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Stellaris Dev Diary #127 - Trade Value and Trade Routes

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today we're going to continue talking about the 2.2 'Le Guin' update, on the topic of Trade Value and Trade Routes. As said before, we're not yet ready to reveal anything about when Le Guin is coming out, only that it's a long time away and we have many more topics to cover before then. Also as said before, screenshots will contain placeholder art and interfaces and non-final numbers.

Trade Value
Trade Value is a new value that's being added in the Le Guin update for non-Gestalt empires, representing the civilian and private-sector economies of these empires. All Pops generate a small amount of Trade Value based on their living standards, with higher living standard Pops generating more trade value, and is also produced by a number of different jobs such as Clerks and Merchants. Additionally, Trade Value can be found as deposits in space, representing various resources that don't have a direct industrial application but might still be desirable to your population (for a real-life example, think of things like as precious stones used in jewelry). Trade Value has no inherent purpose, but can be turned into other resources by being exploited, representing taxation and tariffs imposed on the civilian economy by an empire that has the necessary infrastructure in place to benefit from it.
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In order for Trade Value to count as exploited, it has to fulfill two conditions:

1) There must be an upgraded Starbase in range from the system to collect the Trade Value. By default, upgraded Starbases can only collect inside their own system, but their collection range can be extended by constructing additional Trade Hub modules, with each module extending the collection range by a single system up to a maximum of 6 hyperlane jumps away. You do not need to build an orbital station to collect trade value from planets - this is done automatically if it is in range of a collecting Starbase.

2) Once collected, Trade Value needs to be sent to your capital system. This will be done automatically if the Starbase collecting is located in said capital system, but otherwise the Starbase must be connected to the capital through a Trade Route (more on that below).

Trade Value that is successfully exploited will be converted into other resources (currently, trade value is turned into energy credits at a 1:1 conversion rate, but which exact resources it becomes is fully scriptable and may differ depending on your empire type) and added to your monthly income.
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Trade Routes
Trade Routes are paths are that used to connect remote Starbases to your capital in order to exploit the trade value collected there. Each upgraded Starbase can support a single Trade Route by connecting to another Starbase, which is where the first Starbase will send all of its collected trade value. For example, an empire might have a remote Starbase (we'll call it starbase A), which is sending trade value to another Starbase closer to the capital (starbase B), which in turn sends on both its collected trade and all trade sent to it by starbase A on to the capital. The player has full control over which Starbase sends its value where, and can redraw routes, though there may be an efficiency loss on a newly drawn route for a time.

This means that if starbase A collects a value of 10 from the systems around it, and starbase B collects 15, 10 value will be sent from A to B and all 25 combined value is then sent on to C (the capital) and is successfully exploited. Any trade value that fails to reach the capital, either because of lack of collection, lack of a route, or piracy (more on that below) is wasted - the empire gets no benefits from it - so it'll be especially important to ensure any populous colonies that are generating a lot of trade value are properly connected via trade routes to your capital.

Trades routes will have a special map filter showing routes, protection and piracy, and is also planned to be visualized inside the systems, but more on that later.
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(Ignore any weird visuals such as sector borders, it's just a bug)

Piracy and Trade Defense
Of course, all that lucrative merchandise being moved through space won't exactly go unnoticed by the less savory elements of your empire. Over time, piracy will begin to accumulate along trade routes, especially routes with a high degree of trade value moving through them. For each system with piracy that the trade route passes through, a certain amount of the trade value will be lost. To combat piracy, an empire can make use of a combination of Starbases and fleet Patrols. All upgraded Starbases will have a trade protection value, that is essentially a minimum amount of trade value that will always make it through any system under their protection, regardless of the level of piracy (representing heavily escorted merchant convoys). By default, this trade protection is only for the system they are located in, but can be extended to additional systems by building defensive modules such as Hangar Bays.
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Additionally, any military fleet can be given orders to patrol a route between two Starbases to actively eliminate pirates and reduce the amount of piracy in the systems. The old system of spawning pirate ships in empty systems adjacent to your empire will also change - instead, pirate fleets may spawn in systems where a large amount of trade value is being lost to pirates. Overall, pirate fleets is something you will experience less often and can actively work to prevent, but will be more of an actual threat when they do spawn. We will most likely keep some sort of penalty for having a sprawling empire with a lot of unprotected connections, possibly by simply raising the amount of piracy experienced along your trade routes, or some sort of efficiency penalty. We may also have a system similar to the old pirates for Gestalts, since they do not have access to Trade Value or Trade Routes.
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(Yes, we know the grammar/spelling is wrong, no need to point it out - the icons are also placeholders)

That's all for today! Next week we're continuing to talk about the Le Guin update, on the topic of Decisions and Planetary Bombardment

EDIT: Since it keeps being asked, at this point we are not ready to talk about how trade trades/trade agreements with other empires will work, only that they will exist in some form.
 
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This may be a good opportunity to look at ship balance again. Currently battleships dominate the game, but if they were really, really bad at protecting trade there might be a reason to built other ship types. Hell, you could make carriers really effective at combatting piracy and suddenly there'd be a reason to research strike craft again.

There will definitely be a difference between ships in how good they are at patrolling.
 
How about gateways? Can trade routes go through them? Often while playing tall in some way or another players will still acquire fallen empire worlds (for those sweet buildings at the very least) so it'd be great for there to be some way to get that trade value back from enclaves.
 
How about gateways? Can trade routes go through them? Often while playing tall in some way or another players will still acquire fallen empire worlds (for those sweet buildings at the very least) so it'd be great for there to be some way to get that trade value back from enclaves.

Trade Routes can be drawn through bypasses, yes.
 
We're considering the ability to add additional collection points, but we don't want to make this easy as then there would be no need for long trade routes ever.

@Wiz I know it's a bit contradictory to your current model, but the way Endless Legend handled trade routes was that longer routes provided more value when compared to several shorter ones. This way you might be able to have multiple collection points while still incentivizing longer routes and patrols to secure them.

Also, are there any plans for interactions with other empires' trade routes?
 
Trades routes will have a special map filter showing routes, protection and piracy, and is also planned to be visualized inside the systems, but more on that later.

It seems like it would be useful if this map mode also highlighted systems relative to their trade value. In a large empire it would be a bit of a hassle to sort through all the systems with good trade value to decide where to put a trade outposts to capture it all. If the mapmode showed an area as brighter blue with the numbers on each system (and systems highlighted that were getting collected) then we could see at a glance where it would be good for trade to go.
 
I really hope you need an intact trade route to transfer resources and goods so they don't just teleport.

And the ability to trade with other empires making strategically positioning yourself on the galaxy an important thing.

Teleportation of goods is bad.
 
Is smuggling going to become a mechanic later in the game? It could offer interesting alternatives as an expression of the popular support for the recently conquered planets (say if there is no fleet orbiting - the unrest and lost of resources would be humongous)

Also - what about corruption? It could also be incorporated into the gameplay - leading to formation of crime syndicates - eroding tax income and generating unrest or providing benefit if your civics approves it

Yeaah - Stellaris is getting deeper and deeper - turn into in-depth simulator!
 
You can't.

Brilliant, thanks!

Well my logic (or lack thereof) was: Given systems (a,b,d) trade values (10, 15, 20):
Trade route begins in a - value = 10
a -> b - value = 10+15 = 25
b -> d - value = 25+20 = 45
d -> a - does the variable tracking value increase again? If so, can this cause integer overflow issues? :)
 
Trade Routes can be drawn through bypasses, yes.

So in the very, very late game you can turn all your trade stations into anchorages and shipyards as with enough gateways all your empire will be within 6 jumps from your capital? Might actually make a fun achievement, suck up all trade value in a large galaxy with your capital starbase alone.
 
Trade Routes can be drawn through bypasses, yes.

Can you blow up planets in the way of your hyperspace bypasses? After the requisite 50 year waiting period (subject to modifiers) where the plans are available?
 
Do you have to own the system to collect trade value? If not, what happens when two empires have starbases which can collect it?

So no relation between piracy and crime currently? Please, consider a modifier here. And how exactly is fleet patrol going to work? is it some order for the fleet which make it constantly move between systems in a trade rout?
 
Is there a range limitations between starbases for sending trade, because if not, wouldn't you then simply send all trade of a starbase directly to the capital instead of setting up actual routes among multiple starbases?
 
There will be some sort of trade agreements between empires, but we're not ready to talk about that yet.

I hope those agreements make use of the new trading value system. You could add two levels of trade by using the new system:

The first would allow your starbases to collect trade value from systems belonging to that foreign empire, with which you have the agreement (requires not much trust/attitude).
The second would send a percentage of the trade value collected at their empire capital to the closest starbase of yours (requires a moderate-high standing with the empire).

This way it would incentivize the player to see a neighboring empire as a valuable partner and not only as potential opponent to take land away from.
 
Why are there not some sort of interaction between the civilian trade market and the galactic market, especially the internal market. I really think there might be a missed opportunity there to integrate those two in some way?!?
 
We're considering the ability to add additional collection points, but we don't want to make this easy as then there would be no need for long trade routes ever.

How about trade routes generating more trade value, if the connect colonies far away from each other? But are more costly to maintain and more susceptible to piracy?
Like: If a merchant manages to send goods from the other end of the galaxy, he can sell them very costly and generates higer taxes. This would prevent only short routes.

The trade value of a mining deposit would be more worth on planet B, which is far far away, than on planet A, which is nearby.