Now after some days after the new trade changes from 13 Mar 11 want to write down my opinion about this topic... in the hope that i could help to finde a conclusion about the trade system problem.
I think we know the main-problem is the number of caravans you can build and a second problem from my point of view is... how much they can carry. (( i have to admit that i had this idea some houres ago so i couldn't think about exact prices and amounts so it would be balanced ))
My idea is that we should sever the unit "caravan" in two different things: a Horses (which we have already) and Carriages (which should be able to build in the market). The clou should be that you can fill your marketplace with the amount of Horses how you like it ... should be like you have 10 Horses now so you spend them for the market which also has now 10 ... and later when you have more you can add them if you want (take them away could also be an option). The same would be with the Carriages ... you can build them in the Marketplace and it dosen't matter how much it should be aslong you can pay for them.
if you want to trade now you have two options ... what/how much do you want to send AND what kind of caravan are you going to use? only horses (fast but can't carry much) one horse with a carriage (slower but can carry more) ... two horses with a bigger carriage? (should be clear what i want to tell you).
as you see there have to be different kinds of carriages you can build ... some which needs 1 horse and some which needs more (in a normal way of course 2 until 3 more i don't know if you could find something like this in history ... but ey ;) its a game here)
if somebody think now ... "whats with upkeep?" in this point i thought about two ways to pay (and actually we should take them both) the first would be to pay for the amount of horses you keep up ... somebody have to take care of them but its up to your equipment how much you can hold for the same price. The second way of paying ... you have to pay every time you send your caravans out for a mission (to this more later).
we are looking for a way to make trading A profitably and B fair for old an new players. so i like the idea that the lvl of the marketplace has only effect on the speed of your caravans and what kind of technology you can research. Every other point should be up to you and what you can spent on your caravans (how much horses you can build/buy, maybe also carriages should be tradeable).
This would be fair for all players, new players could start realy fast with trading if they buy horses older player would still have the advantage to have the bigger company and better technologies.
now it should be clear that the lvl of the marketplace has no effect on the "how much" do we have to pay... it's only dependent on the kind of technologies you have researched already.
for the costes of horses it should like 1. for every 10 horses pay 1 gold --- with better research 2. for every 30 horses pay 1 gold ... and so it goes on ( i can understand if someone think this is to less, but keep in mind that 1 horse without anythink can't carry much and for bigger carriages you need more than one horses )
the other part wouldn't be more complicated. every time you send out a caravans the price you pay for this would be the amount of caravans (so ... a caravan = horses + carriages ... which means horses without any carriages would be also a caravan like 2 horses with a bigger carriage) and the way the caravans have to travel.
at least i want to write some smal suggestions about old/new researches which would be necessary for this change.
Haggling --- access to marketplace
Bartering --- discount for moving caravans (in %)
Trading --- discount for moving caravans (in %)
Mercantilism --- discount for moving caravans ( in %)
Cartels --- discount for moving caravans ( in %)
Improved Loading --- access to one horse carriages (1hc) with 300 resources capacity
Reinforced Cartwheels --- access to two horses carriages (2hc) with 1000 resources capacity
Baggage Train --- improves carrying capacity of any carriages (+300 1hc, +600 2hc, +500 b2hc)
Juggernaut --- access to bigger two horses carriages (b2hc) with 1500 resources capacity
there are also some technologies necessary for improved stables so you have lesser to pay for your horses and also some better types of carriages (bigger carriages = more capacity, more horses need to pull, slower movment)
also for the case you want to send only horses without carriages i suggest a carrying capacity between 40-60 (up to the race you playing)
if i think about it i would like to see that i could put an amount of ressources on the market for selling and set a price per unit ... and if somebody want to buy it, but not all he could choose how much he want and the rest would be still on the market ... not like yet where you can buy only all or nothing.
so :) i hope inspirit you a bit about this topic and you find a way to use more or less my thoughts
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