International Trade: Would You Be Interested in a Trade Agreement With The English?
International trade is a crucial interaction in Humankind, as it creates lasting economic ties and thus diplomatic cooperation and stability, so with this update we want to make trade clearer and increase the impact of disruptions to your trade network. To that end, trade between empires (including vassals and their lieges) will now always connect their capital cities. This reduces the hard to read “trade route spaghetti” of the old trade interface and gives you a better idea of the path a new route will take. It also concentrates all international trade along a few major routes, letting you take better advantage of it with infrastructure, protect your interest, or interfere with your enemy.
Buying resources still requires an upfront payment and the appropriate diplomatic treaties (unless you are a Merchant empire, who can now always buy resources from others without signing treaties first). However, unlike before, trade routes now have an upkeep cost for the buyer based on the territories they cross and increasing slightly with the variety of goods on the same route. This upkeep cost can evolve over the course of the game, as technology, infrastructure, and control of the land changes. For example, routes crossing ocean territories will be expensive at first but become cheap with the advent of Three-Masted Ships, roads and railroads reduce upkeep, and routes in territory you own will be cheaper than in foreign territory. Of course, trade routes may also need to cross neutral, unclaimed territory, where they will form neutral trade nodes to serve as indicators and interaction points for the passing trade.
Poaching: What's Yours Is Mine
So far, so good... But that doesn't really affect trade, does it? They may be going to your capital now, but you're still getting all the same resources, right? Not always! In the new update, armies and navies can poach trade routes at various points along their path (such as neutral trade nodes or harbors) to interrupt the flow of resources and divert some or all of them to their own empire. Just steal the Saltpeter you need from your enemies, and bring along their gold and gems while you're at it!
Such attacks on peaceful trade are frowned upon, though, so while an army is poaching a trade route, any other empire can attack them without generating any grievances. Even once they stop stealing trade, armies will be marked as outlaws for a few turns, leaving them vulnerable to counterattack. Even stealthy units won't go unpunished, as poaching a trade route will immediately reveal them to everybody. This makes poaching trade routes a risky move, but on a rich, isolated trade node it can be well worth it.
That's all for our previews of the next update. We hope you're excited about these changes and additions, and will join us next week to celebrate Humankind's release anniversary.
