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[Leafsnail]

The trade depot shouldn't be able to preserve perishables (as it is now, I think) to avoid it being used as quantum storage.

Trust me, this is a bad idea.  The trade depot's preservation abilities absolutely should not be changed, not until some other option to accomplish the same thing is added (making it like a 'room-defined workshop' that includes food stockpiles, say.)

I remember the old versions with stuff rotting in the depot.  It was essentially impossible to trade food or to trade for food.  It was absolutely no fun.

Maybe you could store it without rotting in the depot as long as there are merchants trading.  Otherwise, you could just use it as a substitute for stockpiles, and that's supposed to be part of the game.

The problem is that it can take a huge amount of time to get dwarves to move all the stuff from the depot, when you trade for a lot.  Hauling is still incomplete; there's no way to efficiently enough move a large amount of purchased food into storage.

And you're avoiding the main issue -- the depot still has unlimited storage space your suggestion, it's just limited to non-perishables.

The current situation is ultimately a stopgap measure.  Eventually, hopefully, the depot will be "composed" of stockpiles, so things will be placed there directly.

Yeah, pretty much.  I did have an efficient way to get stuff there - it's called "having tonnes of good for nothin' immigrants who only ever see action after a raid or when someone comes to trade".

[fractalman]

"That's to stop people from exploiting it as infinite storage."
You ALL (almost all) seem to say that like it's a BAD thing. I use quantum stockpiles all the time, JUST so my dwarves don't waste their time hauling stuff back and forth to the depot-my first fortress was lost because I tried to use "legitimate" stockpiles. 

I say: CLUTTERED TRADE DEPOT.

cluttered trade depot (only registers your stuff for this purpose): the merchants say "oh, surely with your wealth you can afford a more reasonable price....

That would, i think, balance it out quite nicely.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Trade depots are no worse than the half-dozen or so other ways to achieve quantum stockpiling. It is, in fact, less bad than some because it requires an investment of resources and space greater than most others. Don't worry about it.

[NW_Kohaku]

At the same time, there wouldn't be as much of a problem with cluttered trade depots if you could just designate them to be larger than 5x5 the same way that you can designate stockpiles. 

Stockpiles in general can probably use a greater storage capacity than they already have, anyway, with capacity for stacking with or without bins and concepts like "shelving" or the like for "upgraded" stockpiles. 

Then, just apply the same rules to trade depots - you can store some designated capacity of stuff in a tile, and need to expand the trade depot when it gets full.

[Gecko]

What about a custom stockpile used only for trading?  A Trading Stockpile? You could then designate individual items d-b-t, through the stock screen or, while making cut gems on repeat for trading, as an example, as a-c-r-t.

And if you would like to take a trader through a tour of the stock, you could do it here.

[SuicideJunkie]

For something completely different, why not keep all your trade goods in the stockpiles surrounding your depot when you mark items for trade.

Then when you *actually* trade items, the merchants walk over, pick it up, and load it in their wagons.
At the same time, your dwarves come to the depot pick the stuff you bought out of the wagons and put it in stockpiles.

You'd just have to check if the merchant has a reasonable short path to the item when making the offer.

[fractalman]

I'll have you know I've had merchants leave without taking all the stuff I'd given to them.
granted, it was in 31.25...(they took only 25 of the 50 pages of stuff). 

[Silverionmox]

What about a custom stockpile used only for trading?  A Trading Stockpile? You could then designate individual items d-b-t, through the stock screen or, while making cut gems on repeat for trading, as an example, as a-c-r-t.

And if you would like to take a trader through a tour of the stock, you could do it here.

A toggle on each stockpile that says "trade goods only" would do the trick.

[breadman]

What about a custom stockpile used only for trading?  A Trading Stockpile? You could then designate individual items d-b-t, through the stock screen or, while making cut gems on repeat for trading, as an example, as a-c-r-t.

And if you would like to take a trader through a tour of the stock, you could do it here.

A toggle on each stockpile that says "trade goods only" would do the trick.

Turning this sideways, how about having such a stockpile automatically designate items stored there for trading?  With proper settings on the stockpile, it would automatically collect crafts, sub-par equipment, and anything else you can dump on the caravans.  One-off items could still use manual designation, though.

To overcome the possible shortcomings of using Trade Depots as infinite storage perhaps the solution is just to eliminate storage of things in the Depot altogether.  When the Wagon shows up your Liaison goes to the Depot and you get a Trade screen in which all your [T] Designated items are listed and you trade as normal.  Only once the deal is struck are the Hauling tasks generated, as each item is brought to the Depot the Caravan hands over a value proportional but random selection of items from its side of the deal for you too take away.

This works very well as a companion suggestion.  With sufficiently small trades and/or close enough stockpiles, the partial trades part wouldn't even be necessary.

[Rogue Yun]

I also thought about the designate trade independently of the knowledge of this threads existence. I would love to see an idea like this implemented. I often use caravans to clear out a lot of my clutter by bribing offering junk goods to their pansies nobles.

I add my vote.

[fricy]

I also thought about the designate trade independently of the knowledge of this threads existence. I would love to see an idea like this implemented. I often use caravans to clear out a lot of my clutter by bribing offering junk goods to their pansies nobles.

I add my vote.

In the meantime use this plugin to automate trading:

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=124523.msg4145157#msg4145157