Does it make sense to get trade agreements with a far away faction?

[k/t]

Or maybe it's the crappy AI that did the "random port-blockading" as it does once in a while.

I can say for sure that being at war with a faction affects the amount your merchants will make from resources in enemy territory. I am 90% sure that having trade rights also increases that amount.

 

[Callawyn]

Or maybe it's the crappy AI that did the "random port-blockading" as it does once in a while.

I can say for sure that being at war with a faction affects the amount your merchants will make from resources in enemy territory. I am 90% sure that having trade rights also increases that amount.

When you go to war you lose your trade agreement, so less income from the merchant. I don't think there's a separate penalty for trading in territory owned by someone you're at war with. This would be pretty noticable since you're always at war with rebels, so any merchants in rebel provinces would get less money, which I don't think is the case.

Again though, pretty easy to test since you can select any merchant and then hover your mouse over any visible resource to see what that merchant would make if sitting on it. Next time you're ready to declare war on someone, select a merchant first and see what he'd make on some resources in that factions territory. Check again after declaration of war, and again on the next turn.

 

[k/t]

I will try to test with a resource before and after I have trade rights with the faction. I'll let you know.

 

[Callawyn]

I will try to test with a resource before and after I have trade rights with the faction. I'll let you know.

Note the finance skill of the merchant you check with if your test extends into a second turn, since the income will vary based on his finance skill as well and it might change from one turn to the next.

 

[Gorrrrrn]

this is in the descr_faction_standing.txt file:

Trigger 0079_F_Trade_Agreement
    WhenToTest FactionTradeAgreementMade

    FactionStanding target_faction 0.1
    FactionStanding target_allies normalise 0.6 50

 

[k/t]

Which means?

 

[Ishan]

Which means?

The numbers represents the faction standing that is measured from -1.0 to 1.0 in M2TW.
-1.0 corresponds to abysmal while 1.0 means Perfect.

 

[chris7ian]

This all seems too complicated for a game. -rep for CA.

 

[Rogal Dorn]

This all seems too complicated for a game. -rep for CA.

Yeah, it should be Trade Rights = more moneyz! No Merchant crap, no "waah far away so I don't get any extra moolah", no deterioration of relations. Every campaign, I arrange Trade Rights with every faction (along with Map Information) and I haven't noticed any negative effects.

 

[Irishpsycho]

It's useful because it gives you a percentage trade bonus for merchants in their regions. If its a good rescource and a good merchant that can be a couple hundred more florins a turn. Other than that no, but there's no reason not to either.

 

[Babri]

Them attacking you had nothing to do with your trade agreement. Plus if they attack you they take the rep hit. I would say don't sign an agreement with any one you plan on attacking.

Try it yourself. If you sign trade agreements with very distant factions, your ports will be blockaded much often but if you're picky about it, you'll reduce those random attacks a lot.
An experienced played commented

In my past campaign as Sicily I have been picky about my trade agreements and
who gets the right to trade with me. With Sicily I opened Trade Agreements up with The
Papacy & Venice and refused the request from the HRE, Genoa/Milan, and France; I
normally accept these. Normally as I play as Sicily I randomly get attacked by Venice, Milan
& the HRE mainly in the department of blockades. When I refused the trade agreements and
only opened them with Venice and the Papacy my relationship with Milan, France and HRE
stayed at So-So instead of degenerating to Poor for over 25 turns, 25 Turns!.

 

[newt]

I am an experienced player too, and I see no evidence of this. I play England a lot, and always get trade rights with the Italian factions (no hope of ports connecting) and have no poor relations, unless I am doing something else. Like sacking or exterminating.

You really should look into descr_faction_standing.txt and try to figure out what is really happening. Some factions are programmed to hate you.

Look at these pics. I have trade rights with both factions but am not trading. The only reason I'm at so-so with Aragon is that I'm at war with Norway, their allies. Since we are both fighting France, once I knock out Norway, our relations will improve. (maybe not at first but after a few turns it will happen)

Also if you are playing very hard, you lose points with all factions every turn.

 

[Babri]

I am an experienced player too, and I see no evidence of this. I play England a lot, and always get trade rights with the Italian factions (no hope of ports connecting) and have no poor relations, unless I am doing something else. Like sacking or exterminating.

You really should look into descr_faction_standing.txt and try to figure out what is really happening. Some factions are programmed to hate you.

Look at these pics. I have trade rights with both factions but am not trading. The only reason I'm at so-so with Aragon is that I'm at war with Norway, their allies. Since we are both fighting France, once I knock out Norway, our relations will improve. (maybe not at first but after a few turns it will happen)

Also if you are playing very hard, you lose points with all factions every turn.

Sorry I was talking about vanilla. I realised it later that this talk was about Stainless Steel.
Actually it happens in vanilla quite much but I am not sure about SS.

 

[newt]

Yeah, but do you really know why, or are you just assuming? In vanilla they don't have factors that keep them from attacking you. The ai is just dumb and broken in vanilla. In SS they do have factors that keep them from attacking you, like if you're way stronger than them, or allied (depending on ai).

I recommend you get savageai to use in vanilla. put files except descr_faction_standing.txt in your data folder and copy this in medieval2.preference.cfg:

[io]
file_first = true

Now enjoy a game where you can (sort of) trust the ai to not do too many stupid things. Allies will still attack if you have poor relations and you leave a border undefended, but it's not quite so annoying as in vanilla.

 

[Babri]

Yeah, but do you really know why, or are you just assuming? In vanilla they don't have factors that keep them from attacking you. The ai is just dumb and broken in vanilla. In SS they do have factors that keep them from attacking you, like if you're way stronger than them, or allied (depending on ai).

I recommend you get savageai to use in vanilla. put files except descr_faction_standing.txt in your data folder and copy this in medieval2.preference.cfg:

Now enjoy a game where you can (sort of) trust the ai to not do too many stupid things. Allies will still attack if you have poor relations and you leave a border undefended, but it's not quite so annoying as in vanilla.

Thanks ! I used to play SS 6.1 but 6.3 is too heavy for my computer so I was looking for ways to improve diplomacy in vanilla version.

 

[Babri]

I copied those two files in the data folder (though nothing was over-writed). Now can you please elaborate the next step about preference.cfg

 

[newt]

nothing was overwritten because those files are in the packs folder inside one of those files

right click the cfg file, then choose properties, make sure "read-only" is NOT checked.
then open it with notepad and put that part in it any where. save the file and play the game.

this will make sure the game reads the files you copied.

 

[Ishan]

There is nothing to elaborate....
Paste this in your .cfg file by opening it from a notepad. Since you are modding vanilla do it in the main .cfg and under properties click read only type.

[io]
file_first = true

Edit 1
Gotta type faster.

 

[Babri]

+rep for your help. One more question. Are these changes save compatible or I've to start a new campaign ?

 

[newt]

I can't confirm it, but people have said ai changes are

 

[gluteus maximus aurelius]

Far away trade agreements are unlikely to be useful or profitable, but there's no harm in getting them. I prefer to get them with everyone close to me and then let everyone else come to me and offer to me if they please. Sometimes you'll get missions asking you to get trade agreements though, so that's where they can be useful (usually you'll only recieve a measly no good 100 florins as a reward though, to which I usually end up thinking "well, that doesn't cover the cost of me hiring a diplomat, does it?")

 

[Babri]

I can't confirm it, but people have said ai changes are

It seems like you're right. Turks agreed to be my vassal now. Previously even ceasefire was 'very demanding' & I was crushing their sizeable (9-10 regions) but bankrupt empire.

 

[Ishan]

It seems like you're right. Turks agreed to be my vassal now. Previously even ceasefire was 'very demanding' & I was crushing their sizeable (9-10 regions) but bankrupt empire.

Congrats then.

 

[Spartan90]

Sometimes you'll get missions asking you to get trade agreements though, so that's where they can be useful (usually you'll only recieve a measly no good 100 florins as a reward though, to which I usually end up thinking "well, that doesn't cover the cost of me hiring a diplomat, does it?")

You're right, but if you don't do these missions, you take a fairly big hit with the Merchants' Guild, giving you a harder chance to get the HQ. I always do the Trade Rights missions, as the Guild never asks the impossible. It won't ask you to get trade rights with the Mongols in 5 turns unless you can physically make contact with them in 5 turns.

 

[newt]

Feel free to ignore all Council of Noble missions.

 

[Babri]

Feel free to ignore all Council of Noble missions.

Sometimes Council of Nobles or Pope award you with florins (without doing a specific mission actually). I think it is quite useful to do missions in rapid success earlier on to get those mission rewarded florins + extra florins for your rapid success.

 

[newt]

Sometimes the nobles are off their rockers and ask for stupid things.

 

[Ishan]

Sometimes the nobles are off their rockers and ask for stupid things.

Sometimes early in the game they tell us to exchange settlements i'm likw wth why?

 

[newt]

exactly. exchange one of your cities that are all large town or higher for a small town

 

[Ishan]

exactly. exchange one of your cities that are all large town or higher for a small town

Yes totally lol.
I mean the council of nobles really doubt our potential to world domination or something.