Merchants

[placebokid]

My merchants seem to have a ridiculously high chance to be taken over. it seems like the ai merchants either seem to get huge buffs and as a result theres no way i can compete. is there a way to alter this at all. im not very good at modding a game so id appreciate some help. alternatively are there any existing mods which 'fix' merchants?

[FactionHeir]

The AI has no advantage over you in acquisitions as far as the file goes which controls these factors.
The base chance for a take over is 40%, so if you have 2 merchants of equal skill, the chance of success is 40%.
This is then modified by skill difference (5% for each skill point higher/lower) and whether you have trade rights with that faction.

If you want to change it, you'd be wanting to look at the descr_campaign_db.xml

If you want to know further details or help on modding that, you will have to post at the modding questions subforum for M2TW, as it is offtopic for the Citadel.

[Crash]

The key is in increasing the skill level of your own merchants, just as you do with spies, priests, and assassins.

In my current game there was an Polish merchant who kept eliminating my merchants around Constantinople for the silk trade. I had to ship my highest skilled merchant from Venice to Constantinople to try to eliminate that Polish merchant. He failed, so I was forced to use my assassin to eliminate the competition.

I had been reluctant to use assassination because Poland was my ally at the time but there was no discernable effect on my relations with Poland. So - problem solved.

My assassin had just finished a mission to kill the Byzantine emperor (requested by the emperor's own son), so I had no doubt that he would succeed.