Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Xheia]

So, merchants are leaving my fort before I even got the chance to trade - they were saying they're still unloading before. I've already seen this behavior once before in another fortress.
Any reasons why or help as to prevent this?

Some factors I think may be important:
I had just built an extra depot outside, where the wagons could access them, so this was my first caravan with wagons (for both fortresses). I'm not sure if there are any problems with having two depots...
In both, the caravans were attacked by goblin ambushes.
I moved my broker, first to the outside depot, then to the inside one to trade, then back outside. (I suspect this may be the reason - maybe trying to trade at two depots confuses the merchants). First, there were merchants unloading, then in the second two visits there were no merchants (and now some of the merchants and their yaks are wandering away...)

Thanks for any help.

[Corai]

They took to long to unload and arrive, so they decided it wasn't worth getting whipped by there goblin vampire necromancer overlord immortal king.

[i2amroy]

A few notes:
1)I generally try to avoid to depots. It technically works, but you can get bugged pathfinding from time to time where some merchants go to one and the others go to another, resulting in two groups that you can't trade with.
2)If one of the merchants or their pack animal/wagon is slain then any merchants that are currently unloading will pack back up and leave, this is what I suspect might have happened here.
3)Assuming all of your merchants make it to the same depot fine, then there are no problems with having multiple trade depots.

[Xheia]

Thanks. I just noticed that two of their wagons died (?)... poked to death by pesky goblin pikemen and spearmen... I thought they made it unscathed, but I guess not. (In my other fortress, one of the people died also.)
[I forgot to mention that it's a human caravan]
Just an update, it says they've packed up and are embarking on their journey... but not really, as some of them are milling around the edge of the map where they came from, and some are in the two depots. I might just kill them all or deconstruct the depots.
Do caravans cause ambushes? Perhaps they increase fortress wealth?

[i2amroy]

Do caravans cause ambushes? Perhaps they increase fortress wealth?

Not really (other then by increasing wealth that is). Really they just have the misfortune of arriving at approximately the same time as the "ambush" timer goes off to trigger ambushes.

[Saiko Kila]

Just an update, it says they've packed up and are embarking on their journey... but not really, as some of them are milling around the edge of the map where they came from, and some are in the two depots. I might just kill them all or deconstruct the depots.
Do caravans cause ambushes? Perhaps they increase fortress wealth?

Packed up? Did they really said that? Because embarking on the journey means they are merely going to pack up, which may take months, not that they've already done this.

Also, in my fortress they usually come just before siege/ambush (if there is any siege that season), or if the siege comes first - they don't come at all. Which means that when caravan comes, I always make sure that most of my dwarves are in safe places, because I can expect something funny. Plus, it is good to check access ways and remove all obstacles which could lengthen their route. If there are too many of these obstacles, they won't come in time, busy with all that manoeuvring, and the siege/ambush will catch them too close to the edge.

[Loud Whispers]

Yolo.
Regarding ambushes, they could've been waiting in ambush the entire time, and the caravans just spotted them. Rather unfortunately.

[SixOfSpades]

2)If one of the merchants or their pack animal/wagon is slain then any merchants that are currently unloading will pack back up and leave, this is what I suspect might have happened here.

This. My last dwarven caravan arrived on my map just a few moments before a siege. The merchants made it inside my fortress all safe and sound, except for one sluggish laggard and his horse . . . who were intercepted by a squad of Lashers. When that merchant died, the other 4 merchants and their retinue immediately turned around and marched out of my fort--directly into the open arms of the waiting Lashers.

I know it sounds crazy, but honestly, I had no idea a dwarf could be that stupid.

I don't think I'll offer next year's caravan a huge profit margin to make up for the "business" they "lost" this year. Yeah, my trade will suffer, but when somebody is THAT goddamn retarded, it ain't MY job to make 'em feel better about it.