posted 09-23-01 20:49 ET (US)
In the past, I think I saw river imports over quota a few times, but it didn't really register. (After all, I'm usually more interested in making money than spending it.) But recently I decided to continue my "family history" with Rostja, and was thinking about maximizing limestone imports. At the same time, I was playing around with my Baki (seeing how it would work at Very Hard difficulty with an extra river trade route open) and noticed that it imported 4300 barley from Rowarty in one year. Finally the over quota imports caught my attention, the effect was reproducible, and I figured out how to do it.
It is possible to import 3 "sales" (3 or 300 units) over quota if something else can be purchased from the river trade city, and 2 "sales" over quota if not. The effect depends on the tendency of the game to import 3 docker loads (each 4 "sales") of a good when nothing else is purchased from the same city. I don't have a complete theory, so I'll just describe some ways of importing over quota. For simplicity, I'll consider importing stone when the annual quota is 40, but it should easily generalize to other goods and quotas.
To import 43 stone by river, first micromanage trade to buy 35 (or 39) stone. On the next visit by a ship from that city, allow at least 8 (or 4) more stone to be imported but nothing else. As soon as 5 (or 1) stone are purchased from the first 2 (or 1) dockers, set something else from the same city to be imported. 3 more stone will be purchased from the 3rd (or 2nd) docker, for a total of 43 in the year (followed by a purchase of the "something else").
To import 42 stone by river without buying anything else from the same city, first micromanage trade to buy 34 (or 38) stone. On the next visit by a ship from that city, allow exactly 5 (or 1) more stone to be imported. As soon as 5 (or 1) stone are purchased from the first 2 (or 1) dockers, allow at least 3 more stone to be imported. 3 more stone will be purchased from the 3rd (or 2nd) docker, for a total of 42 in the year.
I've thought about whether to consider this "cheating", and decided that I won't. After all, it can happen naturally and in some situations is occasionally unavoidable. Even without micromanagement, a good player could set up conditions that would encourage it to happen natually now and then.
In case anyone wants to use this to try for any of the speed records (mostly held by Max), I have a request: for the next week or so, try a city other than Rostja, such as North Dahshur. I'd like to have a crack at the Rostja Hard difficulty record with a nice city--all houses residences and no debt (but the bailout "gift" accepted). I'll report my results in the classic [This message has been edited by Brugle (edited 10-11-2004 @ 09:27 PM).]
).
