Question: Hiring Agents with Experience

**dopp** · August 05, 2008, 04:07 AM

When I build a Merchants' Quarter I see that it produces "level 2" merchants. Problem is, they seem no different from level 0 merchants produced by my Corn Exchange. Pop open the EDB file and it says that Merchants' Quarter recruits merchants with 2 experience. Problem then is AFAIK merchants don't benefit from having experience levels at all, their stats are controlled by the VnVs they collect. Could anyone confirm whether this setting actually does anything at all?

**~~Grandmaster Ryu~~** · August 05, 2008, 04:08 AM

Edit: Quark correct answer.

**Quark** · August 05, 2008, 04:20 AM

dopp
Its not experience, its the number you can hire! So before this buildings only allowed you to hire 1 merchant per settlement with such, but from this settlement you would get two merchants.

btw it also increases the change of better merchants from the vns files.

**dopp** · August 05, 2008, 04:38 AM

Thanks for the help.

**moosey** · August 05, 2008, 07:28 AM

If you want good merchants you must have the merchants guild as this especially on level 2 and 3 does make a difference, also you absolutely need a town hall building to give youre merchants the LegalDealer trait as if there is not one present in youre settlement then they may get the negative legal trait.

It is more dificult to level up merchants in SS IMO as no province have multiple amounts of certain trade goods which if you had a merchant controlling one of them with the other free he would quickly get some capitalist traits (this is what i used to do to train my merchants in vanilla and LTC)

**Warspite_TW** · August 05, 2008, 07:38 AM

And a high level church in that town also might give a bad trait.

**Gorrrrrn** · August 05, 2008, 07:40 AM

Helps if you have a capital surrounded by resources with your merchants sitting on them as well, as they can then benefit from the trade fair event.

**moosey** · August 05, 2008, 07:42 AM

really? didnt know that...

i guess merchants cant afford to be religious. guess i never saw that as i dont tend to build up my churches past abbey level apart from settlements i use to spam priests.

is there any database which shows all the buildings effects on agents and generals? most of them are pretty straightforward but there are some less obvious ones.

**htothehh** · August 05, 2008, 04:33 PM

I have a problem with merchants too. When I have like 1 or 2 merchants (with one experience thingy), I usually get 156 florins per Amber trade, but after a few turns the price halves automatically. Is it because I recruited more merchants or conquered new settlements?

**aduellist** · August 05, 2008, 06:49 PM

Originally Posted by htothehh

I have a problem with merchants too. When I have like 1 or 2 merchants (with one experience thingy), I usually get 156 florins per Amber trade, but after a few turns the price halves automatically. Is it because I recruited more merchants or conquered new settlements?

No, that means your merchant has picked up a negative trait (usually "Loyal to Coin"). Check your merchants' traits when this happens.

**htothehh** · August 05, 2008, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by aduellist

No, that means your merchant has picked up a negative trait (usually "Loyal to Coin"). Check your merchants' traits when this happens.

Then there must be a bug that makes all merchants pick up that trait (even ones that aren't created yet)

**aduellist** · August 05, 2008, 07:12 PM

Originally Posted by htothehh

Then there must be a bug that makes all merchants pick up that trait (even ones that aren't created yet)

No bug that I've seen. Are you saying that the exact same resource is worth half? I mean "the exact same", because some ambers are worth half of others, just like some wines are worth half and some textiles are worth half, etc.

I have never seen an individual resource change value unless my merchant's skill level changes.

**htothehh** · August 05, 2008, 07:17 PM

Originally Posted by aduellist

No bug that I've seen. Are you saying that the exact same resource is worth half? I mean "the exact same", because some ambers are worth half of others, just like some wines are worth half and some textiles are worth half, etc.

I have never seen an individual resource change value unless my merchant's skill level changes.

Yes. I would recruit a merchant, put it on an Amber, and it would be making 156 florins/turn. But in a few turns, when I look at it, it says it's making 58) (or something like that) florins per turn. And then I would recruit a new agent, and put it at the same place, it would also say making 58 florins per turn.