Trading Export Goods

[poi]

I am not sure whether this was discussed before or not, so here goes.

When I start a new scenario, I always check the empire for goods that I can export to earn some denarii. For example, another city will buy 60 Jewels. So I set up the trade route

Back to city view, I pause the game, set up the gold mines and factories, then the usual food chains and housing. After that, I run the game. when my warehouse starts to have jewels being stocked, I build the trade dock and set it up to sell the jewels. However, the traders will never buy my jewels :confused: .... Went to the resource advisor screen and set the number to be exported will also give the same result. In the end, what I did was, buying 1 unit of the item that the traders are selling, which will finally result in my jewels being bought by the traders.

So, does this mean I can't just sell my products, and must also buy from them? I fairly sure in my other early scenarios I can just sell and don't buy anything... but that was the early days when i just got the game and will only setup trade after I have a up and running community.... hmmm any suggestion?

[Keith]

I am not sure whether this was discussed before or not, so here goes.

When I start a new scenario, I always check the empire for goods that I can export to earn some denarii. For example, another city will buy 60 Jewels. So I set up the trade route

Back to city view, I pause the game, set up the gold mines and factories, then the usual food chains and housing. After that, I run the game. when my warehouse starts to have jewels being stocked, I build the trade dock and set it up to sell the jewels. However, the traders will never buy my jewels :confused: .... Went to the resource advisor screen and set the number to be exported will also give the same result. In the end, what I did was, buying 1 unit of the item that the traders are selling, which will finally result in my jewels being bought by the traders.

So, does this mean I can't just sell my products, and must also buy from them? I fairly sure in my other early scenarios I can just sell and don't buy anything... but that was the early days when i just got the game and will only setup trade after I have a up and running community.... hmmm any suggestion?

I had someone on the Sierra board report the same problem. I had them send me their save file and discovered that their entire trade depot was clogged to capacity with imported goods. No wonder they couldn't sell anything.

That 48 you see on the sliders is not 48 units for each item, it is the total capacity of the trade depot. So if you are importing you must not clog up your depot. Use a lower setting than 48 and any space left over set for the export item. Have a warehouse near the depot set to accept the imported item to get them out of the depot quickly.

Since I cannot see how your depot is setup, I can't tell if this is your problem. If you post a save game then we might be able to determine more.

[poi]

no no... I never set it to 48, i always change it to 24 or lower. In the other post, someone mentioned that the export limit means the amount of items you want your city to have. But, I really doubt that. Because even if I set it to 60, my city only have (e.g) 24, it will still be exported IF i set my trade dock to buy something from the same trader.

[poi]

This happens with every type of goods. There was one map in republic campaign, which should be caralis or corrinth. In the beginning, I build ALL the camps and factories which products can be exported, but not one item can be sold even if my dedicated warehouse is filled with it. My tradedock is not cloged by the way, since I always set them to hold 12 or 16 items.

Later I replay the map, and setup only 1 province to export my goods, still the same result. I don't have the savegames anymore since I found a way to overcome it. But it is very annoying having to buy something that I don't need even if it's only 1 unit (setting import limit to 1), and holding the item in the tradedock(4), so it'll always buy 1 unit every year until 4 units is in the dock.

But this doesn't occur if you're in mid-game (I think this because I only setup trade during mid-game before). I wonder whether it's a bug...

[Spearthrower]

It would seem like this would be better posted in the bugs subforum - perhaps it is something to do with the exact process you use. If you can replicate this error then I am sure the devs would be interested in seeing some of your save games.

I personally do it differently and have never seen this occur!

[Keith]

Hmmm. I've never had to buy something to get something exported. A save game would have helped nail down your problem.

[poi]

Hmmm. I've never had to buy something to get something exported. A save game would have helped nail down your problem.

I'll try to provide a save game soon. Too busy since I'm having my final exams soon, can't even afford much time to play. If I start the game, it's gonna make me forget everything and just focusing on building and building! well, I guess you all know the feeling :D

[Cartpusher]

[quote=poi]no no... I never set it to 48, i always change it to 24 or lower. In the other post, someone mentioned that the export limit means the amount of items you want your city to have. But, I really doubt that.

Poi: You might want to reconsider your position on this.

If you do a mouseover on the Export Limit number, you will see, "Traders will not be able to pick up resources that bring the amount stored below this amount, but citizens of the city may." In other words, this is the amount of stored goods reserved for city use. Traders won't touch these goods.

I have watched this happen. I had trade goods at the depot. A trader visited and did not take any. A cartpusher from the market came and took a load away for city use. The next trader that came was able to purchase goods because the total stored had increased past the export limit.

...and when you have a problem with the game, please post your game save that illustrates your problem. The game has a complicated web of requirements and relationships. Until our psychic abilities improve sufficiently, we can't help you without the saved game.

[MarkDuffy]

I'm not sure what Poi is trying to say here, but I have never had a single problem trading. Perhaps it is an understanding/experience issue. To assume a bug is a huge leap. We would know about it already.

Poi, keep you Resource Advisor import/export limits at default. Probably will help you a lot. Just make more of whatever you also want to export. Adjust by the specific Trade Depot/Port. :)

[Plebus]

Default export limit is set to 0.This is for maximize export (0 means traders would buy this item whenever there are some in the trade depot).If you set trade limit to 60,traders will only buy when your city has more than 60 units in stock(storage pits,markets and workshops/farms etc.).;)

[poi]

Thanks for all the advise guys. Really appreciate it.

I never hover over the export limit number, thus didnt get the help tip about what the export limit meant.

I tested it out, and it really did work. Then leading me to wonder what had happened b4. I found my savegame (in my backup ghost image, sure was troublesome getting it out) and extrated it out to test. I guess it's because when i saw that the trader didn't buy any goods initially, I went to change the export limit, thinking that if i want to export 60, i'll need to change the value to 60. After hearing advises posted here, I became patient and wait abit, and when the traders return on the 3rd time, my goods are sold. I don't know why it didn't buy any stuff though on the 1st and 2nd visit.

Thanks to all the replies for making me understand about the system, really appreciate it :) I kinda feel stupid now with such a simple matter:o