Print

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

[UristMcGreedy]

In older versions traders were happy with a few hundred or a thousand gold(?) profit, but I just lost a massive trade because the trader wanted well over 20k profit.
Are they just really greedy now or what?

[Corai]

They're traders, it's they're JOB to be greedy.


You need to give them small deals, not make the entire deal at once. If you are giving ALOT of stuff, and they're selling alot of stuff, they want a bigger profit. Break it down into smaller deals.

[UristMcGreedy]

Thanks for the input. I'll have to wait until next autumn before they will return.

What are the down sides of trapping the traders in my inner courtyard until they die?

[Corai]

If humans: They will siege
If elves: Nothing
If dwarves: They'll bring almost nothing next year, and what they do bring will be crappy.

[Sutremaine]

How old was the fortress at that point? The earlier it is, the lower your broker's powers of persuasion will be. The civ will also be not as happy with you as they would be after a couple of years of good trading, but I have no idea if this has any effect on trading relationships.

[cats]

Even with an established fortress where I have a ton of trade goods piling up, I've gotten in the habit of making 3-4 smaller trades (giving them a high profit margin) before I take the rest of their stuff.

[UristMcGreedy]

The fort is somewhat new (a few years, maybe a bit less).
And I do have a ton of trade goods, mostly wooden crafts (some elves died on my doorstep).

[Loud Whispers]

Have a Dwarf with high convo. skills be your broker. Helps get better deals.

[Valtam]

I find it sort of... Ironic? That the OP nick is Urist McGreedy. Nice one.

However, I want to use this topic to ask something akin to an answer already given. My current fort saw the dead of some unaware merchants that got assaulted by a goblin siege that arrived at the same time. The merchants, their pack creatures and their escort gave me a lot of time to asess the situation before I sent some troops, but it was late.
Plus side: I got a lot of free, I-don't-need-right-now stuff.
Minus side:

If humans: They will siege

If my case is the given one, shall I see soon some bronze-clad warriors with unfriendly intentions at my gates, maybe next year? Or I need to erode more our relationship with more accidents for this to happen?

Sooner than later, the OP will wish that merchants get all what they can load on their carts, you'll get a lot of clutter to help you buy a lot of caravans coming one after another, given that your crafters become experts and dwarves do not use all the goods that are made inside the fort.

[Urist Da Vinci]

In older versions traders were happy with a few hundred or a thousand gold(?) profit, but I just lost a massive trade because the trader wanted well over 20k profit.
Are they just really greedy now or what?

Economics! The profit that they want is a percent of the "massive trade", so they want a proportionally massive profit. I usually sell 150% of the cost of the stuff that I am buying, and usually end up with ecstatic.

[sadron]

I've not had this thus far, mostly because all I'm really buying is threads, booze, food to make into meals, wood if I need it, and extra odds and ends. I make most of the other stuff myself.

[UristMcGreedy]

I find it sort of... Ironic? That the OP nick is Urist McGreedy. Nice one.

I made this account just to ask this.

[SixOfSpades]

Economics! The profit that they want is a percent of the "massive trade", so they want a proportionally massive profit. I usually sell 150% of the cost of the stuff that I am buying, and usually end up with ecstatic.

I've noticed that the % profit is not the only factor, they also care about the quality (as well as +quality+) of the goods recieved. When I want to maximize profit, I'll see that the liason offered a premium on earrings, and let the traders get a 100% profit when I give them a ≡«☼gold earring☼»≡, and they'll be "ecstatic". When I want to rid the fort of useless, FPS-killing goblinite, I'll cram a 500% profit down the traders' throats with bins and bins of XXtroll fur loinclothXXs, and they'll be "happy."

[Joben]

Has anyone else gotten the feeling that if a trader refuses a deal and his mood drops that it then takes a ridiculous amount of stuff to make him accept?

I've lost a few deals for things I really needed because even as I keep adding more and more stuff to the trade pile the trader keeps refusing deals at higher and higher profit margins before finally refusing to trade outright.

so like I initially offer 120%, refusal. so I do 130%, refusal. So 150% refusal. 175%, refusal. Desperation 200%. Refusal and departure. (Well screw you elf, I'll just be confiscating that breeding pair of Giant Leopards since you're such a dick)

Whereas normally traders are quite excstatic with ~150%

[Sutremaine]

Usually they get more and more angry, but sometimes I can push a deal through. The record for me is the third attempt at making them take a deal, but I usually back off and give them a bigger margin after the first refusal.