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[MrFake]

As in: what goods you can request from a liaison vs. what you can get from a caravan.

So I genned this world with no dwarf civs having access to bauxite.  That is, I can not request bauxite stone from any civ--could not, my dwarf liaison died decades ago.  A few years ago, I found the dwarf caravan had brought me a bauxite block, which I snatched up and have since very carefully managed (it was almost used in an artifact!).

It just hit me yesterday: how did they get a bauxite block?

Is there some known mechanism at work here?  Perhaps the dwarfs can trade with another civ that has access to bauxite, and it was transferred to them.  Or maybe only stone, not block material, is affected by access limitations.  Maybe it's all random unless you make a request.  But, then could I possibly get a random bauxite stone from the dwarfs someday?  Maybe the death of the liaison affects what a caravan can bring.  Anything?

I'm pretty sure I couldn't request bauxite blocks, but I can't check as my liaison is long gone.  I'm 100% certain I couldn't order bauxite stone, as I tried multiple years in a row while I could and it was never listed.

I'm not very good at searches, but I have poked around the wiki, the forum, and the Google and found nothing on this besides some passing mentions about civs having access.

[Albedo]

Basically, your home civ has what it has based on its surroundings.  Not sure exactly how big the home civ "embark map" is, but if bauxite isn't on there, then they don't have access to it, and never trade it.  This includes stones, gems, metals, meat/fish, and so on.  (Also, rarely, armor types, but that's a different mechanism that limits those.)

Without a trade agreement, a caravan brings a random sampling of items in the possible mix.  A caravan will not bring something that the liaison is not able to offer, altho' the liaison will most likely offer things that the caravan has not (yet) brought samples of.

[MrFake]

Let me make sure I have this right: If you can't request it from the liaison, the caravans won't bring it.

What about this: You can request everything that the civ has access to?  In otherwords, the civ won't hide an item from you even though it has access.  For simplicity, let's just worry about stone types, since that's where I'm getting stuck here, and nothing fancy like adamantine either.

As far as what's possible to request, that's dependent on the whether the civ has access to it, however that is determined.  I assume blocks don't appear naturally, so they must be based off whatever material types are available to the civ.  To get a block of stone A, the civ must have access to stone A?

Have I got all this right?  I must be missing something, because I don't understand how the following can happen: (1) Sirabtulon consistently does not let me request bauxite stone, (2) Sirabtulon randomly brings me a bauxite block.

[2xMachina]

My extinct civ actually sells me EVERYTHING. GCS meat and stuff like that. No liaisons though, so, can't request.

So, maybe no civ, access to all types?

Wish King/Liaisons will be replaced when they die. Too bad they don't...

[MrFake]

I hadn't even thought they might be extinct.  Well, shit.  This was going to be my first fort with a king.  No bauxite, no liaison, no king ...

... shit.

I'll double check later and see if that's the case.

[Jim Groovester]

You just need to check your 'c'iv screen for that. If there are dwarves on the ruler page, then your civ is alive and kicking. If there are elves on the ruler page, well. You'll just have to deal with them somehow.

Albedo's right about what you can and can't request from the caravan. If they have access to it, you can request it.

I don't think the caravan will bring anything that they don't have access to, though. I think somewhere in a corner of your dwarf kingdom there's a cluster of bauxite, and your caravan just hasn't bothered to bring very much of it. You said the liaison died decades ago? Are you sure you weren't able to request bauxite while he was still around?

I know for a fact that on my current map the caravan doesn't have access to bauxite, and they haven't bothered bringing anything even made of sedimentary rock either. It's only been a few years though, so I won't preclude the possibility that they couldn't bring something in the future, though I doubt they will.

(Damn you, Solifuge! Couldn't you have embarked with a dwarf civ that actually had access to bauxite to make our magmaworks easier to build? And did you have to switch maps without our knowledge and give us a starting embark designed for a woodless and magmaless mountain? Grrrrrr.)

[MrFake]

I'm sure they never offered bauxite stone.  S'weird.

Also, the civ screen shows a King.  Only a King, but apparently Dwarven.  Mafol Mamotustuth; that's Dwarven, right?

[Holy Mittens]

It'll mention his race if it's not a dwarf.

[Hamster Man]

Just out of curiosity - this is a stone BLOCK, not a raw STONE?
... cause you can't make anything out of a block, except structures.

[MrFake]

Yes block.  And with a bauxite shortage, I'd feel less guilty about using a reaction to turn a bauxite block into a magma-proof mechanism than any other material.  Or, if I can't manage that, just installing the thing as the centerpiece of the fort's museum: "The useless bauxite that shouldn't exist."

But more importantly, I'm interested in the very small chance that the caravans may someday just bring me the stone, if that's possible.

[Hamster Man]

As far as I know, what they've all stated is true - if the civ doesn't have access to it, it ain't gonna show up.
But who knows? If an elf can be king, then bauxite may appear.