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[Sisyphean]

so for the first time in any of my forts ive managed to buy out the entirety of my first autumns trade caravan something over 64k in value with the trader making a healthy 20k profit. admittedly i didnt even need half of it but i could so why not right?

anyway i was neither planning nor expecting to be able to do this. i didnt bother to check the attributes of my starting dwarfs so i didnt realise i was bringing along a chef with great creativity until i started getting messages that my chef had created a masterpiece egg roast.

anyway long story short having my farmer constantly scouring the country side for fruit and veg and my chef pumping out lavish meals meant that when the caravan arrived i had 17 barrels of prepared roasts ranging from 4-9k per barrel... im really surprised by just how easy it was/is to make that much wealth in just 2 seasons

im beginning to wonder if there is any point in any economic crafts or industries other than cooking, it just seems so profitable has anyone else had a similar experience?

now i just have to work out what im going to do with all this junk i bought......

[Fleeting Frames]

Why not? Well, bigger spring migrant wave and possibly baiting siege sooner, in addition to the clutter and potentially bins in a fortress that previously had none. I also believe performance troupes or visitors in general are possibly attracted by traded or offered wealth, though I'm not certain ( Just two embarks in same place with same fortress-designating macro in same time with one having trading offset by a year. ) .

There's couple other options for buying out first, or subsequent caravan.
- Spiked balls or serrated discs. Even wood's lowest modvalue will let your carpenter buy out the caravan in, like, something like month and half, and value multipliers go up to 30 with steel - if you're lucky and your civ requests trap components, you can buy out an entire smaller caravan with single masterwork ball of steel - though it may be not as attractive in cost as glass ones. As a bonus, one can like the exp more on carpenter, weaponsmith or glassmaker.

(Though note that wooden minecarts filled with water beat wooden spiked balls, provided you have source of water next to depot.)

- (Fire) clay crafts, ash glazed. With first spring magma kiln, it's free of materials, and for 5 jobs (of which three glazing jobs require no hauling and are very quick, making this probably better than producing clay statues for 2 jobs) and 3% (bug atm) of an ash bar you get a maximum of (glances at masterful masterfully-glazed stoneware ring) 1080*3 =3240. (Though minimum haul for no-quality ash + stoneware set would be 270, 240 for earthenware.)

- For subsequent caravans, high-value leather robe export, done using imported high-value leather (Which will cost less than 3% of value.) You can plant the leatherworker's workshop right next to or under depot (potentially minimizing hauling distance to workshop and to trade both to single tile with single obsidian casting). If you're going to want a clothing industry and military cloaks anyway, could also order a masterwork elephant leather robe (1980⛭), the likes of which on repeat is high and light enough to handle a caravan in a month.

- Some players like to trade away copies of books, though I don't think this is very impressive with the number of jobs it goes into making one versus their value. Still, something to consider as it is something you may want to produce anyway to prevent thieving visitors stealing the originals.

- As extension of above two, visitors arrive with lot of clothes and may carry books or instruments. You can strip-search them and confiscate contraband with dump command, though I doubt this will produce enough goods to buy out a caravan on its own.

- For pure fortress value (if you like numbers), nothing can beat architecture bonus on top of artifact bonus. A single ⛭⛭Bridge⛭⛭ with single artifact adamantine mechanism can reach 50 mil (double masterworks are huge pain to get, though, so I've only done this once). Aesthetically, masons are probably most valuable, being able to mass-produce blocks and furniture of vast majority of colours, even if they're not quite so useful militarily or economically.

- It's so commonplace it is trite, but...Magma. Or more economically, water. Right presentation of either will make traders an offer they can't refuse.

[Immortal-D]

Prepared meals are incredibly unbalanced, so far as trade value goes.  They are good if you are new to DF, but most players avoid trading food once they become more experienced.  Similarly, trap components also have value multipliers greatly in excess.  A few Wooden Spiked Balls will also buyout a caravan.

[Sisyphean]

wow i just didnt realise it was that easy. i know from previous forts in the second and third years spiked glass balls are incredibly valuable but id never really contemplated buying out the first caravan....

as for the valuable drawbridges i like that idea my current fort has an elaborate pit entrance which requires a main large drawbridge......

[PatrikLundell]

The economy is basically broken (and known to be so: it will be overhauled in the future, with Toady trying to decide whether boats and advanced moving mechanical things should be implemented before the economy or vice versa). It's currently very easy to buy whatever you want from the caravans, with only the first few ones requiring a little effort. I've got more trouble getting rid of worn clothing than buying stuff (as the worn clothing tends to have a value many times higher than whatever I want to buy, which is very little).

[muldrake]

Prepared meals are incredibly unbalanced, so far as trade value goes.  They are good if you are new to DF, but most players avoid trading food once they become more experienced.  Similarly, trap components also have value multipliers greatly in excess.  A few Wooden Spiked Balls will also buyout a caravan.

And that's just normal quality ones.  Masterwork quality spiked wooden balls are absurdly overvalued to the point it almost feels like an exploit.  Even more than the prepared meals thing.

[Fleeting Frames]

Masterwork anything is overvalued relatively to the base item in general (though meals are different from balls in that the quality modifiers stack); a masterwork steel mail shirt is typically not worth 2 no-quality ones in defence (iirc), let alone 12. I'm ok with benefiting specialization, but this relatively kills industries like soap making commercially.

At a glance, I don't consider non-metal balls absurdly overvalued comparing them to other options I listed and can see one reasonably picking stoneware (or meals) instead at times (could be ⅜ lower tho).
I suppose they dwarf producing wooden furniture or normal craftsdwarf's workshops' crafts (unless using iron/gold ore or hydra bones).

Unfortunate, but at least it isn't as much of a collapse of search space as with adamantine (which only supersalads can compete with).

[Naryar]

Metalworking is OP for value. Especially trap components. Then again, I embark on volcanoes with 200 mineral scarcity worlds...

So is prepared meals, but that takes more time to work with usually. Quarry bush leaves and dwarven syrup are the best and easiest to prepare for expensive meals.

Also if you have a good stonecrafter, native gold/silver mugs never fail to deliver.

[steel jackal]

although i rarely use the caravan for anything other than a garbage truck to pick up all the x☼Pigtail Socks☼x, when i DO actually buy stuff from the caravan (say im on an embark without iron) i generally use gem encrusted stone crafts.

i like scepters because i just imagine a bunch of rich elderly dwarves using them as walking sticks