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[Ataman]

Hi all,

Recently a Elven caravan arrived. I hoped they bring some exotic animals (I hope this for every caravan but they don't bring any of them).
However, they brought really something exotic but no animals...They brought over 3 pages of wood logs! I'm wondering why their diplomat keeps telling me to not cut down too many trees and then, the elven caravan brings about 40 wood logs for only the half price. (compared to humans and dwarves since I told them to bring as much as they can).
Also, they didn't had anything else. Just logs.
They also ignored the fact, that the last caravan got totally killed by an upcoming dragon. (The caravan and the dragon managed to spawn at the same time on the same spot, just 5 tiles space between them).

I'm a little bit confused. What happened to my neighboors?   
Are they going insane or something?

I'm using Mayday's version of DF. (I don't really like the ASCII-Arts ^^).

Greetz
Ataman

PS: Yes, my english isn't the best. xD

[Myroc]

Elves bringing logs is completely normal. There are two theories about why they do this:

A. They have a secret "pure" way of harvesting lumber, without actually defiling nature by chopping it down like normal people do.
B. They are hypocrites. This is what most people believe. I think.

As to why they brought ONLY wood is probably because of the dragon. The more the elves like you, the more valuable the stuff they bring is ("valuable", in this case, does NOT include exotic creatures, just cloth). Since one of their caravans got destroyed (because you "failed to protect them"), they have probably started to like you less (though not enough to start a war with you) and is bringing along less valuable items (which in this case means logs.)

...or i may just be rambling insanities, someone care to confirm if i'm thinking correctly?

[Ataman]

Sounds really paradox to me. ^^

But nice to know. If they bring cloths again they will die. ^^ *founds a reason to test the magma trap*

[Sphalerite]

It has been my experience that the amount of wood you get from elves is inversely proportional to the amount of cut wood logs on the map when they come.  If I make sure to use up every bit of wood in my stockpiles before they arrive, the elves bring me (almost) nothing but wood - regardless of how large a profit I gave them last year.  If I have wood left over, they bring me other crap instead.

[Myroc]

It has been my experience that the amount of wood you get from elves is inversely proportional to the amount of cut wood logs on the map when they come.  If I make sure to use up every bit of wood in my stockpiles before they arrive, the elves bring me (almost) nothing but wood - regardless of how large a profit I gave them last year.  If I have wood left over, they bring me other crap instead.

It would appear that i was wrong then. And that's useful information there.

[Overspeculated]

It has been my experience that the amount of wood you get from elves is inversely proportional to the amount of cut wood logs on the map when they come.  If I make sure to use up every bit of wood in my stockpiles before they arrive, the elves bring me (almost) nothing but wood - regardless of how large a profit I gave them last year.  If I have wood left over, they bring me other crap instead.

On my map there is no wood, and all wood brought by the humans and dwarves is finished before the season is over. My elves have not brought me a single piece of wood in the 14 years of my fort's existence. :-/

[Sphalerite]

Strange, maybe it depends on the elves.  It's been consistent are reproducible in my current fortress, but perhaps varies by world?

[moki]

Well, my theory is: economy. And the elven wood-mafia.
See, elves want to have a monopoly on wood. They may talk about you defiling nature by cutting down trees and they're acting like some old hippies, but what they're really saying is: "If you'r going to do anything with wood, you better buy it from us. Don't stick your nose too deep in our business or it might get broken..."
Not a good thing to say to a dwarf who already has one hand on The Lever^tm. 

Anyway, they are a good source of wood, especially on maps with very few trees, so I don't find them too bad to have around. If hey happen to bring only tons of cloth for no apparent reason, there may be a little accident at the trade depot from time to time.
For me, they're like goblins: Somewhat annoying but a good source of ressources delivered right to your front door.

[Aspgren]

On the topic of weird elves.

This is a bit of a thread derailment but bear with me. I recently tried to make war with the elves, I cut EVERYTHING down. Robbed the merchants .. and they sent a diplomat. While he was there goblins attacked, so I accidentally answered something I don't know what - when he put forth his demands for the second time. but he seemed content, so I killed him.

 The goblins killed a few of the merchants too. It's been over a year since then and I've seen one squad of elves trying to ambush me. They were killed easily ... but here's the thing. After getting on their bad side, in the civilizations screen there appears to be TWO elven civilizations and TWO human civilizations - and I have no idea why. To my knowledge I have not had contact with either of the new ones.

[Auldrin]

The ambush may not have been the civ you had a diplomat from. I had that with humans, it's all fine, then suddenly I'm being seiged by a different human civ. Admittedly I later realised both human civs hated me for no apparant reason, but the point is it's hard to tell which they are at a glance

[Aspgren]

The ambush may not have been the civ you had a diplomat from. I had that with humans, it's all fine, then suddenly I'm being seiged by a different human civ. Admittedly I later realised both human civs hated me for no apparant reason, but the point is it's hard to tell which they are at a glance

No I checked the legends and it was them alright.

[Count Dorku]

Elves bringing logs is completely normal. There are two theories about why they do this:

A. They have a secret "pure" way of harvesting lumber, without actually defiling nature by chopping it down like normal people do.
B. They are hypocrites. This is what most people believe. I think.

A little from column A, a little from column B. Thematically, they'd probably take it from dead trees. Of course, so do dwarves, the difference is that we cut down the tree at the height of its life rather than letting it suffer through a long decline.

Woodcutting is now mercy killing in every fort I make.