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[Dimglow]

First off, which broker skills truly matter? There are so many of them and it is downright confusing. I've played at least 20 forts now and I can never notice any difference at all. In the end what social skills actually impact the trading process? 1 judge of intent, 1 appraiser and 1 negotiator seems to be all that I can really gain from. Maybe 1 persuader. The wiki is incredibly vague about dwarven social skills.

Second, out of a bit of curiosity, if I were to embark with a 5 comedian 5 flatterer or some other type of super social dwarf would he/she entertain my other dwarves? Would a legendary comedian with no labor enabled simply sit around in my meeting areas and put on comedy skits? Would this make other dwarves happy?

[clc02]

Social skills are mostly useless.  No one really knows if it has anything to do with trading, but the person who does meetings with dwarfs uses the consoler and pacifier skills IIRC

[Aklyon]

Appraiser is nessasary to see the values of stuff.
Don't Know about any of the other skills, though.

[Chattox]

Relatively sure having a broker with a high negotiating skill results in getting better deals.

[TheMirth]

Except for that first year where you may not have been focusing on crafts and really need to resupply your booze or other goods, is there ever any danger of not being able to buy out the caravan in this version?

[clc02]

I never am able to buy out caravans, they say, "With your goods as they are I can't fathom you ending up with all of these" or something along those lines.

[Aklyon]

I never am able to buy out caravans, they say, "With your goods as they are I can't fathom you ending up with all of these" or something along those lines.

Then you're not giving them enough, or you want too much for your stuff.

[creidieki]

To elaborate on a previous point: when dwarfs are unhappy, they'll sometimes schedule meetings with your mayor.  (Offhand, I'd guess that whether they do this depends on personality, since some dwarfs won't even when you take all their other jobs away).

If those meetings are allowed to complete, they'll get a thought that describes how well the meeting went. ("Yelled at someone in charge and felt a little better lately".).  These thoughts seem to depend on the Consoler / Pacifier skills.

It's quite possible that how upset your trading partners get when you make bad trade offers, etc., also depends on these kinds of skills, or that these skills help when meeting diplomats.

So, if you expect to have a whole lot of unhappy dwarfs, you could make a Mayor/Broker noble, and then restrict them to a burrows of your main meeting hall(s), plus his office/bedroom, plus the trading depot.  Then turn all their labors off.  They should spend most of their time socializing.  (If you don't restrict them they'll spend most of their time harvesting plants).

[revier]

In the past, Appraiser has let you see how much items are worth, and Judge of Intent tells you how happy the merchants are - that little thing at the bottom of their speech that says something like "Urist McTrader is willing to trade" or "Urist McTrader seems pleased with the trading". The happier they are, the more willing they are to cut you a deal and accept less profit, is my understanding, although I've never really looked into it myself. As far as I've noticed this holds true in the new versions as well. Those are the skills you might want to look for in a broker, though they level REALLY quickly through trading anyhow, and even a dabbler is good enough, higher skill seems to have no effect.

Consoler and Pacifier are the big skills for anybody that holds meetings with your dwarves.

Other than that, I don't think social skills do much of anything right now.

(eta) Though any dwarf that has even one social skill at embark tends to get picked to be expedition leader. Might be useful if you want a particular guy in charge.

[nickbii]

I can answer your trading questions fairly comprehensively:

Appraisal is essential because without it you don[t know how much things are worth and are basically trading at random.

Judge of intent does what the other dude says it does. The line that usually says "seems willing to trade" will be closer to the truth when you have a high skill. Due to trading mechanics that doesn't really matter much.

As for trading mechanics, in my experience there is exactly one factor in whether a merchant accepts a trade or not: if his profit is 50% (ie: 15 worth mugs buys 10 worth of booze because 15-10=5 and 5/10>=50%). That's it. I can sometimes get them to trade at a 49.5% profit, but only if they made enough on a previous trade that their overall profit stays above 50%. The only other exception is that time I accidentally offered the elves something in a wood barrel.

That's all you need to know about trade. Get a broker with appraisal, get your crap to the Depot, offer 50% more then you want, and you'll do the deal every time. Offer less then 50% and you'll never complete a trade.

Nick

[Hague]

Imagine how complicated it'll get in the Caravan arc...

[Aklyon]

Imagine how complicated it'll get in the Caravan arc...

Oi. Stop making my head hurt trying to imagine stuff.