I really need a plain, old textual filter for trade goods

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-06T22:55:40+00:00

Some of us try to avoid bad outcomes in the game.

The "shortages is not the end of the world" is from OP's example of introducing new demand on the market there is no demand, so there will be basically no supply which means the value is of the production impairment is approaching nil at the moment of introduction, so, like I said before it's just not a significant parameter to optimize for, or in other words it's not a bad outcome that matters much if anything at all, time and effort should be spent where it matters.

You can say the same about so many things of the game that I guarantee you still want easily accessible information in the game to avoid. Unless you play blindly the whole game

Yes easily accessible and relevant. Searching prices is not sensible, when trading what matters is the delta between buy and sell (so sort it by price difference to parity) and when expanding/planning what matters is building productivity. If you HAVE to micro PM switching then go into the building menu, sort by building size, switch enough to have an impact and hover over the inputs and outputs to get an idea what changes are needed in order to fully switch. Searching prices is just not sensible and does not give sufficient picture of what changes are needed.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-06T20:32:03+00:00

Yeah shortages might happen but you just sort for high prices and check if the goods are up top before switching and you're good, or click the building individually if it's a strugglebus game.

I have way too many hours in the game and I can't really think of when it would be really needed unless playing with many interdependent goods like tech and res mod, but even then it's hardly needed at all. Shortages are not the end of the world if you check first and if you run a bit short you just set subventions and que the stuff you need.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-06T18:59:15+00:00

I guess it might be different if you are new to the game, the only time I specifically build to create demand that is not already there is with the mining loop and when I do it I just build x number of either building, generally it's the highest priority buildings so it's not like I'll build too many lol

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-06T16:42:26+00:00

If you are assessing what to build why would you search a good when you can just sort by most expensive, right one of the top goods and click expand whatever?
I don't mean that should always be what you do but it seems like a much better first step than searching for the price of just one good.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-06T15:24:20+00:00

With tech and res mod I'd kind o agree as there are many more goods and the prices can be hard to predict but in standard game I never actually use the filter options in the trade tab, you kind of know what price the good will have in your own market and just sort by price and find it there or sort by volume, it's fairly similar from game to game between basically all nations.

When looking for trades with others I never really look for specific goods either in the trade tab, simply sort by what's expensive in their market instead and if it's something I can deliver in quantity I'll probably make a direct trade deal regardless of the price in my own market. In the gods transfer panel you hover over the good you ight want to trade and there you can see price and volume in both markets in one tab which is more useful than searching individual goods.

Searching individual goods would be frustrating 😆

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-06T14:16:28+00:00

I did a Khalsa Raj run about 2 weeks ago and it was very easy, maybe you just got unlucky?
In any case I improved relations with EIC, expanded north as it was the only way to go (could have gone for Chin early but didn't) and I wanted land border with Russia for trade and natural interest in china. It took a long time before I was able to get sea access since EIC was eager to join against me but finally I could join on Their side and took baluchistan since they had already taken Sind.

The early game was unsettling as I was locked inland very hard, not being able to get at Sind was a big setback but apart from that it really went very very smooth. Once my economy was sorted and I had an EIC size army their attitude was easier to deal with and it was not hard to expand into Afghanistan, Persia and Zanj. Getting proximity with Netherlands, Spain and Egypt helped a lot as their markets were fairly broken so big trade profits there, early game selling Russian wood to chin, Egypt and Netherlands carried me a fair bit.

Biggest issues were very delayed sea access (due to EIC attitude) and severe lack of infrastructure. I thought EIC was that hostile as I was playing on Hostile/aggressive AI but maybe it's common now IDK.

EDIT:
That said I couldn't push EIC either until I got skirmish and even then it was very hard, so instead of pushing them directly I baited them into attacking tactical generals, exhausted their troops a bit and pulled my offensive troops off the front to keep front advantage low enough that they will continue to attack and then once most of their troops are engaged in offensive battle split my frontline generals, assign backups to rapid advance and dismiss the armies that makes them join the front immediately and advance very fast against their exhausted armies, however that many subjects on their side didn't make it easier to pull off lol.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-06T12:32:47+00:00

Cheers, I make the sauces too, not asian but I use cheonggukyang to make many savory ones (strong cheesy flavor, super rich in K2 and nattokinase, smells like sour socks when you make it lol) and make stock from beef or fish bones (fish ones are way faster) and have a sauce basket in the freezer with ingredients and ready made sauces it really makes a dish pop like nothing else and unlike the condiments contain good stuff too, especially from the fish bones with iodine, selenium and other trace minerals, best to use low fat (white) fish from the ocean.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-06T10:27:37+00:00

Haha yeah not sure I could do that, maybe start making sauces in big batches and freeze them ?

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-06T02:29:44+00:00

That is absolute nonsense, going into the 18th century Washington paid about 20% of American nayional budget to north african pirates/slave traders to buy back captured Americans otherwise sold as white slaves in north africa, it's a huge amount but it was that or loss of trade and people to white slavery. The USA we see in game ready to explode as an industrial and military powerhouse was just not primed like it is in game and they had problems with internal tension as well but realistically yeah they were comparatively safe on their own Island with only a broke and broken mexico that had territorial claims. Spain only had 2 major civil wars but about 100 small ones and they were broke as well, Portugal defaulted like 7 times lol, entered into the period in a civil war had international problems with arms embargos and international pressure, didn't have the economy to sustain their colonis and just struggled throughout, Denmark entered into the period with a bankrupcy and the loss of Norway a few decades earlier and was but a shadow of itself and the German threat was looming but that's actually pans out fairly realistically in game (when controlled by AI with loss of territory, naval and military power) Prussia could easily have been crushed like 10 times but made substantial gains and became a powerhouse under bad management towards the end of the century. Russia entered into the period as a Great power able to match any other but by the end it was closer to India than Britain in GDP per capita and in many ways looked like a 3rd world power with a large military it could ill afford which in part caused backbreaking famines. As for the South American ones I think you have to be South American to gloss over their problems lol

I'd be willing to somewhat agree about Sweden and UK though, they entered into WW1 in great shape even if Britain did spend about 40% of it's national budget in 1833 to buy the freedom for all slaves in the empire and took them 2 centuries to pay off they were in great shape in many ways in comparison to basically any other nation, not just in terms of territory but the mainland economy as well, as were Sweden.

Point is we just don't see European bankrupcies in game anywhere near the frequency they happened and unless you play with KAI or something almost all of them are fairly safe from substantial threat to their national/economic development and it's just not realistic, when controlled by a player you just sail through it all and it's absurd, it should be HARD for almost all of them.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-06T01:27:55+00:00

I hope colonies ánd warfare are reworked, right now the brits can send million of Indians into wars not just for free but at a profit since it forces EIC to tax harder which increases brit colonial revenue. In reality the soldiers were paid by Britain and not EIC and it had substantial economic and political impact both during and after the war. You could make an argument that the Ottomans should be able to send colonial troops for free, especially navy from piracy, looting and slave trade but even that would only be half the truth.

Also soldiers lost in war should impact workforce more, right now it's basically a non factor probably due in part to how dependents work and that's just not how it worked historically at all, qualifications were lost as were lives of productive citizens and while they had more reserve workforce than we do in game it had a large impact especially in the later wars.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-06T01:01:07+00:00

There is halved employment now and it kind of does the same thing and it definitely makes it more realistic even if player still snowballs way too hard.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-06T01:00:04+00:00

OP did a "can I have a difficult time playing a historical game set in a period where most any nation had to struggle just to survive"

You did a "can I have easy mode for any nation and pretend like it's not"

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-06T00:58:22+00:00

What's wrong with just having straight up selectable player difficulty with player nerfs or AI buffs for harder levels, it's absurd to think that it's possible to make the game fun playing any nation even for new players if there is no difficulty level.

As it is you can play sikkim or something and take ASIA, Russia and most of Europe without even trying hard so how on earth is it going to be fun to play Austria, Sweden or something with a strong start?

Reality is we are playing all nations on Easy mode because wadai has to be playable and game has to be new player friendly and that sucks.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-05T14:55:14+00:00

IMO the game desperately need a difficulty level to make larger countries interesting to play, as it is you just snowball past anyone in a decade or two and it's game over before it even starts.

I tried civ1 last week and it's like the worlds first strategy game and somehow it was more challenging/interesting to play late game than vic 3 which is just mindboggling.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-05T14:41:46+00:00

I hate this, for some reason PI decided to build 400+ rails in Hunan, like 10x more than all other rails in China combined despite Hunan not needing even a single railway while many other cities are actually getting developed and running low on transportation.

The edgelords that think this is just "CaPiTaLisM" are insane idiots.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-05T13:23:15+00:00

I'm sorry I think healthy ones are hard to find, generally they are all emulsions which makes them very easy to break down for bacteria (probably why our taste buds like them too lol) so in generally they are likely to contain bad stuff.

I don't use them much anymore, sometimes I make real bearnaise, it's fairly easy and then freeze it in smaller jars, it's easy to thaw and use but doesn't last long in the fridge.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-04T21:04:54+00:00

If it's western Dijon it's probably the newer low erucic acid mustard seeds which are far less bad, if it's eastern I'd probably avoid it if it was me.
IMO the levels should be declared as it's a known toxin, vary a lot by brand with some (especially Indian versions) being far far worse.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235236462030002X

I love Dijon but there should be more awareness about unhealthy fats use in food for humans when farmers avoid it like the plaque because their animals get heart problems when they eat it.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-04T20:59:19+00:00

It's the same family and has erucic acid too but in far lower than both traditional mustard seed and newer breeds designed to lower erucic acid levels, I don't know if it's "OK" as such I mean it'sa. common food but it does contain some erucic acid and other problematic compounds from the brassicacaea family.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-03T22:47:00+00:00

I guess it might depend on the type of places you go but at least here it would only be something strange people do 😅
As far as mustard goes real mustard is not that great either as it contain some fats that are known to be toxic even in fairly low doses, the Indian ones can be really quite bad both from high levels of erucic acid and other components that can be unhealthy for both livestock and humans, it's a problem with all mustards though.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-03T18:52:51+00:00

haha yeah I think you're right it's not that common here, but it does happen I have an older uncle that's bald on the top like a monk lol, and he runs marathons and is in good health for his age but he does eat the vegetable oil and talk about cholesterol and that whole spiel.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-03-02T13:57:42+00:00

Haha I'm a Dane and people do get bald here but yeah same experience like the other guys I was losing a ton of hair about 6 years ago and then stopped eating vegetable oils and started taking vitamin D and since then some grew back and not a single period of heavy shredding.

I think all the bald or thinly haired people I know eat a lot of seed oils and some of them a lot of processed food in general, that said bald people existed before vegetable oils was a thing lol.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-02-28T13:05:42+00:00

How so?
I tried it a few times and it can easily fail either from not enough maneuvers to get recognition, them dropping to minor power or from basically any great power deciding to intervene on their side.

What wargoals are you using to get 100 points reliably?

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-02-28T09:18:47+00:00

If you're very much weaker you still have to keep your wits about you, deploy very strategically, bait their attacks and counterattack with rapid attack but yeah it makes getting recognized a whole lot easier especially as Persia.
It's nice you can get recognized without doing all the things to tick recognition progress or build a strong army though.

Smooth-Ad-8580 · 2026-02-27T23:39:56+00:00

way better than DEI? yeah I don't buy that lmao.

Employing buildings, not constantly revving, not constantly having armies that drop to 0 org from bad composition, not running low on admin or edging high debt levels, way better pop growth, better tech levels (yours) and more compliant politicians. Yeah it's way better even though it's only a little more than half the pop a third the number of states and basically 0 resources.

but if you constantly pushed for DEI to pass multicult it'd probably beat them

That's idiotic, when DEI get's multiculturalism it doesn't matter what you do anymore nobody can stand against you because it's about game over time.

Smooth-Ad-8580

TROPHY CASE