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40d:Liaison
| This article is about an older version of DF. |
Liaisons are emissaries from different civilizations that accompany traders to your fortress. They can have different titles (Template:Ls will send a guild representative, dwarves will send an outpost liaison), but their functions are the same. Like actual Template:Ls they are listed as diplomat in the unit list.
If your liaison dies then you will never get a replacement from that race, so protect him well if you rely on the caravan for a source of something that you request.
Arrival and Departure
The entry point on the map for a liaison is determined before that of the caravan wagons. This can result in the liaison taking a different route to your fortress than the rest of the caravan if the route chosen is not suitable for wagons; the wagons will then enter from a different spot. This means the diplomat has to travel unprotected but this is really the only downside to forcing the wagons to use one particular route. The liaison will then also leave without the caravan once the meeting is done. Providing your own armed escort for the liaison is not a bad plan.
Interaction
Dwarven liaisons will speak with the highest ranking Template:L in your fort, one of:
Human liaisons will only speak with your Template:L. Their function is to ask which goods you would like to have sent with their next caravan (for a higher price), and inform you what goods they would like to buy from you the next time, which they too will pay extra to purchase.
Make sure to turn off all labor for the dwarf who needs to meet with the liaison, even the "dwarves all harvest" order, because your leader tends to walk away from the meeting, and liaisons will eventually get Template:L or go Template:L if they do not get their meeting. This also causes a message saying "A trader went away unhappy" although it's unknown if this has any current in-game effect. A liaison can also go insane if prevented from leaving; this can happen after as little as two months of game time.
If your leader is dead, there is nothing you can do but hope that a new one is elected before the liaison arrives or he/she will leave without a Template:L. If the leader is too injured to hold a meeting, then you must either arrange for them to have an Template:L in time for a new one to be elected and hold a meeting, or wait for the liaison to go Template:L and kill themselves. Decisions, decisions...
If you are desperate to complete a meeting, consider locking the Template:L on the meeting room until the meeting is complete. You don't even have to catch both in the office, the liaison is so keen on his bureaucracy, he will happily shout through the door, or even a thin wall. A sleeping dwarf leader can be woken up by deconstructing his Template:L, although this may generate an unhappy Template:L. Lastly, an easy way to force the leader into the meeting room is to draft him (this can cause an unhappy thought if he has no military skills) and station him in the meeting room. Undrafting him may or may not be necessary to force the meeting to start.
The meeting can take place independent of Template:L sessions - although the liaison and traders often arrive together, they are not tied in any other way.
The meeting consists of 8 screens with breaks, the breaks giving your leader a welcome opportunity to walk away from the meeting. Don't think you are done until the liaison confirms it and says farewell!
Conducting a meeting in a public place can generate an unhappy Template:L. Conducting a meeting in the leader's private office can generate a happy thought based on the quality of the room.
Oddly enough, liaisons don't need to eat, drink or sleep. There is a statement from one of our mayors on this:
- Ironblood: "This damn human thingy keeps following me around, suckling on me when I pause for too long. I think it's a foreign custom, but I dare not emulate. He's all disgusting and clean. Though his clothes are almost completely rotted off..."
Differences by race
The liaisons and diplomats sent by different races differ in certain ways. Note that here, race refers to the overall civilization, not the individual liaison. It is quite possible to have a liaison of a different race than its parent civ, if that civ has conquered and assimilated members of another race.
Dwarven
The name of your dwarven liaison will be upgraded to names such as city or metropolis liaison, corresponding to your fortress development.
Once your Template:L arrives, the liaison will become the royal Template:L and will no longer perform his previous duties.
Human
The human guild representative may have different names based on the importance of your fortress. Such names include merchant baron and merchant princess.