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[Overspeculated]

I seem to be having a problem, in which the elven traders bring about 20 bins of rope reed cloth and 1 or two stacks of berries. In my first year, they brought me lots of goodies, like wood and caged bears (yay!). I eventually drowned them in year 7 of my fortress, they didn't come in year 8, but now its year 9 and they STILL only bring their rope reed cloth. Currently they are moping and raving in the trade depot (the ones that went berserk got killed by the ONE war dog I accidentally left in there).

God damn elves

Is this normal behaviour? I WANT MORE BEARS

[Skorpion]

Pretty standard for elves. Roast them.

[Overspeculated]

damn! why do they only bring cloth though? what's preventing them from bringing me some wood? or animals? or GOOD STUFF!?

[Quietust]

You've been giving them too much profit, so they've started bringing goods they believe to be more valuable. Unfortunately for you, they think Rope Reed cloth is the most valuable thing they have, so they try to fit 50 bins of rope reed cloth and all of their other assorted goodies on 7 mules and only the cloth bins end up fitting.

The obvious solution is to start making sure they leave with extremely poor (preferably negative) profit, or simply make sure they don't leave at all. Mark all of their bins of cloth for dumping (preferably into magma, though an atom-smasher works too) and then deconstruct the trade depot. A carefully orchestrated cave-in above the trade depot also works nicely (provided you've reinforced the floor underneath), as does burning them up in magma.

[Overspeculated]

So, if I seized all their goods, this would count as negative profit? I don't need to have a super-broker that can cheat them out of their shit for a claystone block?

Thanks for the answers!

[Jude]

It seems random. Most of the time they bring me a shit load of cloth, but once in a while they bring something that rules ass, like a tame desert scorpion. These I let hang around my meeting areas for thieves to have Fun with.

[Grendus]

Elves are pretty much an inferior civilization as far as I can tell. Unable to engage in trade agreements, unable to work even basic metals, using crap armor. I'd suggest seizing everything they bring unless they bring caged animals. Then you can trade them something worth having. Maybe the whole Pavlovian thing will work (though I doubt they're as smart as a dog... but meh).

[Gergination]

While roasting elves is always an attractive option they can occasionally bring awesome stuff.  Like the breeding pair of tame giant eagles I have.

[Fredd]

For some odd reason, this fortress has the first elf liason.They pretty much bring the items I order. Which really confused me when the hippie showed up.
 But on the bad side, I never had the human liason show. I guess the elfs must not be at war with this forts civilization, or have been smoking rope reed againare in a nice mood.

[bluea]

Does "100% rope reed cloth" seriously rate better in the Elves' view than, say, cages of giant eagles or sunshine seeds?

Rephrased: If I'm at max-happiness with the Elven leaders from dumping 50k for crap + 50k for bribes on a yearly basis with zero (0) cut pieces of wood on my map whenever elves are around... Am I going to want to facepalm?

[Quietust]

Does "100% rope reed cloth" seriously rate better in the Elves' view than, say, cages of giant eagles or sunshine seeds?

I'm not 100% certain, but it's the best explanation I've been able to come up with. In my last fort, elves brought nothing but cloth for a decade, and once I started incinerating/drowning them in my obsidian factory, they started bringing caged animals instead. In my current fort, I was careful to never give them much profit, but once I gave them a single good deal they started bringing cloth, beginning with a few bins and eventually reaching 100% cloth - I've now started killing them, and only time will tell whether my strategy is effective (after the first slaughter, they went from 8 mules loaded with cloth to 5 mules loaded with cloth, and I've since killed them again and am waiting for the next Spring to see if they've learned their lesson).

[Nidokoenig]

This is just an idea, but there's a well-known relationship between the amount of wood logs you have and the amount a caravan brings, the less you have the more they bring. If this applies to other goods, you might want to try buying up all the rope reed cloth the elves bring and not using it, or simply making a vast surplus on your own. So, they see you've got plenty and bring other stuff. Even if it doesn't work, you can stow all the excess cloth around the depot, put a few fire imps or a dragon in a cage, and then let them out when the elves next come to visit.

[Quietust]

I've got a few dozen pieces of rope reed cloth, and that's all I ever keep around - all of my other cloth (about 1000 total) is made from GCS silk. Also, my last fort always had lots of rope reed cloth lying around, and that didn't stop the elves from bringing more.

[Derakon]

Quietust's theory does make sense -- compare the weight and nominal value of a bin of cloth to the weight and nominal value of a caged bear. The former weighs, what, 300 dwarfpounds? And is worth over 400 dwarfbucks. And the latter weighs way more and for some reason is only worth around a hundred dwarfbucks.

The problem of course is that the value of these animals is out of line with the value the players put on them (or the value the players put on crappy cloth is not in line with the value the game places on it).

[Skorpion]

So, if I let my wood stocks build up, I might get something OTHER than logs and berries?

Hell, I might even reconsider my absolute-value policy for elven caravans, in which they get drowned when the possible value of the merchants and animals exceeds the value of their cargo.
With two legendary cooks, four legendary bone carvers, and a leatherworker in training, there's quite a lot of value to be evened out.
Especially with the lack of bother my drowner takes.