While you are right with respect to the current game, a roundtrip could even deliver more profit, as the total distance travelled could even be longer (profit relates to distance in game). Tried to establish such a roundtrip scheme but is does not seem to work. What appears to work (at least using trader ships) is to define a specific path to follow. I did that to avoid being attacked in that route, but it might be possible to maximize trade income by defining a longer detour. Did anyone check this can work? Or is the distance travelled just measured "as the crow flies" i.e. shortest connection between origin and destination? 

I think it'd be nice from a roleplaying perspective, but practically I'd just establish separate trade routes for each ally. (From the furthest points possible so they're as lucrative as possible.)

Hi All, I was playing a game on a large map with multiple allies and established trade routes between my market and theirs. It occured to me that it'd be nice if I could select multiple markets for my traders and have them cycle between them. In other words, set up a market, establish an 'origin' (my market) and 'destination' (one of my allies) market but also have my traders stop in at my 3rd ally's market making a circuit so we would all benefit from the trade. I don't know what all would be involved in coding this 'feature' but I wonder if there's any appetite for something like this in the gameplay dynamics? What do folks think? kev.

It is possible to quickly inflate the trading yield when selling one good for another. Here is the link:

You might be curious, others might use it. One can generate resources and it is still used in games and ruins the time spend from 7 other people. I'd like to not bring that topic up so often and go in further detail. In the next alpha it is fixed.

I'm watching the video and there is some shape that I can't decipher on the minimap even at the beginning of the game, on parts that haven't yet been explored. How come ?