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    Your Elvenar Team

Are Traveling Merchants Completely Useless?

DeepTerminal

Active Member
Traveling Merchants don't benefit from relic boost and are completely useless compared to normal manufactories.

Am I missing something?

My level 27 planks factory with 760% production boost produces 3784 planks/3h and takes up 20 tiles.

Not counting population, culture, and supplies, it produces
3784/20 = 189.2 goods/tile/3h

A level 14 Traveling Merchant I produces 400 T1 goods/3h and takes up 6 tiles.

Thats 400/6 = 66.67 goods/tile/3h

It seems to me that even if we consider the space required for pop, culture, and supplies, the efficiency of a normal factory is still way higher than a traveling merchants.
 

LordVorKon

Active Member
It seems to me that even if we consider the space required for pop, culture, and supplies, the efficiency of a normal factory is still way higher than a traveling merchants.

Absolutely. The Travelling Merchants are mostly there for players who cannot, for whatever reason, trade for their non-boosted goods. This gives those players some kind of production without having to resort to the wholesaler. They aren't intended to be as efficient as producing boosted and trading for non-boosted.
 

SoggyShorts

Mathematician par Excellence
Not counting population, culture, and supplies
This is the problem.
Run the TRUE numbers and you'll see a very different picture.

Your planks factory needs
20 squares
2 roads
~5000 population

That population is about 1.3 level 33 residences
A residence needs 15 squares + 1.5 roads.
(15+1.5) * 1.3 =21.45

All of that requires about 3K culture which depending on your chapter is ~6 squares

Total space for your level 27 planker = ~50 squares (plus supplies) So more like 75 goods per square which is very close to a traveling merchant.


*Note: I'm normally much more accurate but I couldn't find a city for Noobslayer420 to get real numbers from.
 

DeletedUser2959

Guest
If your city is in a decent trading area, yeah, pretty much worthless. If not, they give you a decent amount of goods you can't trade for. Gotta use RRs to keep 'em updated tho.
 

Chriger

Member
This is the problem.
Run the TRUE numbers and you'll see a very different picture.

Your planks factory needs
20 squares
2 roads
~5000 population

That population is about 1.3 level 33 residences
A residence needs 15 squares + 1.5 roads.
(15+1.5) * 1.3 =21.45

All of that requires about 3K culture which depending on your chapter is ~6 squares

Total space for your level 27 planker = ~50 squares (plus supplies) So more like 75 goods per square which is very close to a traveling merchant.


*Note: I'm normally much more accurate but I couldn't find a city for Noobslayer420 to get real numbers from.
Yeah, I typically assume a factory takes 2-3 times the actual factory space, when you include roads/population/culture/supplies (Chapter 16 at least).

When I actually crunched the numbers, a Traveling Merchant would've been worse for T1/T2, though slightly better than a T3 factory. Granted it was close enough to not seriously consider trying to get that many Traveling Merchants to replace regular factories.

I'm sure Traveling Merchants could be a viable option to some people, particularly if you don't have a lot of magic residences or event pop/culture buildings.
 

Aritra

Well-Known Member
I have not regretted my traveling merchants. They were a decent supplement and did not cost any coins/supplies per production. Because their output is determined by the chapter you're in at the time of acquisition, it doesn't take a long time (which is relative, lol) to outgrow value, but definitely good while it lasted (I still have T1 and T2 but not for long). I suppose they could be upgraded with RR but I'm doubtful I'd use those for that (which I don't have anyway) unless I had more than I knew what to do with (and I'm under the impression they are less plentiful than that). I have considered selling them and recrafting (being at a later chapter) so the output level is more helpful, but I haven't done this yet.
 

SuNaya Dark

Active Member
Traveling Merchants don't benefit from relic boost and are completely useless compared to normal manufactories.

Am I missing something?

My level 27 planks factory with 760% production boost produces 3784 planks/3h and takes up 20 tiles.

Not counting population, culture, and supplies, it produces
3784/20 = 189.2 goods/tile/3h

A level 14 Traveling Merchant I produces 400 T1 goods/3h and takes up 6 tiles.

Thats 400/6 = 66.67 goods/tile/3h

It seems to me that even if we consider the space required for pop, culture, and supplies, the efficiency of a normal factory is still way higher than a traveling merchants.

I'm a relatively new player. Both of my cities are early Chapter II. (since I currently refuse to waste diamonds on expansions. I'm leaving that for later on. Also, I'm seeing which growth pattern and grid set-up works better this time around)
So, my question is this: Is the Traveling Merchant worth it for a newbie such as myself? I have the space, just not sure I should based on what you said. But you are a FAR more advanced/seasoned player than I. And it's going to be a LONG time before I finish Chapter II, at present. I don't mind. It's interesting to see the difference in my 2 cities.
I welcome your input. Thank you.
- SuNaya Dark
 

Iyapo1

Well-Known Member
@SuNaya Dark
In my opinion the Traveling merchant is only useful long term if you play solo or if you are in a growing fellowship.
Short term...they are very useful in small cities before you unlock the Goods Production Boost technology for the specific tier.
Traveling Merchant I= Tier1(T1) Traveling Merchant II= Tier 2(T2) Traveling Merchant III= Tier 3(T3). In my chapter 3 city I have a TM3 that is providing more T3s per square than my T3 manufactory and it will continue to be useful until I unlock my T3 Goods Production Boost.
 

Enevhar Aldarion

Oh Wise One
@SuNaya Dark
In my opinion the Traveling merchant is only useful long term if you play solo or if you are in a growing fellowship.
Short term...they are very useful in small cities before you unlock the Goods Production Boost technology for the specific tier.
Traveling Merchant I= Tier1(T1) Traveling Merchant II= Tier 2(T2) Traveling Merchant III= Tier 3(T3). In my chapter 3 city I have a TM3 that is providing more T3s per square than my T3 manufactory and it will continue to be useful until I unlock my T3 Goods Production Boost.

Once all the changes being tested on Beta and EN go to the rest of the servers, this advice will no longer be as good because you have to do a research in chapter 3 to unlock crafting in the MA, so only the tier 3 one will be of any use for newer cities.
 

ajqtrz

Chef - loquacious Old Dog
I have 13 T1 traveling merchants out. Why? Because I have the space AND, when there is an FA, they contribute to the Bracelets, often just enough that I don't have to waste a lot of goods by collecting from a large T1 for the last 500 goods I need to finish the badge. Not sure this is still applicable though as the recent change in the FA collection policy may mean nothing gets wasted anymore. Am I correct in that?

Other those reasons, I'll probably delete them once I actually start chapter 18 (paused in the middle currently).

AJ
 

crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
13 traveling merchants is 78 tiles of space. I am not convinced I won't make more T1s by just plopping down more residences and boosted T1 factories with that space.
 

ajqtrz

Chef - loquacious Old Dog
13 traveling merchants is 78 tiles of space. I am not convinced I won't make more T1s by just plopping down more residences and boosted T1 factories with that space.

You are right. If I build another boosted T1 and use the space for it I would get more T1. But.... I have 13 lvl 32 T1 boosted (steel) already out, and we are short planks in my fs/area. So I use them to make about 40K planks per day. It's not much, but since they have more value to me than steel, to me it's an even swap. AND I get to use them instead of them just sitting in storage.

Besides, how long does it take to build a lvl 32 steel mfr? And how much resources? I'm willing to bet the time to get there (not using time instants) is pretty steep and the cost in other resources does not make it better for me to do that at this time.

So for me the trade off is in getting them going, using them, and collecting a good higher value to me, at this time.

AJ
 

Laochra

Well-Known Member
I liked the TMs when I first started playing. For many chapters I had one TM1, TM2 & TM3. Each time one was offered in the MA, I would craft it & use it to upgrade/replace my older one. This past week I decided that they were no longer helpful enough like they were in the past, in fact I had realized that there were many times that I did even run them-they just sat unused. So I finally ditched them & am saving the space so I can upgrade my guest portal.
 

Kadhrin

Well-Known Member
I had TMs in the early chapters and loved them. They were especially great when I could get T3s before I could even build T3 factories. I'd trade their T3s for stuff I actually needed.
They became obsolete for me about 2-3 chapters after I got the T3 factories established.
 

juniperknome

Well-Known Member
i have traveling merchants lower chapters probably not worth bothering with. just wait till the goods building take up 30 spaces traveling merchants are about equal to the boosted goods so they do have a use
 

SuNaya Dark

Active Member
I have a T2 Traveling Merchant producing Marble, which is not boosted (I currently only have boosted Planks).
It's giving me more Marble than my T1 unboosted Manufactories. I'm keeping it for now. Not yet sure if I'll upgrade my unboosteds past Lv 4.
I'm tempted, but I'm playing Solo (and likely will for a while longer).
Thank you, everyone for the advice. I really appreciate it.
I have other questions about other items that are "Culture Only" buildings.

Dwarven Ship. It's a huge one for my tiny Chapter 2 city.
Is it worth it? I only have it as a Summons in 1 of my cities. And she has room for it. But it is worth it?

Same question for Spot of Whispering Trees.

Thanks.
SuNaya Dark
 
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