trade resource values

[Pope Adrian]

Can anyone tell me which file to change the amount of gold a resource is worth? sugar and coffee seem undervalued.

[Cursisanafou]

commodities_tables -> commodities with the PFM in patch.pack.

[Pope Adrian]

Thanks. I found the file and changed the values, but it didnt show up in the game. Any suggestions?

[Cursisanafou]

were you possibly using main.pack? the same file exists in patch.pack which would have priority.

[Pope Adrian]

No i changed patch pack. Should i maybe change both?

[Cursisanafou]

hmm let me check it out....

[Cursisanafou]

no idea man... i thought it would be that simple but apparently not.

[Pope Adrian]

Oh well. Thnks for the help anyway. Now that I know where to look i can mess around and try to get it to work.

[Calme]

I up this topic, I try to change the amount of gold earned by trading ressource too without sucess,
Anyone have an idea about this?

[alpaca]

Not sure, it could be they're pre-parsed into the esf on generation

[lord_yig]

Hi All,
first sorry for the poor or strange english as it is not my first language...

Here is how i have managed to modify the trade commodities value in my campaign.
All my assumptions about the trade mechanism need to be confirmed since I only played a bit with some files and values...
First you need to create a proper mod pack file, then you can play with values to see what can be made.
You need the pack file manager and you should refers to a tutorial to see how to create mod packs.

1. Open Patch.pack
2. Extract db\commotidies_tables\commodities in a directory of your choice
3. Extract db\commotidies_demand_junction_tables\commotidies_demand_junction in a directory of your choice
4. Create a new pack file
5. Import the files you have exported
6. Modify the pack file type and change it to be mod pack
7. Save you pack file
8. Go to each imported table and play with values.

From my experiments, I can assume that the column from both tables could have the following purpose :

• The first 'Unknown' column of the commodities table refers to the base price of each commodity.
• The second 'Unknown' column of the commodities table is to be investigated... It could be a value that modify the price of a commodity according to some economic formula used by the game engine, but I was not able to prove that in any case. It could also change the base price of a commodity in the late period of the campaign...
• The first 'Unknown' column of the commotidies_demand_junction table refers to a type of data, there two lines per commodity type in this table. So the value of this collumn change the type of data the line is referring to.
• The second 'Unknown' column of the commotidies_demand_junction table is to be investigated...
  I don't know what it's purpose is. It could be used to change the trade profit in the late period of the campaign...
• The third 'Unknown' column of the commotidies_demand_junction table refers to profits made for each commodity...

A quick precision about the commotidies_demand_junction table

• Lines with a ddr_GDP value in the first column refers to the profit made when a commodity is beeing trade. The base price of a commodity multiplied by the value in the third column of these lines should approximatly give the exact profit made from trade for this commodity type.
  Those resulting profit values can be seen in the trade panel of the campaign.
• Line with a ddr_TW or ddr_textile_production should refers to profit made by buildings. Modifying the third column of these lines should increase the profit generated by building using these commodities.

As I have already mentionned all this information needs to be confirmed, I have played a bit with those values but my assumptions are not 100% correct.
Also modifying those values will change the profit made by trade for ALL factions, resulting in a overall increase in gold for every faction. You can expect to see larger army and fleets even in small factions.
This totaly change the fell when playing a campaing post 1.2 patch.

Enjoy and forgive any mistake I may have made...

[erasmus777]

Hi All,
first sorry for the poor or strange english as it is not my first language...

Here is how i have managed to modify the trade commodities value in my campaign.
All my assumptions about the trade mechanism need to be confirmed since I only played a bit with some files and values...
First you need to create a proper mod pack file, then you can play with values to see what can be made.
You need the pack file manager and you should refers to a tutorial to see how to create mod packs.

1. Open Patch.pack
2. Extract db\commotidies_tables\commodities in a directory of your choice
3. Extract db\commotidies_demand_junction_tables\commotidies_demand_junction in a directory of your choice
4. Create a new pack file
5. Import the files you have exported
6. Modify the pack file type and change it to be mod pack
7. Save you pack file
8. Go to each imported table and play with values.

From my experiments, I can assume that the column from both tables could have the following purpose :

• The first 'Unknown' column of the commodities table refers to the base price of each commodity.
• The second 'Unknown' column of the commodities table is to be investigated... It could be a value that modify the price of a commodity according to some economic formula used by the game engine, but I was not able to prove that in any case. It could also change the base price of a commodity in the late period of the campaign...
• The first 'Unknown' column of the commotidies_demand_junction table refers to a type of data, there two lines per commodity type in this table. So the value of this collumn change the type of data the line is referring to.
• The second 'Unknown' column of the commotidies_demand_junction table is to be investigated...
  I don't know what it's purpose is. It could be used to change the trade profit in the late period of the campaign...
• The third 'Unknown' column of the commotidies_demand_junction table refers to profits made for each commodity...

A quick precision about the commotidies_demand_junction table

• Lines with a ddr_GDP value in the first column refers to the profit made when a commodity is beeing trade. The base price of a commodity multiplied by the value in the third column of these lines should approximatly give the exact profit made from trade for this commodity type.
  Those resulting profit values can be seen in the trade panel of the campaign.
• Line with a ddr_TW or ddr_textile_production should refers to profit made by buildings. Modifying the third column of these lines should increase the profit generated by building using these commodities.

As I have already mentionned all this information needs to be confirmed, I have played a bit with those values but my assumptions are not 100% correct.
Also modifying those values will change the profit made by trade for ALL factions, resulting in a overall increase in gold for every faction. You can expect to see larger army and fleets even in small factions.
This totaly change the fell when playing a campaing post 1.2 patch.

Enjoy and forgive any mistake I may have made...

Can you post this as a tutorial in the Tools & Turorials forum?

[alpaca]

Thamis said that the commodities_demand_junction is parsed into the startpos.esf on generation so it probably won't be used directly

[lord_yig]

I have made a couple more test.
And as Alpaca (and Thamis) says, It seems that the values for trade are stored somehow in startpos.esf.
From my own experiments it also seems that those values are also stored in the saved gamed files, although this seems to be recalculated each time you end a turn.

So you can modify those values and it actually works pretty well, but a lots of files are involded including important files such as the .esf one.
I will not make a tutorial for now since this kind of modification is not mastered at all and since we do not know how the game engine is supposed to handle the economic values.
Maybe this could be done when CA will release a modding tools pack (mod dev package?).

Here are various tests the steps I have tried :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. First Test : Deactivate the modification
   
   • Deactivated my modification for commodities and demand_junction
   • Start a new campaign
   
   In this scenario, I have modificated values for commodities and trade, but strangely those are not exactly the same as those you would expect from the modifications made to the commoditie and demand_junction table and those are not the base values from the vanilla game anymore.
   The values are stored in the startpos.esf file and used when a new campaign starts.
2. Second test : Revert back to vanilla files
   
   • Erase all starpos.esf files from the main campaign and episodic campaign folders
   • Check the integrity of the game files with steam.
   • Steam downloads the original file again.
   • Start a new campaign
   
   This time, I have the vanilla values back, the modifications are still deactivated.
3. Third Test : Activate the modification again.
   
   • Activate the modded pack file again. I have vanilla esf files.
   • Start a new campaign
   
   Doing this I have the proper modificated values I expected. The values are the same as the values I had before the first test.