Greetings!Today I’d like to talk about one of the features that we’ve decided to improve and overhaul - the Silk Road. The Silk Road was introduced in the Horse Lords expansion and, while profitable, was very annoying to manage and fickle in its behaviour. As the Silk Road is essential in modeling the importance of China, it will also be unlocked by owning Jade Dragon. Owners of Horse Lords will receive all improvements we’re making, of course.More often than not, the Silk Road was consciously ignored by players as it was too much of a hassle to manage. You used to compete with everyone for where to build your trade posts - not just with other realms, but with your own vassals. Another problem was that the Silk Road was way too easy to cut off - 100 men looting Dunhuang would completely cut off trade downstream, which wasn’t very realistic at all. With limited routes the trade usually had nowhere to go, and it was not uncommon to see the road completely blocked off if both origin points were under siege.The Silk Road has received plenty of new routes - based on various historical records, such as those made by Arab traders, Radhanite Jewish merchants and the Chinese themselves. It’ll be very hard to cut it off entirely, as there’s plenty of paths for the trade to take!The new vision we have for the Silk Road is one where you want to control (and fight over) specific counties along the Silk Road, where Trade Posts can always be constructed. These ‘hot-spots’ are placed in various counties with historical precedent along the road itself - i.e. Khotan, Kashgar, Debul, Merv, and even counties as far away as Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria. We currently have 51 Trade Post locations spread across the Silk Road.The value of the Silk Road depends on many factors, such as raids, occupations and the current attitude of China. Raids and occupations will no longer instantly cut off the Silk Road, instead they will decrease the value that travels downstream by a certain percentage - 10% for any county being under siege (i.e. raiders) and 25% for any occupied county. This means that, while the the Silk Road still has a dynamic and interesting value, it’s never arbitrarily cut off by a few raiders.It will generally always be better to control Trade Posts further up the road itself - Trade Posts located further down the road are more susceptible to raiders and occupations, as the trade has to travel through more counties to get there. It’s far from useless though, as a Trade Post working at 50% efficiency still produces a LOT of wealth.Trade Posts now work similarly to hospitals - whoever holds the county controls the Trade Post (this doesn’t apply to Merchant Republics, who work like they’ve always had, even on the Silk Road). This means that you will want to hold as many Silk Road Trade Post counties as you can in your personal demesne. This makes it more fun to play as a vassal, as your liege can’t steal your Silk Road Trade Post slot just because you weren’t fast enough to build it first!Silk Road Trade Posts are worth a lot of money, and they used to be destroyed first by besieging enemy armies even if there were other holdings in the county that were not yet sieged. This has been changed - they are still destroyed when occupied, but are now sieged last. This means that you can protect them with castles and forts, again improving the experience for whoever builds one. It’s now much less of a risk to build the various buildings Silk Road Trade Posts now contain.The attitude of China might affect the value of the Silk Road - Plagues, Unrest, Invasions, Civil War and Famines decrease it, while Golden Ages increase it! Sometimes, China might decide to close down the Silk Road and turn inwards, though if you’re powerful enough - militarily or by controlling enough counties on the Silk Road - you just might be able to force them to open right back up...All in all - it should now feel much more rewarding to control the Silk Road and the Trade Posts it contains. You will actively want to seek out and control the Silk Road, and keep it safe from raiders.