Ok...i dont get Market Access mechanics...

[Jubblator]

So i played as Spanish Philippines, everything is going great, im 19th in the world GDP wise...trade is going well...and just out of nowhere i get 0% market access and it seems to happens sometimes without warning and last, some times, a loooong time (bancrupting me).

Its not that im getting embargoed, as far as i can see, i have enough infrasturcture, workers, ports etc. but all of a sudden the market access just crashes.

Anyone got any ideas?

[Prown]

Check your ports and railroads, If your railroads aren't profitable for example you will drop to lower access, which will make the railroads even more expensive, leading to less people working there, lowering access further.

I tend to subsidise Railroads and ports for this reason.

Other than that, I've not experienced a sudden drop in market access.

[Jubblator]

Ahaa, ok so it becomes a death spiral. Thanks! It didnt really show well, gonna investigate that.

[Hawkward]

I think the AI is deleting their ports. Probably a bug. My premade played as Persia (customs union France) suddenly everyone in customs union with France had 0% market access. Then we looked which buildings france had and we saw that France had 0 ports anymore.

[Dragow]

From my experience, the infrastructure is directly tied to market access. It is in general case, if we are speaking about like UK trading with France. The problem is, you barely provided any info, but from what i can understand, my only guess is, your main importer got his port...expropriated.

[Jubblator]

Yeah i mean i was inside the Russian market, as a puppet of Spain.
Dunno what info to provide really =)

Russia did do some wars now and then, but that didnt always cause this.

[astoica]

I think it's a bug and an incredibly annoying one (happened in 3 separate games). When the market owner goes to war(s) my market access starts to fall of a cliff. Both my railways and ports are in sufficient numbers and profitable. Also it happens in every province, including colonies that don't use any infrastructure.

Update: Someone else in another thread suggested that this could be caused by blocked shipping lanes (caused by the market owner's wars). I still find this to be a game breaking mechanic. There is nothing you can do except try to win all the wars for the stupid AI (even you're even allowed to join).

[rickerts]

Originally posted by Jubblator:

Yeah i mean i was inside the Russian market, as a puppet of Spain.
Dunno what info to provide really =)

Russia did do some wars now and then, but that didnt always cause this.

It depends on the outcome of the war to some degree, if they lost some ports or something that might hurt access. It does happen sometimes anyways I;ve seen.

The Railroads and infrastructure certainly play a role - are there modifiers on the territory that have been earned thru events or something that might also explain it other than a bug, which it totally could be as well.

[lubed_assassin]

Normally it has to deal with the main market. If your in the spanish market goods are shiped to spain "magically" through the trade centers. So if spain has a problem it will also block you crashing their economy as well.

[Jubblator]

Thanks for the answers everyone =)

[Gerzl]

Was playing Australia, had 37 million GDP and went all the way down to 10 million in less than a year because all of my states had 0 market access. This has happened several times to me, and it seems to happen only when the overlord is at war and their convoys are being raided. All the other british subjects also had 0 market access when I did.

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by Gerzl:

Was playing Australia, had 37 million GDP and went all the way down to 10 million in less than a year because all of my states had 0 market access. This has happened several times to me, and it seems to happen only when the overlord is at war and their convoys are being raided. All the other british subjects also had 0 market access when I did.

Which makes sense, under the kind of lazy model that in a customs union all trade clears through the central market even if that implies that the goods have to go halfway around the world twice and come back to a state next door over to where they started.