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[guitarxe]

You know how the liason makes a trade agreement with you, and will give you a list of things they will pay higher prices for the next time they visit? Do you guys try to create those things for export for the next carvan, or just make whatever is easy and valuable to produce?

[milo christiansen]

I just make whatever, generally they never ask for things I produce and/or they ask for things I don't want to sell.

The price boost is good, but cheap crafts and stuff looted from the elven caravan is usually enough to buy whatever I need.

[VerdantSF]

I ignore it, as well.  I like to specialize in certain goods according to what's available.  I've found some good metal veins, so recently it's been silver, gold, and platinum coins (for flavor, as they have relatively low value), along with gold goblets for a value boost.

[A Random Passerby]

Sometimes. Often I find that the general trading goods stuff (Usually gems and random metal trinkets) are what they want anyway.

[smjjames]

I just ignore it.

Once the economy is redone and restarted, it might actually matter. However, right now, there is no incentive to produce what the liason asks for.

[wierd]

I *used* to, but anymore I also just ignore it. The trade bonus is nice, and I feel a little titter when I see "amulets and scepters" with with a "strongly wanted" slider next to them, (yay! More gems for less crap!) But not worth the effort and dedication needed to shutdown one industry and activate enother to fully satisfy the liason's capricious needs and wants.

I do get the sensation that Toady wants to make the requests from trade liasons actually have some teeth to them eventually, but that will have to come after some profound changes to the game in regard to remote sites, diplomacy, risks of war, item offload tracking once off site, and a whole host of other things. That's gotta be at least 2 or 3 major releases away before it would make sense.

The trade caravan would have to stop being an infinite item generator, and each civilization would have to have resource consumption tracking to make it really work realistically, and that would make the game tremendously more difficult. (But in the good way I think.)

For now though, I just ignore it. --Just that eventually, I expect I will be forced to stand up and take notice at some point in the future. Just not now.

[blue emu]

A stack of masterfully cooked kitten-burgers will buy out an entire caravan, even if the Merchants don't LIKE kitten-burgers.

[Pyrite]

In the early game, it can be useful to pay attention to when instruments or toys show up and switch production. It can be a decent boost in the first three years.
 

[Broken]

Mass produced green glass serrated disk is all you will ever need.

[arcturusthelesser]

A stack of masterfully cooked kitten-burgers will buy out an entire caravan, even if the Merchants don't LIKE kitten-burgers.

Pretty much this. Prepared meals get so high-value that I trade almost exclusively in them, especially considering how food is more renewable than pretty much anything else.

[slink]

Same here, but with no kittens involved.  I seldom even read the list.

[Splint]

For me it depends on what they ask for. Generally they always seem to ask for things either too important to my fortress (food, certain weapons, medical supplies, drinks,) or I don't have the means to produce in any reasonable capacity (leather armor, large gems, windows, or specific crafts for example.) However when they ask for things I plan on selling anyway (I like to export goblets and often have a lot of ammo from archer ambushes laying around,) I get all kinds of happy.

[bmaczero]

For me it depends on what they ask for. Generally they always seem to ask for things either too important to my fortress (food, certain weapons, medical supplies, drinks,) or I don't have the means to produce in any reasonable capacity (leather armor, large gems, windows, or specific crafts for example.) However when they ask for things I plan on selling anyway (I like to export goblets and often have a lot of ammo from archer ambushes laying around,) I get all kinds of happy.

Basically.  Sometimes if I see something I'm actually making at high value (like scepters or something) I will switch up my "decorate with gems" industry to decorate those things and get more value.

[Lielac]

Pfff, never. Prepared quarry bush roasts all the way, man.

[DreamCarver]

When they ask for crutches, I cackle in delight and make as many out of gold as I can be bothered to at the time of their asking.

... Why anyone would desire a solid gold crutch for ease of movement, I will never know.