Useless merchants

[Gorrrrrn]

Had a look through my merchants. Found 1 geezer who had become a liability:
he was generating 0fl per turn.

looking through his stats I discover:
he has two positive finance points (for good with money + family connections)
BUT 4 negative finance points (loyal to coin, daft dealer and dogmatically religious)
he's also aged - 56 years old (ahem not what I call aged )
with -26MP (that's modded btw)

can't do anything with him - it's not as if he has done anything negative, just sat on a salt mine and become progressively useless.

[RabidSheepLegion]

send him on a boat into absolute doom? move him around to have his assets siezed? wait for him to die of old age or become an old age pensioner (OAP)

[strife1013]

send him on a boat into absolute doom? move him around to have his assets siezed? wait for him to die of old age or become an old age pensioner (OAP)

The thing with that is that the boat only moves as fast as the unit on it, I.E. if he has -26 movement points, the boat might only go one square per turn. I'd say either run him into a more powerful merchant to 'kill' him, wait till he dies of natural causes or move_character "character's name" xxx,xxx and wait for them to die there.

I wonder if you can send your own assassin after him?


Speaking of the boat only moves as fast as the unit on there should this be changed? I mean the boat's speed has little to do with who or what's on it right?? Maybe a mod to change this?

[Meneth]

Speaking of the boat only moves as fast as the unit on there should this be changed? I mean the boat's speed has little to do with who or what's on it right?? Maybe a mod to change this?

It would be possible to add a trait that gives movement points if at sea, but I don't think there's any way to make it apply on the first turn at sea.

[krolyn]

Speaking of the boat only moves as fast as the unit on there should this be changed? I mean the boat's speed has little to do with who or what's on it right?? Maybe a mod to change this?

These would be a great submod!
But I think it is not that straightforward....
Imagine (mov points are arbitrary):
- unit with 100 mov points
- boat with 200 mov points
- unit spends 50 before boarding (half of its total).
- So, the boat should be able to move 100 mov points (half of its total mov points)

I don't think this will be easy to mod. And maybe that's why CA resolved to directly use the unit's mov points.

It would be possible to add a trait that gives movement points if at sea, but I don't think there's any way to make it apply on the first turn at sea.

However, an approx approach can be a hidden trait, as Meneth suggested.
In the end, maybe the fact that it cannot be applied on the first turn, will end up to be a good thing.

[preachercheeze]

send him on a boat into absolute doom? move him around to have his assets siezed? wait for him to die of old age or become an old age pensioner (OAP)

as stated, the boats movement is limited to the units MP on board... BUT there is a glitch... if you have at least two ships in the fleet and select all (Ctrl+A) ships, the movement points for the units is disregarded!!! although the passenger units cannot land after their MP is out (they still loose points) the ships can travel all of their MP....

this is particularly good when having a crusader army with slow moving artillery... the fleet can make the trip from England to Jerusalem in 4-5 turns, given that they aren't halted by enemy fleets...

[MadJackMcJack]

as stated, the boats movement is limited to the units MP on board... BUT there is a glitch... if you have at least two ships in the fleet and select all (Ctrl+A) ships, the movement points for the units is disregarded!!! although the passenger units cannot land after their MP is out (they still loose points) the ships can travel all of their MP....

this is particularly good when having a crusader army with slow moving artillery... the fleet can make the trip from England to Jerusalem in 4-5 turns, given that they aren't halted by enemy fleets...

Wish I'd known that sooner. I had a merchant in a fleet with a sizable army (he was hitching a ride) who picked up the old age trait and it took the fleet ages to get to land (plus the sodding general picked up a load of bad traits from being at sea for so long). Naturally, the idiot merchant upped and died of old age two turns after making landfall

Honestly, it makes no sense for agents to effect ship speed

[k/t]

as stated, the boats movement is limited to the units MP on board... BUT there is a glitch... if you have at least two ships in the fleet and select all (Ctrl+A) ships, the movement points for the units is disregarded!!! although the passenger units cannot land after their MP is out (they still loose points) the ships can travel all of their MP....

this is particularly good when having a crusader army with slow moving artillery... the fleet can make the trip from England to Jerusalem in 4-5 turns, given that they aren't halted by enemy fleets...

Awesome tip! Awesome!

I already asked if the movement points of the fleet and of the passengers could be made independent of each other, but nobody answered me. This is probably as good as it will get.

[Ichon]

Awesome tip! Awesome!

I already asked if the movement points of the fleet and of the passengers could be made independent of each other, but nobody answered me. This is probably as good as it will get.

Damn I wish I knew about this earlier. Would have made some migration campaigns far different.

[strife1013]

Ehh just an idea that's all.

[k/t]

Had a look through my merchants. Found 1 geezer who had become a liability:
he was generating 0fl per turn.

looking through his stats I discover:
he has two positive finance points (for good with money + family connections)
BUT 4 negative finance points (loyal to coin, daft dealer and dogmatically religious)
he's also aged - 56 years old (ahem not what I call aged )
with -26MP (that's modded btw)

can't do anything with him - it's not as if he has done anything negative, just sat on a salt mine and become progressively useless.

You found Hank Paulson!

[chris7ian]

I had similar problems letting merchants sit on a resource near my home territories. Aged merchant is a nice idea but I dont think its application is worth the added feature with the obvious problems.

[RollingWave]

yeah, right now if you don't have merchant guilds you might as well not bother with merchants unless you have access to some really rare resources (like gold/silver etc), especially on VH it's absurd how my 0-2 star merchants wonder around a land where everyone else is nearly full star

[Meneth]

yeah, right now if you don't have merchant guilds you might as well not bother with merchants unless you have access to some really rare resources (like gold/silver etc), especially on VH it's absurd how my 0-2 star merchants wonder around a land where everyone else is nearly full star

That's due to the AI getting 3 merchants during the first 10 turns or so.
After turn 10, I just don't bother making more merchants except on secluded islands, they'll just be killed in a few turns.

[Spartan90]

After turn 10, I just don't bother making more merchants except on secluded islands, they'll just be killed in a few turns.

Chuck a unit of Spear Militia on your favourite resource and let twenty Merchants mount him

And if the best resource is on someone else's land, get Military Access. Eg. playing as the Byzzies, you want the gold that's in Hungary. Military Access the out of them, and watch the 10,000 florins a turn pour in

[Medkirtys]

Chuck a unit of Spear Militia on your favourite resource and let twenty Merchants mount him

And if the best resource is on someone else's land, get Military Access. Eg. playing as the Byzzies, you want the gold that's in Hungary. Military Access the out of them, and watch the 10,000 florins a turn pour in

Actually it's silver in Hungary that's really worthwille. Speaking of Byzzies, my full coin merchant makes 1k+ from glass in Crusader States

[fatpaul]

That's due to the AI getting 3 merchants during the first 10 turns or so.
After turn 10, I just don't bother making more merchants except on secluded islands, they'll just be killed in a few turns.

it is a pain. I know the whole merchant take-over thing is on some randomised basis but much like the 50/50 chance I have of picking the right key from the fob of 2 to open the garage yet always without fail pick the wrong one, my merchants always seem to lose. a 4 star having a pop at at a 2 star last night and sure enough my 4 star is no more.

ho hum, assassins are the way forward, see a merchant heading my way and I just kill him. shame this isn't allowed in real life but thats democracy for you.

[RabidSheepLegion]

don't agents have longer range than generals anyway? shouldn't effect it too much

[kragon]

don't agents have longer range than generals anyway? shouldn't effect it too much

cept in crusades, try going with some priests to cairo, see you in 10 turns :p

[RabidSheepLegion]

ouch lol