Traders come and go via a Trading Post rather than staying at set locations

[That1GameGuy]

So I feel like I'm the only one in the world bothered by this, but I don't like how traders are so stationary. I feel like one of these days I'm gonna run into the perfect building spot, only to find a trader smack dab in the middle of it.

What if instead of pock marking the world with land claims, they could "move" around? 

I think there should be a copper age block called the Trading post, that when next to a suitably sized flat area, would summon a trader and their cart about every month or so. You could also use the trading post to make a request for a specific trade(for a markup of course), or advertise an item you want to sell.

[Facethief]

I dunno. On the one hand, it’s a reasonable ask to be able to build anywhere in a game about building. On the other, this would make traders something of an interesting thing that could be looked into for players who joined after this, and it would make getting into the story somewhat harder, as you’d have to rely on RNG to get the TH trader.

[Redpaws]

I'd love to see some trader settlements. Have 2-3 permanent traders, and another 1-2 that rotates in if possible. Else just 3-5 permanent ones. It'd let you have less trader spots overall, but still have more traders. Having only rotating traders, I'm not so sure about. Sometimes it is nice to be able to know where X type of trader is at.

Having the ability to build a trading plaza of some sort would be great as well. I love to trade stuff, but making roads to all the spread out lone traders is a chore. Anything to let you cluster up traders a bit would be great.

Edited October 13, 2025 by Redpaws

[LucidLue]

On 10/12/2025 at 1:25 PM, Facethief said:

I dunno. On the one hand, it’s a reasonable ask to be able to build anywhere in a game about building. On the other, this would make traders something of an interesting thing that could be looked into for players who joined after this, and it would make getting into the story somewhat harder, as you’d have to rely on RNG to get the TH trader.

I kind of like the idea of roaming Traders or the ability to eventually build a trading post. Getting around the story item is fairly easy if they added dialogue to ask about it, and that trader just gives you the current location of a roaming Treasure Hunter that you can go to see (or it then just spawns one near your location).

[Emeal]

Here is my idea, the how it could work the Trading posts that spawn and Hansa Trade Banner is the keys. So we bring back the wagon Traders but they spawn in file in far in un discovered territory or outside the world border. They then have a direction NSWE, and will make a route to Tradepost "nodes" based on an algorithm across the already generated area.

The black circles are Trade Posts, the gray circle is the generated world so far. and the blue and red lines are two roaming traders making across our playable area.

Some days they are there and other days not, but if you talked to them they can say which way they are going and maybe you can CATCH that Trader again in that direction.
This would make them feel very alive.

Also by doing many Trades with Traders they will give you a Hansa Trade Banner, which you can put up near yours house or city to have Traders appear there as they pass through.

This would require some free land in order to work. But it would be cool to come running to your local tradepost and see he has company one day. SUPER COOL.

[Emeal]

ALSO ALSO ALSO
Can we have a former Hansa Trader as a Starting Class??

Maybe they could start with the Hansa Trade Banner in the Inventory, have two extra inventory slots, get better prices buying/selling.
But also have negative traits such as Weak, Civil and Nearsighted.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Emeal said:

Here is my idea, the how it could work the Trading posts that spawn and Hansa Trade Banner is the keys. So we bring back the wagon Traders but they spawn in file in far in un discovered territory or outside the world border. They then have a direction NSWE, and will make a route to Tradepost "nodes" based on an algorithm across the already generated area.

I like this idea. It's basically how the trade routes in Age of Empires 3 worked, though I'm not sure how easy it would be to implement in the game. The easier option is possibly just to make some traders come and go from their outposts, and have banners/mounts outside to indicate when the trader is home. The player could probably be able to build a trading post of their own, provided they complete a quest to get a special Hansa banner and provide appropriate accommodations. 

The key being that the traders come and go from the trading post, without the player really controlling when they arrive and leave. I think there could be some limited control, in that if the player doesn't want to do any business they can furl the banner and stop traders from showing up, and traders that the player has actually made deals with might linger longer unless told to leave. But it shouldn't be like Minecraft, where the player can essentially capture a lot of NPCs for a trading hall or anything of that sort.

53 minutes ago, Emeal said:

ALSO ALSO ALSO
Can we have a former Hansa Trader as a Starting Class??

Maybe they could start with the Hansa Trade Banner in the Inventory, have two extra inventory slots, get better prices buying/selling.
But also have negative traits such as Weak, Civil and Nearsighted.

Interesting, but I think the extra inventory slots are too much. Extra inventory is a huge advantage, and I don't think the negatives listed are enough to keep the Trader class from being too good of a pick. I could be wrong, but that extra couple of slots is just so very strong early in the game, when inventory space is at a premium.

[Emeal]

27 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

But it shouldn't be like Minecraft, where the player can essentially capture a lot of NPCs for a trading hall or anything of that sort.

It might also be worth implementing a mechanic, where if multiple Hansa Trade Banner's are present it does not mean there are 10 Trade spots to stop by, it should mean 10 Traders could be here if 10 Traders were passing through here on the same day. (unlikely) it would still only count as 1 stop on their road or travel.

[ifoz]

21 hours ago, Emeal said:

Also by doing many Trades with Traders they will give you a Hansa Trade Banner, which you can put up near yours house or city to have Traders appear there as they pass through.

I really like the idea of the Hansa banner being the item that calls traders to your base in a theoretical system with wandering traders, it feels very fitting.
Elvas has said in his dev streams that they do have ideas about wandering traders one day, but also that it'd be such a large system to implement that it likely isn't coming any time soon. Traders carrying goods between each other, or having a courier who would cart things around between traders and who you could meet on the road.

 

21 hours ago, Emeal said:

Can we have a former Hansa Trader as a Starting Class??

Maybe they could start with the Hansa Trade Banner in the Inventory, have two extra inventory slots, get better prices buying/selling.
But also have negative traits such as Weak, Civil and Nearsighted.

Honestly, I feel like this would be a decent chance to give Tailor a buff. Let them get somewhat better prices, due to being a merchant themselves with experience selling clothing and dealing with customers, as well as their more civilised manners/way of speaking.