Trader won't use Harbour.

[VulgarMonkey]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421371117

So I'm not sure why my trader isn't using the Harbour. Sending him from Malinalco I was hoping he'd use the adjacent Harbour. Instead he goes East to Teotihuacan before embarking. Other players Traders have no issue using the Harbour at Malinalco (I have witnessed this).

A couple of peculiar things happen too. Firstly, it would appear that the Trader actually breaches the water distance limit (30) for the proposed route to Zanzibar. Secondly it tells me a route to Zanzibar would take 15 turns. Look how far away it is! Lies.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421371195

I have an active Trader from Malinalco to Taruga. In the Trade Route Overview this says it should take 7 turns. I have force-ended turns more than 7 times and he's not even close (he's going West and up through Teotihuacan). Interestingly enough it would be 7 turns if you count the number of tiles from the Malinalco City Centre to Taruga - which presumes Harbour use in the calculation.

Is this just straight up bugged? I'd be happy to find out if there's a solid reason why I, individually, can't use that Harbour, but I'm being told route-turn information which is simply not true when I force-end said number of turns (and the trade route is ongoing).

[grognardgary]

My Guess that it is following some preexist trade route of collection there of, It looks like you are in the medieval era and trade route length does change over time. You might want to check your trade route list and see the beginning and end point of all your routes,

[Rift]

Traders generally try to take the shortest distance while also trying to pick up bonus yields from the route (e.g., passing through established trade posts along the way).

And yes, it's 15 tiles over land and 30 tiles over water, but if your trader passes through any city where you have an established trade post, the distance resets, and it can then go another 15 land or 30 water tiles from there, and so on. It also picks up 1 additional gold per trade post it passes through; +2 for Rome (as far as I remember; might have to fact check me on that last part).

[jmerry82]

The Rome ability is about the difference between trading posts in your own cities and in foreign cities. Rome gets +1 gold for trading posts in all cities, while others only get it for trading posts in foreign cities.

On your issue here - was the harbor finished when you started the trade route? Obviously, the Harbor is finished now and any future iterations of the route would take the shorter path, but once the trader has started west to your other harbor or coastal city, it's not going to just reverse.

[VulgarMonkey]

Originally posted by grognardgary:

My Guess that it is following some preexist trade route of collection there of, It looks like you are in the medieval era and trade route length does change over time. You might want to check your trade route list and see the beginning and end point of all your routes,

I don't quite understand this if I'm being honest sorry. I have a trade route between Malinalco and Taruga which claims to be 7 turns to complete (the cities are 7 tiles apart) but it takes longer given it's going via the route to the West through Teotihuacan. Basically, the length of time a route is taking to complete is longer than what the game is telling me it should take. I'm not sure if that's relevant to the point you're making though.

[VulgarMonkey]

Originally posted by Rift:

Traders generally try to take the shortest distance while also trying to pick up bonus yields from the route (e.g., passing through established trade posts along the way).

And yes, it's 15 tiles over land and 30 tiles over water, but if your trader passes through any city where you have an established trade post, the distance resets, and it can then go another 15 land or 30 water tiles from there, and so on. It also picks up 1 additional gold per trade post it passes through; +2 for Rome (as far as I remember; might have to fact check me on that last part).

So the trade route from Malinalco to Zanzibar has more than 30 ocean tiles, uninterrupted, between Teotihuacan and Magdeburg. The only way this could reset is if it's resetting on the Harbour tile it cross on Malinalco - but then it's 'using' the Harbour tile in Malinalco and I'm wondering why it won't 'use it' when embarking from Malinalco. The Trader is going all the way West to Teotihuacan, just to loop around and reset on the Harbour in Malinalco (where it began)!? Crazy.

But regardless I'm being told the trade route from Malinalco to Zanzibar is 15 turns. It takes longer than that to complete when I force-end turn more than 15 times and he still hasn't made it close to Zanzibar. Is that normal?

[VulgarMonkey]

Originally posted by jmerry82:

The Rome ability is about the difference between trading posts in your own cities and in foreign cities. Rome gets +1 gold for trading posts in all cities, while others only get it for trading posts in foreign cities.

On your issue here - was the harbor finished when you started the trade route? Obviously, the Harbor is finished now and any future iterations of the route would take the shorter path, but once the trader has started west to your other harbor or coastal city, it's not going to just reverse.

Yes, in the above image the Harbour is finished and the screenshot shows options for starting a new trade route starting from Malinalco. Other players in the game are using the Harbour to trade with Malinalco. In the screenshot you can see a German trader 'leaving' Malinalco via the Harbour (and I promise in game I watched him come-and-go via the Harbour).

[davemon]

Originally posted by Rift:

Traders generally try to take the shortest distance while also trying to pick up bonus yields from the route (e.g., passing through established trade posts along the way).

And yes, it's 15 tiles over land and 30 tiles over water, but if your trader passes through any city where you have an established trade post, the distance resets, and it can then go another 15 land or 30 water tiles from there, and so on. It also picks up 1 additional gold per trade post it passes through; +2 for Rome (as far as I remember; might have to fact check me on that last part).

@Rift thank you for that tip, I never knew they picked up extra at enroute trade routes. I always picked routes by the summary data in the trade route selection window.