There are five tiers of tradable goods in Total War: Rome Remastered. The value per item increases roughly by two denarii with each tier increase.
The transcript does not provide an exhaustive list of which specific goods belong to each tier. It only gives examples within certain tiers and mentions that Tier 5 is exclusively gold. To get a complete list, you would need to consult the game itself or another resource.
Direct trade routes are established using ports and sea travel, resulting in significantly higher income than indirect routes. They are limited by the level of the port building; higher-level ports allow for more direct trade routes. Indirect trade routes are passive and occur naturally between neighboring settlements not at war, but yield less income.
Increasing the population and the quantity of goods produced in settlements is another method mentioned for boosting trade income. However, the video states that this increase is not significant; the impact on trade from population growth is described as not resulting in a "huge change".
This video provides a comprehensive guide to the trade mechanics in Total War: Rome Remastered. The guide is broken down into sections covering resource management, trade routes (direct and indirect), UI navigation, and strategies for maximizing trade income.
Merchants are a new addition in the Total War: Rome Remastered version. They are recruited once a market is built in a settlement. Each merchant is linked to their base city. The merchant's trade income is determined by the resources available in their base city and the resources they trade with other cities. They will only trade for resources their base city lacks. Their potential income is shown as a percentage of the base value of the resource – they can earn up to 150% of the base value if they manage to monopolize the trade of a particular good. The example in the transcript shows a merchant potentially earning 18 denarii from wine, though they are currently only collecting 12, representing 50% of the potential profit based on the available resources in the base city.
The trade route mechanics in Total War: Rome Remastered function as follows:
Passive Trade: Every settlement automatically engages in passive trade with its neighboring settlements, provided they are not at war. This generates a baseline income. This passive trade also happens via pre-existing sea routes connecting ports.
Direct Trade Routes: These are established through ports and utilize sea travel. The AI automatically selects the most valuable available routes. The number of direct trade routes a city can utilize depends on the level of its port building. Each direct trade route uses one slot at the port.
Capital Connection: Direct trade routes can connect settlements to the capital. If this connection is established, the connected settlement transfers its trading income to the capital. However, not all settlements with ports will automatically connect to the capital; the AI will prioritize the most valuable routes. This means a less valuable route to the capital might be forgone in favor of a more profitable route to a different city.
Resource Exchange: Trade is fundamentally about exchanging resources a settlement lacks. Settlements will import and export resources with those they are connected to. However, this flow is not always bidirectional. A city might export resources to another city but not import resources from that same city due to the availability of those resources locally, or due to the limitation of direct trade routes slots at the port.
Trade Route Value: The value of a trade route depends on several factors: the tier of the goods traded, the quantity of those goods available, and the presence of trade agreements with the trading partner.
In summary, the system is designed to automatically establish efficient trade routes, prioritizing higher-value goods, but the player can influence this by strategically building ports and improving infrastructure. The actual mechanics are a combination of AI-driven route selection and player-influenced resource availability.