All data in this chapter pertains to the trade model intended for AGE2 and not the current trade model in place.
Overview of Trade Model
Currently, there is no trade model (or even trade for that matter) in AGE2.
Internal Trade
Once players have built a market, they can conduct trade by means of the internal trade interface which appears when this building is selected. This interface consists of two rows of four buttons, one button in each row for each of the resources (food, wood, stone, ore). Superimposed over the top buttons are the selling prices for each commodity and over the bottom buttons the buying price.
A click of any upper “sell commodity” button will cause the player to sell 100 units of the selected resource from his inventory and receive the amount superimposed over the button in gold. A click on any lower “buy commodity” button will cause the player to purchase 100 units of the selected resource at the cost (in gold) of the amount superimposed over the button. Players attempting to buy or sell resources when they do not have enough of a commodity or gold will be given a “you cannot”
message (buttons that have no function, such as the “sell” buttons when a player has less than 100 of a resource, will also be grayed out). Players must also pay a 10% fee on any transaction (to cover the cost of moving the commodities).
Buying a lot of any resource will cause an increase in the buying price of that good, selling a lot of any resource will decrease its selling price. As purchases and sales influence the price of goods, the internal trade interface at the market will change to reflect the new prices; the prices superimposed over the buttons will update with every exchange.
All resources begin with a 1 gold to 1 unit value but any purchase or sale made by any player in the game will impact the price of commodities. There is no limit to the price a good can be driven up to but a lot of 100 will never sell for less than 1 gold. As time goes on, the game will slowly attempt to level the price of all goods back to the original 1 to 1 value (increase or decrease prices by 1 gold per 10 seconds).
Player-to-Player Trade
Players can conduct player-to-player trade over land or water. Over land, trade is conducted using the trade cart unit built at the market. Over water, trade can be conducted using the cog or any variety of galley. Trade units have the following capacities:
Unit Capacities
Unit Base Capacity (trade goods)
Cannon Galley 2
Cog 8
Galley 2
Trade Cart 4
War Galley 1
Player to player trade is based on the transfer of trade goods. Trade goods are manufactured at the marketplace or dock automatically when a player’s trade unit is following a trade route and arrives empty. Trade goods cost 10 each of wood, stone, ore, and food to manufacture. Trade goods are an
“invisible” resource; they are manufactured as required at the appropriate location without direction from the player.
Every trade good takes 10 seconds to manufacture. A marketplace or dock manufactures trade goods on demand (starting when an empty trade unit arrives) and does not stockpile trade goods. Trade units will loiter around a dock or marketplace while awaiting trade good manufacture. A dock or market will manufacture only one trade good at a time and (if multiple trade units are around) will load it into the vessel closest to being full (if vessels are equally full, it will load them into the one with the smallest capacity first).
To conduct player to player trade, the player builds a trade unit, selects it, and clicks on an appropriate trade site (another player’s dock for ships or another player’s marketplace for the trade cart). The selected trade unit will then approach the nearest dock or market owned by the player, be filled with the appropriate amount of trade goods, and head for the targeted trade site. Upon arrival, the player’s trade unit drops its cargo in exchange for an amount of gold (no player gets the dropped trade goods).
The unit then returns to the dock or marketplace from which it originated where the gold it is carrying is deposited in the player’s inventory. At this point, the trade unit will load a new cargo of trade goods and repeat its previous route.
Once ordered, trade units will continue on a route until given other orders or killed. If the trade location they are attempting to trade with is destroyed, they will return to the marketplace where they originally received their trade goods and await orders. If they are attacked they will flee a certain distance and then attempt to continue on their route. If the trade cart is killed, it leaves behind a salvage pile which can be pillaged (as a building) for a random amount of resources.
The amount of gold received in exchange for trade goods is calculated using a base value of 40 gold for each trade good carried. This is then modified by the following distance and age modifiers:
Condition Modifier
Closest reachable trade location is <10% map size away. -70%
Closest reachable trade location is 11 – 20% map size away. -50%
Closest reachable trade location is 21 – 30% map size away. -30%
Closest reachable trade location is 31 – 69% map size away. +/- 0%
Closest reachable trade location is 70 – 80% map size away. +100%
Closest reachable trade location is 81 – 90% map size away. +200%
Closest reachable trade location is 91> map size away. +300%
Location being traded with is 2 superior ages (Age 2 player trading with an Age 4 player) -20%
Location being traded with is 1 superior age (Age 3 player trading with an Age 4 player) -10%
Location being traded with is 2 inferior ages (Age 4 player trading with an Age 2 player) +20%
Location being traded with is 1 inferior age (Age 4 player trading with an Age 3 player) +10%
In the table above, “closest reachable trade location” refers to the distance between the two closest trade locations between the player and the player he has chosen to trade with. “Reachable” is defined
as not requiring any interim transportation (i.e. a market that would require a trade cart to be loaded on a ship, moved across the water, and then unloaded would not qualify as “reachable”). Both the closest reachable and the inferior / superior age modifiers are applied based on the circumstances of the game at the time the player’s trade unit exchanges its cargo for gold.
10% of all gold generated in trade goes to the market of the player being traded with.
Programmer Notes
Technical trade related data from David Lewis.
Calculation of changes in world prices
all buys/sells are in lots of 100 of any commodity. this amount is fixed.
The buy/sell costs have lower and upper bounds. The lowest price is 1.0 gold per lot of 100. The highest price is 9999.0 gold per lot of 100. the starting buy/sell prices are set to 100 gold per lot of 100.
The amount that the world price can change based on each buy/sell also have lower and upper bounds. The smallest a price can change is by 1.0. An example is going from 100.0 gold to 99.0 gold per lot of 100. The largest delta is 10.0 gold.
The formula for the price changes is as follows:
price change = (A + SQRT( B + (C*price_delta)) ) where
price change = amount the world price changes.
price_delta = the number of changes +/- from the baseline of 0.0 to world price, i.e. this counts the buys/sells of a commodity
A, B, C = constants, definded in code. They are: A = 0.0 B = 10.0 C = 250.0
This is a square root function so the price delta is greatest for the first few buys/sells. If 10 sells of a commodity are done the change of the price change gets lower and lower. Note that if the opposing action is done i.e. buys the price change will start going back up.
Commodity Buy/Sell gold values
Sell prices are the world commodity price plus a percent trade vig rate which increase the price
Buy prices are the world commodity price minu a percent trade vig rate which decrease the selling price.
The trade vig rate is 10%.
The prices shown of the buy/sell buttons on the Market building UI reflect the trade vig rate.
Commodity trading limits and their refresh rate
players can do unlimited sells.
player is limited on the number of buys he can do. This limit is the number of flags on their best market. An example is a 3 flag market the player can only do 3 buys of wood., and 3 buys of ore, etc.
Sells of a commodity will reduce your limit to buy. For example the player has a 5 flag market, this means he can only buy 5 lots of wood. The player buys 3 lots of wood, now he can only buy two more lots. If the player then sells 2 lots of wood his by limit will go up to 4 lots. Sells can also drive the buy limit above the that of the market. The player sells 10 lots of wood and has a 5 flag market then his buy limit is 15 lots.
Your buy limit will refresh over time to approach the limit imposed by your best market. The rate is 500 secs/# flags of best market . When ever this time has counted off the player buy limit will go up or down by one to approach the limit of his best market. If your best market changes then this time will be altered.