Trade Ships - Bad routing, or are they just stupid?

from Stardock Forums

I have an awesome SP large map going with some of the AI set at hard. I am playing TEC and have my capital planet next to a wormhole and my tech tree allows for wormhole travel. All my star bases are set up with trading posts. I have trading agreements with another race on the other side of the wormhole.

So...

Why do my trading ships insist on flying through the war zone rather then use the wormhole? (The wormhole path seems to have less jumps but it means that they would have to travel away from their destination first)

Is it possibe to set trading routes that would encourage them to use the wormhole?

I am looking forward to Dipomacy but disappointed that this may be the final microexpansion. I would easily pay every year for a microexpansion pack and would really like to see a tactics package (war plans, programable ship AI, etc) next.  There are just so many good suggestions in this forum, enough for at least 3 more packs (new races, cloak ships etc..)

:thumbsup:

32,103 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

I have seen trade ships use wormholes before, however, I'm not sure exactly how the AI decides how they get to point A to point B. It could be because you have a trade link chain that happens to go close to or into the warzone, which I noticed they seem to prefer.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

I think the AI just uses the shortest direction to their destination, unfortunately it cant differentiate between friendly space and hostile space. If the wormhole is the most direct route itll take it.........if it isnt itll go around it.

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

In Entrenchment, trade ships will only go through a wormhole if you have a starbase with trade upgrade(s) on BOTH sides of the wormhole. In vanilla Sins, this is not necessary.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

i actually had SB's without Trade upgrades on either side of a wormhole and they still passed through to reach a particular tradeport on the other side of the system faster.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Its my belief that the trade ships don't actually conduct trade but are merely a representation of trade. Because of this it dosen't make much difference where they go or whether they even make it to their destination. Either way you still make the same money.

Think of how eratic and fluctuating the credits gained from trade would be if the trade ships really had to reach their destinations. But instead the trade network is very consistent with no fluctuations at all except when newly established.

The only real use of the trade ships is the tactical advantage it can provide for your enemy if they need more credits since they can just mow down your trade ships. Not sure how much you get for that though so I dunno how usefull that is. Oh and the handy distraction they can provide if you are being attacked by pirates.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Its my belief that the trade ships don't actually conduct trade but are merely a representation of trade. Because of this it dosen't make much difference where they go or whether they even make it to their destination. Either way you still make the same money.

This is actually false. While they don't technically conduct trade, their existance adds credit income to their originating trade port. If they are destroyed, that income per second is gone until a new one is spawned. It used to be that you only got credits when they reached their destinations, however it was changed to credits per second while the trade ship is alive to have a clearer representation in the economy.

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Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Oh I see, well thanks for clarifying that for me. At least I was right about the ships not actually conducting trade. But I didn't know their being destroyed had a negative effect.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 6

This is actually false. While they don't technically conduct trade, their existance adds credit income to their originating trade port. If they are destroyed, that income per second is gone until a new one is spawned. It used to be that you only got credits when they reached their destinations, however it was changed to credits per second while the trade ship is alive to have a clearer representation in the economy.

That's an interesting change. I am sure it was well thought out, but it seems that the destination payout would have been more realistic, by providing income to pirates and making it more important to protect arriving ships. I wish there was some indication of revenue lost due to trading ship destruction. Do trading ships cost money for the trading port to build? They should. There still should be a way for establishing prefered trading routes and preventing ships from doing suicide runs.