Trading monopoly

[Foz]

Thanks.

Also in the trait description 'threshold' refers to turns I suppose?

Trait Monopolist
    Characters merchant

    Level Capitalist
        Description Capitalist_desc
        EffectsDescription Capitalist_effects_desc
        Threshold  4 

        Effect Finance  1 

    Level Market_Controller
        Description Market_Controller_desc
        EffectsDescription Market_Controller_effects_desc
        Threshold  8 

        Effect Finance  2 

    Level Monopolist
        Description Monopolist_desc
        EffectsDescription Monopolist_effects_desc
        Threshold  16 

        Effect Finance  3 
        Effect PersonalSecurity -1

So this means you have to leave a merchant for 16 turns to get monopolist ?

Well, it refers to turns indirectly, yes. All the trait thresholds refer to amounts of trait points, which are granted by triggers. The trigger you showed earlier grants 1 Monopolist point at the end of every turn a merchant has a monopoly, which as it turns out does mean the levels correspond to 4/8/16 turns. Note that they needn't be continuous, though: if you leave the resource, your merchant knows exactly how many turns he was on it, and picks up right there when he next has a monopoly on any resource. This can be very useful if enemy merchants come nearby: you can leave to fight them, then resume training the monopoly after you beat them down (hopefully). Also it is sometimes possible to train the merchant on the way to his ultimate destination: simply ending the turn on a monopoly gets you 1 monopolist point, and you can sometimes string together many such places into a journey, or at least most of one. I don't recommend this unless the merchant was pretty good to start with though: often you'll need the monopolist points to ensure your merchants can survive on their way to the destination and don't get taken over as soon as they get there. One possible compromise is to train the merchants to +2 monopolist, then send them off to the far corners of the world, allowing them to train the remaining point on-site. Many desirable locations are of course monopoly locations too, so this is largely possible, and may be the best plan overall since it affords some protection while delaying them from their goal less.

[Shahed]

That is a brilliant explanation Foz. Thank you so much.

[Magraev]

I'd just like to thank Sinan for posing some very interesting and relevant questions, and for the good people of the guild for answering

[Furious Mental]

Well if that's the way it's supposed to work it's broken because I sent one merchant to trade gold in the Sahara on his own and he got the monopolist trait after one or two turns.

[FactionHeir]

Well if that's the way it's supposed to work it's broken because I sent one merchant to trade gold in the Sahara on his own and he got the monopolist trait after one or two turns.

He might have sat on another resouce before or even on the way to the gold.
Or you might have vnv file modifications installed.

[Kryptonitus]

Great stuff!!!! I will put this into play immediately.

[Foz]

That is a brilliant explanation Foz. Thank you so much.

Happy to be of service.

[Shahed]

Now that I got that figured out (again! had'nt played in a while)... my merchants are all above 4-5 Finance skill within a short period of time. Got a couple at 9.

Btw you would'nt happen to know how to fix the Woodsman's Guild (units trained at below documented experience) bug would you ?

[Furious Mental]

He definitely did not sit on any other resources before that- he was the first merchant I trained and I sent him straight there.