Is Trade Agreement with Surtova worth it?

[Lampros]

It's freaking 1500 BPs. I just finished Varnhold Vanishing, and I wonder if this will pay off at this stage.

[InEffect]

depends. If you are comfortable pushing the kingdom stuff and are good with your money it won't be a problem. You can do surtova trade deal right after trolls and still have about 30k left.
The later it goes the less payout you will get out of it, so it's either save up and do it asap or don't do it at all. I prefer the 1st option if only cause it's one less card to clutter the interface.

[Setupist]

I was wondering about the same thing, but it looks like a pretty bad deal. You have to put in the 1500 BP (120 k gold) and you will get something like under 15 BP per week in an advanced stage. At this pace it would take about 2 years just to break even. And getting there (the ~15 BP) means a lot of investing on the side - which you may not really be able to do because you threw a fortune out on the deal in the first place.

[InEffect]

The deal is like 120k gold. It doesn't affect anything in a game where we have about 10 million we can throw away before we start noticing cash shortages. And you are forgetting the best bonus we get from doing the deal - it's one less card and the kingdom UI is a mess as is, so 1 less card is great value for 120k gold and it even pays back some of that.

[Lampros]

InEffect,

Why don't you post on the Solasta forum? I miss having you answer questions regarding your builds directly! ;)

[InEffect]

Well... I'm kinda done with the game. I can answer stuff on the neoseeker guide since I'll get notified and it'd be more visible to people searching for it.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by InEffect:

Well... I'm kinda done with the game. I can answer stuff on the neoseeker guide since I'll get notified and it'd be more visible to people searching for it.

You are long done with this game, and yet you answer nonetheless! ;)

[InEffect]

Originally posted by Lampros:

You are long done with this game, and yet you answer nonetheless! ;)

Well... kinda, but PK interests me more than solasta. That game is an ok diversion for a run or two and that's that. Not 2500h time sink like PK.

[ScaryCherry]

Originally posted by Setupist:

I was wondering about the same thing, but it looks like a pretty bad deal. You have to put in the 1500 BP (120 k gold) and you will get something like under 15 BP per week in an advanced stage. At this pace it would take about 2 years just to break even. And getting there (the ~15 BP) means a lot of investing on the side - which you may not really be able to do because you threw a fortune out on the deal in the first place.

This neglects the taxes you have to pay as long as you're a Brevoy subsidy (50%). Apparently, these sorts of taxes no longer have to be paid after chapter 4 - then again you also lose out on the 30BP/week from Brevoy.
At that point though, the trade deal should provide you with 18BP/week already (1city, 3 towns or above, 7 villages or above); i.e. it breaks even after ~83 weeks the latest.

[ptirodaktill]

By the time it brake even you won`t need any BP.

[Orion Pax]

3rd playthrough here and I agree it doesn't seem to brake even fast enough to help more than it hinders. As ptirodaktill mentioned, you don't need BP after a certain point. The game doesn't really give you a way to convert it into something more useful late.

In my 2nd playthrough I frontloaded most of the trade agreements (not Surtova), but that delayed claiming territory because that costs BP. And since that delays artisans (arguably the main benefit of territory expansion), I am now delaying trade agreements until my 5th expansion (Silverstep), after which there is kind of a lull I believe. Still don't think I'll do the Surtova Trade Agreement though.

Tangentially: This is the first time I bought the Halfling Brewery, just for yuks. Had no idea til I built it that it had potential BP income. 😎

[Immortal Reaver]

The thing is earlier you do it, the later it breaks even. If you do it early it will break even after 2,5-3 years (cause it will also limit your progress). If you do it after 2,5 years of KM, it will break even after 1,5 years.

[Radiac]

All of the trade agreements are terrible deals. They offer you what is essentially the opportunity to loan somebody money in order to get repaid over time. This is like a mortgage contract, with us as the bank. Thing is, in the early game you need the BP for other things and by the time the trade agreement starts to break even, you've got more BP than you know what to do with. It would be much better if we could take out a loan from somebody and pay them over time later on, at the same interest rates and payment schedules they're offering to give us as the lender.

[99Random]

Originally posted by Radiac:

All of the trade agreements are terrible deals. They offer you what is essentially the opportunity to loan somebody money in order to get repaid over time. This is like a mortgage contract, with us as the bank. Thing is, in the early game you need the BP for other things and by the time the trade agreement starts to break even, you've got more BP than you know what to do with. It would be much better if we could take out a loan from somebody and pay them over time later on, at the same interest rates and payment schedules they're offering to give us as the lender.

This is dead on the money, erm, on the BP. By the time you make a profit BP has become almost meaningless since BP is used to buy structures that give kingdom stats and you get the vast majority of stats from events.

[Immortal Reaver]

I think Varnhold trade is good. It gives return after 37 weeks. Notably compared to others it is cheap.