Trade Expert

[hondo1375]

I set the trade expert to look after all my trades for me, and went into the policy window to set the parameters for the types of things to trade for. I didn't want to export any cotton, so I cleared that tick box. Next turn, or the one after, I see that the Trade Expert has traded 7 of my Egyptian cotton (I'm playing Turkey, so that's alot), for money and food - he seems to have accepted a standard deal that come from the French in the first couple of turns. Shouldn't the policy setting have prevented this?

I want to use automation because I hate micromanaging trade, so I'd rahter not switch this guy off

Thanks in advance for any help.

(I'm running v1.2.18)

[Treefrog]

Hondo,

Fortunes of war my friend. Your guy is an idiot.

Remember "Catch 22"? Milo Mildenberger purchased the whole Egyptian cotton crop, then tried making cotton candy by covering it with chocolat.

Trade off is frustration with AI competency vs. getting caught up in all the details. Personally, I just do all the econ stuff myself. If I find it too tedious that month, I just don't bother. My absolute dereliction of duty is hardly worse than the negligence in giving away the cotton crop.

[hondo1375]

Hi Treefrog, well my expectations for AI advisors are never high, but this seems more like a bug unless I'm missing something. There is no assessment or judgement called for by the AI since the policy was explicity set not to trade cotton.

[Treefrog]

hondo,

Somewhere in the threads is a comment by someone more familiar with the game than I who observed that even the "advisor" on specific trades that are offered is not especially smart. That writer observed that it was probably some junior clerk somewhere that noted all the paperwork was in order.

Doesn't surprise me that his boss the economy/trade advisor is any smarter. Probably his uncle.

[hondo1375]

This isn't an issue of the advisor's intelligence though, it is a case of the policy settings not WAD as far as I can tell.

[chanss]

Ahm.....whats the policy window i cant find it?

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: chanss

Ahm.....whats the policy window i cant find it?

The Set Policy window is described in the game manual in the appendix on PBEM, I believe. You open it by right clicking on the main map and then selecting "Set Policy." The diplomatic portion of the Set Policy screen is only used in PBEM, but the trade portion of that screen is used in single player (and TCP/IP) when your trade advisor is turned on. Basically, in this screen you can choose resources to forbid your trade advisor from importing/exporting.

[ericbabe]

ORIGINAL: Treefrog

hondo,

Somewhere in the threads is a comment by someone more familiar with the game than I who observed that even the "advisor" on specific trades that are offered is not especially smart. That writer observed that it was probably some junior clerk somewhere that noted all the paperwork was in order.

Doesn't surprise me that his boss the economy/trade advisor is any smarter. Probably his uncle.

I think that's Ralegh's description.

The trade advisor recommends for or against trades (and automatically accepts/rejects them if he's turned on) based entirely upon a mathematical calculation of the value of the items being offered for trade.

[hondo1375]

Hi ericbabe,

So you are saying (in your reply to chanss) the trade advisor should not make trades I forbid in the policy screen in single player. This is how I understood it too, yet it continues to make trades I have forbidden as per my cotton example at the beginning of the thread.

Therefore I'm concluding from your comments and my experience that it is not working as designed. Is it going to be fixed?


hondo


P.S. Of course, the intelligence of the AI advisor has nothing to do with this as I mentioned earlier, since it is not required to make any decisions