Trading resources with distant civs

Brundlefly · January 28, 2003, 11:08

Is it worthwhile to trade resources with a distant civilization early in the game?

In my current game it is late ancient age. There is a distant civ who keeps fluxuating every turn between having ability to trade resources with me and not having the ability. He is landlocked and his only trade connection to me is that he is connected by road to the port of some third civ.

He will pay a lot of $$ for my resource but if I do the trade and he loses connection to that port, it seems like he and ALL of the other civs will blame ME for breaking a deal and I wont be able to get any value from anyone for ROPs or Alliances for the REST of the game!!! I hate that part of Civ3's design...

I don't finish many games, so maybe someone can tell me if later in the game is it possible to trade resources with a civ like this without fear of "breaking" an agreement?

Datajack Franit · January 28, 2003, 19:07

"Help" him by seizing the third faction's port

bongo · January 29, 2003, 05:56

I'm not sure if it will be a problem as long as you're recieving GPT for goods. It will definetely be a problem if you are going to pay for a tech with a luxury.

Datajack Franit's advice is also very good.

Mad Bomber · January 29, 2003, 11:57

Datajack:

Seizing the port is only a partial answer. There has to be another civ blocking the land route to the port. The civ with the port is having trouble keeping people out of its borders, and is having the land route blocked when units stroll through.

Bongo:

GPT is a 20 turn deal as are resources. The only deal that should be conducted with this civ is a straight tech for cash deal.

Brundlefly · January 29, 2003, 12:29

Quote:

Originally posted by Mad Bomber
Datajack:

Seizing the port is only a partial answer. There has to be another civ blocking the land route to the port. The civ with the port is having trouble keeping people out of its borders, and is having the land route blocked when units stroll through.

Bongo:

GPT is a 20 turn deal as are resources. The only deal that should be conducted with this civ is a straight tech for cash deal.

Ok, thanks Bomber. That's the reply I was looking for. It is clearly not worth it to risk damaging your reputation and ability to get value from diplomatic agreements for the rest of the game in exchange for a few $$ if a blocked land route can bust a deal and stupidly cause you to be named a "treaty breaker" to the world.

CiverDan · January 29, 2003, 21:50

Yes..there are certain problem with trading system. The biggest one is the is a per turn agreement is dissolved for ANY reason during the first 20 turns IIRC, it hurts your rep. There may be exceptions though or maybe the problems may have been at least partially patched. This includes taking a rep hit when u and and ally destroy a civ u are both allied against.

pedrojedi · January 31, 2003, 12:46

About trading with distant civs, I had recently a problem with this subject, but nothing similar with "rep-derangement".

I had the luck (bad luck?) of starting alone in an island-continent. It's a respectable mass of land, with almost every tipe of land there, and even a small hope of having an oil fountain (not there still). So, the first 2000 years were golden for my people, with lots of infrastructure improvements and 3 wonders (Piramids, Colossus, and even Lighthouse). Heh, I even got a good portion of gold stompin' and beatin' those pesky barbarians.

Thing is, after late ancient era, I began suffering with tech-lag. Using my only hope of maintaining pace with the other civs, I made extensive use of Galleys to improve my map and get some good trades, using the "going around the world" strategy of negotiation.

That proved to be a placebo, and soon I saw myself trading my spice resources, which I had. A LOT. Even so, eventually I got behind the Chinese and those nasty Persians (I hate them, oh so much...) in tech development, and a good way behind.

Thanks to recent events, a chain of MPP's made me enter in an endless and painful war against both of them, and my advanced post in the chinese continent (an ancient Indian land) will eventually fall, as it had not the time to be developed, at least with respect to railroads.

Here's the question: if I began isolated in a continents map, should I restart? Or there is a solution for the tech lag problem? What do you think?

steven8r · February 3, 2003, 21:26

Feephi,

Always trade if you can get something from it. Don't worry about the reputation hit if civ C destroys civ B's roads. Get the good stuff while you can.

If you're too worried about the rep hit, join in w/ civ B against civ C in a war. That will help restore your reputation--just don't declare peace until after 20 turns or after civ B has.

Towards the end of the game, if you're winning, none of the other civs will like you much anyway.

Don't worry about reputation. When you're the only civ on the planet, you don't have to worry about reputation.