Havent seen a slave trader for 50 days now

[Rusty]

Any good way to find slave traders?

[Alexis Tsipras]

taverns

[Tuidjy]

There is a fixed number of slave traders on the map at any time. If you quickly go between cities and check the taverns, you are bound to find one. If you are really unlucky, they all may move in the cities you just checked, but 50 days? That would make you unbelievably unlucky.

Some mods allow you to ask a traveler for the slave trader/ransom broker location. Others have fixed ones that always stay in one location. In Native, there is one in Tihr.

In Viking Conquest, there is one in Chippenham, as well as a few on the docks in Norse cities. You can also sell faction troops to lords, bandits to young warrior parties, etc... The best prices you get from the guys who move around, though, with the exception of the viking slaver in the special location in the far North.

[Rusty]

thank you the advice of quickly visit many towns help me :)

Now where can I sell a leader??

[Alexis Tsipras]

you cant. the leader's faction will offer you some money for his freedom, but since you are a sadistic bastard you'll let him rot in a prison and decline their offer.

[mrmike_49]

using the teleport cheat, I've had to go to a max of 7 cities to find a broker (most often 4 or 5). If you're not teleporting, the time spent traveling to cities would cause the brokers to move. I could easily see visiting a dozen cities in a row without finding a broker. I consider this a major defect with the game

[Tuidjy]

Major defect? Maybe the designers did not think it should be trivial to turn prisoners into cash. When you have a broker in every town, it shifts the balance. Those who find things too hard can use cheats to go around the developers' design. Those who appreciate the challenge have developed tricks to deal with the problem.

But if it bothers you so much, there are mods that make every tavern keeper a ransom broker. Just like there are mods that make every merchant sell at cost, and soldier salaries symbolic.

[mrmike_49]

the problem is that it adds a HUGE random factor to a critical early stage of the game, when you are almost totally dependent on Ransom Broker for majority of your money. It is quite possible to take two weeks of game time to find a broker, and go broke with salaries and food costs. A little randomness is OK, but at the early game stage, this defect is MUCH too large a random factor.

[Tuidjy]

It is strange to hear that people are that dependent on ransom money. The arena is a quick way to make a lot of cash per game day, and looting sea raiders is a great way to make cash per hours played.

I don;'t always bother taking prisoners because they slow me down, and I have never, ever, EVER gone looking for a ransom broker. If there's one in town, great. If there is not, I let the prisoners go if I'm staying in the area, and I just go on my way if I'm going to a different city anyway.

When it is my city, I just stockpile the prisoners until a ransom broker wanders in. In Viking Conquest I've gotten over 20,000 coins from one slaver visit.

[mrmike_49]

early game, low trade ability, (Native, btw) Ransom $$ >>>Loot$ , even the 'good' stuff from Sea Raiders. Bandits and looters, the ONLY way to make it pay is Ransom Broker, since you might (maybe) get $100 total for the loot!

Later game, when you have a city, yeah, it's not a big deal, you have other, regular income to tide you over.

Never tried the arena, did try tournament - sucks when I get to last level and get stuck with jousting and I have put 0 (ZERO) points into pole arms; I pretty much wrote off tournaments after seeing the way it works.

[LSD]

I make all my early game money from quests and loot. I've never bothered with prisoners, especially in the early game. You have to fight with blunt (which makes things trickier), you get slowed down the more you capture, and you have to waste skill points. On top of that, they're only worth about 50 coins each. The best captures are the elite troops, which you won't be seeing early on anyway.

If you're not a fan of quests, find a tracking companion and start following bandits back to their lairs. Major pay offs from destroying them. Even better if you spot a nearby lord and ask him for a quest. Gives you a load of coin for destroying it AND you get all the loot.

[mrmike_49]

Sea Raiders go for $112, Tundra Bandits $104, I think it was Forest Bandits for $60, and Looters only $30. Takes a while to get tracking skill high enough to do any good at all, but you can still stumble across the hideouts. Still, with a low Trade skill, even a bandit Lair loot $$ won't last all that long. Picking Sea Raider or Bandit groups that have Man Hunter prisoners you can recruit help a LOT for taking prisoners. Mid game, I can capture 25 of 30 Sea Raiders quite easily, even early game, I switch to Blunt after ~ 1/2 of Raiders been killed, and capture the rest.

I've gotten some good quests, make $800 for rescuing someone, but most quests seem to be escort the cows for $200 on a week long trip, and it costs that much per week for food and salaries