Trade Nodes - Ivory Coast - Monopolies?

[uos_spo6]

Question relating to trade nodes, sorry for not taking this kinda stuff to the General Discussion forum but the only one forum I bother with is IS. . .

I'm focusing on the Ivory Coast with Portugal, 4 turn per year, still in 1703. Just started.

I spread out my trade fleet to cover 4 of the 5 nodes along the Ivory Coast, moving another Galleon and couple Indiaman and small battle fleet there now. If I bulk up my trade fleets, how significantly are my Ivory resources going to increase?

And if I control all the nodes along the Ivory Coast, then I have all the Ivory? Or does the Madagascar Theatre produce Ivory from it's nodes as well? And also, if I control ALL ivory nodes, will that cause Ivory prices to shoot up even more drastically seeing as how I'd have effectively monopolized it?

And last question relating to this, is a Galleons "trade resource harvest rate" better than that of an Indiaman or are they all the same?

MOD related question. . . this might be stretching it a bit, but is it possible to integrate silver and gold and gems into the tradeable resource department? Seems proper to be as their values are effected by supply and demand, though that may remove guarenteed income from important regions seeing as how trade routes can be interdicted and rendered useless (just cancel that trade agreement and your resources will divert to an open trade partner/lane)

[ColdFire]

90% of that was not related to IS. The answer to the mod question is, not with current tools. I suspect the gold and silver prices don't change with suppy and demand, but use a system similar to farms, where each plot can be average, and high and low, changing the gold produced.

As for non-mod questions both sides of Africa produce ivory, there is not bonus to controlling all trade slots, but there is a small bonus to adding more ships to a used slot.

[Quixote07]

Actually, I'm pretty sure there is a bonus to controlling all trade slots - Assuming you only trade with a few partners.

[ColdFire]

Actually, I'm pretty sure there is a bonus to controlling all trade slots - Assuming you only trade with a few partners.

Not that I have seen.

[Erunion Telcontar]

I found that when I had an effective ivory monopoly in my British game, I was earning 30-40k for trade, a huge amount. (1740's, Vanilla campaign)

With numbers of ships in slots, I tested it, the first ship in a slot produces 5 of the goods, for every trade ship you add to a slot you get 3 more. Take another slot and the first one gets five, every trade ship again will add 3 more after that. I have heard that once you reach 6 ships, you stop getting more goods, but I don't know, as I didn't test it.

To summarize,

1 trade ship in 1 slot will earn you 5 of the goods.
2 Will earn you 8 (all told)
3 will earn 11
4 will earn 14.

if you have two slots with 1 ship in each, you will earn 10 goods.
Two slots with 2 ships in each will earn 16 goods, 3 slots with 1 ship in each, 15 goods, 3 slots with 2 in each, 24 goods.
And so on, and so forth. Once you reach 6 trade ships in a slot, adding a seventh may or may not help. I am not sure.

As you can see, spreading your trade out is your best bet. Once all the tiles are used up, start stacking.

Hope this helped!

[CtrlAltDe1337]

Put 3 or 4 ships on each spot for starters and you will be rolling in cash.

[OTZ]

I really hope the AI (other than pirates) will attack your ships in trade nodes...I've yet to experience this in a game. I wonder if the AI's priority is set too high on attacking trade routes? Is there a setting for attacking trade theatres?

[ColdFire]

I found that when I had an effective ivory monopoly in my British game, I was earning 30-40k for trade, a huge amount. (1740's, Vanilla campaign)

With numbers of ships in slots, I tested it, the first ship in a slot produces 5 of the goods, for every trade ship you add to a slot you get 3 more. Take another slot and the first one gets five, every trade ship again will add 3 more after that. I have heard that once you reach 6 ships, you stop getting more goods, but I don't know, as I didn't test it.

To summarize,

1 trade ship in 1 slot will earn you 5 of the goods.
2 Will earn you 8 (all told)
3 will earn 11
4 will earn 14.

if you have two slots with 1 ship in each, you will earn 10 goods.
Two slots with 2 ships in each will earn 16 goods, 3 slots with 1 ship in each, 15 goods, 3 slots with 2 in each, 24 goods.
And so on, and so forth. Once you reach 6 trade ships in a slot, adding a seventh may or may not help. I am not sure.

As you can see, spreading your trade out is your best bet. Once all the tiles are used up, start stacking.

Hope this helped!

I can get 100 of each good with on ship per slot, all the slots ivory, or and of them, medium and hard difficulty.

[Lucius Tiberius Vorenus]

If you control all the ivory trading nodes, a word of advice. Only have 1 tradeship per node....


This will keep the ivory supply worldwide at a minimum, therefore the demand will be higher = higher prices globally for ivory.


In my U.P. Campaign, I did the same, and controlled all but 1 ivory trade node. The price of ivory stayed up around 36.

In other campaigns, where I've seen AI jam 2 to 4 tradeships in multiple ivory nodes, the prices are significantly lower(25 to 28).

[Anbar]

Prices lower when you increase the supply - either by increasing the number of ships on a post or increasing the number of posts you control overall.

Prices also lower when you adjust the production of non-post commodities such as sugar, tobacco, furs etc - although unless you control a substantial number of these you may not see the exact change reflected in the commodity price table.

You get no benefit for a monoply.

If you stack all the posts too quickly then you depreciate the commodity price dramatically and for a longer time thanif you fill them slowly and gradually.

prices recover based on demand - if the demand is less than the supply then prices do NOT recover.

Therefore (and once again) if you stack too many posts with too many ships too early in the game then the commodity price will drop due to oversupply and lack of demand from your trading partners.


It is therefore always beneficial to ensure that the actual demand outstrips supply before you add more supply (by any means). To do this simply compare the numbers produced against those sold i.e. producing 15 pelts of furs versus selling only 8

this holds true for ALL commodities remember, be they trade post or otherwise.

Slap 6 ships on every post by turn 5 but only have 2 small trade partners with low demand and you will cripple your income for years to come as the price will only recover at a crawl.

DEMAND is a factor of population, so larger trade partners will have higher demands... but that always depends on their population, so if they start loosing provinces their demand will drop: if your supply then outstrips demand your commodity price will drop and you will get less per item from the remaining population...so a double-whammy if you are unlucky or over-producing.




Obviously most people overlook the finer points of the trade system, which is a shame as it is really the only true high-quality gem in the entire game.

[Anbar]

If you control all the ivory trading nodes, a word of advice. Only have 1 tradeship per node....


This will keep the ivory supply worldwide at a minimum, therefore the demand will be higher = higher prices globally for ivory.


In my U.P. Campaign, I did the same, and controlled all but 1 ivory trade node. The price of ivory stayed up around 36.

In other campaigns, where I've seen AI jam 2 to 4 tradeships in multiple ivory nodes, the prices are significantly lower(25 to 28).

whilst true to an extent it is likely that you are still making FAR less than you could.

Commodti price is only one factor in how much you earn - even if commodity price falls, if you are selling far more of the commodity then you will EARN more.

Keeping the supply small - lets say 100 units at a price of 36 is all well and good - you earn 3,600.

However selling 500 units at price 24 will earn you 12,000


If you have the DEMAND (is it all selling?), then expand your #of ships or # or posts controlled, build bigger plantations etc etc.

[uos_spo6]

Thanks all, good information. My Portugeuse Ivory Empire will be thriving in no time.

And as Anbar said, the trade system is definitely one of the finer points of the game outside of just how dope the real time engagements can get. I love the intricacies.

. .all immensely enhanced by the Imperial Splendour experience of course

[priam11]

My only issue with the trade Nodes or Zones is the AI is not very aggressive at all on this point. Once you establish routes through out the 4 zones, you cannot be short of money ever, especially in the later stages of the game. Enemy fleets may block your routes but they don't attack those nice juicy trade fleets just sitting there helpless which allows the player to focus clearing the seas elsewhere.

Aside from the lack of AI invasions via the sea, this is the second biggest shortcoming in the campaign in my opinion.

[herb0815]

That you don´t have to defend your trade nodes at all is the worst bug in ETW. You should make a house rule for yourself, something like you have to keep your trade theatres free of enemy fleets to use nodes.

[aeoleron9]

Good thing they at least raid the routes, if you let them live that long.

Another problem is the AI doesn't take full advantage of his nodes. Even if he gets one he'll park one trade ship inside and then forget about it. How is that going to compete when I'm stuffing my nodes completely full?

[Stinkfloyd]

Personally I think the trade theaters should be disabled if possible because the AI doesn't know how to attack anybodies ships. I don't even use them because it makes the game too easy.

[Scipi0africanus]

i consciously limit myself to one ship per node, and one monopoly; the monopolies do make a difference though, it lets you set the supply (and therefore the price)

edit. the exception being sugar

[ColdFire]

i consciously limit myself to one ship per node, and one monopoly; the monopolies do make a difference though, it lets you set the supply (and therefore the price)

edit. the exception being sugar

And spice

[Lazy Knight]

I can very much recommend Company Man's Guide on Trade you can find in the general discussion / strategy section. Everything discussed here is covered there.