Please explain ports and trade - yes i've read the "manual"

[nodey]

I know this:

- Trade routes are based on the number of trade ports in your capital region, and the various levels of these ports.

Q: What are the mechanics of trade ports in other regions beside your capital? Can a nation trade with all my ports as long as we have a trade agreement or is it just the capital ports?

Q: How do land trade routes work, do you have to have friendly borders between the two capitals?

Q: What is your experience with fishing ports? And are they useful 20 years into the game?

What annoys me the most is that while the historical info is good, the descriptions of buildings and units in game does not always mention what they do in game. You have to search around for tool tips here and there to figure out stuff.

Btw- most of the threads out there on this subject are of the "how do i click my navy onto the yellow trade thingy in africa" nature.
We really need a decent manual because even the trade guides that are out there are pretty bad and misinformative.

[Arkhan]

Q: What are the mechanics of trade ports in other regions beside your capital? Can a nation trade with all my ports as long as we have a trade agreement or is it just the capital ports?

Lets say Britian has two trade ports and and Sweden has one. That gives the Brits 4 overseas trade route and the Swedes get 2. This would allow the Brits to trade with 4 different nations, or say two nations and two overseas trading zones. the swedes would only be able to trade at half this rate. To match British trade Sweden would have to (a) build another trade port or (b) increase the capicity of their existing port thru tech.

In this game, unlike other Total War releases trade is between nations rather than ports.. ie. your own ports wont trade with each other, which seems odd to me. To keep up trade you HAVE to have tradeing partners. Internal trade is non exsistant as far as I can tell... its all about imports and exports.

Q: How do land trade routes work, do you have to have friendly borders between the two capitals?

The two countries involved must be able to trace a path from one captial to the other. If a hostile nation (ie. at war) is between them that blocks the trade.

Q: What is your experience with fishing ports? And are they useful 20 years into the game? Fishing ports help your population grow.

Once all the provinces villages have turned into towns then in theory you could switch the fishing villages over to trade or military use. Down side there would be possible negitive population as food is required to increase or maintain pop levels.

[MPMFV]

What annoys me the most is that while the historical info is good, the descriptions of buildings and units in game does not always mention what they do in game. You have to search around for tool tips here and there to figure out stuff.

We really need a decent manual because even the trade guides that are out there are pretty bad and misinformative.

I agree. For $50.00 I expect a fat manual in the box or at least a down loadable one (make the tree huggers happy). There is so dang much to know and the manual is crap.

[ishouldbeatwork]

I know this:
Q: What are the mechanics of trade ports in other regions beside your capital? Can a nation trade with all my ports as long as we have a trade agreement or is it just the capital ports?

Q: How do land trade routes work, do you have to have friendly borders between the two capitals?

Q: What is your experience with fishing ports? And are they useful 20 years into the game?

(I'll take my examples from my game with the Dutch, mostly because they basically rock so much and understanding ports is critical to playing the faction... properly? well?)

Q#1: Ports in regions that are not your capital serve 3 purposes:
A) Much like towns, they will add to your region wealth and growth, thus adding to your treasury.
B) They will export whatever good the region produces. For example, Ceylon produces tea, and without a port, the production cannot be sent to Amsterdam and turned into weed and money. If you destroy the port, you would get no income from this production. If the route is blockaded (or your port is blockaded) you get no income, if its attacked by pirated transport of goods is reduced (it may be reduced to 0 I'm not 100% sure of this).
C) Production of trading ships and warships, repair of all ships.

Q#2: Your capital region must be connected by land through regions either yours or your trading partners regions. In the case of Amsterdam, you can trade through land with the protectorates directly adjacent or if you capture some regions in Europe you could trade with Austria, since Vienna would be connected by Austria's regions and your own. You wouldn't be able to trade with Spain even when Flanders is owned by the Spaniards, because france is between Madrid and Flanders.

Q#3: Fisheries have limited used. If you own a region other than your capital that already has a port town, and you get a second coastal town, building a second port would only benefit you with more money (since you can already export the good being produced through the 1st port). If you don't want an expensive military drydock (have another nearby, or war just isn't your thing) and you want to speed up development of other towns in the region or simply increase population, a fishery is useful for that. It won't give you as much money as a port but in the long run you could get much more money from quicker town development and lower investment (fisheries are cheaper).


General trading rules for capital (Amsterdam):

Naval trade routes are used to establish trade with other factions (only). They do not get used up due to trading with your colonies. For example, I have 3 trade "slots" because of the port near Amsterdam, and I trade with the brits, the Mughal Empire and the other Indian faction (forgot name ). Through land I trade with Hannover and another minor faction (I paid them about 2k each to establish the trade route, totally worth it). My colonies in America and India send sugar, my trading fleet stationed in the strait of Madagascar sends Ivory tusks and the fleet in the East Indies sends Spices to Asmterdam, which in turn sends it to my trading partners (GB, Mughal Empire, other indian faction name here, Hannover, other minor faction).

Ok I'm afraid it doesn't end here.

You don't only move the fixed number of products your trading fleets and colonies send you, you also get trade income from "other goods" which reflects the upside of having lots of trade routes from your capital, so if I have 1 trade partner I get a LOT less income than if I have 5. Even though you move the same number of good (barrels, bushels, whatever), trading with many different factions is more profitable than tossing them all in England.

Also, every trade route grows over time and gives you a bonus if you maintain the same trade partner over years.

Almost done.

Every good has a different price, so sending trading fleets for ivory tusks in the Strait of Madagascar may be more profitable than them getting Spices in East Indies, so plan accordingly.

Hope this helps, gotta get back to work