Merchants--Less is more

**Musashi** · 12-17-2006, 08:58

Hehehe.. I'm using forts now... No need to even man them, just build them over every resource in your territory and your merchants are safe forever (And enemy merchants can't get at them).

**Dearmad** · 12-17-2006, 09:57

LOL funny solution

**Hosakawa Tito** · 12-17-2006, 16:15

I would also suggest building Law & Order buildings, town hall levels, in the city you train merchants to lessen the chance of negative finance traits in your newly minted merchants.

**Stig** · 12-17-2006, 16:24

doesn't a Merchant Guild give you a higher chance on good merchants?

**Musashi** · 12-17-2006, 16:26

It gives you +1 or +2 finance to start, but that can still be offset by random bad traits.

**seneschal.the** · 12-17-2006, 16:43

Sorry, but you are dead wrong on the numbers of merchant having some kind of impact on the traits.

This is what affects merchants skill when being created:

At creation, start at level 1 for "natural merchant".
You then have 50% of having him advance to level 2 at birth.
If he is advanced to level 2 at birth, you have 33% of having him advanced to level 3 at birth.

If there is no town hall in the settlement, he has 50% to be a level 1 shady dealer.
If he advances to level 1 shady dealer, he has a 33% of being a level 2 shady dealer, right out the gates.

If there is a town hall in the settlement, he has a 50% to be a level 1 legal dealer.
If he advances to level 2 legal dealer, he has a 33% of being a level 2 legal dealer.

If he is created in a city with a cathedral or higher, and the population in the region is 80% YourReligion,
he has a 50% chance of becoming a Religious Merchant.
(Note: in my mod I raised it to 95%)
If he is a level 1 religious merchant, he has a 33% of being a level 2 religious merchant.

If he is created in a city with a master merchant guild or above, he gains the MerchantGuildTrained level.

If he is created in a city and the faction owns the Merchant HQ, he becomes a MerchantGuildMember.

Ancillaries:

If he is created in a city with an alchemists lab, he has a 15% of getting a counterfeiter.

If he is created in a city with an alchemy school or higher, he has a 50% of getting a merchant clerk.

If a caravan stop or higher exists, he has a 50% of getting a caravn driver at birth.

If a caravan stop or higher exists in the city where he is staying, he has a 10% each turn of getting one.

If a city hasn't built a town hall, he has a 5% of picking up a trick abacus!

**seneschal.the** · 12-17-2006, 16:49

I just noticed that merchants won't ever gain the level 2 legal dealer level. The trigger is faulty and does not award level 2. Easily fixed.

**the_mango55** · 12-17-2006, 21:37

You forgot Spices in your "best resources" list.

Slaves are also really good.

Amber is great because there is so much of it in scandinavia and the baltic.

**Handel** · 12-17-2006, 21:52

And building merchants in a town with cathedral or huge cathedral is disastrous. He gots quite religious (-1) or extremely religious (-2).

**Kraxis** · 12-18-2006, 18:27

Originally Posted by seneschal.the

I just noticed that merchants won't ever gain the level 2 legal dealer level. The trigger is faulty and does not award level 2. Easily fixed.

Yup, either lower the requirement to 2 or up the points awarded when getting past level 1 to 2. Right now you can only get 2 points at most, while level 2 requires 3 points.