Increasing trade

[NoobLAN]

I'm trying to play as a trader who buys all the settlements. However... is it even possible to increase trade up to the last perk? I've made millions selling goods, while the skill is SLOWLY going up and is even below 200 now... Is there any other way to up it?

[Clovis Sangrail]

To increase trade, you have to actually buy the product somewhere and sell it for a profit.

Selling stuff you smithed won't work.

Selling stuff you stole (i.e. battle loot) won't work.

Selling stuff you won (tournament) won't work.

Owning caravans won't work.

Owning workshops won't work.

You have to buy it and sell it.

And it gets slower and slower the higher your Trade skill gets.

But here's something you can do -- Caravan leaders do get Trade experience for running a caravan. Assign a family member to a caravan, and watch their Trade go to 300. Zoom, zoom compared to how fast your own Trade gores up.

Then retire and make that family member your heir.

By the time you get to that point, you'll have lots of cash for buying fiefs.

[NoobLAN]

Originally posted by Clovis Sangrail:

To increase trade, you have to actually buy the product somewhere and sell it for a profit.

That's what I'm doing but it is so slooooow...

[Claytonium]

There's a way of cheesing it if you want to go down that route. I don't remember the exact details, but it involves selling one type of iron to a caravan right before it enters a town. Then selling all the other types of iron to the town. Then going back and buying the iron from the caravan, then buying it back from the town... or something like that. I know I'm messing up all the details, so look it up. You can raise your level 50 at a time with this method.

It's the exact same thing that banks do irl to manipulate commodity future contract prices. It's illegal, but it still happens.

[MintBerryCrunch]

there is a mod out that gives trade xp for every profitable caravan you own. its not a ridiculous amount seems very balanced.

[Clovis Sangrail]

There used to be another cheese, but I haven't tried it for a while so I don't know if it still works --

When you sell at a town, the sell price decreases the more you sell.

But villages don't work that way. In villages, the price stays the same no matter how much you sell. The villages cash runs out, but the sell price remains the same.

And you get Trade experience based on sell price, not cash received.

You could gather up a huge herd of 2000 horses for 50 denars each or less, then find a village paying 100 denars each and sell them all. You get a bunch of Trade experience, even if you lose cash.

And here's the beauty part -- You could go to the town the village is trade bound to and buy all those horses back 2 days later, the repeat at another village.

Originally posted by MintBerryCrunch:

there is a mod out that gives trade xp for every profitable caravan you own. its not a ridiculous amount seems very balanced.

Of course, that opens up another set of problem when the mod dev quits maintaining the mod because he all of a sudden discovered girls.

[Caelestus]

MANY answered this question in multiple threads... Please use the search function. You'll find your answer faster.