High Value Items vs Trade Caravans

[Shiranai]

I'm really new to this game and was wondering about trade caravans and the items you sell them.
I'm not that far into the game but I can already produce some really pricy items compared to what they got to offer me. Most of the times I can buy all items I want from them by trading just a few of my items.

So, my newb question is
What would you buy from them that would require you to mass produce items for trading?
Other than buying wood so I don't upset the elves by cutting trees, I did not see any items I couldn't produce myself. I don't have access to clay and sand on my map, but those are very chep.

[Erei]

Traders are mostly for early games needs.
Or you can buy clothing so you don't make it. Or food, alcohol.... They are also nice for those pesky artifact ingredient (like silk).

The stuff they bring you can't make, outisde the obvious one that are missing in your embark (some metals, clay, sand...) are books, and occasionally they may bring divine metals, if that hasn't changed from classic.

I also buy writing supply (annoying to craft and cheap) and instruments (fairly useless but they are a pain to make and I like to have some).
Bags are also cheap and it annoys me to make them :D

[esotericist]

trained war animals of types that are difficult to capture come to mind, plus any war animal you buy from the elves will NEVER break training.

beyond that, it really depends; the current version of dwarf fortress skews things for new players with the default mineral distribution being so high (the default used to be much lower). i've before had to trade for basic metals.

[Erei]

I think they nerfed elves for that to. So far they only bring random crap animals, with half of them being vermin (like hamsters and such).

[Inquisitor Hedgehorn]

It is solely up to you. I mean, it depends on the given situation and your needs. For example, I am buying leather and cloth, because I have not set up production chains for these materials and potentially, I won't.
As a potential example, you may embark on a map without flux stone, so you can buy steel. Or you need weapons right now.

While I was writing, I found one universal advice. Look for books to add to your library.
Also, you can buy tamed animals from traders.

[suejak]

It really depends on your colony. If you are in a resource-scarce area, those colonies are going to be great sources of stuff like coal or flux metals for steel. If you only have one part of an alloy, then you'll need the other piece of the puzzle from caravans in order to drive your economy. If there's something specific you want to do but can't find the parts to do it, then you'll need to trade for it.

As Erei said, it's also a lot more convenient to buy some stuff from caravans. It can be such a pain to micromanage everything needed to produce certain things yourself, e.g. instruments or instrument parts, paper, different types of glass, etc., so it's a blessing to be able to trade some gems for it instead, at least to partially satisfy those needs.

Animals can be a big one as well. Seeds.

On a bigger scale, you will always benefit from having a bigger product mix available to your dwarves. Every dwarf has different preferences, so if you have a wide range of different types of goods available, then more will have what they want. This is why I will often clean traders out if they're selling stuff made with materials I don't have in my base. The more different kinds of cheese, milks, meats, fish, clothing, and raw materials available, the happier everyone will be.

Some things are only available for trade (foreign-style equipment, famous codexes), but AFAIK there's nothing like Rimworld's late-game tech to trade for.

[Cleaverbomb]

Cut gems baby

[Other]

I bulk-buy leather in every fortress. If you clothe your dwarves mostly in leather (which at one time was recommended as slightly better armor than silk, wool, or plant cloth; I don't know if that is still the case), then you need about 2000 leather to fully clothe a fort of 200, and each piece wears out in a couple years, so you need an ongoing 500 - 1000 per year. Each piece of leather you get from an animal is accompanied by 5-10 food, in various forms, which is way more food than those same 200 dwarves will eat per year. Managing that many animals (which must be across 10 or more species, due to the per-species population cap of 50) is also a nightmare.

[Dain_Ironfoot]

Originally posted by Erei:

I think they nerfed elves for that to. So far they only bring random crap animals, with half of them being vermin (like hamsters and such).

Probably depends on various things... In my current playthrough the elves have been bringing me things like a few giant dingos and giant jaguars.

[Naryar]

What I usually buy from caravans:

-Wood, if on a wood-scarce biome (and my favorite biome is rocky wasteland)
-Metal ores that I need
-Whatever helps me making a solid weapon/armor industry if my biome doesn't have the metals for it (flux stone, iron, coal, iron ore, stuff that I can melt for steel if I have money to throw)
-Pickaxes (better to embark with hematite and extra wood though)
-Cages and/or barrels (if necessary)
-Food or/and alcohol (if necessary)
-Books and bookmaking materials, when my fort is set up, occasionally instruments for the tavern
-Cool exotic animals
-Leather and cloth

Caravans usually become less necessary for a mature fort but sometimes you need the caravan, if only for getting rid of all the trash my fortress produces (damaged clothing, goblinite) or to help with your biome's shortcomings. Like on the average glacier embark you will be happy with every caravan you get, at least at the beginning.

[harlequin_corps]

Originally posted by Other:

I bulk-buy leather in every fortress. If you clothe your dwarves mostly in leather (which at one time was recommended as slightly better armor than silk, wool, or plant cloth; I don't know if that is still the case), then you need about 2000 leather to fully clothe a fort of 200, and each piece wears out in a couple years, so you need an ongoing 500 - 1000 per year. Each piece of leather you get from an animal is accompanied by 5-10 food, in various forms, which is way more food than those same 200 dwarves will eat per year. Managing that many animals (which must be across 10 or more species, due to the per-species population cap of 50) is also a nightmare.

cloth and leather. And vegetables/fruit/drink. each dorf have likes for a particular food or drink and it's generally something you can't get without a lot of work. I buy anything that will mean I don't have to craft it. Trap components, wood, cheese, food items, instruments.

[jarhyn]

in areas with high savagery, caravans provide a very valuable source of logs. They can be a good ongoing source of scrap metal as well.

I tend to like buying rare metals like aluminum and platinum and rare gems from them, too, since these are limited resources.

Leather and dyes are sometimes nice to buy, and usually I will buy them out of meat and fish, especially in high savagery biomes.