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[ikacer]

What do you like to do with your trade depot? Post your descriptions (and pictures) here.


I'll start with mine.
I usually keep mine underground near the entrance, next to my barracks, with stairs nearby leading directly to my workshops. When the elves come to visit, I introduce them to some of my fortress's friendly pets. I also make sure they take a bath before any of my dorfs inspect their goods, as we all know the hippies don't shower. Below is a picture. You can see the water source and drain on the left, with a door to the bottom, so the water doesn't spill out. To the top is where I release my caged pets from. I like to think my decorations encourage traders to give good prices.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[BodyGripper]

I haven't done much merchant murder, but I have done a couple of things:
1.  I set up sets of 2 upright spikes on every square around my trade depot, and hooked them to a lever.  Didn't manage to kill much, besides a couple of my own wardogs and maybe a fishery worker.
2.  I often build my depot out of kaolinite or bauxite, so it looks like there's been a bloodbath.  That way the other dwarves don't laugh at us.

[style]

I place the depot at the inner end of my blood soaked entrance trap tunnel, but separate it from the actual fortress by a massive doorway. No merchant is allowed in my sacred halls. Two loaded ballistae pointed to the depot, chained war dogs around it and a hydra in a masterful gold cage directly adjacent to the trade platform always remember my guests not to try anything funny.

Every time, they sit in their camp and speculate about what unwordly horrors lurk behind the dark intimidating gates, which spit out so many undescribable riches. And the old scoutmaster tells his stories about old trade runs. How the goblins declared a siege and not a single dwarf cared about the threat. The fortress guards only made dirty jokes. And then the siege got smashed by the fortress in a couple of seconds, without any dwarf moving a finger to help. These walls live. And they know no mercy. The guide tells how they once felt the heavy marching of thousands of armored man vibrate through the cold stone. How they heard faint screams that almost made their blood freeze. Of creatures they never allowed themselves to think of before, of warriors mowed down like blades of grass. *A shy look to the lurking hydra* The dwarfs never talk about what's inside their lair, where they get this incredible wealth from. If you dare to ask, they stare at you with bloodshot eyes and chant heigh-ho, heigh ho. All of them. All the time. One run to the fortress and you are a made man, but only the fewest ever come back to try their luck a second time.

[Dorten]

I use almost the same design as ikaicer, but with magma instead of water. And Depot is made of steel.

[billw]

I don't give them anything special, but I'm starting to feel like I should: they always end up staying longer than they anticipated. I keep forgetting to open my main gate to let them out again. How can you tell when a horse is melancholy by the way?!

[Nil Eyeglazed]

vomit

[Chattox]

I've never had a fortress live long enough (last one was brought to it's knees and destroyed by a hard drive failure that corrupted the save  ) to do anything fancy with my depots, however at first I always have them inside the fortress, but right next to the entrance. This means that if I get ambushed or sieged I have a couple of well armed, well trained caravan guards right next to the enemies.

Now that I have a hard drive that isn't possessed by a sadistic, save corrupting demon, I plan on making a trade depot suspended above a long plummet into the dark caverns below, ready to be dropped at the flick of a lever. That'll put the fear of Armok into those elves.

Also, love the little story, style

[Shrugging Khan]

I don't kill the merchants, I kill their entire civilisations. Economically.

By selling them worthless rock crafts in exchange for actually valuable resources. Eventually, with a few centuries down the line, their society will collapse because their basic infrastructure runs dry!

[blackmagechill]

Usually aboveground, out of microline (ALWAYS) With bridges around it and a tower.

[TheSummoner]

I make them walk an unneccessaily long distance through the fortress, showing off the great works of Dwarven sociery.

I think in the future, I may start doing it in such a way where the depot is on a constructed platform, held in place by a retractable bridge over a pit of magma.  Seems like a very Dwarfy thing to do.  Sure, I'll have to rebuild it every time I use it, but unnecessary construction is also Dwarfy.

[ikacer]

Bonus points if you figure out a way to light them on fire before dropping them into the magma.

[Funtimes]

Bonus points if you figure out a way to light them on fire before dropping them into the magma.

Sell them a !!lignite bin!!

[Julius Clonkus]

Bonus points if you figure out a way to light them on fire before dropping them into the magma.

Drop magma on them. Flush them down into the magma sea with a little more magma.

What? They caught on fire before I dropped THEM into magma.

[Africa]

I usually just have a simple, basic depot area close to my finished goods stockpiles. Building a fancy reception area would be a low priority, well below other large building projects (i.e. massive elaborate dining room). Given that my forts always die boredom/FPS deaths before I finish any of the high priority projects, the depot one never even gets into the planning phase.

[monk12]

I don't give them anything special, but I'm starting to feel like I should: they always end up staying longer than they anticipated. I keep forgetting to open my main gate to let them out again. How can you tell when a horse is melancholy by the way?!

A horse walks into a trade depot. The broker says "Why the long face?" The horse says "I CAN NEVER GO HOME AGAIN" and proceeds to rampage through the fortress screaming about his unborn children.