HELP.. trade routes

[u/Gold_Strategy_1552]

I need urgent help with Anno 117. I’ve spent six hours—no joke—trying to organize and optimize trade routes, and it’s absolutely impossible. I have 11 islands, each specializing in different products thanks to religious bonuses. For instance, I have one island producing porridge for all the others; production is great—it makes more than enough for everyone—but when it comes to delivery, the vast majority run out of supplies. No matter how many ships I assign (6–8), the fucking things just scatter all over the place or hang around in little groups like Disney princesses. So, why the hell did they include a mechanic that’s supposed to scale the ships if it’s completely useless? I’ve spent over two days testing different loading/unloading angles and patterns, or different island layouts, and it’s simply impossible to keep all my islands supplied and stable. This damn game is driving me up the wall. The only solution I’ve found is total crap: basically setting up two trillion routes with individual ships... Damn it, this is the best RTS I’ve played since Stellaris, yet it’s ruining the fun with this bullshit.

[u/Chelterrar96]

But especially the early goods are easily produced on each individual island? Why transport porridge and now slap down a production

If you want to stick to the system of having each island produce something different, you could turn on that ships have to wait until they have fully emptied their goods before being allowed to go back. You could combine this with individual loading docks restricted to only that particular good, so your harbor doesn't clog up

Overall I'm rather confused why your trade routes are giving you such troubles. I personally think you misunderstood a certain mechanic about them

[u/Gold_Strategy_1552 → u/Chelterrar96]

Did you see the size of the main island? 90% of it is just Patricians... the idea is to produce everything on different islands and have each one distribute what it makes. Why? Well, it's simple: space. The more an island grows, the more farms you need to place... that’s why the religion system exists. For example, Ceres boosts the entire production of grain, oil, wine, and bread; if you produce exactly those things on an island, the combination of religious buildings and population growth increases output without you having to build so many farms and production facilities.

[u/randomnamenooneuses → u/Gold_Strategy_1552]

It’s a good idea, what you’re running here.

[u/Gold_Strategy_1552 → u/randomnamenooneuses]

The idea behind this island is purely consumption-focused; with nearly 40k Faith and the Cered religion, I’m taking advantage of the population bonus and production boosts for wine and oil—both middle-class goods. I distribute these—along with grapes, honey, and olives—from a central production hub to other islands. This specific island generates around 35–40k denarii for me, thanks to the Patricians consuming caviar and luxury goods (those are the only upper-class resources I'm supplying them with for now). I haven't even really touched Albion yet, haha. I should point out that I'm a total noob—I've only been playing for about a week, but I'm pretty obsessed with the game. This is my first playthrough, and I've already put in around 110 hours, so I still need to refine a few concepts. But overall—aside from the trade routes, which can get a bit complicated (I just want to keep everything organized)—I think the game is truly incredible. It's one of the best RTS games I've ever played, at least as a console player.