Suggestions for Improving the Visual Design of Water Trade Routes

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
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In the game, trade routes are divided into land and water routes. The land trade routes already work quite well visually, but I think the visual presentation of water trade routes could be improved in two ways.

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1. Add simple port facilities near water Trade Posts

At the moment, the area around water Trade Posts is relatively bare. There is little visual indication of why the Trade Post is connected to the nearby river or sea, so the relationship between the Trade Post and waterborne trade is not immediately obvious.

I suggest adding some simple port-related structures near water Trade Posts, such as docks, piers, small warehouses, loading platforms, or a few moored boats. These do not need to be elaborate or affect gameplay; their main purpose would simply be to communicate that this Trade Post is part of a water-based trade network.

This would make the connection between the Trade Post and the river or sea much more intuitive, while also making the surrounding environment feel more detailed and believable. A small dock or port would make much more sense visually than having a Trade Post sitting next to the water with nothing connecting the two.

2. Replace the underwater “wagon tracks” with a surface route indicator

Currently, water trade routes are represented by something resembling wagon tracks on the bottom of the water. Wagon tracks make perfect sense on land, where they represent the traces left by caravans and wagons. However, having similar tracks underwater looks rather strange and can be visually confusing.

I suggest replacing them with a light blue, dashed line displayed on the surface of the water.

The line would not need to represent a realistic physical shipping lane. Its primary purpose would simply be to indicate the direction of the trade route and make it immediately clear which Trade Posts are connected.

The line could also be made relatively subtle so that it does not interfere with the normal game view. Ideally, it could disappear automatically in Photo Mode / screenshot mode, allowing players to take clean and natural-looking screenshots of the map

9 Likes
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LIke the ideas, though I’d rather have a few marker Buoys along the route rather than lines (though I appreciate the intent).

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(could be wooden casks or hollow iron)

6 Likes
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I dont think its a necessity to explain if xp come from land- or seabased trade, but your idea of making them more aesthetically appealing is really nice and i hope the devs will implement it​:blush:

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This would look great but I kinda doubt it’s all possible. It’s already a nightmare to get sea trade routes to fit in rivers and such. They could definitely put some naval gear and maybe a dinghy as part of the socket decorations. But a dock in the water would probably fail to spawn more often than not or be misaligned when it does.

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Maybe a good compromise would be making the trading post or socket models unique between land and water routes?

1 Like