How to get npc's to shop at my store

[gamerjolt]

So In my outpost I set up a shop counter and I'm trying to sell water. I've had some visitors come to settlement but none of them have went in the shop or bought anything. Is there a way to increase the chance they will buy things or should I just keep waiting

[Hatsune Neko Gaming]

they have a shopping list and will only buy what's on it.
they also do not have much money, usually not enough to buy what's on their list.
best thing to sell is cheap food.

also the store front is only to make passive money, its not made to be your main income. with teh limits of the NPC's amount of cats in their wallets tend to enforce that.

[Zee_]

Cheap food and small medkits are what sells the best, with the medkits being the best imo. If you set up shop in a town or city, food will eventually fill any local NPCs inventory, but medkits will eventually be used up so they'll come in for more later.

Without mods the list of purchasable items isn't that big and few NPCs have much in the way of cats.

[Cattrina]

Water is not on NPC shopping list, also vanilla water barrels are way too big to fit in NPC inventory, which never gets emptied (unless you import).

Sell food and booze. And set up your shop at crossroads with high traffic.

[crux]

Water is on a few shopping lists I think, like Drifter. But the shopping list items are just tied to function. Water on their list just means they buy items with the ITEM_NO_FUNCTION flag.

[gamerjolt]

I was able to sell some water when one of the hive caravans come they bought some. But now that I have a farm I can sell greenfruits as well, and when I finish building a refinery I can sell iron plates.

[Fryskar]

Originally posted by gamerjolt90:

I was able to sell some water when one of the hive caravans come they bought some. But now that I have a farm I can sell greenfruits as well, and when I finish building a refinery I can sell iron plates.

Originally posted by Cattrina:

Water is not on NPC shopping list, also vanilla water barrels are way too big to fit in NPC inventory, which never gets emptied (unless you import).

Sell food and booze. And set up your shop at crossroads with high traffic.

^

Iron plates are doomed to fail as well.
Food and medicine is some of the most common stuff on the list while also beeing small and cheap-ish. Alcohol is often on the list too, but more expensive.

In general, you'll want to sell stuff manually to a trader.

[cdplayer906]

i've been able to make a killing in the past w/ mostly meatwraps and medkits, but w/ a few mods (can't remember them off the top of my head, they're older) you can make bank depending on where your base is. w/ the few mods you can even sell weaponry and armor to more lavish npc (mercs, tech hunters, etc)

[Dragon Slayer Ornstein]

Yeah the shopping system is kinda broken in Kenshi.

I did go through the game editor to see what was going on, most NPCs do not have shopping lists and the ones that do don't have much money.

From my understanding the best place to set up shops in on a road between 2 or more towns/villages where caravans spawn, they have shopping lists and so do their guards. Some wanderers also have shopping lists.

These are really the only viable ones to target because they respawn, or can respawn at least so their inventory spaces wont matter.

The place where the most caravans spawn in in the desert on the north of the map.

What I could never work out is how often they respawn, it's tied to the total number of squads that spawn including bandits etc (separate from the nests).

For example in the desert region...
x1.25 Homeless Spawn Amount(squads per zone).
Trade:
x5 Caravan:(x1 Caravan Trader Boss, x7-11 Caravan Guard).
x2 Drifter Squad:(x3-6 Drifter).
x1 Drifter Solo Skeleton:(x1 Skeleton Drifter).
x1 Hiver Merchant Caravan:(x1 Hive Caravan Boss, x8-10 Caravan Drone).
x1 Slaver Caravan:(x1 Slaver Caravan Boss, x0-1 Slaver Heavy Guard, x7-14 Slaver Caravan Guard)
x2 Bounty Hunter:(x1-5 Bounty Hunter).
x3 Bounty Hunter Wandering Between Towns:(x1-5 Bounty Hunter).
x1 Wandering Assassin:(x1 Wandering Assassin).
x1 Traveller:(x1 Traveller).

These all have shopping lists, from what I understand the chance to spawn in the number of squads divided by the total number of squads...

Squad Spawn Chance:
x(Squad Chance) Squad_Name:(x[NPC]).
Spawn Chance=([Squad Chance]*[Homeless Spawn Amount])/[Total Squads].

But I have no idea over what time scale this is, or is it if you move in and out of an area, I have no idea what it means.

Here is the list of NPC's and what they buy...

Trade:
Bounty Hunter (200-2,000:+2,000) [Basic First Aid Kit, Splint Kit, Bread, Cactus Rum].
Caravan Drone (0-0:+500) [Fancy Rug].
Caravan Guard (100-500:+1500) [Cactus Rum, Rice Bowl, Basic First Aid Kit].
Caravan Trader Boss (2,000-8,000:+10,000) [Bread, Hacksaw, Medical Supplies, Cactus Rum, Advanced First Aid Kit, Advance Splint Kit].
Drifter (200-2000:+1500) [Basic First Aid Kit, Splint Kit, Water, Bread, Cactus Rum].
Hive Caravan Boss (2,000-8,000:+7,000) [Bread, Hacksaw, Medical Supplies, Robotic Components, Advanced First Aid Kit, Advanced Splint Kit, Armour Plating].
Skeleton Drifter (200-2000:+1500) [Cactus Rum, Skeleton Repair Kit].
Slaver Caravan Guard (10,000:+2,500) [Standard First Aid Kit, Splint Kit].
Slaver Caravan Boss (100-1,000:+10,000) [Bread].
Wandering Assassin (0-200:+2500) [Advanced First Aid Kit, Advanced Splint Kit, Bread].
Tech Hunter (200-2000:0) [Basic First Aid Kit, Splint Kit, Bread, Cactus Rum].
Traveller (100-500:+400) [Rice Bowl, Cactus Rum].

So the person saying they don't buy water, not entirely true there is one NPC that does.

[crux]

Yes, they will buy water and all items with the ITEM_NO_FUNCTION that water has. Just like if they have Advanced First Aid kit they will buy all forms of first aid. Or if they have Bread in the list they will buy all forms of food.

[gamerjolt]

Yes I had some hivers visit and buy some of the water. It's just not a very commonly bought item.