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[Spectre9000]

So, I get an elven caravan every year. I have on several forts. Time after time, they never have anything I care to buy. Is there anything I really want from an elven caravan, or are they truly only useful for testing your base defenses? Is there some special kind of wood that has properties that actually many any of their gear worth buying?

[Airgeoff]

I think most players, if they bother, trade for the exotic animals they somethings bring.  I mean who is not going to want a giant tiger for the front entrance.
I personally feel elves as trade partners were nerfed a few releases ago because they used to bring good quantities of food and wood if you were running low.   Then they stopped leaving only the animals as an interesting trade item.

[darkflagrance]

I think most players, if they bother, trade for the exotic animals they somethings bring.  I mean who is not going to want a giant tiger for the front entrance.
I personally feel elves as trade partners were nerfed a few releases ago because they used to bring good quantities of food and wood if you were running low.   Then they stopped leaving only the animals as an interesting trade item.

They need to be given wagons. Then they would be okay.

[mirrizin]

There are also certain musical instruments that are unique to elven civilization, if you're into that sort of thing.

[Bradders]

There are also certain musical instruments that are unique to elven civilization, if you're into that sort of thing.

DAMNED HIPPIES, GET OFF MY MOUNTAIN

[PatrikLundell]

I believe elves still bring logs if you run low. Apart from that, they bring a few things that may be of value (several things already mentioned):
- Instruments
- Exotic "cool" animals, including rare cases of shell bearers that might be bred to meet shell mood requirements.
- Fruit for booze variety
- Underwear

In addition to that, they also provide the general garbage truck service common to all caravans.

Missing:
- Seeds (and everything else that would go in bags that they ought to have)
- Berries (in particular Sun Berries)
- Books
- Booze (all their barrels are empty)

Useless/wonky (not including virtually useless stuff like wood armor):
- Instrument parts that cannot be assembled
- Both grown and woven cloth items
- FB/clown/divine silk strings

[King Kitteh]

Now if only the Elves would make trade deals for their Giant Tigers

Took me ages to get a breeding pair only for one of them to be homosexual...

[Fleeting Frames]

Also, I believe caravans are Trapavoid and also avoid traps.

I think elven civs are most likely to naturalize animal men, so there's that reason to gen elves too.

[Silverthrone]

I wish you could mark wooden items as fuel. I'd buy out all their guff and chuck it in the furnaces.

It's particularly annoying when you're short of wood and fuel and see all of those wooden socks and stupid instruments in the trade menu.

[CABL]

I think most players, if they bother, trade for the exotic animals they somethings bring. 

Why trade with elves, when you can borrow from them?
BTW, elves were somewhat nice to me in my recent fortress, they bringed pretty amazing animals, like Giant Rattlesnakes or regular Saltwater Crocs (Too bad animals don't want to kill enemies in my fortresses.).

So simply "borrow" those animals in credit, just install some traps, and/or some good militia (By "good" i mean at least bronze armor and average skills/stats.) in case of loan sharks invasion, OP.

[Skorpion]

They sell animals, wooden cages, and wooden barrels. That's basically everything you'd want from them.

Have you considered building a drowning trap? That way you get to eat their animals.

[Melting Sky]

They bring awesome pets and serve as as a good garbage disposal service. I always use merchants to haul off the endless stream of troll fur thongs, xsocksx etc. that my fortresses seem to end up drowning in. The crazy thing is not only are they willing to haul off this FPS killing garbage, but they are also willing to trade me everything of value they have for it. Best garbage men ever.

[klefenz]

Now if only the Elves would make trade deals for their Giant Tigers

Took me ages to get a breeding pair only for one of them to be homosexual...

So, elves are literally selling gay stuff now?

[MobRules]

In older versions of Dwarf Fortress, the elves would bring bins full of hemp-fiber cloth, which was wonderful. Alas, now the elven caravan is far less useful (unless you get lucky and they bring a breeding pair of giant jaguars). They do still bring fruit, which is useful for booze-variety.

[Dunamisdeos]

I remember a thread (I tried to find it) where the goal was to make them as useful as possible.

This meant making them pets that you could embark with, and also making their hair shearable and the elves milkable through deliberately unspecified means. So that was a thing.