The Trading Post is a useful and valuable tool. But please don’t make it mandatory in any way. In Banished you could play w/o it IIRC. Which was a good thing. The game’s theme is farthest frontier, 2 traders per year kinda fits. But it shouldn’t stray too far from creating a self-sufficient town IMO as it IS afterall - a new town at the edge of nowhere.
Trading post is also disruptive to the game flow. A year passes quickly so IMO it is frustrating to constantly have traders (despite there only being 2 per year it feels too frequent) disrupting what you are doing to go check the traders. I know you don’t HAVE to but “TRADER ARRIVED”, “TRADER ARRIVED” is a nitpicky little “ugh”.
This is pure personal opinion and I’m probably in a minority. I think the trading post is a frustrating annoyance to the flow of the game, and wish it wasn’t in the game at all. However with some maps lacking in X resource I can see how it is needed.
Whatever you decide to do with the Trading post. At the very least please don’t tie it in to mandatory Tier advancements or mandatory in a way which forces the player to utilize one.
In fact. I would suggest that opting to not use it should lower raid frequency a bit, as no trade means less word getting around about your new settlement. Small bone to those who also opt out of it for the challenge.
I’ll admit I don’t have many other ideas for solutions. But I hope you can at least consider making the Trading post less of a forced structure in terms of importance. After all… we are there to build something new, ourselves, in the farthest frontier. Not being reliant on others should be an option here imo.
The “Trader arrived” - notification is pretty new and was desperately desired by many players (me too ), because without it you often missed the traders or saw them right before they departed, so business was over before it started… I understand, that it’s annoying for you when you’re not interested in this economy aspect of the game. But I for one would not want to miss it.
Concerning the legitimation: Traders are absolutely mandatory in this kind of scenario. If you build a farthest frontier outpost far away from civilization, you will never be the only one out there and there will always be a need for valuable additional resources. And don’t forget the news exchange throu trading routes (this aspect is not a part of the game, but it’s the only way news can be distributed between villages in this age).
@Honnegonkel --Not only the advantages you mention, but especially early in the game it is a great way to build your treasury. Sometimes, early in the game, it is the ONLY way to build your treasury. As I see it, the Trading Post, and later, the Trading Center, is a vital part of the game.
@Ouroboros – Perhaps the “Trader Arrived” could be added to the notifications you can shut off in the settings. Maybe it already is; I don’t remember because I don’t want to turn it off. I don’t like being nagged in a game, and am glad I can shut off notifications I don’t feel are necessary, but as @Honnegonkel pointed out, the “Trader Arrived” notice let you know the trader is present so you don’t miss opportunities for trade, which can be quite lucrative at times.
Thanks for the feedback guys. You have good points here. I admit I’m probably a small minority on this. I really hate the dependency and micromanagement of the Trading post. It’s just “such a bother” in my mind. People call it the corner stone of the settlement, for me it’s the stone in my shoe.
I love the mining and refining aspect. The dwarf in me wants to do nothing but to strike the earth, build 10 vaults and start digging for gold and refining it into a massive hoard of wealth. So digging for gold I dig, refining it, and storing it. It’s just the micromanagement of it - and how much attention it steals.
The brunt of the problem is the trading post and the town storage not just sharing their inventory I think. It’s kind of unnecessary? Like if you didn’t have to manually split and distribute gold and wares all the time it would become a bit more fluid and automated. If the trading post just doubled like a regular storage maybe dunno.
Without exaggerating the trading post is my least favorite building in the game by far. Mostly because it constantly craves attention and micromanagement from the fun of playing the game. Like having sex but a bee stings you every 15 seconds. Maybe a bad metaphor. I think an option to automate it better would be the best fix.
Loving the game either way. This is a nitpick tbh. I’d be interested to know (if anyone knows) if the Trading Post in its design is considered a WIP or finished in terms of function. Just so I don’t hold my breath hoping for a change which never comes.
I’ve thought quite a lot about the role of trading in the game. At first I resented it because it is necessary and tedious. After playing a lot I’ve refined my view to just resenting the tedium. I quite like the function of needing to trade on harder maps. No willow or herb spawns? Either design around their absence (quite viable) or trade for them if you really want them. When it is clay that you’re lacking then there is no choice but to trade, if you don’t like that then you shouldn’t be in the Arid Highlands. So I’m at peace with the necessity of trading.
But the tedium I think needs some serious attention and refining. The aim of a game like this, imo, is to thoughtfully design a well functioning automated resource flow. Needing to constantly micro and switch attention is not fun, especially when it’s executing the same decision over and over again. Yes, yes I would like to buy all your clay and bricks, again.
I think the devs need to add some automation to the trading center (the upgraded one, the tedium is a late game problem).
I should be able to:
Set target stock amounts (keep 500 honey in stock always), or storage caps with all excess being sent to stock the trader (if I have more than 100 coats send the rest to the trader).
Set automatic trading with available deals based on price value (only buy when extra cheap, etc) and current stocks (only buy clay if I have less than 1k, only sell iron if I have more than 3k).
These changes would still require the player to think through the decisions and set it all up (retaining the essence of the interesting game mechanic and decisions), but once it is going you can focus on other things and just check and tweak it occasionally, like every other process you set up in the game.
On a tangential note, I feel similar about the tedium of spreading fertilizer, I don’t want to think about poo every single year and make the same decision over and over.
), because without it you often missed the traders or saw them right before they departed, so business was over before it started… I understand, that it’s annoying for you when you’re not interested in this economy aspect of the game. But I for one would not want to miss it.