Trader Control

[River]

Interesting idea:  Mod that would make all trading posts have a "switch" where you could turn off, and on, whether or not they come to you, so you don't have to destroy, then re-build over and over, trade only when you need something.

Or, maybe easier to just make 1 general trading post able to switch on or off.

I hope this is understandable.

[theonlywanderer]

Why would you destroy and rebuild?   You can turn work for the trade port off or on.

Maybe I'm missing something because your request makes no sense to me.

[Voeille]

Merchants still come even if you disable work at the port. As I understand it, River wants a way to disable the merchants so they stop coming without destroying the trading post. While you can just ignore the merchants, I find it's often hard to do so, even if I don't want to trade for a while, I can't help looking at what they have when they come, as otherwise it just feels like a wasted opportunity. If the merchants didn't come at all, the opportunity just wouldn't be there and there would be no wares to be tempted to look at.

I would like this as well, but it doesn't seem possible with the modkit, which is rather limited. All you can do is set your variables and references but you cannot write custom scripts or edit existing logic (which is a shame, scripting in Skyrim is so fun and opens so many possibilities, even with how fragile Papyrus is). So you can set how often your merchant comes and what merchants there are, but this cannot dynamically change (the only thing that changes is the frequency of their arrival and how much they bring with them, and this depends solely on population). As far as I know this is how warehouses are done, there must be at least one merchant referenced, but you can set how often they come, so with a warehouse you set it to unreasonable values (like a million years).

[theonlywanderer]

Yeah, still don't get it for those reasons either.   Just setup auto purchase for stuff you want and you won't ever have to look at it again.   You can even tell each merchant to only bring certain things.   Each port will have a limited number of merchants who rotate coming and you can set each one to only bring the one item you want.  After that, you have no reason to look because they are only bringing the one item.

Why would it be a wasted opportunity if you don't look?  If you don't want to trade, simply don't trade.  If you want minimal trading, just have only one port and ignore it because they only come once a year.   If you feel the opportunity is wasted, doesn't that mean you want to trade?    I'm confused on this.

[River]

I sometimes don't have the trade goods, so auto is not cool. And it's annoying when I don't intend to trade for awhile, (sometimes for the lack of stuff to offer), then be concentrating on something else, then a trade boat comes, I have to change focus, go there, and tell the guy to eff off, lol.....just wish I had more control. Not sure why this is difficult to understand, Voeille got it find.

Kinda feel like I am being shamed for having this idea by now.

[Abandoned]

hmm  You do not have to go to the trading post when river boat comes - just ignore notice that boat arrives, he will leave in his own good time.  You don't have to do a thing.

[River]

Yeah, I know. Just annoying cause then I think, well what if.....?? When I didn't need anything at all. sigh.

[theonlywanderer]

Shamed, really?    Just because I don't get it shouldn't matter to you.   I'm just trying to figure out the problem here.

If you don't have the trade goods, then nothing will be supplied to the port and the trade won't happen so it's not an issue really.   If you don't want to set auto trade, then don't.   Still doesn't make any sense why you can't just ignore it when they come.   The game is full of stuff that requires decisions, why is this one trade port decision such an issue?   Seems to me, having to go in and turn it off and on still requires more attention than just ignoring it.   Also, as just said, you don't have to do anything, the boat will leave on it's own.

[River]

It's your "tone". It's very aggressive to me. That's all. Moving on......still hoping something might come out of this. It IS just a suggestion, after all.

[brads3]

some things such as tone can be affected by the translations when we are crossing languages. happens too with wording. i've told jokes and had people take them wrong over the net.

trading is part of our individual game play styles. it also is affected by the mods we use. doubt there is a way to solve all the issues we have. many of us are old and have our habits.LOL

in my worlds, i have usually over 125 mods. they bring many items along. hence merchants often have the wrong stuff. if i want some specific building supply, the boats bring finished goods. i generally play temperate climates. the boats bring seeds for tropical fruits. and i wait and wait for the boat with a grain or veggy that i do want. so yes must check each load.

never had any luck with the auto trading option ,not that i played with it much. what i did read is the boats will wait. this has drawbacks.  1> while the boat is sitting waiting to be loaded, no other boats will come. 2> it waits for goods that could be scattered all over the maps or in short supply. hypothetical example- you trade out a crafted good for food. in the early game years, the boats have a small supply of food. things work out. however as the years go by the boats are loaded with more food, and by now the stock of those crafted items is less. the boat might have brought 1,000's of food and all of it at higher values as well.   this ties up the dock so no other supplies can arrive. and workers are running all over trying to find the crafted goods. to me there are too many risks. let's say the crafted item requires iron. now the iron is held up by the game and isn't used for making tools.

the game was designed to be a survival game not the building game it has become. hence many of the frustrations are on purpose. to keep you struggling to survive. you are always running out of 1 thing or another. 

over time, each of us players develop our own tactics to deal with the issues. but no, none are perfect. i manually handle the trading, like RIVER. a tedious task.  if the boats don't bring something in a few years, i will resort to ordering even thou it costs more. especially a specific seed. once they have acquired the seeds i want, the farm trade post is disabled and boats dismissed. the bannies are too busy to take time to tear it down.

[theonlywanderer]

I guess the request makes no sense to me because the option already exists, just turn off workers for that port and nothing will be done there, it's really that simple.   The port is essentially turned off except the boat still comes, so what?  You can completely ignore it because no workers are at the port and the boat will leave on it's own.  The boat only stays longer if you have the port window open.  When you are ready to trade, add workers to the port and they start stocking it again.   Why would a boat arriving make you change focus when you know the port is turned off?

[brads3]

for the same reason we slow down when we see a cop car. it's our nature or psychological. can also be cause there are several trade posts. if we dismiss the boat, the next can come sooner. becomes a habit that we just do automatically.

there is an old old story of a guy who needed a special rock. he'd know it by the feel. was a very important reason he needed this stone, thou it has been so long i forget why. he goes to the seashore to find this rock. picks up stones 1 at a time. each stone that isn't the 1 he is looking for he tosses into the sea. does this day after day. picks up a stone,  feels it , and tosses it into the sea. this goes on for some time, years if i remember the story right. 1 day he picks up the stone, feels it, and it is the 1 he desparately needs. he tosses it into the sea out of pure habit. as it leaves his hand he realizes it as he watches the stone splash into the sea.

[theonlywanderer]

Why would there be several trade ports if somebody doesn't want to trade much?   And since it's only one port, it can't possibly be that great a challenge to ignore.  The game has far more challenges than ignoring a boat arrive chime once every cycle.

[Voeille]

It is indeed the boat being there that's distracting. I know I could (and should) ignore it if I don't plan to trade, but I just cannot help to click and take a gander. That's why an option to disable boats coming would be useful, not from gameplay perspective, but from quality of life perspective. Turning off boat notifications can help (to an extent, if the boat is in my current camera view I'd still go check it), however that wouldn't work if there are more than a single trading post. For example, I might have a seed trader and an industry trader. I want to buy more seeds, but I don't need any materials for a while, however if I disable notifications, it would also disable them for the seed trader and I could miss out on seeds.

It's true it can sometimes be hard to interpret the 'tone' while reading some posts online. I did not find any of the posts in this thread shaming or aggressive though.