Feature Request: Trade Improvements

[macdjord]

• It would be nice if, before trading with the Zebras, the autotrade function would make sure there's enough room in your stocks for any iron that might be returned, and convert exiting iron to plates if necessary to make room
• It would also be nice if autotrade would wait for the most beneficial season to trade in

[MaPaul1977]

Thanks for the comments! You are right about the first one, and I'll take a look.

I actively decided not to wait for the most beneficial season only because I found that I needed to be generating titanium constantly, and couldn't wait for a specific time frame.

[macdjord]

I've found that, even in the best of circumstances, trade isn't frequent enough to represent an actual revenue stream. It only ends up being significant when I leave the game alone for a while, and under those circumstances, it doesn't matter when in the year the trades happen.

[MaPaul1977]

I think I am with you. The only caveat being that I've found that in the very late game, my primary way to get titanium (and alloy by extension) is through trading as fast as possible with the Zebras. I might be able to add an option to switch to season specific trading though - particularly for mid game play. I'll let you know what I find.

[macdjord]

Now that I'm further into the game, I find I no longer care about picking the optimal season or making room for the iron returned by the trade - the iron and plates are totally irrelevant compared to my natural production of those resources; the only thing I care about from the trading is the titanium. However, there are a couple other features I'd like:

• The ability to control which trades are done automatically. Trading with the Dragons for uranium is useful in the late midgame, but in the endgame when I have planet crackers running, it is just a drain on my titanium stocks. Additionally, in the early midgame, I find the resource I am most limited in is coal to make steel out of, so being able to toggle on automatic trading with the Spiders would be useful
• It would be nice if the autotrader only made approximately the right number of trades to fill up my titanium stocks, instead of always making the maximum possible number of trades; in the endgame, when I have tens of thousands of trade ships, it can be quite wasteful.