Fair Trade DISCLAIMER after Future Era, Especially the Space Ages: Mars, SAAB, Venus, SAJM and SAT

Trading down one age 1:2 for goods above Colonial isn't a fair trade, never has been, and it only gets more true as time goes on.  Lower ages are becoming increasingly more valuable than higher ages, because lower ages are rare and higher ages are not.  The old adage that advanced/higher goods are more valuable isn't that true in 2023.  

Especially in the space ages, goods are quite the joke now, so expecting to get 1:2 for any 1 age below is not likely.  Lower age goods below FE (Future Era) are worth more and more every day; they are harder to get in large quantities while you're in those ages, and the high ages -especially the space ages- are swimming in goods thanks to the space colonies and other game-breaking additions like Battlegrounds.

There are so many opportunities to win large amounts of goods that did not exist before that the balance of the game has been turned on its head.  Because of this imbalance introduced in the last few years, I don't give the speech about fair trades often.  Goods trading has gone into the realm of the ridiculous for many of us and I regularly have had to offer ages above FE in 1:1 or 1:2 skipping down 6, 7, 8, 10 ages to sweeten the offer, or even take Iron and EMA directly in exchange for Oceanic, Virtual Future, Mars, etc.

Please bear in mind the spirit of fair trade rules was to prevent taking advantage of other players, your guild, or newbies who don't know any better.   The things I can state for sure is that goods in the same age are equal to each other, and everything from Arctic to Jupiter is so common as to be worth less than every age that came before Arctic Future.

Trade Calculators

There are other fair-minded guilds and players who follow this method because it is more equitable for the upper era goods (giving proper weight to the lower ages instead of putting all the advantage to the higher age player trading downward) and simplifies the trade system. Please refer to the calculator links if you need help figuring out a trade (however the whole point is that this method is simple enough not to need a calculator every time!)

• A good calculator that shows the above ratios, made by our own Arrowheads member:   http://loomy.wheel.sk/foe-calc.php

• The Wildgunner calculator also follows these trade ratios:  http://www.wildgunner.co.uk/FoE/TradeCalc.php This site has been down all of 2022.

All trades within the guild will be a ratio of either 2.0, 1.5, 1.0, .67, or .50 in order to be fair trades following the above guidelines.  

Trading more than two ages up or down from the age of goods you are offering can not be fair, and "unfair" trades that violate this rule are only done to build an Alcatraz or by prior arrangement (examples being emergency help for an event quest, or when trading FP's for goods, if someone in the guild has agreed to accept the unfair trades.)

Trade Ratio Explanation and Examples

If Innogames had truly doubled the cost of goods production every age, the cost of goods by Future era would be insane. The formula of doubling every age had to change at some point and that's why fair trade ratios change for higher ages. Each age is not worth twice the one before anymore after Colonial. In fact by Future and above, the goods costs are nearly equivalent in value, there was once a trade calculator (the old foe.dppro.nl calculator) that traded high ages at 6/5 and 7/6 and 8/7 and so on but it was ridiculously complicated and no one took those trades. We trade all of the upper ages at the same 3/2 ratios, and Colonial is the dividing line.

Examples of 2/3 ratio trades (reverse for going up at 3/2)

• 20/30 (2/3 by 10) add a zero for 200/300 (2/3 by 100)

• 30/45 (2/3 by 15) add a zero for 300/450 (2/3 by 150)

• 40/60 (2/3 by 20)

• 50/75 (2/3 by 25)

• 60/90 (2/3 by 30)

• 100/150 (2/3 by 50)

• 140/210 (2/3 by 70)

• 180/270 (2/3 by 90)

If you want to know more, there's a production costs table on the wiki page.  A good look at the actual math should make anyone understand 1) why we simplify the trade ratios and 2) why 1/2 down trading in the ages after colonial is not fair trading.  Follow this link:  https://forgeofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Trading#Fair_Trading  and [click here to Show calculation Tables] and you can see the complicated ratios for actual fair trade between all of the ages.