Single Player Markets and Territory Expansion Questions

[Athelia]

I am playing single player with one computer opponent. I am doing rather well this game with the exception of the fact that my settlement is no where near any metal mines (random map, unknown, nomad) so I built a market and started trading wood for metal because there are plenty of trees. Then I discovered that the more I trade the wood for metal, the less I get each time so that now I am getting 1 metal per 100 wood. I built another market thinking that the more markets I had the better the exchange rate would be...nope. What would ben the best course of action to take in this case?

 

Also, are outposts placed on the edges of your territory the fastest way to expand it? We can only have one town center so it's hard to claim more land. Is there a point where we can have more than one? Are there certain Win Conditions where we can have more than one? I've made it to the City Phase, I thought that we could have more than one in that phase.  

 

Oh, something else I noticed (I'm using Millennium AD) I can place buildings on top of the hills made of rock but my citizens cannot climb up the rocks to build on them...is that a bug? They seem to climb over the hills fine when moving around the land to find a new place to build.

[macemen]

8 hours ago, Athelia said:

I am playing single player with one computer opponent. I am doing rather well this game with the exception of the fact that my settlement is no where near any metal mines (random map, unknown, nomad) so I built a market and started trading wood for metal because there are plenty of trees. Then I discovered that the more I trade the wood for metal, the less I get each time so that now I am getting 1 metal per 100 wood. I built another market thinking that the more markets I had the better the exchange rate would be...nope. What would ben the best course of action to take in this case?

Each transaction you makes moves the price for everyone on the map. The only way the price will move in the opposite direction is if somebody on the map starts to sell metal for wood.
Better to build two markets as far as possible from each other and send traders from one to the other. These traders will provide a constant income of resources. This income will be larger with larger distance between the two markets. You can also chose the resources they will provide, by default they will provide all four resources, which is probably not what you want as you said you have plenty of wood (and food I suppose).

8 hours ago, Athelia said:

Also, are outposts placed on the edges of your territory the fastest way to expand it? We can only have one town center so it's hard to claim more land. Is there a point where we can have more than one? Are there certain Win Conditions where we can have more than one? I've made it to the City Phase, I thought that we could have more than one in that phase. 

You should be able to build more town centers from phase 3 on. Maybe you didn't have the necessary resources?

8 hours ago, Athelia said:

Oh, something else I noticed (I'm using Millennium AD) I can place buildings on top of the hills made of rock but my citizens cannot climb up the rocks to build on them...is that a bug? They seem to climb over the hills fine when moving around the land to find a new place to build. 

If your citizens can otherwise climb these hills then it is probably just a path-finding bug, of which there are plenty. In this case just send them to the hilltop manually and then make them work on the building. It is also possible to place foundations on genuinely inaccessible cliff-tops, if it has enough space. Of course you won't be able to actually build the building in this case.

Edited November 2, 2018 by macemen
typos

[Athelia]

Thank you for the info, very much appreciated.

[Imarok]

On 11/1/2018 at 11:16 PM, Athelia said:

We can only have one town center so it's hard 

Some civs can only build one CC (Town center) but they can build military settlements instead.