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[Heliomance]

This season's elf traders have successfully appeased my wrath - yea, they have even gained my approval.

This is because they brought me two saltwater crocodiles, a giant jaguar, and a giant eagle!

[smigenboger]

Yes, their psuedo-offerings of fanciful animals has been the main thing keeping them from going extinct.

[Diablous]

This is the reason plenty of people don't kill all elves on sight. They bring some awesome animals!

[Flaede]

I'm sure that wasn't entirely by accident. On the programmer's part, that is, not the elves' part. THe elves are just unconsciously occupying their niche in the great circle of life, paying for it if they ever leave said niche (by bringing me tonnes of freaking cloth to trade).

[Retro]

On my very first site, the elves brought a female giant eagle the second spring. There was a wild male one flying around the skies. Thanks to spore mating, I had something akin to an eaglesplosion after a decade or so - most dwarves in the fort had their own eagle or eagle-ling, military dwarves had five war eagles each thanks to an extra token in the raws, and my engravers carved practically nothing except "This is an image of a giant eagle. This is an image of three giant eagles," etc. The only thing that stopped me from having my FPS butchered was that they only became pets if you let them, and could be butchered for meat at will. Being a new player, I thought it was the norm and was extremely fond of the elven traders.

Oh, how naive I was.

[Safe-Keeper]

Just started a new fortress and received my first elven caravan. First time I actually managed to buy something from them without ticking them off (cue "seize marked")...

...and I forget to check what cool animals they bring.

Geez.

[MoonLightBird]

I have been playing for a year irl, and the stupid elfs never bring me anything good...Except for the one time they brought me a dead cat.
How do you get them to bring cool shit?

[mal7690]

You seize goods from them.

I do this every time even if it's good stuff because the elves idea of a good load is three asses worth of cloth.

[Retro]

I have been playing for a year irl, and the stupid elfs never bring me anything good...Except for the one time they brought me a dead cat.
How do you get them to bring cool shit?

Apparently it has to do with the way they load their pack animals. The animals can hold far less than wagons, and the elves like to load cloth and leather first. So when you give them a good profit, they'll decide to bring you tons of cloth, tons of leather, tons of berries, tons of animals... but then load their heaps of cloth, run out of animals, and call it a day. Even if their caravans get larger, the amount they want to bring you is still way larger than the amount they can. Effectively if you want the really good stuff (animals), you have to get them to hate you just enough to bring almost nothing, but enough to make sure they don't go to war on you or decide trading with you isn't a waste of time entirely. It's a tricky balance.

[Fishbreath]

Drown every other caravan.

[darthbob88]

I'm always amused that the elves are the only trading race you want to piss off. Personally, I like to either minimize profit, 10-20 dwarfbucks, or simply seize everything. Also, I modded donkeys and mules to have a fuckton of trading capacity. Now they can bring 5 tons of cloth, three animals, and some sun berries.

[smjjames]

I have been playing for a year irl, and the stupid elfs never bring me anything good...Except for the one time they brought me a dead cat.
How do you get them to bring cool shit?

Apparently it has to do with the way they load their pack animals. The animals can hold far less than wagons, and the elves like to load cloth and leather first. So when you give them a good profit, they'll decide to bring you tons of cloth, tons of leather, tons of berries, tons of animals... but then load their heaps of cloth, run out of animals, and call it a day. Even if their caravans get larger, the amount they want to bring you is still way larger than the amount they can. Effectively if you want the really good stuff (animals), you have to get them to hate you just enough to bring almost nothing, but enough to make sure they don't go to war on you or decide trading with you isn't a waste of time entirely. It's a tricky balance.

Why not just make them have wagons? They have stuff from wood anyway.

[Sutremaine]

Also, I modded donkeys and mules to have a fuckton of trading capacity. Now they can bring 5 tons of cloth, three animals, and some sun berries.

I prefer modding in a liaison. That way they maximise their chances of survival, and I get more cool stuff.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Also, I modded donkeys and mules to have a fuckton of trading capacity. Now they can bring 5 tons of cloth, three animals, and some sun berries.

I prefer modding in a liaison. That way they maximise their chances of survival, and I get more cool stuff.

I've tried that, but it didn't work. What token(s) do I add/remove?

[Waffle]

The only reason I DON'T kill the elves is becuase of the cloth. Since I never rememeber to brew shit I usually only notice when the dwarfs are thirsty thus I don't some two-bit pigtail clogging my planters priority list when he could be plant perfectly good Sunberries.