new auto caravans

[fodder]

i don't know what that does.. all i know is that it shows the same number everyday (which is the total consumed per harvest)  and that's for auto caravans.

and in all honesty, you would want to have a setting that gives you a safety margin (eg.. min req + 50 bushels or whatever number you can set manually)

in any case, there's no such tickbox in the "Automatic Trade Offer" section.

[Indirik]

The "amount needed to next harvest" was more useful back when the harvests were different lengths depending on the season. That meant that the amount of food required to get you from one harvest to the next could change drastically, especially when one harvest was in fall ( 5 days) and the other was in winter (15 days).

Now that all harvests are 7 days on Dwilight, that box really isn't as useful as it once was. You should be able to set a threshold to whatever your region requires for 7 days, and leave it.

[egamma]

The "amount needed to next harvest" was more useful back when the harvests were different lengths depending on the season. That meant that the amount of food required to get you from one harvest to the next could change drastically, especially when one harvest was in fall ( 5 days) and the other was in winter (15 days).

Now that all harvests are 7 days on Dwilight, that box really isn't as useful as it once was. You should be able to set a threshold to whatever your region requires for 7 days, and leave it.

...but sometimes you have a drought. I usually round up a bit.

[Chenier]

What would be ideal would be a system that allows you to set a minimum reserve value, a "sell everything else" box, and a minimum shipment value (so as to not send a caravan with 3 bushels in it). In other words: "If there are at least more than 100 bushels over the required amount, then send all surplus to X".

[Bedwyr]

Okay, I am incredibly confused.  Don't we have that?  You set up an auto sell order, threshold 150 bushels, and the game sells everything above that with (if I remember correctly and am not mixing it up with some of the discussions Tim and I had while he was coding) a minimum shipment value of 10 bushels.

Am I wrong on this?

[De-Legro]

Okay, I am incredibly confused.  Don't we have that?  You set up an auto sell order, threshold 150 bushels, and the game sells everything above that with (if I remember correctly and am not mixing it up with some of the discussions Tim and I had while he was coding) a minimum shipment value of 10 bushels.

Am I wrong on this?

That is how it has worked for me, when it actually worked which seems to be the problem. The way I set it up, it would sell all food over 300, to a maximum of 1000 for 30 gold. It appears the Caravan is only sent once every harvest cycle, though I am not sure about that, so if you have more food then the delivery threshold it doesn't send out another caravan. The only question in my mind is if the "amount" shipment setting is the maximum amount to send for sale, or the minimum.

[Anaris]

Okay, I am incredibly confused.  Don't we have that?  You set up an auto sell order, threshold 150 bushels, and the game sells everything above that with (if I remember correctly and am not mixing it up with some of the discussions Tim and I had while he was coding) a minimum shipment value of 10 bushels.

Am I wrong on this?

The minimum is actually 100 bushels, but otherwise, yes.  This is how it's supposed to work, and from everything I've seen actual evidence of, this is how it works on testing right now.

There were problems with the transition of the oxcarts to free caravans, so those have been disabled while I work it out, but as far as I can tell, the automatic caravans are actually working just as described.

[Chenier]

A De-Legro said, it seems as if they are either activated 1) once per harvest or 2) when the limit is breached. In either case, the shipment is of the set amount, and not "all the surplus".

[fodder]

let me get this straight then... if you set

sell, blank, X price, tick the threshold, Y region

your region will automatically send out caravans to region Y at a price of X to sell everything above the tick box whenever it has 100 bushels or more in the warehouse?

if you set

sell, 100, X price, blank, Y region
it'll send out 100 bushels once per harvest?

is that correct?

does buying work? and how?

----
what about the case I mentioned? your region produces 400 bushels and consumes 200 bushels over 10 days of harvest period (ie.. 20 bushels a day), thus 200 excess normally.

thus you would set a threshold of 250 (leaving 50 as safety margin)

so if it works, you'll be sending out 150 bushels to sell as the harvest comes in.

what happens if more food arrives a few days later?

let's say 2 days later, when the region requires only 160 bushels to last until harvest and someone dumped 200 bushels on your door step.

so you would have 410 bushels in the region in total (250-2x20+200)

would you not want to sell the 200 bushels? as opposed to only 160?

[cjnodell]

As an example:

Sell - 100 bushels - for 50 gold - with a threshold of 400 - to RrgionX.

I had assumed that this meant:

Whenever the warehouse has 400 bushels of food or more a caravan will be loaded with 100 bushels of food and sent to RegionX to sell it for 50 gold.

So, if a region has 350 food stored and then harvests 100 food they would have 450 food. A caravan of 100 food would then be sent to RegionX leaving 350 food. If surrounding regions end up delivering 200 more food the next day the warehouse would then have 550 food. A caravan would then be sent out with 100 food leaving 450 food in the warehouse. Then another caravan would be send leaving 350 food in the warehouse.

It would seem that my assumption of how the system is off so I must now wonder how this all REALLY works…

[egamma]

As an example:

Sell - 100 bushels - for 50 gold - with a threshold of 400 - to RrgionX.

I had assumed that this meant:

Whenever the warehouse has 400 bushels of food or more a caravan will be loaded with 100 bushels of food and sent to RegionX to sell it for 50 gold.

So, if a region has 350 food stored and then harvests 100 food they would have 450 food. A caravan of 100 food would then be sent to RegionX leaving 350 food. If surrounding regions end up delivering 200 more food the next day the warehouse would then have 550 food. A caravan would then be sent out with 100 food leaving 450 food in the warehouse. Then another caravan would be send leaving 350 food in the warehouse.

It would seem that my assumption of how the system is off so I must now wonder how this all REALLY works…

Your assumption is off. Even your assumption is off. Here it is fixed:

RegionY: Sell -  for 50 gold - with a threshold of 400 - to RegionX.

RegionY's harvest comes in, and region has 405 bushels. No food is sold.
Next harvest: region has 505 bushels. 105 bushels are sold to RegionX.
Next harvest: region has 450 bushels. no food is sold.
Next harvest: region has 550 bushels. 150 bushels are sold to RegionX.

[Anaris]

Your assumption is off. Even your assumption is off. Here it is fixed:

RegionY: Sell -  for 50 gold - with a threshold of 400 - to RegionX.

RegionY's harvest comes in, and region has 405 bushels. No food is sold.
Next harvest: region has 505 bushels. 105 bushels are sold to RegionX.
Next harvest: region has 450 bushels. no food is sold.
Next harvest: region has 550 bushels. 150 bushels are sold to RegionX.

Actually, I think it does send only the amount specified in the auto-caravan order.  So in this case, it wouldn't send more than 100 bushels in any given caravan.

Of course, it will never send less than 100 bushels, no matter what you specify.  Hm. That should probably be made clearer in the page.

[Nosferatus]

The whole caravan/food system needs overhauling, not how it functions but how the player can use it.
For starters put all caravan options and information on one page, not two...

And as others already said, the auto caravan form could use more simple interface, i see most players not even understanding it enough to try it.
if BM is designed as a lightweight then stuff like this is very important.
This combined with more complex region stat effects(like tmp and estate system) is also moving more and more players to never appoint new players(who have never held a region before)  to a region, only in very small (starting)realms it is comon for new players to get a chance to become a lord, ever.

[Anaris]

The whole caravan/food system needs overhauling, not how it functions but how the player can use it.

We are working on that.  Gotta get some behind-the-scenes stuff ironed out first, but I've got an overhaul of the food-management interface nearly done.

For starters put all caravan options and information on one page, not two...

No: that would make the one page hopelessly cluttered.

We will be keeping the same 3 pages—Caravan Missions, Trade Offers, and Warehouses—but they will be organized better, and the functions will be more sensibly distributed between them.

I'm seriously considering changing the behaviour of the "needed for harvest" checkbox, too: if it were modified by the "Threshold" box, so that you could say, "needed for harvest, plus X bushels", that would probably make a lot of people very happy.

This combined with more complex region stat effects(like tmp and estate system) is also moving more and more players to never appoint new players(who have never held a region before)  to a region, only in very small (starting)realms it is comon for new players to get a chance to become a lord, ever.

That's just not true.  I've seen pretty new players get lordships in relatively large realms that I've been in.  You just have to be in the type that aren't full to the brim with people who've been in the same realm since 2002.

In other words (and at the risk of oversimplifying, 'cause I know it's not this simple): get off of Atamara, the Colonies, and the EC, and you'll have a better chance at it.

[Nosferatus]

In other words (and at the risk of oversimplifying, 'cause I know it's not this simple): get off of Atamara, the Colonies, and the EC, and you'll have a better chance at it.

I agree, but you just named the two largest(in noble count) Continents.
But perhaps that problem does lay else where. (attitude of players)

Great to hear your even almost finished.
The dev team is putting alot of work in BM latley, though we see only the tip of that iceberg, from what i hear its allot of work.
Respect!