Are Trade Routes misdefined?

[Ilion]

I recently downloaded the CK+ mod, and have played about 20 game years as the Khitan ruler at the start of the northern route of the Silk Road.

I don't have Horse Lords, so I presume that's why I can't build trade posts on the mod's custom trade routes (I started a Byz game, but haven't spent any time playing). But, that's not my question.

Curious about the mod's custom trade routes, I opened the defining files to study them. I noticed right away that what I was seeing on the map doesn't even begin to account for what I saw in the files. So, I started playing around with re-creating these trade routes (minus the new mod's custom provinces, of course) on the vanilla game.

And, what I learned is that if a path={} leg of a trade route begins with a province number that isn't defined as a start-point, that leg will not exist. This would explain why I see only the first legs of the Silk Road.

So, my question is: are the definitions of the trade routes really broken -- including in the vanilla game (and, of so, how could no one have noticed it by now) -- or is this some feature of Horse Lords, with the intention that the trade routes don't appear on the map unless one has that DCL?

 

[zeress]

You can define none start points as a starting portion of a leg as long as they feed from ones that are downstream. If they are not connected, or not downstream, then they will not work.

With that aside, when I disable the HL DLC I don't see trade zones period, so I'm not sure how you are able to without having bought it.

EDIT: I see what you mean now. Strangely once unpaused they do in-fact appear, but are mostly none functional, aside from the province modifiers. Either way you aren't supposed to be able to use them and they shouldn't appear in the first place for someone without the DLC, but it's a bug out of our control. I wish we could just pop in trade routes by event or something on command haha. Either way I filed a report with Paradox, as this happens even in unmodded CK2 it seems. It's just less noticeable there because it cuts off. I've made a report to Paradox as this happens even in base CK2.

EDIT2: For reference this is what it should look approximately (I only have an older in-dev picture of ours but not much changed from it.

 

[Ilion]

You can define none start points as a starting portion of a leg as long as they feed from ones that are downstream. If they are not connected, or not downstream, then they will not work.
With that aside, when I disable the HL DLC I don't see trade zones period, so I'm not sure how you are able to without having bought it.

That's the behavior I expected after reading the definition text files.

EDIT: I see what you mean now. Strangely once unpaused they do in-fact appear, but are mostly none functional, aside from the province modifiers. Either way you aren't supposed to be able to use them and they shouldn't appear in the first place for someone without the DLC, but it's a bug out of our control. I wish we could just pop in trade routes by event or something on command haha. Either way I filed a report with Paradox, as this happens even in unmodded CK2 it seems. It's just less noticeable there because it cuts off. I've made a report to Paradox as this happens even in base CK2.

Right, they appear after I unpause upon first loading the game. I can't use them -- as I'd expect, since I don't have HL. But, the province modifiers apply.

EDIT2: For reference this is what it should look approximately (I only have an older in-dev picture of ours but not much changed from it.

After adding start-points for all the legs, that's essentially what I see. I don't see the provinces and sea-zones through which they pass colored like that, but then, I don't have HL.