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Dismiss Merchant

Started by Kaldir, May 28, 2014, 01:38:53 PM

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Kaldir

I found out I can dismiss a merchant the hard way: I actually wanted to clear a trade proposal I made, and was surprised to see the merchant leave when he had just arrived.

What surprised me however, was that the next merchant arrived at this same trading post, even though my other trading post was 'next in line'. I also noticed that the merchant would arrive in about 0.75 years when dismissing him, while I remember from previous games that it usually took just over a year. When playing I'm too busy to really pay attention to the exact numbers, so I could be completely wrong.

So the big question is: will the next merchant come sooner if you immediately dismiss a merchant?

Edit: cleared up the time reference (I hope)

salamander

A while back I tracked merchant visits to trading posts over ~20 years, noting the season and year they arrived, and posted it on the SRS forum.  Over 7 trading posts, the average number of visits per year was 1.75, which translates into a visit to a post about every 6.8 seasons, or once per 0.57 years.

At the time I didn't have autotrading set at any of the posts, so I was doing things manually, and whether I bought anything or not, dismissal was pretty quick after they arrived.  If I remember right, merchants who arrive but are ignored will eventually leave on their own after some number of seasons (I think it was 5, but I haven't been able to find where I got that, so I could be completely off-base).  From your observations, it sounds like the timer for when the next trader will arrive may start on dismissal of the previous trader, rather than from its arrival.

Kaldir

That 0.57 year interval is about equal to my observation now, with dismissing the merchant. Guess the dismissing might not matter after all. I assume the exact interval is somewhat random and not always exactly the same, so I might just have had a few lazy slow merchants before I started dismissing them.

Thanks for the answer. I'll keep dismissing those stupid livestock merchants though, till they finally bring me some sheep!

salamander

I may be overlooking something, but I think the two sets of observations do support the idea that dismissing the merchant quickly could get you some number of merchants at a post in a shorter time than letting them dismiss themselves.  The 0.57 year interval was also with quick dismissal.  And, that 6.8 season interval plus the 5 season (if I'm right) automatic dismissal is nearly a full year, which I think you were seeing when the merchants were left to leave on their own.

Kaldir

#4
Hmm, but if you found them to visit 1.75 times a year on average, doesn't that include the time they wait at the trading post before leaving on their own? In other words, that 6.8 season (month) interval is between the arrival time of two successive merchants. including the 5 (?) seasons they wait.

When I dismissed them manually, I dismissed them almost immediately, so within the season/month they arrived. That is at least a few seasons sooner then they would ride off on their own. Might have to experiment at some point, but I'm too much immersed into aligning trees and farms right now. :D


Edit: cleared up the time reference (I hope)

salamander

I see what you mean and I think you're right, but for that 20 year period I would generally pause the game on a merchant's arrival to write down the information I was tracking, do any trading I wanted, and then dismiss.  So, I'd estimate that the in-game time a merchant spent at a trading post was insignificant compared to the interval between visits.  Also, because of the quick turnaround between arrival and manual dismissal, the several season waiting time before the merchant leaves automatically is not part of the 1.75 visits/year average.

Here's what I'm thinking is going on: There's an (approx.) 6.8 season interval between when a merchant leaves a trading post and when the next merchant arrives at the same post.  Although, like you say, there may be some randomness to that interval, I don't think it changes.  What does change, though, is how long a merchant sits at a trading post before being dismissed.  Because the 'next merchant interval timer' doesn't start until dismissal, delaying dismissal will delay the arrival of the next merchant.  I think this is consistent will your original observations, including the out-of order visit if you manually dismissed at one post, but not at another (which would then have the auto-dismissal waiting time tacked on).

Kaldir

Sorry, I misunderstood you the first time then. I thought your 20-year observations were without manual dismissing the merchant. I'll try to dismiss merchants at one trade post but not the other to see the difference. Although I'm not really disciplined enough for these kind of tests since I'm still fresh at the game (or at least it feels that way).

salamander

It would be neat to see if there's a difference.  I still have a saved copy of the game I collected the data in -- I may have to get back to it and let all the merchants wait until they leave on their own.  What would be nice is if I could track when a merchant leaves the trading post, but without notifications of that in-game, I doubt I'd keep up with it well.

And ... I know what you mean about still being fresh to the game.  I've still got so many things to try out in how I play out a game.

Good luck with the sheep.  :)

Kaldir

Hehe, thanks. The livestock merchant (merchants?) has come by about 10 to 15 times now, almost every time with cows. The seeds merchant also keeps bringing in Plums, sometimes even 2 seeds at once (what is the use of that?). They made me build a third trade post just to get some sheep and more seeds. They will come, eventually.

salamander

Maybe we need to trade games.  I've had so many Livestock merchants over the last few years, quite a few with sheep, when I'm looking for food, that I'm starting to get upset.  Yelling at a computer game ... real mature, huh?

Kaldir

You're only as old as you act, right? That probably means we're 5 years old from time to time.

The seed merchant is still pretty absent, but a nice general merchant had Apple seeds, Peach seeds and Beans seeds all at once, combined with some stone and iron. Lucky me.
I have food in abundance: 40000 in storage, another 5000 in trade posts (after spending 2500 venison for those seeds), with only 160 citizens. So get into that boat and bring me some sheep :D

salamander

That whole data gathering I did for merchant intervals also included tracking how often the different types of merchants visited a colony.  Given experiences like we're both seeing, and many others I bet have also seen, it was surprising that over the 20 year period, the numbers of the different merchants was the same.

We're all at the mercy of the RNG god.

Kaldir

#12
RNG loves me right now, so I'm not complaining. I've only seen one more livestock trader, and (s)he brought sheep. After that, it was general merchants all along, with several seeds I still didn't have.

I've checked the merchants some, and my very limited data set suggests that a merchant stays for 3 months (0.25 year) if not manually dismissed and that the interval indeed seems to reset when the merchant leaves. I had two merchants arrive simultaneously in Late Winter year 22. I dismissed one right away and left the other alone, who left 3 months later (Late Spring 23). The next two merchants arrived at Early Autumn 23 (the dismissed one) and Early Winter 23 (the one that waited for 3 seasons).

So it seems that dismissing a merchant indeeds speeds up the arrival of the next one, up to 3 months (0.25 year).


Edit: cleared up the time reference (I hope)

salamander

That's good information.

If you're waiting for a particular resource from a merchant, manually dismissing could speed things up quite a bit, especially if it takes several visits before you eventually do get a merchant carrying the resource.

Even if you're mostly auto-trading, it might be worth periodically dismissing merchants when you have a chance.

rkelly17

You guys are having a very interesting conversation here. Mind if I jump in? I've noticed that merchants will hang around for a LONG time if I don't dismiss them (this is with strictly manual trading). I've actually used the technique of ignoring them when I'm low on goods to trade. Either they stay long enough and I can then trade with them, or I dismiss them after I stock up and then wait for the next merchant--and do a save and re-role to get what I need.  ;) Sometimes it seems that they'd sit there forever if I forget to dismiss them. It also seems that the interval between one merchant leaving and the next arriving gets shorter as my town gets bigger, but that may be because I've got more to do and lose track of time. Not sure.