Trade routes gone, -150bc/turn....

Are any of the AIs at war with each other? And what are your current relation levels with the ones that won't trade with you?

i've never seen an AI use the trade embargo feature... cool!

DrGonzo, what were you doing in the game when this happened? i'm curious about the circumstances that might bring it about.

Which is why you should never rely on trade for income. Its not worth much, and it comes and goes too easily. Trade should only be used as "diplomatic hostility supression".

In DL I never used to rely on trade money, but in DA with the new super abilities I've been using the built in races alot. Korx espically I find fun. On a huge map I quickly put together a trade empire. I was raking in 1000bc a turn at one point. Researched diplomacy to get them all to fight with one another, this way they were too busy to try and war or break off trade with me. Those new research and economic treaties helped this alot.

Game ended badly tho, all the races eventually surrendered to myself or my arch rival the Foaminans (Squrily wrath!!). With the two of us locked in a stale mate military wise I started researching a tech victory only to be beat two steps before. The damn nut bangers researched it before I had.

I didn't think the AI which until that point was extremly warlike, would switch for a tech win when it was in a deadlock. Neat!

i can be marginally useful for money, but on the whole i think you're right.

Sorry it took so long to get back on here - no, there are no wars at the moment, and the relations are as following:


Arcean Empire - Cool
Terran Alliance - Cool
Iconian Refuge - Cool
Drath Legion - Wary

Lentzlandians - Neutral
Dark Yor - Neutral
Snathi - Neutral
Caranoids - Neutral

I had filled up my allotment of trade routes, but i don't remember who all they were with - only 1 (at the most) was with the Drath Legion. I still have one left with the Caranoids, but that's it. Now if I send a freighter to any of them, it just gets to their planet and stops outside of it. My ships also cannot go as far as they had been into the galaxy, but i did not lose any planets or starbases.

i kept the save from this point, but the game is now in all out war b/c i got fed up with the Lentzlandians building 4 influence starbases right around my home planet and soon after i formed an alliance with the Arcean (developed 1 trade route with them, but the other planets would not take the freighters)they got attacked, which made me at war as well, and now it's an all out brawl.

thanks for the feedback thus far, and if anyone knows how to avoid this in the future, please do tell! i was up to -200 bc / turn, but have subsided it to -50ish by cutting spending to 60%, raising taxes to 45%, and building stock markets.

edit: i made a custom class (the Maruukoi ) with an Economics bonus of +20%, Diplomacy +10%, and Trade +10% - don't know if that would really matter at this point in the game...

nothing out of the ordinary or i would recall specifics... basically just trying to research and make bank. i think most of my Starports were idle and those that weren't were either building constructors or maybe a defender or 2 to keep in orbit. *shrug*

didn't notice any trade embargos placed on me and the intelligence of the other races is on the default level, difficulty Beginner (3rd game - the tide went against me in the 1st 2 large galaxies)

One other thing that could've happened is that the council passed the resolution restricting how many trade routes evil races can have, and you might be evil. I haven't had this happen in DA yet, but in a DL game just before DA released I got bit by this resolution even though I hadn't had to pick an alignment yet. The game apparently considered me evil since my ethical choices had been tilted in that direction, and I ended up getting shafted for trade routes.

good point - i was 'leaning towards evil' at one point, but hadn't chosen an alignment. damn, i'll have to pay a little closer attention to that in the future.

"Not worth much"? Are you nuts? Most games I'm pulling in about a third of my income off trade. Admittedly I tend to produce several econ bases around trade hubs, but +90% of negligible would still be negligible, and in my experience trade income is far from negligible.

I agree with Vinraith, in my games the beginning of trading is the point where I start to have a positive income.

Trade is lingo for "Please destroy my freighters at your earliest convenience."

Imperial rule, tax the crap out of your populace, and then ease up. You'll make money. Just don't go too far down in popularity, unless you want to put down revolts.

Happy Gaming.  

No offense, but if thats the case, your economy probably sucks. If I lost every scap of trade in my games, and the entire universe embargoed me, Id still be making hundreds a turn. Trades just bonus cash, and Im not Im not in the position to have to depend on it( like I would if it was a third of my income).


Not to say you cant make a good chunk of coin off trade...you can..especially if youre a race with a significant +trade ability. But you have to put an awful lot of effort and tech into doing it, and you can then lose it easily through no fault of your own(see above).


You make More money building your economic infrastructure properly, and thats secure, stable income, immune to wars or the whims of the AI.


IM not saying trade is without value...its vital early on to help keep races from invading you, and the extra money is nice on top of it...but its only icing and should be viewed as such. Trade comes and goes, and anybody should be aware that its especially fleeting in any games played with a conquest strategy in mind.


Should it be more valueable economically? Probably...but I can only play the game that Im given.