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The Successful Trader
Wardein's guide to the Trade Tab
This guide is no guarantee for success but it will help you understand the basic principles of how trading works in online games and how you can claim your piece of the cake. Please note that you need to be level 17 and own a ”Branch Office” to start trading in Settlers Online. Also note that supply and demand is a living organism and participating in trading includes a risk of losing.
Analyse the Market
The first thing you should do is to take a long look at what is going on under the ”Trade Tab”. What items are people requesting? What are they willing to offer in exchange? This is a version of ”supply and demand”. They need something and you got the opportunity to provide it in exchange for something they can supply you with.
A small list of popular items:
* Weapons
* Beer (during christmas it's wine)
* Coins
* Hard Wood boards
* Marble
* Tools
Please note that this may change with time but I will try to keep it updated.
Specialised Production
To be an efficient trader you need to specialise in producing one or more of the items desired by most players, supplying the consumer's demand. Focus on one production line to begin with.
Costs
It costs a lot of resources (and building licenses) to set up an entire production line from scratch, make sure that you have enough before you start or this could literally take days.
Time consuming
It takes time to build up a solid production line. If you have done your homework when it comes to analyzing the market it will be time well spent, but if you misinterpret the market you will have wasted both time and resources. Be careful not to end up on this train to nowhere.
Storage
Don't forget to increase your storage areas to have enough room for your production. You never want your storage to become full, that is a waste of resources, time and trade value.
Trading
Mastering different techniques of trading is the key to cash in on your production. Here are a few things that can be good to keep in mind when being a good trader.
The right amount
Finding a good balance in the amounts of items you put up for trade is important. Rather than putting up huge amounts it usually is more effective to find an average. Very few players have huge stocks of the desired items, but most players have a couple of them. I usually stick to numbers around 50-100 to make sure as many as possible can afford my offer. This increases the number of potential ”customers”.
Try to find the amount that works best for you, this is something that may be different depending on what the market currently demands and what item you are producing. Some items are after all more rare than others.
You can also use this calculator to see how ”good” your trade is. I usually ignore what it says and go down my own road of common sense (and what I currently need) but it is good as a guide line on what your material is worth.
See Opportunities
Keeping an open mind and seeing opportunities is a good thing. For example you may find an offer to trade something you do not need in return for your items, but maybe someone else want that item... You see where I'm going here right? Keeping an eye on the demand of the market is a great way to know what items may be worth trading even if you do not need them yourself.
Ups and downs
The activity of the market will always vary (see ”Prime Time” in this guide) and you will more than likely experience that the demand of your item will rise and fall. When the falls happen you might not get a trade for an hour or a day but do not despair, this is perfectly normal for a healthy market. A rise will, in most cases, come and hopefully you will be online to take advantage of it.
Prime time
The best time for a trader in Settlers Online is when the highest amount of players are logged in. In online games that time usually is 17:00 to 22:00 (5 PM-10 PM) on week days and between 13:00 and 22:00 (1 PM-10 PM) during weekends.
Stay Alert
By keeping an eye on the market every now and then will let you find bargains that some people put up for trade as they desperately need your item.
Upgrading the production line
Don't get stuck with just one production, it is always good to have a back up plan. Upgrade some of your buildings and remove the rest, then start building up another production line. If you can constantly stay in tune with the market you should easily be able to get what you need only from trades instead of a sluggish production on all items.
I did it my way
This is just my way of trading and it has worked for me in several online games including World of Warcraft, Runescape and Dreamlords: Resurrection. There may be several different opinions on how it should be done (feel free to post them in this thread).
Best of luck!
//Wardein
Ps. If I win guide of the month prize I want a title that is ”Brewmaster” instead of anything guide related. Thanks.