Is there a way to set precise routes for ships on trade routes?

[Lucifer Sam]

The enemy occupied an island near the entrance to the new world which picks off any of my ships trying to sail to the new world. To avoid this my ships only need to go slightly to the East at a single point on their way in and out in but of course they won't do that and just suicide every time. Taking the island is not practical at this point because I need better income (Which is impossible without importing from the new world to get what I need to increase my income and power). The enemy island is fortified with 2 flame towers, 4 cannon towers and 1 MG tower. Not possible for me to take it without that improved income, and even then it would be a loooong build up to have any chance at all. The other solution is just too tedious; doing the trade route manually for the next several hours so that it doesn't suicide into the flame towers every time, this solution also isn't practical as it would steer me away from doing other things I need to do in the game. I tried making peace but as usual there's zero chance.

[Oliver Tressillian]

hi mate I had the same issue and had to divert my ships to another port before they crossed over, i.e either one of yer own if there is any still available to capture or one of the other AI's ports that are friendly towards you.

It's either that or capture that port which is in your way

[kolorotur]

Open the trade route editing window - you'll see little icons in the middle of each segment between domestic ports that you can drag to adjust the route:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3088373263

For cross-region routes you can drag the entry and exit points:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3088373160

[Lucifer Sam]

I tried that. It worked for a while but then he fortified his starting island in the middle and it's situated in such a way that I basically can't use 2/3 of the map because he owns the SE and NW as well and my ships will suicide every time because of the way the beaches are set up with his 1-2 flame towers in each section. None of the other factions will give me trade rights either (Zero chance, even with good relations) so he won the entire game with just 3 flame towers. It's not like I was slacking either, he only has 5 islands to my 4. The way his islands are situated just means that I have no chance of doing anything unless I wanna manually steer each trade ship on a route that is probably impractical because of sheer distance and me having to micro them at several points which also means I will neglect everything else that I need to do. That's not including the BS that his regular ships cause (I have to use ships of the line as trade ships otherwise his lines will just pick off my trade ships and their escorts, unless I have 3 frigates escorting each trade ship, which are themselves frigates, even then he can manage to pick off a frigate each time before retreating)

It's enough to make me quit Anno altogether because I've had silly things like this happen before, which could be easily prevented by either letting the player use rally points on routes or having ships not suicide when it isn't necessary, it's quite ridiculous that the former isn't a function of the game at this point. Then iI had to abandon two other saves because they encountered game breaking bugs with the DLC's. I have Docklands and another one disabled now, but who is to say that I won't encounter more gamebreaking bugs with some of the other DLC's? Get 4 hours into a game only to have that happen and then find forums where people complained about it 2 years ago and it still hasn't been fixed, they just keep pumping out more DLC's and not fixing anything apparently. Very frustrating. Wasn't cheap to buy this game and all of the DLC's. At that price I don't think it's too much to expect them to be reasonably functional, although I'm sure people will tell me otherwise.

[POWER WITHIN USER]

Originally posted by Lucifer Sam:

It's enough to make me quit Anno altogether because I've had silly things like this happen before

either disable aggressive AI, use the cease fire option or find a way to stomp AI ships (your flagship can 1v1 everything but a SotL while for base defenses well you just kill their trade routes so that they don't fortify them)