The trading post.

[alabamldy]

Are there instructions on how to use the trading post? I just got my people up to the 20 year mark with extra food. Thank goodness!

[bmorgan077]

Build in on a river, man it, stock it, ( I start with 700 firewood), wait for a trader to show up and trade if he has what you want and will take what you have. More trading posts mean more traders. approx 1 per year per post.

[Yehoodi]

The trading post is easy to run in its simpliest form which i do.

1) I build the post

2) Place peeps to work the post. For reference, they can carry 500 food or 125 firewood or 45 logs in their wooden wheelbarrows.

3) On the inventory screen is where you set the amount you want in the warehouse. So next to firewood (or other item) enter in the number you want, say 500 or something.

4) When the trader comes bye you will here a bell sound and see the blue trader icon next to the buttons at the bottom, you can select that or just go to the trader post by scrolling the map. The trader will active the trade window allowing you to trade with the trader and you enter the amount you wish you want from him and what goods you to trade to match up the overall price. Pricing for goods is displayed. One note becareful before you enter "trade" buttom and make sure you have the right amount as the button will work if you overpay for the goods. The machine will give you a warning in the window but the button will activate if you hit is without any confirmation yes/no if you are overpaying. So just make sure you do not do this as you will loose goods

5) You can also select goods for this trader to bring (at a litle hirer price) from the order screen, you will see what he can bring and click on it to activate that goods then select "once" or "every visit"

6) the auto purchase i never use so can not help you there

7) one more note regarding the inventory. If you sell 100 firewood to buy 400 wheat. The firewood will reduce the inventory by 100 and the your peep will eventually bring back the 100 firewood. Also the inventory for the goods you just bought wlll not be accounted for and thus the peep will eventually take out the 400 wheat. If you want keep some of the wheat you just bought in the tradeing post then set it the inventory for it from 0 to 400. Likewise, if you do not want to replenish the firewood in the warehouse, adjust down the inventory by 100. So if you had 500 inventory, you would then have 400, so adjust the inventory desired to 400. Once you do this a few times you will see what i mean.


8) also it might be a good idea to put the game on pause when you trade. Which is what i do.

Good luck

[Yehoodi]

Also, make sure you place the trading post on a river that has access to the edge of the map.

[maiden4meldin]

Yehoodi, made an excellent review of the Trading post. a few things I would add.

- Place extra barns right near the trading post.

- Place large stockpiles if trading for resources like iron or stones.

-Prepare your inventory prior to attempting to trade, by this I mean, if you over produce one veg in your farms, then that can become a trade item without disturbing the food ratio--- food out is equal to food in. It will give you a varied diet easily.

-Build housing support to staff the new trading post.

- Do not try auto trading until you have nothing else to do. It requires a lot of preparations. (refer to my guide on auto trading)

- Always sell all mushrooms. They take up 3 to 4 times more space in your Barns than any other food product.

- You can "Order" the foods you want with no cost penalty.

- You can't "Order" the resources like wood, leather, tools etc.. without the merchant adding extra cost to those. Unless you can afford to spend freely, then don't order something from a merchant.

- Only the General Merchant will buy your inventory at face value. Also will stock food, resources, seeds, tools and clothing.

- The Resource Merchant will not accept food as a trade item. So if you are in need of resources, you must trade resources to get those from him.

- The Food Merchant will buy all inventory from you. But will reduce the value of that inventory. A log is worth 2 for the General and the Resource, but the Food Merchant will give you only 1 for trade value.

- The Livestock and Seed Merchants only sell Livestock or Seeds, Not sure about penalties, but they will take all your inventory.

My last and final tip, if you are blending your inventory with high value items and low value items, then keep your inventory around 50% That should leave room to make trades simple. Sometimes, if you want to buy stones for instance, and you ordered them, and your inventory is available to trade for them. You begin trading, say 500 stones, and trade out 1250 Firewood, but leaves you with the food inventory. Your trader will say not enough room to make the trade. In this case, Trade smaller, put game on 10x speed, and the Traders will remove the purchased stone, and you can continue the trade until you have bought all the stones.