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Trading Post Economies

Started by solarscreen, June 21, 2014, 09:02:44 AM

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solarscreen

Trading Posts allow you to do other things with your villages.  You don't need to trash the landscape with quarries and mines and you don't need to farm if you want a more dense town population.

Here are some strong economies you can build with trading posts.  The more trading posts you have, the more you can do. Obviously, you can produce some or all of the primary components instead of buying them if you want that part of the production to be home based.

1. Firewood - buy logs and sell firewood.  Each log is worth 3 or 4 firewood. You will need stockpiles and wood cutters at each trading post.

2. Warm Coats - buy wool and leather and sell warm coats.  You will need barns and tailors for each trading post.

3.  Steel Tools - buy coal, iron, and logs and sell steel tools.  You will need stockpiles, barns, and blacksmiths at each trading post.

4. Ale - Buy fruit and berries and sell ale.  You will need barns and taverns for each trading post.

Success will require you to manage your trading through placing orders and auto-purchases or full blown micromanagement.

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Bobbi

Logs to firewood is best profit by far. With educated workers:
Buy 1 log at 2, makes 4 firewood which sells at 4=14 profit

Little profit in warm coats. If you custom order wool at 6 and leather at 12 cost is 18 and sell at 20.
Wool coat better. Custom order at 6, sell at 15=9 profit

There is no profit in steel tool at all if you custom order the items need to make it.

irrelevant

Iron tools have good profit. Inputs are iron (5) + log (2) = 7 cost. Output is two iron tools @ 8 = 16 income.

I have a couple of tailors making warm coats, and a couple of blacksmiths making steel tools. These serve to maintain the inventory for citizens' use. All other tailors and smiths make wool coats and iron tools for export. I review every year or two to make sure raw materials are in balance and the stock of steel tools and warm coats is good.

I also sell ale and import fruit. I have standardized on two fruits and ignore all the rest. Importing fruit is good, you can place special orders from all the merchants, and there is no penalty, save that they only will give 3 for firewood.

For that reason I don't like to trade firewood, except for imported logs. I have a hard time maintaining firewood inventory for local consumption. I suppose I just need more TPs importing logs, but I don't like those town I have seen that have the river lined with TPs and choppers and piles of logs and firewood.

mariesalias

Don't forget one of the best uses for a trading post:

Trading venison, beef, mutton, and chicken for fruits and other food. The meats are all worth 3 while all other foods (except egg, which is 2) are worth 1. So for every 1 venison you trade you get 3 of another food. This is a helpful strategy to keep your town growing and build up a good stockpile of food. And when you custom order fruits/nuts/vegetables/fish and such they stay at 1 cost, so no mark up. 

Trading posts are also useful to get rid of all your mushrooms as they take up so much more space in your barns then all other foods! Or to trade away excess fish for fruits your town may be missing.

I am by no means a huge trader, at most I build about 6 Trading Posts on a map, as I like to manage them myself (and it is too time intensive after 6). I don't like the auto trade option as it won't let you choose what gets traded for what. For example, I do not want to be trading firewood to a food trader at a value of 3 each when any other trader values it at 4.

I agree with @Bobbi that if you want to trade coats and tools, best to stick to iron tools and wool coats. I make them to trade for warm coats and steel tools.

I also agree with @solarscreen that firewood and ale are good items to trade. And that if you don't want mines and quarries all over your map, trading Ports are essential to keeping your people supplied with the resources they need.

solarscreen

An important step to maximizing your trade depot economy is calculating trade profit and also what YOU NEED for your design.

When you provide primary components, you make more profit but profit is not the only reason to trade. If you don't want to farm or herd, buying and trading can break even but provide the items you need for your village.

I'm glad this thread is getting responses!  There are some very successful traders out there and everyone can benefit from the results obtained in developing these trade depot economies!

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irrelevant

Also, you'd think those lousy seed merchants would take the hint and go away after you turn them down 20 times  ;)

Bobbi

I am usually by no means a great trader, either. I think the rivers lined with trading ports and stock piles are ugly. But this style of play is starting to grow on me, as it opens so many options. Mainly I trade firewood and ale, with some wool coats thrown in. I trade mushrooms, mutton, beef and venison for fruits or whatever else I need. I no longer build quarries for any reason, but do use mines.

solarscreen

Quote from: Bobbi on June 21, 2014, 08:58:21 PM
I am usually by no means a great trader, either. I think the rivers lined with trading ports and stock piles are ugly...

You are really going to hate when we have the King of Trading challenge!
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Bobbi

Prolly won't be the champion! But probably not going to do the nomads or the dead village either. Don't know how. Never killed a village. Hated the nomad achievement. And the uneducated. Let's do a vegetarian challenge.

solarscreen

Quote from: Bobbi on June 21, 2014, 09:06:51 PM
Prolly won't be the champion! But probably not going to do the nomads or the dead village either. Don't know how. Never killed a village. Hated the nomad achievement. And the uneducated. Let's do a vegetarian challenge.

I have that one in my back pocket too.  We will see that next month.  Now are we talking full on vegetarian? No fish?

I tried a no meat village early in the life of Banished and health dropped way down pretty quick. I think I know what I need to do to fix that though.
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Bobbi

No fish, no hunt, no livestock. Buy wool or freeze your a** off.

irrelevant


slink

Quote from: solarscreen on June 21, 2014, 09:10:29 PM
Quote from: Bobbi on June 21, 2014, 09:06:51 PM
Prolly won't be the champion! But probably not going to do the nomads or the dead village either. Don't know how. Never killed a village. Hated the nomad achievement. And the uneducated. Let's do a vegetarian challenge.

I have that one in my back pocket too.  We will see that next month.  Now are we talking full on vegetarian? No fish?

I tried a no meat village early in the life of Banished and health dropped way down pretty quick. I think I know what I need to do to fix that though.

I have one of those started.  It is named Boltona.  I wrote a story about its founding.  They eat nuts for protein, and buy wool.  They can't keep sheep because that would mean slaughtering some.  They don't eat fish, either.  They are quite healthy.  I wouldn't be happy living there, though.  *wicked grin*

rkelly17

I like trading for nuts to get cheap protein, but can you set auto-trade to ignore meat and eggs and only buy nuts? I've not figured out how. I'd also like to be able to specify which fruits the trader buys. I hate ordering because I'm such a cheapskate. I also hate trading 3 firewood to the food merchants. In my largest town I've switched all trading posts to selling only ale.

irrelevant

@rkelly17  I feel your pain re: buying fruit. But, if you place a special order for the specific type of fruit that you need, firewood will be the only item they will discount in exchange. So place your special order for fruit, and stock only ale at that TP, and you should be good.