Caravans and Evil Biomes

[yaxpax]

I am building my new fortress in resurrecting evil biome and although it is quite fun to have my own undead zoo in the basement I seem to lost all caravans because they are always confused by reanimated lama wool and bloody camels (they are not undead, they are just nuts). Merchants are either stuck in my trade depo or hiding somewhere in the woods until they are eventually killed by necrowombats. So, nobody comes to my place anymore... I wonder if trading is actually not an option if ones lives in evil biome?

[McFuzz]

This sounds like a combination of new bugs and old 'not a bug its a feature' elements. But yeah, merchants scare easy; scared or dead merchants means you're unlikely to get another caravan for a few years.

You're mostly on your own on this one.

If you build a road to map edge, traders are more likely to spawn on it. Wall and roof the road, traders will not get scared as easily.

[[MadTs] Phyrys]

You can try to minimize the problems by building some sort of metro going under the surface and emerging on the map borders. It will, uh... Suppress some fear for your guests, if you can keep it relatively clean.

Do remember, if you have big caravans, that they'll require ramps and wagon-sized roads (no one will ever risk a wagon and their profit on your fortress), requiring clean tunnels with 3 squares width and no furniture cluttering it, including traps. Place those traps in side tunnels and for the love of Armok, do NOT create traps able to hack your problems.

[yaxpax]

thx, then roads it is!

[ByTheNumbers]

I've not really tried this, but you could possibly build a path in the caverns. In previous games, I have had merchants leave through the caves before when I had my fortress closed off from the surface due to pesky goblins and such.

[yaxpax]

After I finished the road caravans came almost immediately. Also no problems with departure this time.

[Looks like Duke]

I suspect (though never checked myself) the road can be built underground too.

[Guided]

I've not embarked on haunted yet, but had this problem.

the traders started getting attacked by birds, and just wouldn't leave. was ok while they were killing said birds. but it gets old real quick, since they refused to move their stuff from my depo :/

side note. heard that floors worked similar to half slabs in minecraft.
meaning you can channel down a layer, build a roof over top and light will come through the roof. possible it will let you make a road under it if you cant make roads underground

[chronosphaenon]

You can make roads anywhere. They're cheaper than floors, downside is you can't build anything over them.

[yaxpax]

Originally posted by Guided:

I've not embarked on haunted yet, but had this problem.

the traders started getting attacked by birds, and just wouldn't leave. was ok while they were killing said birds. but it gets old real quick, since they refused to move their stuff from my depo :/

side note. heard that floors worked similar to half slabs in minecraft.
meaning you can channel down a layer, build a roof over top and light will come through the roof. possible it will let you make a road under it if you cant make roads underground

You can deconstruct those depos and get all loot. It took few years but eventually traders were back and did not complain that I stole their goods.

[Looks like Duke]

Originally posted by Guided:

I've not embarked on haunted yet, but had this problem.

the traders started getting attacked by birds, and just wouldn't leave. was ok while they were killing said birds. but it gets old real quick, since they refused to move their stuff from my depo :/

side note. heard that floors worked similar to half slabs in minecraft.
meaning you can channel down a layer, build a roof over top and light will come through the roof. possible it will let you make a road under it if you cant make roads underground

I do not think that absence of light bothers them. I know that the roads can be built deep underground, and in fact the abandoned fortresses often have them and caravans use them. What I do not know is if the player created road would do this function as well.