caravans - trade distance filter

I can see where you're coming from, although there is also something I quite like regarding the "market warfare" element of accepting trades from a city at the edge of the map, as a strategy to disrupt another player's logistics.

So I'm in two minds about this request.

The market offers list is sorted by distance by default, so the player who accepted your trade is deliberately choosing to accept your trade over any other similar but closer trades available.

At the end of the day, the player who accepted your trade is valuing his caravan's travel time less than you value the opportunity cost of having those caravans occupied for X hours, and both of you have a possible recourse (via prestige) of making the caravans move faster if you so wish.

I might consider the possibility of introducing a trade skill (or two) that allow you to control the range at which your offers will display.

We also, potentially, now have another option that I'm considering putting ingame:

With the advent of the gatherable resource squares there was a core code change that allows *returning* caravans to carry goods and deliver them back (exactly how gathering resources works).

So we could, potentially offer a trade technology that makes trade offers "one sided" in terms of the transport mechanism.  ie. You could offer some goods up for trade and they would be placed in the marketplace, but if you chose to apply this technology then your caravans would *not* be used to fulfil your end of the bargain - the player who accepted the trade would deliver his side to your city, and then return, carrying your end of the offer.

Obviously trade-accepting players would be less happy as it means they would have longer to wait before seeing the trade-offeror side of the trade delivered, but if we highlighted these one-sided trades as such then people could make their own decisions as to which to accept, depending on how they value the opportunity cost of the goods/caravans.

These ideas would let some of the more "trade specialised" players have more options about how they trade, and with whom they trade.

Anyway.  Something to think about / discuss further.

Realistically, it doesn't count as a major priority though (behind all the other things that *are* burning such as Unit Travel Times being displayed, diplomatic and military histories, etc etc), but I would welcome further thoughts here.


Edited by GM Stormcrow - 19 Mar 2010 at 13:30

Typical of the brutal, violent and oppressive methods used by H?.

bow locks wrote: meantime, anyone accepting my trades over 90minutes away is a target.  as you say, they have chosen. I shall reap.

TBQFH - I just look at the ones I can do, look at what I need, and accept the best trade for what I can get...

Sometimes it *IS* from far away, but I'm not to the point where an hour difference either way makes a bit of difference...

Just remember . . .   Targets get to shoot back...

they were more than happy to get that opium..........

you're the one trading ivory!

Caravan swapping could speed up trading..  instead of returning it to home town again just change the ownership of the caravan. At least inside in alliance or with people who have certain tech.