Trading - Revision history

87.143.74.72: /* Miscellaneous trading advice */

2026-04-09T10:51:29Z

Miscellaneous trading advice

108.85.197.99: /* Items cue colors */ links, some expansion and examples

2026-02-17T06:20:23Z

Items cue colors: links, some expansion and examples

108.85.197.99: /* Items cue colors */ white/gray

2026-02-17T06:05:09Z

Items cue colors: white/gray

216.54.43.227: fixed some typos and replaced shorthand "civ" and "civs" with civilization and civilizations respectively under Miscellaneous trading advice

2026-02-13T19:02:02Z

fixed some typos and replaced shorthand "civ" and "civs" with civilization and civilizations respectively under Miscellaneous trading advice

91.49.240.46: /* Elven */ Added note that offering an unacceptable item to elves (even if further trades are possible and only the merchant mood did take a hit) will result in the caravan stay getting shortened.

2026-02-09T11:29:42Z

Elven: Added note that offering an unacceptable item to elves (even if further trades are possible and only the merchant mood did take a hit) will result in the caravan stay getting shortened.

91.49.240.46: /* Miscellaneous trading advice */

2026-02-06T13:38:55Z

Miscellaneous trading advice

87.143.77.206: /* Trading */

2026-01-27T00:46:09Z

Trading

87.143.77.206: /* Miscellaneous trading advice */

2026-01-27T00:44:50Z

Miscellaneous trading advice

87.143.77.206: /* Trading */ The weight limit of a caravan can be exceeded, ie. by animals growing up shortly after being sold.

2026-01-26T22:45:02Z

Trading: The weight limit of a caravan can be exceeded, ie. by animals growing up shortly after being sold.

87.143.77.206: /* Trading */

2026-01-16T14:13:42Z

Trading

@@ Line 118: / Line 118: @@
 * Selecting "only broker may trade" ensures that you will start negotiations with a decently-skilled trader, but it may require a significant delay if your broker is far away (or is busy with other tasks). Selecting "anyone can trade" will ensure that you get the trading done quickly, but at the cost of all item trade values being extremely inaccurate. Once your fortress can produce enough goods to reliably buy out the whole caravan, waiting for your broker is less important; allowing your commoners to trade spreads out the trading skill gains and eliminates the micromanagement of trying to get your broker to the depot in a timely manner.
 * *Any* civilization that's at peace with you and capable of trade will send caravans. Initially and by default it's one per race (three annually, including your own civilization) but you can increase that number by making peaceful contact with other civilizations in the world. Currently and strangely, the most surefire way is to send squads to human, elf and dwarven sites from civilizations with 'no contact' and make [[tribute]] demands. While arrogant this does not trigger an outright war even if it fails, and the site's parent civilization, simply by being aware of your existence, will automatically send caravans every year onwards. There is no apparent limit beyond the actual number of contactable friendly civilizations in the world so you can make your fort a very crowded trading hub indeed.
-* Caravans can increase their weight limits (in the following years), due to high exports (high caravan profits do not seem to be necessary) and/or gifts to that civilizations. Even if your fortress is not yet a barony and without the caravan needing to add additional pack animals (specifics are yet unclear and randomness is also involved).{{verify}} But caravans (without wagons) might only do so, if the (loaded) cargo exceeds the minimum weight limit given by the type of pack animals used. The default weight limit of unicorns is 1050 and that of yaks 1550.
+* Caravans can increase their weight limits (in the following years), due to high exports (high caravan profits do not seem to be necessary) and/or gifts to that civilizations. Even if your fortress is not yet a barony and without the caravan needing to add additional pack animals (specifics are yet unclear and randomness is also involved).{{verify}} But caravans (without wagons) might only do so, if the (loaded) cargo exceeds the minimum weight limit given by the type of pack animals used. The default weight limit (of a pack animal) is the trade capacity of the animal (+50). Note that currently (in vanilla) only One-Humped and Two-Humped Camels (both 3000), Mules, Horses and Muskoxs (all 2000), Water Buffalos, Reindeers, Yaks, Llamas, Donkeys and Tapirs (all 1500) have a trade capacity defined in the raws, meaning that ie. Elephants (and Unicorns) have an "awesome" trade capacity of 1000 (so that about three elephants are needed to carry the same as one camel). Also all giant variants have the same trade capacity as their non-giant brethren.
 == Types of Merchant Caravans==

@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 {| class="wikitable"
 ! {{DFtext|Brown|6:0}}
-| Items have been created (or modified) by your fortress. They can be traded away or offered as a gift.
+| Items have been created or modified (e.g. [[Decoration|decorated]]) by your fortress. They can be traded away or offered as a "[[Trading#Offering_items|gift]]".
 |-
 ! {{DFtext|Light gray|7:0}}
-| Items were created by another source. They can be traded, but if one of these items has been selected, the entire selection cannot be offered as a gift.
+| Items were created by another source ''(e.g. items previously acquired from a previous trade, or enemy armor/weapons recovered after a siege)''. They can be traded, but ''not'' offered as a gift.  If a group of items includes any such item, the entire selection cannot be gifted.
 |-
 ! {{DFtext|Purple|5:0}}
-| Items are under a no-export mandate.  If they are traded away it will result in disciplinary action (see [[justice]]) against the dwarf that brought the item to the depot.
+| Items are under a no-export [[mandate]].  If they are traded away it will result in disciplinary action (see [[justice]]) against the dwarf that brought the item to the depot.
 |-
 ! {{DFtext|Green|2:0}}
-| Items have just been gifted to the caravan and they will not trade it back.
+| Items have just been [[Trading#Offering_items|gifted]] to the caravan (and caravans will never trade such items back).
 |-
 ! {{DFtext|Red|4:0}}
-| Items have been seized from another caravan and cannot be traded as is; you will need to decorate them or turn them into other items for them to become "valid" trading items.
+| Items have been [[Trading#Seizing_items|seized]] from another caravan and cannot be traded as is; you will need to [[Decoration|decorate]] them or turn them into other items ''(e.g. a log into a bed, or a barrel of meat into a meal, etc.)'' for them to become "valid" trading items.
 |}
-Note that containers (barrels, bins, etc.) will be displayed according to the origin of the ''container'', not the contents. So a foreign barrel holding locally-produced beer will display as foreign (light gray). Once you {{k|v}}iew the container, the locally-made contents are displayed as local (brown).
+Note that containers (barrels, bins, etc.) will be displayed according to the origin of the ''container'', not the contents. So a foreign-sourced barrel holding locally-produced beer will display as foreign (light gray). Once you {{k|v}}iew the container, the locally-made contents are displayed as local (brown) - but it's awkward (read "impossible") to trade such contents without the container.
 === Seizing items ===

@@ Line 60: / Line 60: @@
 | Items have been created (or modified) by your fortress. They can be traded away or offered as a gift.
 |-
-! {{DFtext|Gray|7:0}}
+! {{DFtext|Light gray|7:0}}
 | Items were created by another source. They can be traded, but if one of these items has been selected, the entire selection cannot be offered as a gift.
 |-
@@ Line 73: / Line 73: @@
 |}
-Note that containers (barrels, bins, etc.) will be displayed according to the origin of the ''container'', not the contents. So a foreign barrel holding locally-produced beer will display as foreign (white). Once you {{k|v}}iew the container, the locally-made contents are displayed as local (brown).
+Note that containers (barrels, bins, etc.) will be displayed according to the origin of the ''container'', not the contents. So a foreign barrel holding locally-produced beer will display as foreign (light gray). Once you {{k|v}}iew the container, the locally-made contents are displayed as local (brown).
 === Seizing items ===

@@ Line 117: / Line 117: @@
 * Each trade you make (regardless of value) will increase your trader's skills by (about) 50, distributed among the subset of skills composed of Comedian, Judge of Intent, Negotiator, Persuader, Liar, Flatterer, and Intimdator, which can be learned by that dwarf (and depends on their personality values and personality facets). The skills Judge of Intent and Persuader (if learnable) will increase by the highest amount. The skill Negotiator will get 2/3 of the increase to Judge of Intent. And the other skills (Comedian, Flatterer, Intimidator and Liar) will get 1/3 of the amount given to the Judge of Intent skill. The sum will be at most 50, but might be slightly lower. This means a trader, who can learn Comedian and Intimidator, but cannot learn Liar, Flatterer or Persuader, will get 21 skill points in Judge of Intent, 14 skill points in Negotiator and 7 points (each) in Comedian and Intimidator, for a total of 49 skill points. A trader, who can learn Comedian, Intimdator and Persuader, but cannot learn the others, will get 15 points in Judge of Intent and Persuador, 10 points in Negotiator and 5 points in Comedian and Intimidator, for a total of 50 skill points. The skill gain occurs as soon as the "t" button is pressed - if the offer is rejected, the dwarf will still gain 50 points.  If the same offer is subsequently accepted, no additional skill will be gained.
 * Selecting "only broker may trade" ensures that you will start negotiations with a decently-skilled trader, but it may require a significant delay if your broker is far away (or is busy with other tasks). Selecting "anyone can trade" will ensure that you get the trading done quickly, but at the cost of all item trade values being extremely inaccurate. Once your fortress can produce enough goods to reliably buy out the whole caravan, waiting for your broker is less important; allowing your commoners to trade spreads out the trading skill gains and eliminates the micromanagement of trying to get your broker to the depot in a timely manner.
-* *Any* civilization that's at peace with you and capable of trade will send caravans. Initially an by default it's one per race (three anually, including your own civ) but you can increase that number by making peaceful contact with other civs in the world. Currently and strangely, the most surefire way is to send squads to human, elf and dwarven sites from civs with 'no contact' and make [[tribute]] demands. While arrogant this does not trigger an outright war even if it fails, and the site's parent civ, simply by being aware of your existence, will automatically send caravans every year onwards. There is no apparent limit beyond the actual number of contactable friendly civs in the world so you can make your fort a very crowded trading hub indeed.
+* *Any* civilization that's at peace with you and capable of trade will send caravans. Initially and by default it's one per race (three annually, including your own civilization) but you can increase that number by making peaceful contact with other civilizations in the world. Currently and strangely, the most surefire way is to send squads to human, elf and dwarven sites from civilizations with 'no contact' and make [[tribute]] demands. While arrogant this does not trigger an outright war even if it fails, and the site's parent civilization, simply by being aware of your existence, will automatically send caravans every year onwards. There is no apparent limit beyond the actual number of contactable friendly civilizations in the world so you can make your fort a very crowded trading hub indeed.
 * Caravans can increase their weight limits (in the following years), due to high exports (high caravan profits do not seem to be necessary) and/or gifts to that civilizations. Even if your fortress is not yet a barony and without the caravan needing to add additional pack animals (specifics are yet unclear and randomness is also involved).{{verify}} But caravans (without wagons) might only do so, if the (loaded) cargo exceeds the minimum weight limit given by the type of pack animals used. The default weight limit of unicorns is 1050 and that of yaks 1550.

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:29, 9 February 2026
Line 175:		Line 175:

	Note that elves only care about the items they are actually offered. It's perfectly allowable to use wooden [[bin]]s to haul items to the [[trade depot]], as long as you only offer the elves acceptable items from the bin and not the bins themselves.		Note that elves only care about the items they are actually offered. It's perfectly allowable to use wooden [[bin]]s to haul items to the [[trade depot]], as long as you only offer the elves acceptable items from the bin and not the bins themselves.
		+
		+	Note: If you accidently did offer an unacceptable item as a trade, even if the elven trader does not outright refuse any further trades (and the offer only reduces the merchant's mood), one effect is, that the time the caravan would stay gets shortened, ie. you might get an announcement shortly after leaving the trade interface (and after unpausing the game), that the caravan will be leaving soon.

	===== Items made from wood =====		===== Items made from wood =====

@@ Line 111: / Line 111: @@
 *** 1 wood log
 *** 5 pieces of ''[[wear|undamaged]]'' cloth, pieces of leather, or complete sets of [[wear|pristine]] clothing (shirt+pants+shoe)
 * Define your trade depot as a burrow. When traders arrive, you can add your broker or another dwarf, perhaps one you want to train in trading, to the burrow. They will head to the depot immediately, and stay there until you remove them from the burrow.
 * Each trade you make (regardless of value) will increase your trader's skills by (about) 50, distributed among the subset of skills composed of Comedian, Judge of Intent, Negotiator, Persuader, Liar, Flatterer, and Intimdator, which can be learned by that dwarf (and depends on their personality values and personality facets). The skills Judge of Intent and Persuader (if learnable) will increase by the highest amount. The skill Negotiator will get 2/3 of the increase to Judge of Intent. And the other skills (Comedian, Flatterer, Intimidator and Liar) will get 1/3 of the amount given to the Judge of Intent skill. The sum will be at most 50, but might be slightly lower. This means a trader, who can learn Comedian and Intimidator, but cannot learn Liar, Flatterer or Persuader, will get 21 skill points in Judge of Intent, 14 skill points in Negotiator and 7 points (each) in Comedian and Intimidator, for a total of 49 skill points. A trader, who can learn Comedian, Intimdator and Persuader, but cannot learn the others, will get 15 points in Judge of Intent and Persuador, 10 points in Negotiator and 5 points in Comedian and Intimidator, for a total of 50 skill points. The skill gain occurs as soon as the "t" button is pressed - if the offer is rejected, the dwarf will still gain 50 points.  If the same offer is subsequently accepted, no additional skill will be gained.

@@ Line 52: / Line 52: @@
 ;[[File:Treasure_Gift.PNG|750px]]
 ;[[File:Treasure_Trade.PNG|750px]]
 === Items cue colors ===

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:45, 26 January 2026
Line 42:		Line 42:
	Before you can begin trading, you need to designate what goods to trade and have the fortress's representative trader located at the [[trade depot]]. Select the trade depot and then click either "Broker requested at depot" or "Anyone requested at depot" if you have no [[broker]] [[noble]] assigned. Be aware that without an assigned [[broker]], it's likely a random, probably unskilled dwarf will volunteer to conduct the trade. Next click "Move goods to/from depot" to be presented with a list of all items in your fortress that belong to you. Mark the goods you want to sell --insert clever advice--, and your dwarves will begin moving them to the depot. If you are unsure about which goods are in which containers, clicking the bin or barrel within the menu will show every item that is stored inside, along with its perceived value (using your broker's [[Appraisal]] skill). However, individual items cannot be marked if they are in a container. Note that during this step, we are just moving the goods physically to the trade depot, and that containers like [[barrels]] and [[bins]] must be moved with all of their contents (although for bins you will have an opportunity to specify which contained items you wish to trade).		Before you can begin trading, you need to designate what goods to trade and have the fortress's representative trader located at the [[trade depot]]. Select the trade depot and then click either "Broker requested at depot" or "Anyone requested at depot" if you have no [[broker]] [[noble]] assigned. Be aware that without an assigned [[broker]], it's likely a random, probably unskilled dwarf will volunteer to conduct the trade. Next click "Move goods to/from depot" to be presented with a list of all items in your fortress that belong to you. Mark the goods you want to sell --insert clever advice--, and your dwarves will begin moving them to the depot. If you are unsure about which goods are in which containers, clicking the bin or barrel within the menu will show every item that is stored inside, along with its perceived value (using your broker's [[Appraisal]] skill). However, individual items cannot be marked if they are in a container. Note that during this step, we are just moving the goods physically to the trade depot, and that containers like [[barrels]] and [[bins]] must be moved with all of their contents (although for bins you will have an opportunity to specify which contained items you wish to trade).

−	Once the trade goods are moved to the depot and your trader has arrived, select the depot again and finally click the "Trade" button to enter the trade menu. In the trade menu, select the items to offer from the right and the desired items from the left. All caravans have a weight limit which cannot be exceeded, and the allowed additional weight is displayed in the lower left corner. If your trader has sufficient [[Appraisal]] skill, the value of all items will be displayed with reasonable accuracy. Once the proposal is ready, click the "Trade" button to propose the trade; merchants will not agree unless they make adequate profit. Clicking the "Offer as gift" button instead will make a gift of the selected items. Items from outside the embark area cannot be offered as gifts. The amount of acceptable profit is determined by the trader's [[Broker skills\|skills]] and the merchant's mood, described below. Merchants may attempt to propose counteroffers if they do not accept the proposal, which can then be accepted, rejected, or further amended by the trader. A Trader Profit listed in red will always be rejected. If on the other hand the Trader Profit is listed in green rather than yellow or red the trade will always be accepted (unless unacceptable goods are offered in the trade). Take note that this is also true, if the goods traded are not properly appraised (ie. for some goods only an estimated value is given, expressed a tilde before the value), the Trader Profit color will always give an accurate account.	+	Once the trade goods are moved to the depot and your trader has arrived, select the depot again and finally click the "Trade" button to enter the trade menu. In the trade menu, select the items to offer from the right and the desired items from the left. All caravans have a weight limit which cannot be exceeded (during trading, but it is possible to have a caravan exceed the weight limit after trading, ie. due to sold animal children growing up shortly afterwards), and the allowed additional weight is displayed in the lower left corner. If your trader has sufficient [[Appraisal]] skill, the value of all items will be displayed with reasonable accuracy. Once the proposal is ready, click the "Trade" button to propose the trade; merchants will not agree unless they make adequate profit. Clicking the "Offer as gift" button instead will make a gift of the selected items. Items from outside the embark area cannot be offered as gifts. The amount of acceptable profit is determined by the trader's [[Broker skills\|skills]] and the merchant's mood, described below. Merchants may attempt to propose counteroffers if they do not accept the proposal, which can then be accepted, rejected, or further amended by the trader. A Trader Profit listed in red will always be rejected. If on the other hand the Trader Profit is listed in green rather than yellow or red the trade will always be accepted (unless unacceptable goods are offered in the trade). Take note that this is also true, if the goods traded are not properly appraised (ie. for some goods only an estimated value is given, expressed a tilde before the value), the Trader Profit color will always give an accurate account.

@@ Line 42: / Line 42: @@
 Before you can begin trading, you need to designate what goods to trade and have the fortress's representative trader located at the [[trade depot]]. Select the trade depot and then click either "Broker requested at depot" or "Anyone requested at depot" if you have no [[broker]] [[noble]] assigned. Be aware that without an assigned [[broker]], it's likely a random, probably unskilled dwarf will volunteer to conduct the trade. Next click "Move goods to/from depot" to be presented with a list of all items in your fortress that belong to you. Mark the goods you want to sell --insert clever advice--, and your dwarves will begin moving them to the depot. If you are unsure about which goods are in which containers, clicking the bin or barrel within the menu will show every item that is stored inside, along with its perceived value (using your broker's [[Appraisal]] skill). However, individual items cannot be marked if they are in a container. Note that during this step, we are just moving the goods physically to the trade depot, and that containers like [[barrels]] and [[bins]] must be moved with all of their contents (although for bins you will have an opportunity to specify which contained items you wish to trade).
-Once the trade goods are moved to the depot and your trader has arrived, select the depot again and finally click the "Trade" button to enter the trade menu. In the trade menu, select the items to offer from the right and the desired items from the left. All caravans have a weight limit which cannot be exceeded, and the allowed additional weight is displayed in the lower left corner. If your trader has sufficient [[Appraisal]] skill, the value of all items will be displayed with reasonable accuracy. Once the proposal is ready, click the "Trade" button to propose the trade; merchants will not agree unless they make adequate profit. Clicking the "Offer as gift" button instead will make a gift of the selected items. Items from outside the embark area cannot be offered as gifts. The amount of acceptable profit is determined by the trader's [[Broker skills|skills]] and the merchant's mood, described below. Merchants may attempt to propose counteroffers if they do not accept the proposal, which can then be accepted, rejected, or further amended by the trader. If the Trader Profit is listed in green rather than yellow or red the trade will always be accepted.{{Verify}}
+Once the trade goods are moved to the depot and your trader has arrived, select the depot again and finally click the "Trade" button to enter the trade menu. In the trade menu, select the items to offer from the right and the desired items from the left. All caravans have a weight limit which cannot be exceeded, and the allowed additional weight is displayed in the lower left corner. If your trader has sufficient [[Appraisal]] skill, the value of all items will be displayed with reasonable accuracy. Once the proposal is ready, click the "Trade" button to propose the trade; merchants will not agree unless they make adequate profit. Clicking the "Offer as gift" button instead will make a gift of the selected items. Items from outside the embark area cannot be offered as gifts. The amount of acceptable profit is determined by the trader's [[Broker skills|skills]] and the merchant's mood, described below. Merchants may attempt to propose counteroffers if they do not accept the proposal, which can then be accepted, rejected, or further amended by the trader. A Trader Profit listed in red will always be rejected. If on the other hand the Trader Profit is listed in green rather than yellow or red the trade will always be accepted (unless unacceptable goods are offered in the trade). Take note that this is also true, if the goods traded are not properly appraised (ie. for some goods only an estimated value is given, expressed a tilde before the value), the Trader Profit color will always give an accurate account.
 With more experienced traders and pleased merchants, even marginally profitable trades can be successful, and counterproposals can be rejected safely, offering the same trade again. Note however that a low profit margin for the traders may not be desirable - it has been suggested that both export and profit numbers influence the size of next year's caravan and, in the case of the dwarven caravan, immigration numbers.{{Verify}}