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[cephalo]

The Elves used to bring some pretty cool caged animals with them, but now all they bring is rope reed cloth and plants. I bought an Elk from them one time, and I was hoping to get a second Elk and have a fortress overrun by Elk instead of cats. Why do the Elves stop bringing animals, and will they ever bring them again? For the last 5 years or so no animals.

[Tormy]

Hm...I havent noticed this. Weird..

[Axe27]

Probably because you're not giving the traders any good deals. Traders will bring less valuable stuff if they're not getting good deals. Try offering them a bin or two of useless (your stone/shell/bone here) mugs, and they'll start bringing more valuable items.

But then again, they are elves. Actually, don't offer them bins, because they'll have a shit fit.

[Awayfarer]

Probably because you're not giving the traders any good deals. Traders will bring less valuable stuff if they're not getting good deals. Try offering them a bin or two of useless (your stone/shell/bone here) mugs, and they'll start bringing more valuable items.

But then again, they are elves. Actually, don't offer them bins, because they'll have a shit fit.

I frequently send traders away with massive profits and I still don't get animals from the elves. I think there's a different explanation. I submit the following...

Lets say the Elves show up with these goods
1 caged rat
1 caged bear
1 caged deer
4 bins of cloth (40 bits of cloth total)
2 wooden toys
3 logs
10 bundles of plants (50 plants)

You buy them out completely. The elves get back and say to themselves, "Gee, the little buggers bought forty pieces of cloth and fifty plants! Lets bring more of those! Shame they only bought three of our delicious tamed animals. Lets not bring any more of those."

Anyone whose had a long-running fort knows that when you buy a lot of something, the merchants tend to bring more. My theory is that the AI sees a bin of cloth (for example) as ten items. Buy three bins of cloth and you just bought 30 cloth. Buy 3 tame animals and you've only bought 3 tame animals. If the AI detects that something is being bought at a rate of 10 to 1 it's going to bring more of the supposedely sought after good.

Admittedly it's a guess, but I think the logic is sound.

[Skanky]

Even better, the theory is testable.

[Idiom]

Have elk at 100% priority, and nothing else with priority on the trade agreement list?

[G-Flex]

You forget that you can't make trade agreements with elves.

On my new fortress, the elves brought a tame giant desert scorpion on their first visit. Not going to ask how they got it.

[Proteus]

Another explanation might be the faunaat the place where the elves or yoiur darves live.

Maybe some locations are better suited for the capture of wild animals by elves, than others and this is reflected by the trade gods the elves bring (just like the types of stone you can order from your dwarven civilization are dependent on the specific dwarven civililization you belong to).
In my current game for example my elves bring me good amounts of caged animals,as wel as lots of elven clothes and wooden armor. In previous games however they would bring me less of those but rather masses of cloths and lots of seeds

[LegacyCWAL]

The only way I've ever managed to get them to start bringing animals again was to completely ignore the cloth they brought and offer them all the mugs they could carry.  It took the better part of a decade, but they finally started bringing animals and wood.

[John Johnston]

In my experience the caravans (in the absence of a liaison of any kind) do tend to get fixated on the things you buy (although there seems to be an overbearing tendency to bring entire forests of logs with them, regardless of whether you buy any or not - this is intensely annoying!).

However, the caravans sometimes seem to "reset" if they get slaughtered by the gobboes.  After a jolly good murderising, the next caravan to turn up will often bring a random selection of goods again.  It may also be the case that not allowing them to get to your trade depot triggers a reset too.

I would recommend locking the caravan out of your fortress (where they may possible meet death-by-goblin), or if you're feeling especially cruel, murdering them all.  The next bunch to show may bring better goods!

[cephalo]

Almost all the cloth I got from them are bins that fell of their caravan when the goblins attacked. I maybe bought like 2 units of cloth from the first caravan in case of a mood. The stuff they dropped means I'll never have to buy rope reed cloth again ever. Maybe they consider that bought? Nah, cause they dropped some animals too, in fact that may have been how I got my elk. The Elf caravan has been wiped out a couple of times. I guess I'll try giving them insane profits for a couple of years.

[Dr. Von Uristein]

They're probably eating them during the trip to your fort.

[Tormy]

They're probably eating them during the trip to your fort.

What? Elves eating animals? Nay they only eat their enemies in DF. 

[Glacies]

Giant desert scorpion... O.O

I love elves now.

[Neoskel]

On my new fortress, the elves brought a tame giant desert scorpion on their first visit. Not going to ask how they got it.

Looks at GDS, glances at pile of no quality mugs.

-> Seize selected goods.