Trade hub development: Where to send merchants?

Approach to subsume:

scaramouche wrote: I'll be honest about the hubs..i dont know nothing about them..its a part of the game i havent spent the time or energy to explore this part of the game yet...

With players not using markets it should be possible to make most profit! :)

We believe, in the longer run more and more people will be interested in a more decentralised trade network. Probably we can define three different kinds of hub/trade strategies (the alliance hub might be strategy/hub number four).

Local (the closest hub to your city/capital):

Yeesha D'ni wrote: -products can be stored and stockpiled easily and nearby -caravans aren't ages away from home to deliver goods -from monopoly to oligopol as a more vivid marketform (competition instead of accepting Centrum hub as a pricemaker for everything) -you make market occurence more attractive for smaller players, as they can join the market developments without having own traders -shaping plurality in giving a local market an individual charakter (local products might be cheaper then in far away western border states and vice versa). In other words: regional appearance of goods would get more important

You want to store stuff and sell primary resources. But it can be worth selling other things as well for players that do not care about having a well-developed trade structure and newbs. For that reasons I do not think there will be many hubs that will be completely dead. Eventually these hubs even allow the largest profit.

Regional (the hubs proposed here): They should offer much more activity so it makes sense to coordinate (that is why we started this thread and make the map).

Yeesha D'ni wrote: -by accepting trade offers you assure a quick delivery -caravans aren't ages away from home to deliver goods -from monopoly to oligopol […] -social platform in terms of allycrossing cooperation (what I wish, we would have much more) -shaping plurality […] -being well prepared for coming updates like market visibility -being the base of possible future trade tournamants and social interaction

And some of us do hope to be able to make a higher profit in a more decentralised market and sell more goods (when I offer my stuff in Centrum, it does not sell too well or not at all).

Finally, having such a coordinated marketplace will allow players to jump between various markets which might not serve to develop the market (in that sense) but drives demand (and will therefore help to develop the market ;)

And Centrum:

Yeesha D'ni wrote: For sure Centrum is and might be for a long time the pricegiver and most trades use to happen there.

And The_Dude also has some points:

Increasing number of traders

Lower taxes

The possibility of alliance specific trade strategies (see the second map)

And thanks Ossian and EvilKatia. Main idea of the map was to make things more transparent and easier to manage :)

Trade hubs mentioned:

Kumomoto wrote: Port Tal has gotten some good regional traction...

Cerex Flikex wrote: Turyin Trade Hub for the Elves! ;)

EvilKatia wrote: I agree with Pellinell for me its Shelton sending all my vans constantly to Centrum would be long and painful. my trader at centrum give me an idea of prices range mostly.

Yeesha D'ni wrote: Taomist / Laoshins trade hub "Zhuhai" is well developped with a really wide  variety of goods, at, what is important: in most cases competive prices (price niveau equal or less to Centrum). And more then 20 traders (that I know of), who are residents there.

The_Dude wrote: Scar - Turyin is friendly to Elves per the Faction Summary on it.  It is also near a cluster of CF's cities. :)