40d Talk:Trading

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The talk page from Caravan, which wasn't merged properly at the time. The first archive of Talk:Trading.

Culling on mandates

what's that? in the trade screen? me no be native speaker...--Koltom 21:56, 20 February 2008 (EST)

I think it means that it will hide things that are not allowed to be traded: "Mayor has put bans on certain exports". But I don't know if it hides an entire bin if one item in it is banned. Hex Decimal 14:29, 27 February 2008 (EST)

I am quite sure that "culling on mandates: on" hides all bins containing items which have active Noble Export Bans. Samyotix 09:16, 13 November 2008 (EST)

I made a "trading color cues" subsection. This should cover relevant info about mandates and other things. --Shurikane 22:07, 29 December 2008 (EST)

Trading flowchart

Suggested trading procedure
				Arrive at fortress location
Create goods								Build Trade Depot
								Check depot is accessible
								Wait for caravan
Set goods to be traded				Wait for caravan to arrive at depot and merchants to finish unloading				Wait for the diplomat (if any) to reach your leader
Wait for goods to be hauled								Turn your leader's labors off so they don't get distracted
								Conduct meetings with the diplomat
Request trader at depot
Turn your trader's labors off so they don't get distracted
		Trade
				Turn trader's and leader's labors back on
				Retrieve bins from depot to reuse

Given a number of questions on the forums, it may be a good idea to put together a flowchart of the steps involved in trading. I will draft something up here (at least partially so I can safely screw up my first attempt on this wiki)

Tasks are sequential top-to-bottom, but can be done in parallel left-to-right

Make or obtain goods to trade		Build Depot (b - D)
		Ensure Depot is accessible (D) Check green area reaches edge of map
Wait until a caravan arrives on the map "A--- caravan from --- has arrived."
Set goods to be traded (q - g)	Request a trader (q - r)	Wait for caravan to reach the depot "Merchants have arrived and are unloading their goods"
Wait for goods to be hauled	Wait for the trader to finish their other tasks and go to the depot	Wait for the rest of the caravan to reach the depot and be unloaded
Begin actual trading (q - t)

Hmm. Is there a better way to show this? It may not help much as is... Kaypy

Ask and ye shall receive (see right, editable at Trading/Flowchart). --Juckto 08:46, 6 May 2008 (EDT)

Re: Adeptable's changes
I don't think the third branch is neccesary. For one, it makes it seem too wide, and secondary it implies that turning off the trader's labours all the time means that trading will happen faster - almost as if it will make merchants arrive more often. --Juckto 23:36, 2 August 2008 (EDT)

I'd add retrieving empty bins to the bottom so that you don't end up with empty bins sitting at the depot. When stockpiles are crowded you'll need them to deal with the sudden influx of goods. (Never give away bins!) I bow to your wiki-fu, I simply could not edit your flowchart... --Corona688 14:15, 3 December 2008 (EST)

Yeah, it's a bit tricky I guess. It's all in the colspan :p. But, ahhh, how do you retreive them? I thought dwarves would automatically fetch empty bins from the depot if they needed them, just like fetching them from any other location. --Juckto 18:31, 3 December 2008 (EST)

How many wagons?

I don't think I've ever seen more than 8 wagons in a given caravan. Is that the limit? Has anyone ever seen more than 8?--Maximus 03:01, 9 November 2008 (EST)

Mass selection of goods to be moved

Question: Is there a way to designate multiple goods in one selection to be brought to the depot?

I'm getting really tired of indivually selecting goods to be moved to the depot when I have massive amounts of crafts, food, etc. So is anyone familiar with ways to select multiple goods at once? Maybe a "start" and "end" tags (for lack of a better name) and every good caught inbetween is designated to be moved to the depot? -- Dakira 14:47 10 November 2008 (PST)

Nope. About the best you can do is use the select (search) menu to get all the ones of the type you want, then enter-down-enter-down. You can flag about 200 a minute this way, though.--Maximus 19:17, 10 November 2008 (EST)

That's what I was doing previously. Are there any plans for a "mass selector" to be introduced? -- Dakira 16:50 10 November 2008 (PST)

Not that I know of. Make a feature request on the forums.--Maximus 20:05, 10 November 2008 (EST)

AFAIK, there is no good way to do this from the trade screen, which is why it's important to set up custom stockpiles and have plenty of bins. Man, I really wish you could make bins out of stone.

Merchant moods

My fortress hadn't been doing too well, but I didn't know it was so bad it could affect merchants... and their pack animals. As the last merchant was about to leave the map, he suddenly went berserk and was cut down by his bodyguard, who then fled the scene. Shortly thereafter, I recieved a message that the donkey had been stricken by melacholy. Has anyone else had this happen?

They usually eventually go nuts if they can't leave for some reason. Never heard of something like what you're describing.--Maximus 03:24, 12 November 2008 (EST)

No more dwarven caravan

So. The Dwarven caravan has not come in the past two years. I think, though I am not sure, that this corresponds with when I met the requirements for the Incoming King, though he has not yet seen fit to arrive. I believe I also capped the population sometime in there, but I think it was after the first year of no caravan. I don't recall in any way molesting previous caravans. I needs me some dolomite and steel bars, anyone know what's going on here? --Zombiejustice 02:10, 13 November 2008 (EST)

So. I upper the population cap to encourage some immigration, and after a few seasons, the King showed up with his retinue and the Hammerer, who had apparently died at some point. I re-capped the population, and the caravan came next autumn. Was it the incoming king or the dead hammerer? Did the population cap interfere with the king's arrival? The mystery remains. --Zombiejustice 14:59, 2 December 2008 (EST)

I'm on year 13 of my most recent fortress and the Dwarven caravan declined to show up this year, after 12 years of no problem. I still don't meet the requirements for the Incoming King. In a previous game I did meet those requirements, and that did not interfere with the caravan (though the liason stopped letting me place orders once the king arrived). Anyway, I don't think my current fort has anything in common with what you've described, other than a mysteriously missing caravan after not damaging previous ones. --Sev 00:52, 7 January 2009 (EST)

A query from the deleted page Talk:Stealing

I've read many times that the traders count their total losses/profits when they leave the edge of the map, so as to make stealing of any sort impossible (to get away with, anyhow). Does this include what the guards are carrying (if they get killed or even just shoot off some bolts)? Or is the "total profit" concept true at all? --Maximus 17:07, 27 November 2008 (EST)

I'm pretty sure that the total profit concept is how it works. The value of everything the traders enter with is subtracted from the value of everything the traders leave with to calculate profit. There's probably something in there to account for the death of (a) trader(s). --Savok 21:42, 28 November 2008 (EST)

Wagon movement

I'm pretty sure that wagons cannot move diagonally. --Savok 20:08, 11 December 2008 (EST)

Arrival dates

Out of curiosity, has anybody given a closer look at the exact arrival dates of trade caravans? Do they always arrive at a fixed time, or does it hover inside a certain period during the month or season? --Shurikane 22:11, 29 December 2008 (EST)