With the big zoomed in map diplomatic range has also shortened drastically with it. Which makes long distance trade for any regional power largely impossible. There’s a few technologies that increase it further but it really isn’t enough. Especially if you’re on island or in Africa.

The fact that almost everyone is either a local power or city state at the start of the game makes trading non existent as well. By the time regional powers are everywhere you still can’t interact with many of them. With some resources being either scarce or concentrated in a local area it can make it essentially impossible to get it.


Let’s take being a regional power on Crete and you want to get copper. You basically can’t. Cyprus which is rich in copper is outside your diplomatic range. The nearest sources of copper are north in turkey but the sources are low and generally only owned by a single power each. For the AI to be willing to trade it they need at least 3 copper. Or the copper source has to outside their capital province and you can convince them to trade it with you when they have 2. The thing is they don’t want to trade it when they have a capital surplus and will lose that surplus. If they won’t lose the surplus or don’t have one already due to the source not being from the capital then they’ll trade. Two very rare situations outside of somewhere like Cyprus.
The best part is to be considered a major power you need 100 territories. Which for Crete ain’t happening since while it has a lot it’s only 90 something territories.


I suggest extending diplomatic range per state rank. Or even adjusting the territory requirements for each rank. As of right now the requirements are 100% arbitrary. 1, 2, 25, 100, 500 for each rank respectively. Could fudge them around a little bit.