist with any other civilization that you have established diplomatic relations with. This trade will be conducted on a civ to civ basis, and its size will depend on the size of the civ and on the number of economic improvements (marketplace, bank, etc.) that each civ has. This trade will also contain a certain scientific bonus that will depend on the number of scientific improvements (library, university, etc.) and on the number of scientists that the other civ has. For example, if you are trading with a civ that has much more libraries than you do, you will get a greater science bonus than they will. This would even the game out somewhat because it would make civs closer in scientific development. This trade would also be handled automatically.

6. To simulate real-life trade processes and tendencies, an inherent disparity will be present in all international trade. The civs that are more advanced economically will get larger economic benefits, but the civ that is more advanced scientifically will actually get smaller scientific bonuses. This would represent the fact that more advanced civs have less to gain in terms of science from the less advanced civs.

D. Trade Modifiers

7. Caravans will be able to enhance the automatic trade described above. If a caravan from one of your cities establishes a trade route to one of your cities trade between these cities would be increased. This effect would cease with the discovery of industrialization to imitate the fact that as nations become more industrially developed the benefits to internal trade due to caravans diminish.

8. If you send a caravan to another civ you will get a one-time bonus and trade between your two civs will increase. The presence of caravans will imitate the influence of adventurous traders such as the Polo brothers that greatly increased trade with distant nations. This effect would stay throughout the entire game.

9. Governments will also influence trade. In domestic trade, governments will simply increase the number of trade arrows that each city generates. In international trade however, government will have two effects. First of all, trade between civs that possess similar governments will be greater than between civs with different governments. For example, a democracy will have the greatest amount of trade with another democracy, less trade with republic, even less with communism, then trade would decrease through monarchy, despotism, and fundamentalism respectively. The second effect of government on international trade would be that trade between governments would slowly improve the relations between the two civs. The greater the amount of trade, the more rapid improvement. This would represent the fact that if you have a massive amount of trade with somebody, you would want to insult them and risk losing the profits.

10. Another modifier to the international trade will be the relations between the two government. Using the current system of political states the following are rated in the order of decreasing revenue: Alliance, Treaty, Nothing(you have discovered each other but haven’t signed anything yet), Truce(Cease Fire).

11. The last modifier to the trade system will be the attitudes of the people involved. For the simplicity of the concept this will only be applied to internal trade. If the people in a certain city are happier than in most they will generate an increased amount of trade with all of the cities that they are trading with. This would simulate increased productivity of the people that are happy in their jobs and would like to support their government.

This was compiled by:
Napoleon I
Tonic


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Napoleon I

Excellent ideas! I can't find anything that needs to be added, although that may change over time. Good ideas though! It would be an excellent way to go, giving AI civs that are low on technologies a chance. It will be nice to see the computer actually getting ahead of you on something.

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Civmew2, a Civingpsy Pokemon. It plays, comments, and even writes about the civilization games. It is known for extensive AI beating.

[MidKnight Lament]

Great to see someone attempting to come up with a complete model, rather than just suggesting small things all the time (which is great, but things do have to tie together). I'm sure others will pick through all this, but until then, it feels pretty good to me.

I think Firaxis have already got ideas on what they're doing in regard to trade, but you might suggest somwthing which will spark off some thought in their minds. It'd be great if they could hint to us some vague concepts on how they plan to do it. That way we could focus our suggestions.

Anyway, good job. Quite promising. You've obviously spent a great deal of time thinking about it.

- MKL

[tonic]

This deserves sticky thread status, Napoleon I. In the absence of admin power, A gentle bump.

[Napoleon I]

Thanks Tonic.

Actually the lack of interest here is kind of discouraging. ***Heavy sigh***

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Napoleon I

[Shadowstrike]

You could extend the trading resources idea to add a small amount of shields (people could make more things with resources from afar) to the output of both cities involved.

[phunny pharmer]

{quote] adventurous traders such as the Polo brothers [/quote] Hmm...did they ever reach China?

But that's not the point. I like it, Napper!