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[buzz killington]

I'm in year 22, and the elf trade representative had died in year 2 (amazingly not on my part, he spawned in a pack of wolves).

So they've been bringing me wood for a long time, which is good because I don't have magma.  Due to good forestry and a decrease in my need for wood, I actually have enough to go around this year.  Last year I gave the elves all sorts of deals to see what they'd bring.

So no wood at all this spring.  They brought a few barnyard animals, a fox, and assorted wood crap items.  So what sort of chance is there they'd bring anything cool if I don't kill them for their imputence?

[ChairmanPoo]

I honestly think the most useful thing they bring is wood. In one game I had the used to bring such huge quantities of it that I ended up ditching lumbering and simply purchasing it.

[Duuvian]

They can bring some badass animals. I got a breeding pair of wolves once.

[buzz killington]

The thing that angered me is when I gave them better deals, they brought stupid wood crafts and armor instead of wood

[Smew]

Yeah, depending on where the elves themselves are located they can bring some very awesome animals, tame giant eagles, tame elephants, etc, etc.

[Skorpion]

Dangerous animals.

Generally, if they don't bring me anything other than wood, I turn the drowner on and hope they take the hint.

[dragon0421]

If you give them huge profit margins, they start to bring some impressive exotic animals. I've gotten giant scorpions, grizzly bears, and giant cats (cougars, tigers, etc). This could be dependent on the biome the elves are in though. But I've definitely noticed that they only bring the cool ones after you overpay them a few times.

Due to good forestry and a decrease in my need for wood, I actually have enough to go around this year.

The thing that angered me is when I gave them better deals, they brought stupid wood crafts and armor instead of wood

According to the wiki, the amount of wood they bring is dependent on how much wood you have stored in your fort. They have a psychic ability to detect the stuff.

On a side note, a mod that lets you turn wood stuff into charcoal would be nice; like how metal stuff can be melted down into bars. Anyone heard of one for the current version?

[Grendus]

You can go into the smelter reaction raws and add reactions to turn wood crafts into charcoal. Honestly, I'd rather make charcoal out of the elves, though, you'd think they'd have the brains to realize that large rope reed clothing is completely useless to the dwarves while exotic creatures, extra cages and barrels, food and booze, and even raw or dyed rope reed cloth is something viably useful to short, stocky beardies.

On the bright side, sometimes they do bring good stuff like caged GCS. Those can be useful.

[Albedo]

Early on (read Spring 2 + 3) they bring cloth and (rarely) leather, good for making bags, ropes, and (in the case of the latter) leather armor items.    After that, these are easily covered by in-house industry.

[dragon0421]

You can go into the smelter reaction raws and add reactions to turn wood crafts into charcoal. Honestly, I'd rather make charcoal out of the elves, though, you'd think they'd have the brains to realize that large rope reed clothing is completely useless to the dwarves while exotic creatures, extra cages and barrels, food and booze, and even raw or dyed rope reed cloth is something viably useful to short, stocky beardies.

On the bright side, sometimes they do bring good stuff like caged GCS. Those can be useful.

I considered that, but I'd prefer a system where I can mark them for burning, like marking metal items for melting. I wouldn't want to accidentally char a wooden artifact. I'd like it to work for all wooden items, not just crafts. Actually my biggest use for such a feature would be turning non-masterwork beds into charcoal.

[Shrike]

bed of coals?

[Stormrage]

I caught and tamed by myself a breeding pair of giant cave spiders, a giant eagle and a cave crocodile.

[Quietust]

If you give them huge profit margins, they start to bring some impressive exotic animals.

For me, it's the exact opposite - if I give them good profit margins, they respond by bringing thirty bins of cloth and 2 stacks of plants and nothing else, and when I respond by drowning them, they bring animals the following year.

[Vester]

if I don't kill them for their imputence?

That's like a bizarre fusion of impudence and impotence, both of which are true of Elves in general.

I always thought elven trade goods were random. One time I had a caravan bring me giant leopards and scorpions. The next year they brought me a buttload of cloth.

[Cheshire Cat]

my last few forts have been in challenging environments. places like deserts with no trees or flux or iron.

ive turned huge profits to get the steel i need through getting retarded amounts of cloth from the elves and leather from the humans, and then trading masterwork dyed clothing covered in goblin bone spikes to the dwarves for full sets of high quality steel armor and weapons. in treeless environments elves also bring much needed wood. sometimes, especially early on, they bring crazy useless stuff, but in successive years they seem to catch on that what i buy i want more of.

also, trading with humans who live on a coast/river is great. so much turtle shell its not funny, and every dwarf in my fortress is wearing carp or shark leather. if you request it from the merchant humans can also bring a lot of dye.

im normally not that interested in the tame animals elves bring, i much prefer wild ones (the tame ones wont fighty with my dwarves in the combat pit) but i have got breeding sets of wolves, dire wolves, grizzly bears and the like.

also @ stormrage, im very sure you cant breed giant cave spiders, unfortunately. even if you get a tame male/female pair they dont have children. i think i recall some old attempts at modding this in resulted in the sudden appearance of 6 fully grown wild bloodthirsty GCS appearing when the mother gave birth in the crowded dining room. you can use modding in conjunction with utilities to get them though. personally, i find smelting things like GCS easier then attempting to get them breeding though.