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[CheeseCriminal]

Hello Uristen. I embarked on a cold frigid wasteland and make my living underground. I relied on caravans to bring me wood and cloth. Lately their supply of wood is sparse and they have stopped bringing cloth all together. This is all caravans (human, elf, dwarf). What did I do to cause them to treat me with such disrespect?

Also the dwarven diplomat never talks to my leader so I cant make requests. (IDK who he would want to talk to: the king, the baron, or mayor they are all avail and I never get a diplomat visit.)  Anything to do?

[Shonai_Dweller]

Has the diplomat never spoken to your leader at all? Seems that something has gone very wrong. They do that right from the first visit usually. Trading encourages traders to bring more stuff.

[CheeseCriminal]

Yes he has spoke before so it was working. IDK why but he is not speaking. I get no option to ask for specific goods.

[delphonso]

Is the diplomat stuck on your map somewhere? Possibly stuck in the caverns, clinging to a wall because they saw a crundle...

[Telgin]

I just noticed this happening to me too.  Every caravan randomly stopped bringing anything but certain types of food.  They all bring meat, cheese, plants and fruit, but that's it.  Not even drinks anymore.

No diplomats are hanging around on my map and the liaison has talked to my mayor every year without issues.  If I specifically request an item from my outpost liaison they do bring some of that, but not much.  I requested wood once just to tell him something, and they brought like 5 logs.

I was wondering if there was some change where the caravans tried to bring more of what I bought since I mostly bought food off of them, but this leads me to believe it's a bug of some kind.

I haven't gotten a baron yet so I'm not sure if that will change things since caravans bring more once you get to that point, right?

[0x517A5D]

Also the dwarven diplomat never talks to my leader so I cant make requests. (IDK who he would want to talk to: the king, the baron, or mayor they are all avail and I never get a diplomat visit.)  Anything to do?

I recall that, in previous versions, once the monarch arrives, you no longer get outpost liaisons.  (That's because the liaison arrives with the monarch and lives in your fort permanently.)  It probably works that way in 0.50 as well.

All I can suggest is making friendly contact with other civilizations in order to get caravans from them.

• Create a squad with only one unit in it.
• On the world map, find a site that has a civilization at peace, in alliance, or that has no contact with your civilization.
  
  • The site must have a civilization.
• Send the one-unit squad on a mission to demand one-time tribute.
• The site will reject the demand for tribute, and your unit will return empty-handed.
• The civilization will send a caravan next trade season.

I've never had a single tribute demand trigger a war, but it might be possible.

I've also never done this in 0.50.  I expect it will work the same way it did in 0.47.

[Telgin]

For me this is happening for everyone, not just my own civilization.  Elves and humans only bring food too.

[delphonso]

Hmm. Worth reporting, Telgin. Sounds like something is going wrong with the value calculations. Try destroying one of the caravans (deconstruct depot) and see if they actually bring more the following year.

[Telgin]

I think I may have just had a brain fart and forgotten how trade caravans work.  Does the amount you traded over previous years influence how much caravans bring?  I skimmed the wiki page on it, but didn't see anything obvious.

I've only been trading in the 200-300 range with the caravans for years, which isn't much.  I haven't needed much.  If that influences what they bring, that would explain why they don't bring much anymore.

[delphonso]

There you go. Yeah, they're profit motivated (though there have been tweaks for 50.0 that I still don't know all about). If they lose money (like the caravan is destroyed), they'll chalk that up to a bad trade and send less next year. If they're only getting a little profit, it makes sense they're not interested.

I use the caravan as waste disposal, so they're frequently taking back 2000 to 4000 in pure profit. I tend to only buy cheeses and a few heavy chunks of clay to make space.

[CheeseCriminal]

Thank you all for the answers:

I recall that, in previous versions, once the monarch arrives, you no longer get outpost liaisons.  (That's because the liaison arrives with the monarch and lives in your fort permanently.)  It probably works that way in 0.50 as well.

Thanks for this info. I suppose that explains the lack of diplomats. As an additional note that King had died and his liason had possibly died as well (either way he's gone). There is a new king since then but perhaps there is no diplomacy after the king phase? Might be nice to have another option for late game.

All I can suggest is making friendly contact with other civilizations in order to get caravans from them.

I did try this. I now have 2 human, 2 elf and 2 dwarf caravans coming and all them bring the same combination of stuff as their cousins. Never cloth for some reason.  light on trees. seems trees have been making a comeback since I purchased

I did have a season before the new caravans where I did not trade for cloth or trees. I was just full up. This happened once. I am not sure but it might have been after this when they stopped bringing cloth.

Is the diplomat stuck on your map somewhere? Possibly stuck in the caverns

There was a diplomat visitor in my pub but that was a long time ago. He has since left or died.

Hmm. Worth reporting, Telgin. Sounds like something is going wrong with the value calculations. Try destroying one of the caravans (deconstruct depot) and see if they actually bring more the following year.

I will try this now and get back to you all. If there is a bug I can report it. I am brand new so perhaps wont be taken seriously. Either way I can try. I just need some guidance on when and where.

[0x517A5D]

Do you already have a lot of cloth and wood?  Your OP implies you don't, but...

I just ran across this in the Trading page on the Wiki (bolding added):

All caravans will bring extra food (meat and edible plants), wooden logs, and cloth/leather (for making clothes) if the supplies of your fortress are low enough, independent of whether or not you requested them. This does not apply in the case that the weight limit is exceeded by (other) items you requested. The supply situation, as observed by traders, is based solely on the number of unforbidden items in your fortress, stockpiled or not; thus, it is possible to trick caravans into thinking your supplies are low by forbidding all of your relevant stocks immediately prior to their arrival.

[CheeseCriminal]

Do you already have a lot of cloth and wood?  Your OP implies you don't, but...

I just ran across this in the Trading page on the Wiki (bolding added):

Actually I just noticed that yes I do. Thank you for helping me find this. I have plenty. This surprises me because there always seems to be a shortage of good clothes and Dwarves are wearing tattered clothing. My farming industry is new but apparently working better than anticipated. There must be a problem with my clothing shops.

But yes I have plenty. I think I can count this as solved with this comment above and all the other tips. Thank you all for the help.

[Blue_Dwarf]

Are these early caravans, that only have pack animals, or late caravans that also have wagons?

My caravans also do that, but I didn't have many wagons yet.

[Hans Lemurson]

Do you already have a lot of cloth and wood?  Your OP implies you don't, but...

I just ran across this in the Trading page on the Wiki (bolding added):

All caravans will bring extra food (meat and edible plants), wooden logs, and cloth/leather (for making clothes) if the supplies of your fortress are low enough, independent of whether or not you requested them. This does not apply in the case that the weight limit is exceeded by (other) items you requested. The supply situation, as observed by traders, is based solely on the number of unforbidden items in your fortress, stockpiled or not; thus, it is possible to trick caravans into thinking your supplies are low by forbidding all of your relevant stocks immediately prior to their arrival.

I've encountered this before myself.  It's ironic that hoarding a resource causes a shortage of said resource.

I guess Food, Wood and Cloth follow "Magic Penny" economics.