Make Trading and Vendors More Relevant and Fun

Once my town has been up for a while, I don’t bother trading much with the trader at all, nor buying from the vendors, because my hearthlings can make everything themselves. Why not have some of the traders and vendors offer unique decor and weapons that we cannot make ourselves? IMO this would make it more fun/rewarding to interact with the traders and vendors, whereas right now they are pretty much useless to me (except the vendors as strictly a place to sell stuff). On a related topic, I find it too easy that we have all the seeds and livestock immediately available. Maybe have it so we start out with only one kind of seed and have to buy/trade other seeds and livestock from the vendors or traders.

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Hey there @YeOldeGamer, welcome to the Discourse!

I do believe there have been discussions regarding a trader overhaul. You are correct in that right now everything is available to you from the beginning, and the traders bring the same items (stuff you can make on your own) each time.

That being said, please remember that the game is still in Alpha, and a lot of the work in the last 2 Alpha builds had to do with performance improvements, insuring that you can get to the point where you can build everything on your own. I am going to page @sdee to come say hi and talk a little about trading and (in regards to you too easy comment) future campaigns.

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I’d swear there was already an item that you couldn’t craft. A certain rug that was meant only for buying it… :confused:

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I think trading could take a page out of Starbound’s system: offering both unique items (like that royal scarlet rug @Relyss is thinking of–I don’t believe it ever got implemented) and rarely the “blueprints” to craft them yourself. This would allow the player to start with very basic, crude recipes, but over time building their settlements’ knowledge during the game. Depending on what kingdom they start with and where they settle, each game could have very different outcomes of what furniture/decorations/tech/etc. the player ends up collecting and using.

If certain traders inhabit/visit only certain areas, this would give more incentive to try settling in more places–I figure most people would agree that currently, the best region to inhabit is mountain foothills, since they offer pretty much all the different resources as of now (able to farm, easy to defend, able to mine mountains nearby). Trading might be one way to balance out the biomes a little more.

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Another game with progression like that is the recently released Planetbase. Most items are available from the start (certainly anything critical), but others (blueprints for robots, “high-tech” plant seeds) must be bought later on.

what if the traders could offer things the other factions? (Like the Ascendancy could get Ryyas Children stuff)

And traders are far too frequent. They should visit half of what they do now, more of a nuisance than anything else.

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the same ‘vender’ should show up less often. theres been times were ive gotten the same one 2-3 times in a row. i don’t mind getting 3 different traders in 3 days. i just hate seeing the same one 3 days in a row

Once every 3 days would be fine by me, and a time limit on how long they wait about. It would give the whole trading aspect more importance IMO. :relaxed:

what i ment was you might get the one that sells ores and stone every 4+ days but you can get him one day then a different seller the next day. the fact he sometimes shows up 2 days in a row is a bit silly

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@Atralane
I really like the idea of adding blueprints as a key item to buy from vendors. I think it would really increase the difficulty curve and make the player make more strategic decisions regarding their money and resources.

GENIUS!

plans or blueprints would be best used for weapons amours and more advanced items but that is one heck of a good idea