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[AClockworkMelon]

Hey all. I'm a newbie player and I've just finally gotten a fortress off the ground that seems to be running smoothly. Problem is, I've had about four trade caravans come by and my broker. just. won't. go. to. the. depot.

I've made sure he's my assigned broker (when I press q and select the depot it even shows him and what his current task is). I've made sure the depot is set to request his presence. I've used the Dwarf Therapist to disable every other task the broker has. He'll still sit around either eating or drinking or doing absolutely nothing at all with "no job" for the entire fifteen minutes or however long the caravan sits there while the rest of the population busies itself dragging goods up to the depot. Then the caravan inevitably leaves without my broker having done anything and they've got to drag it all back to the stockpiles. Toggling the depot between needing a broker and allowing anyone to trade doesn't do anything. Setting it so anyone can trade doesn't do anything (nobody else shows up at the depot even if I switch off all their allowed tasks).

It sucks spending a year building what the liaison says he wants only to not even be able to open the trade screen because nobody will go to the depot.

Please help! >.<

[GiglameshDespair]

Make a burrow over the trade depot, assign your broker to it, and activate it. He'll go to the depot and you can then trade.

Just remember to delete the burrow before he starves to death.

[Sirbug]

Does burrow actually help against eating or taking break?

Are you sure you choose the right option? I always found request/don't request choice confusing because it seemed like a command, not like a status it is.

[Larix]

Can it be that you 'set' your depot to 'trader requested' after building and never used this menu item since then?
The 'trader requested at depot' is not a setting, it's a 'signal' you send to your tradedwarfs while the caravan is there. I.e., when a caravan is on the map and potentially willing to trade, you toggle the option and a 'trade at depot' job is generated. Once the traders notify you that they've started to embark on their journey onwards, the job is automatically cleared and the depot's status reverts to 'no trader requested', you'll have to issue the command anew once the next caravan is there.

If the assigned broker keeps showing 'no job' while a caravan is waiting, it's either because the broker's presence at the depot isn't actually requested or because she/he cannot access the depot (e.g. because of burrow settings or other blockages, but those would also affect the other dwarfs trying to bring items to the depot).

[AClockworkMelon]

Make a burrow over the trade depot, assign your broker to it, and activate it. He'll go to the depot and you can then trade.

Just remember to delete the burrow before he starves to death.

I'll try this next time I boot up the game and let you know if it worked.

Are you sure you choose the right option? I always found request/don't request choice confusing because it seemed like a command, not like a status it is.

Yes. I have it set so that it says "Request trader presence" or however it's worded. And even if that was wrong, I've switched it the other way (and back) to see if it worked.

Can it be that you 'set' your depot to 'trader requested' after building and never used this menu item since then?
The 'trader requested at depot' is not a setting, it's a 'signal' you send to your tradedwarfs while the caravan is there. I.e., when a caravan is on the map and potentially willing to trade, you toggle the option and a 'trade at depot' job is generated. Once the traders notify you that they've started to embark on their journey onwards, the job is automatically cleared and the depot's status reverts to 'no trader requested', you'll have to issue the command anew once the next caravan is there.

Yup. Every time a new caravan arrives I go and toggle it a few times because I've read that that's helped.

I'll go try the burrow trick. Just to confirm, when a caravan's arrived and I'm done fiddling with it it should say "Request broker presence" (rather than "Broker not needed" or whatever), right?

[greycat]

I always set my Depot to "anyone may trade".  Broker's on break?  Traipsing through the magma smelters, admiring the moss?  No problem!  We can still trade.

[laularukyrumo]

I've found that "Trade at depot" is just a really really low priority job and the stupid broker is really goddamn finicky. There isn't a whole lot you can do.... No labors, noeat nodrink nosleep and they'll still just park themselves in the statue garden until they die of old age. Burrows are probably your best bet--be warned that they're likely to create job cancelation spam if he has hauling enabled, as dwarves for some reason will take a hauling job outside their burrow, cancel the job because they can't reach the item, and then repeat ad nauseum.

[Keldane]

In the event that my broker refuses to do their job, I use the "any dwarf may trade" option, then toggle off and on the request for a trader. Usually, someone comes to do the job within a few moments and because I still have a broker with the appraisal skill, I have no trouble seeing item values.

[laularukyrumo]

I always thought that the ACTIVE broker had to have appraiser skill or you got locked out of knowledge. Maybe I'm stupid though.

[Larix]

The dwarf who is assigned as broker on the nobles screen must have novice+ appraisal for you to see any values. To get values shown, that's the only thing that's checked, who does your trades (and what if any appraisal skill they have) is completely irrelevant.

I always trade with 'anybody may trade', even at the very first caravan (whoever takes the job gets made broker, and that's that).

[AClockworkMelon]

The burrow trick seemed to have worked! Thank you!

I tried removing the burrow for a few caravans I didn't care about (*cough - elves - cough*) and I've got him showing up about half the time. Better than nothing!

Had four strange moods and managed to take care of them all (barely got shells in time for one of them...). Feel like I'm starting to get a hang of the game.

[0cu]

You can traing any non-broker to novice easily by selling single items.