Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries

trading posts

Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
U

unmerged(1445)

Corporal
Mar 2, 2001
30
0
Visit site
Hi

been playing a while now and have the hang of most stuff but cant really figure out the point of trading posts. Ive used them generally to claim territory, set up supply lines, and reserve areas of the map, but beyond that is there much point to them? In particular is there much point putting more traders in to raise the level /size of a trading post beyond one? I understand that it increases the amount of revenue going to the centre of trade but does it make that much difference having a higher level tp, and how much of that do you actually see? I always seem top be short of colonists until later in the game so would appreciate any advice on trading post strategy before I go spending / squnadering them on something that mightnot help much!

Cheers

qwertyuiop
 
The values of trading posts, besides the stuff you mentioned, are: increase in the value of the Center of Trade to which they ship their stuff. If you don't have any merchants in that CoT, you get nothing.

And you get victory points.

If you're playing a country which recieves very few colonists, I would personally recommend trying to plant a colony and not a trading post. It won't generate much cash, but it will give you a port that can only be taken away through peace treaty (unlike a TP which can be burned down in war), and the population will grow over time unless you plant it in some malaria-infested African swamp.
 
Admiral,

thanks for the reply. I know that tps increase the amount of revenue going to the centre of trade, and how to exploit that - merchants and esp the revenue derived from owning it in this case. What Im really wondering is if there is much point increasing the size of trading posts beyond one. I too also tend to go for colonists but I notice the AI laying down a lot of trading posts and kinda figured the ability to get up to level 7 (?) must be in the game for some reason. Most other stuff works out logically once you delve... Im playing Austria at the moment but thinking of portugal or netherlands for my next game - always loved playing trading empires in civ. Just not sure how to do it here... Any thoughts?

qwertyuiop
 
Getting one up to level 6 isn't very profitable. Ur better off getting another few TPs elsewhere. A nice set of TPs surrounding a colonial city/COT in parts of the world with few competitors like Holland and Portugal have, can be very profitable.
 
Increasing the level of TP is not as profitable as building colonies, so it probably is not a good idea to go beyond level one. Maybe level two. TP's are a lot cheaper than colonies, though. If you are poor...

An advantage of TP's is that tech investment is slower (or more expensive depending on how you look at it) the more cities you have. A city has population 700. If you plant a lot of colonies and build them up (or they build over time) you slow down your technology growth.
 
On a somewhat unrelated note...
Should I build TP or colonies on gold-producing provinces? If I expand the colony to a city, does it mine more gold or anything?
 
Some more notes

Hail!

1. TPs are also useful for provinces that have negative growth modifiers (I think everywhere in the world except Europe and North America). For these provinces, you will need to send 8 colonists (provinces without natives) or 7 colonists (provinces with natives), because of population decrease. With TPs, however, you have 10 extra persons in the provinces, so you can send 1 less colonist (except of course if you ignore the province too long :) ).

2. TPs are also useful for provinces that have natives with aggression level of 5 or more. The native less likely burn these than colonies if the province is unattended. This is especially useful (like you said) to reserve areas while you are waiting for a good conquistador to try to either colonize the province or massacre the natives, or while you are waiting for more colonists, or you are colonizing other provinces.

:cool:
 
Last edited:
Re: Some more notes

Originally posted by Winterhound

"1. TPs are also useful for provinces that have negative growth modifiers (I think everywhere in the world except Europe and North America). "

Not quite accurate (although I agree with the rest of what you posted). There are some nice growable colonies further south (i.e. away from the equator)- try Australia and New Z (grow at 9 - 12%) or Table, Reunion, Tahiti,Tobago ...
Click to expand...
 
Hello,

I agree with Winterhound :
If you are France in the GC and you want to colonize Africa, your population growth is negative. That's why it's good to send some TD (3 or 4) before starting your colonization. Some times, the chance to colonize an area is so low, that it's better to made a TD at level 6.

Up to level 5 of TD, you can change it into a colony. But when you reached the level 6, it's a TD for ever !

I never understand why the colony were burning (alone) after having more than 700 people in it. If someone can explain it to me !

Nibelung.
"oida oudev eidos"
 
Re: Re: Some more notes

Originally posted by Owl
Not quite accurate (although I agree with the rest of what you posted). There are some nice growable colonies further south (i.e. away from the equator)- try Australia and New Z (grow at 9 - 12%) or Table, Reunion, Tahiti,Tobago ...
[/B]
Click to expand...

Okay then. :D

Positive growth only in

- Europe
- North America
- Table
- Reunion, Tahiti, Tobago (possibly most islands out there except Ceylon)
- Siberia
- Australia and New Zealand.

Actually, we can view it as.... Negative growth only in
- Africa (except Table)
- South America (not sure...)
- Asia (except Siberia).

Can people add to the list? Or is this stored somewhere in province.csv?

I let Spain colonize South America, so I'm not sure.... I didn't bother with Australia and New Zealand ever because I never view them as profitable. I let the English colonize them.

:D
 
-----------------------
That is afaik not true.
-----------------------

Really ? So, how do you colonize it ?

-------------------------------------------------------
I let Spain colonize South America, so I'm not sure....
-------------------------------------------------------

Sometimes, when I'm ENGLAND in the GC, I colonize 3 or 4 areas in South America to make a city with a shipyard (for exploration) :
less than 1000 people, I've got a growth of -4 and more than 1000 people +1/2. It's the same in Pondichery and its area (near Mysore).

Maybe because it's not my "historical" colonies ?
- South America ---> Spain,
- Pondichery ---> France.
 
Originally posted by Pewe
just send a colonist. You have to remember that you can only colonize if the province is a coastal province, or borders a city (>700 people)
Click to expand...

My experience as Rusia is not that. I first made TPs all the way east from Sibir to Korea (4 colonists/year and some conquistadors that i don't wanted to waste). Later, i started to build colonies over my trading posts but not too close each other; first in the 3 areas with gold mines and after that in the provinces with iron/cooper.

The only diference was all my TP were level 1 but i was able to build colonies everywhere i wished.
 
tp observations

Just a couple of things I've observed.

tps are good for reserving the territory for later expansion.

Putting up a few tps in the americas & india seems to encourage the formation of new COTs moreso than just colonies. This is probably only be because tps generate so much more trade than colonies do.

In places where the growth rate is negative, like a lot of india & SE asia, it will save you a little money. Eg, you place a colonist & next year the colony size is 99, so it will take 8 cols (7 w/ natives) to get to a city rather than 7. If you put in a tp first, then you have a buffer of 10 population. So when you follow up the tp with a colonist & then loose population to the negative growth rate you will have 109 pop instead of 99. It will still take 8 colonists, but you only had to pay the cost of a tp for one of them.

Putting in a tp first also increases the success rate for putting in a colonist later. By 5% I've been told. & if you're like me & like colonising provinces with large populations of angry natives, then every little bit helps.

Sometimes it seems to make more sense to put in a tp for a province w/ high priced goods to get the trade revenue when you're already pretty overextended with colony development or are getting (or want to get) significant portions of your income from COTs. If you've already got a couple of colonies in development, you may not want to start another, but that province with a 9 chinaware rating is just too good to pass up because you've got a monopoly in the mekong COT that you also own.

tps definately have their uses, figuring out when & where is part of the fun.

John J
 
Originally posted by BiB
That's because Siberia is an exception ;)
Click to expand...

Is this true only for Russia? I'm thinking so, because in my England GC I've explored the siberian strip, but can't colonize anything but the coastal provinces.

John J
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back