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[Granite26]

Trading Economics

Desire:  Build a system of pricing for overland economics to determine both the relative price of materials and the cost of transportation.  This could be merged into an overarching pricing scheme to determine costs, and more importantly what is actually used.

In theory steel and bronze production are based on the availability of at least 3 materials each.  Hopefully in the future we will have even more complex metallurgies and constructions.  What determines where these are available?  Currently everything that is dug out of the ground is mixed up into a big pot.  There is no concept of amount of ore available.  It’s also possible for forts to import goods from extremely far away without regard for shipping costs.

All that said, there could be an algorithm that determines what civs actually use.

(This is less a suggestion about how things SHOULD be, and more a discussion of how things COULD be, because it amuses me to write it)

Use Cases:
   Steel: Steel is produced using fuel, iron ore and flux.  All of these are heavy items, so the steel works industry will need ready access to all of these.

   Bronze: Bronze is mostly copper.  Historically tin was imported to sites with copper in order to smelt the bronze.

   Lumberjacks:  Logs float on the water and run downstream for free

   Power Sources:  Water and Magma can’t be shipped.  Sites with these are almost guaranteed to be manufacturing centers.

What I’m thinking would work would be a natural increase in the cost of an item based on the shortest distance traveled and weight.  The main purpose of this is properly deciding what a civ would use.  Say that transferring over water costs 1 dwarfbuck per dwarfpound, roads costs 2, plains 5 and woods/deserts 10.  Now find the shortest weighted path.

Take food for example.  In a given civ, the peasants are going to predominately consume the cheapest item.  They will base all food decisions on the need for variety plus this base cost. 

Say that there are 3 foodstuffs produced in a city, but they need to eat a 4th thing to satisfy their need for variety.  They’ll import the cheapest thing available to them, but the cost will be modified by distance.  It may be cheaper to get the carp burgers from next door than to pay the dwarves to haul dirt cheap plump helmets all the way out of the mountains.

What is the advantage to this?  Each city will have it’s own set of goods that it offers for trade and a rational system of wants.  High value goods will always have a small cap (for nobles making mandates), but each civ will have a rational trade list that they want from you.  Humans will love Plump Helmets because they’re cheap, light and plentiful enough to serve as a good second base for food variety.  Visitors to your fort could be outfitted rationally:  Not all humans have iron weapons automatically; GCS silk is suitably rare, etc.

While this wouldn’t be 100% useful with vanilla as it stands, think about all the super smelting mods.  Sure the human civ has access to all the components of wootz steel, but maybe it’s too expensive to make it anywhere but the capitol, so one city is using bronze off of imported tin, one uses iron,  one uses pig iron, etc etc.  It’s a free(ish) way to give variety to the plebes of a city without arbitrary restrictions on what gets traded or what is available where.

[profit]

This would only really make sense once the overland things came into play.

Without the ability to build roads and transport systems you would have to rely on the world generator, which has nothing but scorn for dwarves and their desires.

[corvvs]

While this wouldn’t be 100% useful with vanilla as it stands, think about all the super smelting mods.  Sure the human civ has access to all the components of wootz steel, but maybe it’s too expensive to make it anywhere but the capitol, so one city is using bronze off of imported tin, one uses iron,  one uses pig iron, etc etc.

Not to nitpick (well, ok, maybe a bit) but pig iron isn't useful for anything other than making steel. It's far too brittle to be used - the carbon content is over 2%. If you made a sword out of it (if you *could* make a sword out of it even) it would break the first time it was swung at something hard (like armor or bone).

But the suggestion of a global economy taking travel time and difficulty of manufacture into account is awesome.

Actually (this may belong on a thread of its own though) I would like to see other entities get mad if you repeatedly ignore trade agreements. You ask them to bring more anvils and they do, but you can't produce a few measly windows for them?

[Lazer Bomb]

So other civs = nobles?

I don't want people from miles away making the same demands as my nobles do.

What should make other civs mad is if you ask for anvils and don't buy any.

[madrain]

I agree.  I mean, they went through all the trouble to haul 12 massive anvils through haunted woods and all you want is a couple barrels of cat meat?  And why can't I get out of this depot?  Hey, what's that burning smell?  OH MY GO--

I would LOVE for distance/difficulty to matter.  What if your new fortress became the civilization's only access to some valuable mineral or stone, though?  Would bauxite mechanisms become extraordinarily valuable, then, because not only does the rest of your civilization need it, but you live so far away that a merchant returning home with a single mechanism can live out the rest of his days like a king?

Not that I think it's a bad thing, but I just wonder if it works the opposite way.  The same could be said of anything, like steel production, or glass.  If your fortress is the only one that can make windows, will your wealth skyrocket from providing glass goods to trade caravans?

[JoshuaFH]

This, combined with proper supply and demand, politics, actual hierarchy, effects of war, embargoes, blockades, water travel, Navy, racism, slavery, and proper religious effects, this could be pretty neat.

[Granite26]

Yeah, the main purpose was to justify different civs and areas using different stuff, while still allowing the player to import everything that's out there...