Trade depots are a very archaic feature, to my undestanding besides some occasionally dusting, and the function of tribute being delivered there there's been very little change to them since the days when DF was 2d in the very beginning & blossoming of the caravan arc to connect the world to the outside. So ideally a point before or post when the Steam version of DF hits, to create the a streamlined and built upon expansion of trade depots i feel would be a worthy suggestion to avoid a endless slog of confused players, experiencing realized game bugs or GUI misunderstandings.
This isn't particualrly critical of trading itself, just the way trade depots are organized and managed.
Critical changes to the Trade Depot BuildingOne of the primary issues with Trading depots as they stand is that they are entirely self inclusive to a archaic way of being managed that hasn't aged very well with the game.
- Profit equalling relationship may not nessecarily survive into the future, issue reports like enormous caravan crashes suggest that its not actually within the best interests of the player without using exploits to achieve the maximum potential social traction with any particular civilization, including your own.
> All trading depots are built flexibly like roads with a maximum 15x15 dimension, the largest that someone could possibly define in the game and also start inactive for later input, so that non-vital trading depots can be built (see second half on market trading) inside the fortress without deconstruction/being disabled.
> Trading depots require to be defined for use by a trading caravan, with 5x5 default size of a depot being able to service one caravan and merchants & pack animals being able to move about in claimed squares by that merchant group. If another caravan from another race is inbound they 'claim' a square seperate to the others.
> Dwarves with hauling labors can be drafted to assist to help load and unload caravans to speed along the process on the depot's 'q' building inspection screen, however most caravans may not require or be distrusting of the help if relationships are already strained with that civilization explicitly ruling it out upfront.
So the general idea is that multiple caravans will queue up for applicable stops and disperse safely within some distance of each other and that a certain amount of caravans in a very large convoy will be left behind upon visitation without the adequate expansive space to barter properly so there is no trouble packing in to the same depot.
- Each 'square' can be individually visited by your broker and assigned their own baggage helpers dealing with the claimed areas as a group, allowing you to trade with multiple races at once
- In the future arcs you might want to claim a trade depot square for your own organized caravan activities as a pernament fixture where your own goods are loaded/unloaded after a successful trading run
New! Market function for trading depotsTrade depots are very flexible when it comes to being built out of nice materials and dwarves greatly appreciate the architectual design that goes into them, but for fear of accidentally causing caravans too accidentally attempt to path inside being took care of they can be integrated into the lives of dwarves as communal spaces and hives of activity.
> Trade Depots can be set as meeting halls as a alternative to wells, zones and furniture, which helps social cohesion in a big public area and also getting to know the socially adept merchants, becoming familiar friends with some of these individuals may help save-face and 'friendship-rates' on cut-throat value deals to overlook faux pas if they're particularly friendly with the dwarf currently trading. Stealing from them might be riskier along with psychological impact of them dying as a result 
> In adventure mode, besides from the prospect of having and storing your own caravan or recieving supplies to a built site (a order of alcohol for your budding tavern or maybe more building materials to finish off your own little stone block castle) you can peddle your own wares from a trading depot site by stocking it up yourself and allowing time to pass or bartering in real time with people around you observing your wares.
The gameplay loop would be that your caravan is portable with license to visit other settlements where you spend some time bartering in your own trading depot square space, a week in the local inn finding supplies & chasing quests; flog your goods then be able to move from place to place when the goods or public interest has dried up as a way to fund your livelyhood. You would have to speak to officials to secure permission to trade unless you already are the leader of a site.
> Much alluded to in this suggestion, the trade depot is used as a active location when not active as a new type of vistor the 'Peddler' will require 'A place to sell wares' inside a public location zone which will significantly speed up access to trade goods to dwarves. Each peddler will take up 1 square of a trade depot just like a wagon and can't pass into the others, so a corner of your fortress as a minor market is always helpful, dwarves may exchange objects they already have aquired or a small amount of loose non-displayed coins from fortress supplies for the transaction of objects they are interested in.
Dwarves can also be assigned to stock and sell trade-goods themselves, since the low rate of aquisition is leaving some dwarves without any sort of posession in relying to need to haul it between one place and another multiple times, these dwarf merchant claimed squares however do not need to be bought and visitors may wish to aquire some of the goods also contained if it is in range of a location site, but will usually pay with a small amount of account coins on their person.
The final result we can hope for is that trade depots lose their one dimensionality, and are embraced as a versatile building capable of many different functions when built into a fortress to replace the 'shops' of previous version and provide the framework of the future, casting out some of the previous rules on fortress & modding design that trading seasons can't overlap without problems.
If you've gotten this far down my suggestion, thanks for reading.
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Topic: Revamped Trade Depot (Read 748 times)