I have an idea and would like to know if others would find it useful and what opinions they might have.
Everyone knows a trading post is the place to trade away surplus items. But what if you have large surpluses and there is nothing you need in return? One solution is simply to overpay the merchant and items are hauled away. My idea is a Shipping Dock with a merchant that brings nothing to trade - he will just take items away. I would find it useful and hope others would too. What do you think?
I would be interested in something like that.
:) Hi Gatherer, nice to know I am not the only one to think it would be useful.
you can do that now. the merchants will take stuff for free without giving you anything. some stuff can be composted also. ;)
Traders don't like to be empty.
When we were first playing with the new flags/limits, there was much crashing of Trading Posts when a boat came that was using the new flag but there was no resource using that flag, so it was empty.
@kralyerg, thanks for info, now that you mention it, I remember that problem with empty merchant boats.
@brads3 ;D you would not believe how much I overpaid for potatoes ;D New idea for compost: log shredder = sawdust = compost ??? Don't tell
@kid1293 :D
I guess even if we could make merchants who don't bring something, you could not sell or gift them anything because you could not complete a trade with them. Would be easier to create an object that just destroys certain resources. Or actually, the mod that floods your storage with stuff should be re-balanced (reducing output of those resources).
you can use ChooChoo and exchange them for coins :D
and buy gifts to your citizens with the coins :)
@Tom Sawyer I did not consider that there would have to be some exchange to complete trade. My maps and stories vary from one to the other so it is never one particle mod that would be causing surplus but my gameplay, most towns are self-sufficient and don't trade for much other than seeds. For some story goals I store in warehouse, it would be nice to have items shipped.
@RedKetchup :D I have ChooChoo on future town list for sure, I even have location in mind but stories are just not leading me there yet. :)
thank you all for helpful replies :)
if the modded TP did take stuff and brought nothing,you would still have to micro manage it like a wharehouse or TP now.you would need to tell it what to get rid of. if you stock extra feathers at a TP,you can donate them. in other words,you can tell the TP to trade out thousands of feathers, but not take any goods that are offered. since the merchant did bring items,the game won't crash. just leave the numbers on the left all set to zero. what you ask for you already have. plus it is a neat way to "ship" items to another town. i did that with logs or lumber a few maps back.
most mods are balanced well there are extra items,depending on the buildings you use.none are way over powered. like depening on the tailor,you can have 3 or 4 other textiles stocking in barns. if the item count gets near 500,i start trading them. the only item i have overstocked a lot is fertilizer that is cause i don't build the greenhouses all the time. KID's dung pile stores it away from other barns. that can be dialed back with other pasture mods RED made.it is workinig very well.
as for the train mod,that might just change the item into coins. GATHERER warned me on that. you can trade out goods fast enough to have excess coins. if you want to get rid of a lot,i would build 2 engines to sell the coins per each station selling goods. or you could be very rich.
Thanks for info
@brads3. I don't do a lot of trading and have only tried auto trading once. I usually don't have storage problems too much either but this map my education rate is very high and so is production. And just like real life, once I get out in the garden and start planting other things get neglected. ;D
Shipping to other towns in story is something I had in mind too. I can think of a few other storylines too.
I have used Choo Choo before in story #4 Chattachoo. It was nice for storage and nomads :) My railroad was not as nicely build as others I have seen posted. Maybe better next time. :)
i never had luck with the auto trading either. it seems to hold the boats while they wait for more materials to be produced. not realistic. with many mods,the problem i have is the stocking order the workers are busy restocking the top items and the bottom of the list always stockpiles in barns say you send coats,linen, and coal. the trade post doesn't set the order alphabetical. it is quite random.so the coats gets stocked but the coal overstocks in the barns waiting for someone to carry it to the TP.not sure what the TP order is caused by. it doesn't seem to be ordered by the mod list at all.not even sure the order is the same for all TP's either. we lack controls there for sure.
the way i used the train in the map i am on, i am proud. of that was a good idea to auto trade some textiles and pick up food.took a little work to make a barn around the train engine but it hides as a wharehouse quite well. there is no surplus of wool yet.
I will have to take a closer look at that.
I don't mind doing the trading rather than auto. I rarely have more than one trading post and when I do, I usually have 1 worker that goes from one trading post to the other to work and back when needed. Once in a great while I will have a second worker at the only trading post.
Maybe the compost/fertilizer idea could be used. Have a composting place and worker but have it take a lot, like 50 or 100 items to make one load of fertilizer. Then have a worker "use" the fertilizer on a random nearby pasture/orchard/crop field. Of course this use does absolutely nothing, it's just a means of getting rid of the fertilizer and I guess would not require any specific coding?
Perhaps also have a composting barn/trading post where the fertilizer workers get the items to be composted. This barn should be like a trading post in setup where you employ a bannie to fill it up with x amount of various foodstuffs (the stuff you have plenty of excess of). Only composting workers (or the worker) can take items from this place.
This could also serve an extra purpose of creating jobs, I always seem to have too many labourers anyway.
Composting Wharehouse - 1 bannie (or more) to fill it up with excess foodstuffs you stipulate.
Composting station - 2 bannies to compost at 50 to 1 or 100 to 1 and spread the fertilizer on fields/pastures/orchards randomly.
Any takers?
too bad we dont have decoy in game.
but
i think thats a good idea overall.
Good idea, although my solution is typically to start a new community based on the same map, but sort of like a new town altogether. That way most of the surplus items I have are almost always used. Because this is the way I play, I don't think I've ever had this particular problem. Except one game I had a lot of wool. Lots and lots and lots of endless supplies of wool.