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[Derakon]

Does anyone know if the number of wagons/beasts of burden the traders bring is dependent on exported wealth, or on how much bulk you asked for? Compare these two sets of requests, for example:

* Tower-cap logs
* Bauxite stone
* Steel bars

vs.

* Giant Cave Spider silk cloth
* GCS thread
* Dwarven cheese

Obviously, the second puts a lot more wealth into a given space than the first does. So do the traders bring a fixed amount of wealth, or a fixed amount of tonnage? If the former, then I'll ask for tower-cap logs even though I'm in a heavy forest, just to reduce the amount of time my woodcutter spends outside; if the latter, then I need to be a lot pickier about what items I ask for.

[Hague]

Weight is what limits the goods a trader brings. Every pack animal (including the wagon) has a [TRADE_CAPACITY:<n>] token that determines how many weight units that creature can carry as a pack animal.

[Thasero]

The number of wagons/etc. you get depends on how much profit the caravan from that civilization made the year before, so you can still get a fair quantity of heavy items if you make sure to fill up the caravan with valuable trade goods for their return trip.

Generally speaking, if you special-order items through the liason, you'll get up to a set number of your requested goods and then whatever weight capacity is left over in the caravan will be random.  So if you request a lot of heavy items, you won't get much in the next caravan except what you requested - which can have unfortunate results if it turns out the caravan is your only hope for that year's supply of food, or something like that.

Personal tip:  If you want to make crazy-go-wild trade goods and furniture in your fortress, request every kind of small cut gem from the dwarves.  Depending on how many kinds of gems your civ has access to, this can get you as many as 400 cut gems per year, including rare gems that you would otherwise be lucky to find at all if you dug out your entire map.  Then you can have all of your dwarves sleep on diamond-encrusted beds.

[Derakon]

Hague: yes, basically I'm asking if the traders will bring extra wagons/beasts of burden if I ask for lots of heavy stuff.

quote:Originally posted by Thasero:
<STRONG>Personal tip:  If you want to make crazy-go-wild trade goods and furniture in your fortress, request every kind of small cut gem from the dwarves.  Depending on how many kinds of gems your civ has access to, this can get you as many as 400 cut gems per year, including rare gems that you would otherwise be lucky to find at all if you dug out your entire map.  Then you can have all of your dwarves sleep on diamond-encrusted beds.</STRONG>

Hah! I love it! And since I'm churning out steel goods in this fort, I'll have plenty of trading capacity to spare. Though, no diamonds; I've never liked them. Star sapphires, baby!

[Thasero]

To answer your specific question, in case I wasn't clear the first time:  No, traders will NOT bring extra wagons if you ask for bulky items.  The number of wagons depends (only) on how much loot they hauled away in previous years.

You can 'o'ffer items as free gifts to the traders to convince them to bring more wagons and beasts of burden the next year, but you can only offer goods produced at your fortress.  However, you can still offer a fortress-made bin containing foreign goods, and a foreign good that has been decorated at your fortress will count as fortress-made.

[Deon]

I usually offer them valuable and nice meals. They like to eat at my fortress, it's like a diner for them, so they gladly come each year.

[Neonivek]

Here is my Tip if you want the Merchant to carry more:

Buy his Ore/Stone

Stone has almost no cost whatsoever... but is one of the most heavy objects in the game