Trader frequency

Started by Wheatley, June 21, 2017, 02:52:41 PM

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Wheatley

It might be a noob question, but does difficulty affect trader frequency or have I just been unlucky recently? I've got an enormous stockpile of flake and smokeleaf joints (and a few prisoners missing kidneys) that I'm waiting to trade, but I haven't had a trader in a long, long time.

I cant call the traders to me because I'm a few silver short and I don't have enough colonists to risk splitting them on a trade mission



ArguedPiano

The higher the relationship with other factions the more frequent traders appear. Check the relationships tab. Are they all 30 or below? Thats most likely your problem.

Orbital trade ships arrive every 10-15ish days I think. Make sure you have a comms console and Orbital trade beacon that's both hooked up to power.
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Toast

Since the changes to caravan calling price, this has become a real problem. There is a certain "trade bottleneck" period in the early-to-mid game when you finally have some goods to trade, but not enough money to call a caravan/bribe a faction to like you, and not enough pawns/gear to risk making your own caravan. And orbital traders are so random that you really can't rely on them. And there is no solution besides either sending your pawns on what will very possibly be a suicide mission with all your precious goods, or sitting around twiddling your thumbs and waiting for someone to visit you, and praying that they're the right kind of trader to buy what you've got. Neither is very fun or satisfying.

The only solution I know of is to deliberately settle 2 tiles from a friendly settlement on flat land so that you can send trade caravans to them in an hour. But... that isn't very satisfying either, to me anyway.

AngleWyrm

#3

It's also possible to make a custom starting scenario that includes more frequent visits from orbital freighters.
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ProjectXa3

I specifically chose a landing spot that's a seven hour springtime stroll away from the next faction base over to fix that problem. I sent a guy on a steel-buying run in the dead of winter with a couple of muffalo and he made it back well before the end of the season with the haul. Not a fix for every situation, I know, but it can help alleviate a starve for trade like yours. Past that, yeah I'd like to see a way to maybe increase the frequency of appearance or length of stay for trade ships. Maybe some kind of heavy beacon that chews power but makes trade ships stay longer so you can really milk them for goods and silver?
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Wheatley

I used 900ish silver to bribe a faction to like me and they turned up a week or so later. Could be a complete coincidence though! Its not all bad, by the time they turned up I had ~800 flake saved up.

Another question though, how dangerous are caravans? Flake weighs very little, so I could in theory send one or two colonists on a trip to the local friendlies three days away. However the last thing I want is a manhunter pack of monkeys to eat them a few hours out of town.

khearn

Caravan danger seems to be quite variable. I've seen people complain that they get swarmed by manhunters and pirates every time they send out a caravan, but I've never been bothered. It probably has a lot to do with difficulty level, and probably storyteller. I tend to play on rough, with a pretty even mix of the 3 default storytellers. The people who get attacked a lot may well be playing on extreme (but i'm not sure).

I also tend to keep my caravan trips short, seldom over 2-3 days each way. I'm careful to pick my starting locations near a variety of other faction bases.

If you're only going to send a couple of pawns, make sure they're good in a fight. Either that, or expendable. :)