This is just a rule of thumb, however, since sometimes you cannot avoid transporting raw materials (like quartz), or taking up additional cargo holds may not matter because the route is not using all of its ships' holds anyway.Īn efficient supply network on a large map will generally feature several smaller hubs (production islands) and spokes (supply lines). If you can contain the production of brass on one island and that of candles on another another, you remove the need of moving these raw materials around, which frees up cargo slots on your ships for other goods. For example, to make candlesticks you need hemp, beeswax, copper ore and coal. In general it could be said that it is more efficient to transport intermediate or final products instead of their raw materials. This requires more thoughtful planning, depending also on existing trading routes, geography and diplomacy. At higher civilization levels, more types and greater quantities of goods will need to be moved around and production chains are longer, often requiring the chain to be split across multiple islands. In the beginning, the production chains are short and you only need some small ships transferring a single type of goods to your Occidental and Oriental settlements. Any cargo it has on board will still be available.Īs your empire grows, so will the number and complexity of your trading routes. Once you do this, the ship will immediately stop sailing and wait for further instructions. If you want to stop a ship from sailing a route, simply open up the route menu, select the route at the top left and then hit the button next to the ship that is assigned to that route. As soon as you have selected a ship, it will immediately drop what it was doing and head for the first warehouse in the list. You can assign ships to a route either by clicking the Add Ship button and selecting one from the list, or clicking the ship's icon on the map. Clicking the button to the right of the waypoint name removes the entire waypoint. Right-clicking removes the goods from the instruction list.
Left-clicking a goods icon produces a slider that allows you to change the amount of goods and whether they are loaded or unloaded. Loading onto the ship is shown in green text, for example +40, while unloading is in red: -40. Click the + (load cargo) or - (unload) button to open the inventory menu of the corresponding warehouse, where you can select the goods that should be transferred. Initially, the instruction list for transferring cargo is empty for a new trading route. Which goods will be loaded/unloaded at each waypoint.Waypoints are added and numbered in the order you select them. Using descriptive route names (like the names of all goods transported) is very helpful this makes it much easier to find a route you need to modify once you have a dozen or so trading routes.Īdd waypoints to the route, either by clicking the Add Warehouse button and selecting from the list, or directly selecting the warehouse/harbour master's office location on the map. You can click the route and edit the name, if you wish.
Simply click the Create new Route button to add a new route to the list. To add a new route, you have to set up the following things: Information about ships assigned to the selected route: whether they are currently sailing the route, their cargo and efficiency.List of waypoints and loading/unloading instructions for the currently selected route.The side bar to the right contains the interface for creating and modifying trade routes, from top to bottom: Most of this information can be filtered out using the buttons at the top of the window, to get a clearer view of your own empire. Locations of warehouses and harbour master's offices, where ships may load and unload cargo.Ships assigned to the currently selected trading route are highlighted by a white circle
The map initially shows the following information, coded by player color: This menu is accessed through either the button on the main icon bar, the button in the info panel of a ship that is assigned to a trading route, or the key binding (F6 by default). Trading routes are managed in the Ships and Trading routes menu, displayed in the screenshot.