11-09-2002 13:55									#1
	trading Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Could someone help me understand the trading system a little better?

I am a total novice btw.

It seems that whenever I try to trade resources with another civ (silks, dyes, gems, etc) they demand that I give them something over and above an even trade.

For example, If I offer to trade one resource for another (say Gems for Ivory for example), it says that they would be insulted by the offer. Why would an even trade be insulting? Don't they benefit from the trade just as much as I do? Why do they always demand that I throw in a Technology or something else to boot?

	11-09-2002 14:08									#2
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

don't worry, it's nothing to do with your understnading of trade - the AI never like to give you a fair trade, unless you're supremely more powerful.

	11-09-2002 14:11									#3
	Full PM-box? Change here!

Or perhaps you are requesting their only source of that item. The number next to the item is the number of sources available to the civ. They will never hand over their only source of oil or saltpeper.

	21-09-2002 06:55									#4
	Get a bigger avatar today!

The AI's "reasoning" is as follows:

A luxury is more beneficial to a huge empire than a tiny nation, because each city gets one happy face. The more cities you've got, the more useful the luxury is. I think Soren first explained that the AI evaluates luxury trades in this way, and in retrospect, it seems quite reasonable, in fact more so than the way most humans would do it (one luxury for another is an "even trade").

The same probably holds for strategic resources, because the more cities you have (and the bigger they are) the more they can build with that resource. So this is one of the penalties for being big you're just going to have to live with. On the other hand, if you wind up with a puny country, resource trading to your larger neighbors should help you keep up in technology, since you will be able to sell for more and buy for less.

One more thing: if a civ has a total monopoly on a luxury, they will try to charge more for it -- a LOT more, in my experience. This is simply the free market at work.

	29-09-2002 14:41									#5
	Put an end to popups!

All valid points but the trade system could be improved and made more realistic.
Theres always the option of crushing your opponents and taking their resources/luxuries.