New Developments
in the Trader's Guild
as of May 1, 2000
2/17/2003 - Market tables are now set up in Shard! They are located at the Mercantile Market on Moonstone street.
2/9/2003 - Speculate coin has been released! This coin throwing trick can be learned from Kworlin up in Muspar'i. Remember to bring 1 gold lirum with you, because there is a fee to learn it. With this ability, you can throw a randomly chosen coin from your pocket at your target, possibly stunning them! Your accuracy will depend on your light thrown skill and trading skill.
2/6/2003 - Appraisal experience formulas have been changed! Certain timers which restricted appraisal learning have been drastically reduced. This will mostly have an effect for those with high appraisal skill, and they will find appraisal MUCH easier to learn. Also, since appraisal learning has now been "fixed" to be quite reasonable, appraisal has been taken off the list of skills affected by the Alternate Experience System. Thanks Godrich!
1/8/2003 - Market certificates and coupons are now available! They are sold at Chispin's Print Shop in Therenborough. Unsecured certificates work the same as coins for purchasing goods off market tables of the Trader who originally wrote the certificate, and any other Trader who signs it. Secured certificates are the same as cash on any Trader's table, and can be turned in to the monger for cash at any time. To secure a certificate, you must bring it to the monger and pay the value written on the certificate. Coupons are good for a discount of whatever percentage is written on them, for goods off the table of any Trader who has signed the coupon.
1/7/2003 - A change has been made to market tables so that you can COUNT TABLE and it will tell you how many items are on it.
12/18/2002 - Ledgers have been updated to give a list of commodities and various information about them. You can also PUSH a crate to bring it to the front of the caravan and have it sold first.
12/2/2002 - Tons of new titles have been released! I count 33 new titles, and some titles have been moved to different levels. There are now a total of 50 Trader titles in all. Click here for a list!
11/7/2002 - At long last, a Trader-only housing area has been released! Unfortunately, it's in the middle of nowhere, at the North Roads Caravansary next to Dirge. However, the area is amazing, and in addition to houses for Traders only, it includes furniture shops, a commodities warehouse, a caravan stable, a horse stable and horse trading area, a private club for residents only, and a financable furrier for Traders over 50th who are citizens of Zoluren.
10/31/2002 - Ledgers have been redone so that they are more like spellbooks. You will need to TURN LEDGER TO CHAPTER [#] and then THEN LEDGER TO PAGE [#] in order to read the information you want. You can also STUDY LEDGER on each page to learn scholarship. Unfortunately, ledgers teach almost nothing compared to spellbooks, but they are still just as cumbersome to try to use.
9/13/2002 - Gem selling has been changed significantly! The maximum Trader bonus for selling gems has not changed, although the level needed to reach the maximum has changed from around 40th to 150th (it actually depends on charisma, trading skill and appraisal and not level - so those are approximate). This means that all Traders will now receive less bonus than previously. In addition, there is now a skill requirement before a Trader can even sell pouches at all, approximately 13th circle.
8/16/2002 - Price tags for the bazaar have been updated so that anyone can write on them. This makes it easier to have an apprentice help you, or have a customer price their own goods.
7/25/2002 - Abacuses were upgraded so that we can calculate currency exchanges. Type FIGURE ABACUS [amount] [cointype].
7/16/2002 - We can now spook our caravans and make them run away from danger, dragging us along with them. This feature can be used while you are at melee with creatures, and even while lying down (although not while stunned). To use it, TELL CARAVAN TO SPOOK.
6/25/2002 - The Shardstar Shipping company has opened up a new office in the Crossing (near the ferry to Leth)! Traders now have three destinations to ship goods between: Crossing, RiverHaven and Aesry.
5/30/2002 - The RiverHaven Trader's guild has undergone a significant expansion! Included in the expansion are a new auction hall and a banquet hall which Traders may rent to throw parties. The banquet hall also includes a gambling room with a fully functional craps table!
5/29/2002 - A new gem selling outpost has been released in Throne City! Traders over 50th circle who are citizens of Therengia may finance this shop, similar to the shop in Horse Clan. Also, non-Traders may sell pouches in bulk here as well.
5/27/2002 - A small change has been made to the auction halls so that you can stand in the foyer and hear whatever is said in the auction hall itself.
5/27/2002 - The library in the RiverHaven Trader's guild now actually has books in it. They are mostly the same books that are found in the Crossing guild, although there is one new book donated by Guild Leader Willowbrook.
5/3/2002 - The way that you remove disruptive people from the market tent has been changed. Now it only requires one Trader to remove someone, if you are at least 10 circles higher than the person you wish to remove. If not, it still requires two Traders. To get someone removed from the tent, ASK GUARD FOR REMOVAL OF [person].
4/23/2002 - Appraisal has been changed significantly! The first new feature is that you now have the option to APPRAISE QUICK or CAREFUL! Appraising something quickly only takes 5 seconds but is more difficult, while appraising carefully takes 16 seconds and makes the appraisal less difficult. You still have the option to do a regular appraisal at 8 seconds. Using quick or careful appraisals can change how well an item teaches you, so you'll need to experiment on how to learn appraisal now. The second new feature is that you can now appraise the weight of items! The information will show up automatically with your appraisal, but it takes quite a bit of skill to tell weight accurately. The third new feature is that the timer for how long you have to wait between appraisals has been lowered! Godrich won't say exactly how long it is, but I would approximate that it is around 20-30 seconds long.
4/9/2002 - A change was made today so that non-Traders can sell gem pouches in bulk at the Horse Clan outpost near Shard. This was done to make the Trader ability to finance the outpost more attractive.
4/1/2002 - Two major changes have been made to gem pouches today! The first change is a new Trader-only verb called GATHER. This verb will move all gems of a particular type into a separate gem pouch, which must be in your other hand. For example, GATHER RUBY IN MY POUCH would take all rubies from your first pouch, and move them into your second pouch. The second major change is that non-Traders will now be allowed to TIE pouches again. This is a major blow to Traders, since people will again start tying off pouches for no reason, which makes our job more difficult and eliminates our chances for earning extra money by getting gems clarified or cut and polished once those get released. However, Godrich felt it necessary to give tying back to non-Traders due to game resource issues, so unfortunately we just have to deal with it.
3/25/2002 - The feature of caravans and pack animals running over prone people has been changed slightly so that it checks where they get run over when the caravan leaves the room, instead of when the caravan enters the room. The change is subtle, but it gives Traders a chance to wait for people to stand up or drag the dead body away, instead of running them over before we have a chance to do anything.
3/7/2002 - A new gemshop has opened up in Horse Clan! This shop is unique in that Traders over 50th level who are citizens of Ilithi are able to "finance" the shop. You can pay up to 10 plats to finance the shop, and the next 10 plat of gems sold there you get to keep and sell somewhere else for a profit. Eventually more shops like this are planned to open up so Traders who are not citizens of Ilithi can participate too.
2/27/2002 - Traders now have a instructable technique that we can teach to other peoples' horses. First you need to learn the technique from a stablemaster, and then you can instruct other people how to do it. The technique is called Advanced Riding, and a horse that has learned it will continue riding straight until there is a crossroads.
2/21/2002 - We can now stop using our speculate ability by typing SPECULATE FINESSE STOP!
1/19/2002 - Bundles may now be TIEd, much like gem pouches! A tied bundle will only count as 1 item, so they won't corrupt you as easily, and this also means that more will fit on your kregkeirel if you have one. Tying a bundle will also reduce the size of the bundle, so you should be able to fit more in a container. Members of any guild can TIE bundles.
1/14/2002 - A new Trader-only verb with a related ability has been released! The verb is SPECULATE, and the related ability is SPECULATE FINESSE and is taught by the guildleader in RiverHaven. When you use the finesse ability, you get more elaborate verbs on certain verbs like BOW, SMILE and others. The finesse ability also helps with many things that charisma affects, including gem selling and contracts. How much it helps you depends on many factors which the GMs aren't telling, so you'll have to test it out to see how much it helps you in certain situations.
12/5/2001 - Pack animals for Traders have been released on the island of Aesry! The animals are called kregkeirels, and they have a basket on them that you can store your things in. The items will be saved in the event of the game crashing, or you getting booted, so you don't have to worry about losing everything on your animal. At this time, they are only rentable at two locations on Aesry by Traders of at least 35th circle. One stable is near the Trader guild hall, and the other is near the city. Don't ask me for directions, I've never even been to Aesry!
11/22/2001 - Problems with dragging crates off your caravan and having commodities still show up in your ledger have been fixed by the implementation of the new verb PULL. You can now PULL crates from your caravan to destroy them instead of having to DRAG them.
11/16/2001 - New room exits were opened in the Crossing bazaar tent, so that you can travel directly between rooms at the corners. The main advantage of this is that now if you yell, anyone in the tent will hear you.
11/15/2001 - A new type of jewelry was given out at the Trader social today, which I assume is a preview of new systems to come. When Traders hold the jewelry and appraise it, you get information about the value of 3 different gems set in it, the value of the jewelry itself, and the maker of the jewelry.
10/22/2001 - A third Trader market has been opened on Aesry, located southeast of the bank.
10/20/2001 - A new Trader Guild has been opened in the new city of Muspar'i! Along with the new guild is another new outpost in the town of Hvaral! These outposts are located north of Fornsted, bringing the total of Therengian trading outposts up to 6. Before you begin trading in Therengia, you should be aware that to get to Muspar'i or Hvaral, you must get a passport to pass through Arnshal Keep. Also be aware that there is a rather long sand barge ride, which only has one room, so watch out for Thieves! In the Muspar'i guild is a new Trader shop and another bazaar market.
10/18/2001 - Traders now receive a bonus to perception for a short time after getting the message about their pockets feeling heavier.
10/3/2001 - There has been a change to experience awarded in the Auction hall. The minimum amount of experience for each item has been increased, and more experience will be awarded for auctioneers who work the crowd. I assume this means the amount of experience awarded depends on the number of bids made.
10/2/2001 - Horses have been released! Traders supposedly have the ability to trade horses, although I have not heard how to do it yet. Another benefit of horses for Traders is that your caravan will still follow you if you are on a horse, and being on a horse makes you harder to be stolen from.
10/1/2001 - The new creation system of embroidering items has been released! Anyone can try embroidering, although Traders have a large bonus, and only Traders are capable of the highest quality work. The first shop selling supplies is Quellia's Thread Shop which is located in Arthe Dale, 2 east of the Trader's Guild. More shops may open in the future with more patterns and colors of thread. For instructions on how to embroider, click here.
9/27/2001 - The Trader's guild has a new GM Liaison! Her name is Ilanya Fortunis and she will be working to relay communication between the players and the other Trader GMs, Godrich and Equity.
9/14/2001 - We can now split and combine tied gem pouches! In order to split a tied gem pouch, hold the tied pouch with gems in your right hand, and hold an empty gem pouch in your left, and UNTIE POUCH. Your pouch will be split into 2 tied pouches of approximately equal value and number of gems, which will depend on your appraisal skill. In order to combine two tied gem pouches, hold them both in your hands and COMBINE POUCH WITH SECOND POUCH. Whether two pouches can be combined depends more on the weight of the gems than the actual number of gems, and it is possible to build pouches far over 70 gems this way.
9/5/2001 - Caravan drivers have learned more trading routes! You can now tell your caravan between Therenborough and Langenfirth and between Leth Deriel and the Gondola. The drivers may be able to be taught more routes, but no promises are made; the drivers are pretty stupid.
9/3/2001 - There is now an armoire in the Trader's Guild for donations for new Traders. It is located upstairs in the Gathering Room.
8/31/2001 - The Trader stables have lowered their prices to be brought in line with prices for stabling horses.
8/15/2001 - A trading outpost has finally opened in the town of Fornsted! The shipping clerk and minister are in the pavilion near Therenborough, past creepers & vines, and then past seordmaors. Watch out for the seordmaors, they can cast lightning bolts. If you're up for a little added danger, the profits are higher to reflect it.
8/14/2001 - The long awaited Trader's guild in the fourth province has finally opened! The guild is on the island of Aesry Surlaenis. Right now, the attractions include a fish buyer, a shipping office which will open soon, and five NPC waiters with different personalities.
7/25/2001 - It seems the Trader GMs are at it again, tweaking contract profits and experience. The main effect of the tweaks is to increase contract experience for low level Traders, which has been horribly low since the last tweak a year ago. More comments to come when the changes have been tested and the results are more clear.
7/18/2001 - The Monger's Bazaar in the Crossing has been expanded! In the main tent are market tables that any Trader of at least 20th circle may rent to sell their goods on. To get started, find the monger and ASK MONGER FOR TICKET, find an unclaimed table and PUT TICKET ON TABLE to claim it. To price your items you need to ask the monger for tags, and use a writing utensil such as a quill or charcoal to WRITE [number] ON TAG and PUT TAG ON [item]. Then just PUT [item] ON TABLE and wait as the buyers come running and the plats come rolling in.
7/18/2001 - As a side effect of the new market tables being released, the way BARTERing grants trading experience has been changed. Some Traders may find that they learn more trading from bartering now.
7/11/2000 - The winners of the Trader shop armor designing contest have been announced! Congratulations to Illyria, who won first place, to Elizabeta in DR Plat who won second place, and to Ferrum, who won third place. The items they designed will be appearing in the Trader shop as soon as Godrich and Equity are able to code them.
6/20/2001 - Caravans will now have a small chance of running over people lying in the road. Traders have no control over whether they hit people, so getting run over is *not* consent to attack the Trader, nor will it get a Trader arrested if it occurs in town. Any Trader caught purposely trying to run people over will get in big trouble, so don't do it!
6/20/2001 - Traders can now tie dead people to their caravans and drag them! To learn this ability, you must ask the Shard guild leader about skill.
5/31/2001 - We can now get contracts to shops other than the regular outposts! At this time, the only shop we can get contracts to is the Leth Bard Shop. Once enough supplies are delivered, the shop will open up and we won't get contracts here anymore. We can look forward to many more contracts like these in the future, to different shops in all provinces.
5/27/2001 - You no longer receive a message in the Auction Hall when people appraise the item on the auction table. This nice feature will cut down on the huge scroll of the entire room of people appraising the same item.
5/22/2001 - The way the commodity board shows up in the Wizard front end has been changed. If you have a Familiar window open, the information will show up in that window instead of the Game window. If you do not have a Familiar window open, it will still show up in the Game window, but it will now be yellow.
5/15/2001 - Chispin's Trader Print Shop is now open in Therenborough! Chispin sells handbills to Traders to give to their customers. There are currently 3 different designs and 6 titles to choose from.
5/13/2001 - Auctioneers in the Auction Hall can now create a list of the items to be auctioned! To start a list, place a container with the items you want to list on the stand. For more information, you may read the stand in the Auction Hall.
5/11/2001 - The Crossing Gem Shop is now a no hiding room. This makes it harder for Thieves to stalk out people to steal their money. You still have to watch for Thieves who stalked someone in though. NOTE: This only lasted a few days, and the Gem Shop was changed back so that people can hide there.
5/4/2001 - The minimum armor hinderances have been changed for all guilds, including Traders. What the new hinderances are will not be revealed, but Trader's minimum hinderances on leather and chain armor have definitely gone down! Leather has gone down to at least 5% minimum hinderance, and chain is probably between 5-10% now. I have no idea what plate is now.
4/17/2001 - We can now hire runners to announce our auctions! Hiring a runner will cost you about a plat, and the runner will announce your auction to anyone in the Crossing. Runners will only go out once every 30 minutes though, no matter who hires them.
4/7/2001 - Due to popular demand, a silver bucket has been installed in the Crossing Gem Shop. But making a mess is half the fun of gem selling!
3/31/2001 - Some changes have been made to the messages you see when other people sell gems in the gem shop. The change is intended to cut down on the blinding scroll for those people who don't know how to use squelch strings.
3/15/2001 - Caravans will now be fed on the main deck area by the crew of the barges for those Traders trading in Therengia.
1/21/2001 - The guild outposts will no longer feed our caravans and pack animals for us. This means we are now required to feed them ourselves. To feed your caravan, get something edible in your right hand and GIVE CARAVAN.
1/17/2001 - The first batch of new items have arrived in the Trader shop! Expect more new items to make their way in periodically.
12/1/2000 - The DISBAND verb has been changed to no longer allow you to lose a stalker unless you actually saw them stalking you. You can still lose an unseen stalker by hiding and sneaking away.
11/22/2000 - The winners of the Trader shop item designing contest have been announced! Items designed by Apu, Ferrum, Idora, Qip and Thomil will be appearing in the Trader shop as soon as Godrich is able to code them.
9/15/2000 - We can now learn trading by selling branches to Mags in the Crossing. She can be found outside Rartan's Collegium where you train reflexes. There is also a branch peddler somewhere in Shard if you can find it.
9/5/2000 - Ulven's Warehouse has reopened! You can now store surplus commodities that you get stuck with, and pay rental fees on them, rather than throw them away. Ulven's Warehouse is located two south, two west and one south from the massive iron doors that lead to the shipping clerk of the Crossing guild.
8/22/2000 - We can now throw unruly people out of our Guildhall. You can ask Penelope to throw people out of the upstairs area, or if you are running an auction in the Auction Hall you can ask a guard to throw someone out.
8/21/2000 - We have a new GM Liaison! His name is Godrich de'Finchal, and his goal will be to relay players' concerns to the development GMs, Kaikyu and Erakin.
8/15/2000 - We now learn trading from pawning items! This currently only applies to pawning single items, although bulk pawning may be available in the future.
8/15/2000 - Some minor changes were made to the Auction Hall. Whenever a container is placed upon the auction table, anyone will be able to look in the container, but only the auctioneer will be able to open, close or take anything out of the container.
8/10/2000 - Two changes were made to gem pouches today. 1) You can now get any color pouch you want from the gem appraiser. To get a certain color, type ASK APPRAISER FOR [color] POUCH. Pouches are available in black, blue, dark, fuzzy, green, indigo, purple, red, soft, and suede. 2) Gem pouches are referenced by typing GET [color] POUCH instead of GET GEM POUCH.
8/7/2000 - You will now see a message when someone else in the room asks the minister for a contract. It's nothing big, but it helps people who trade together, and that's good.
8/2/2000 - We can practice appraisal in the gem shops now! When you type APPRAISE [Item], you will appraise the item yourself. If you want the appraiser to appraise a gem pouch or gem, type ASK APPRAISER TO APPRAISE [Item].
7/31 thru 8/6 - Contracts have been tweaked again! There has been constant tweaking of money and experience over the last few days. The final results are an increase in experience and profits for Traders of high level, and a huge decrease for low level Traders. The province that is considered the "most difficult" was officially changed from Therengia to Zoluren.
7/17/2000 - Two changes were made today to facilitate gem selling! 1) Non-Traders can now only use the TIE verb if they have over 500 items. 2) The number of gems that fit in a gem pouch has been lowered from 100 to 70. The point of the changes is to make it easier on Traders who sell gems to separate large gem pouches into smaller pouches which are under the cap per pouch.
7/10/2000 - Apparently there has been a long standing bug since commodities were introduced that if you type SELL [number] and the outpost would only buy a portion of your wares, you could get around this by typing SELL ALL. This has just been fixed. And you thought commodities were evil already!
7/3/2000 - Three changes were made to theft. 1) Traders can now get a warning message if they feel their pockets getting heavier due to a Thief's hand being there. 2) The GUARD verb has been changed to make it more difficult for a Thief to steal past a guard, even if the guard cannot completely stop the theft. 3) The first of the planned changes to the WATCH verb was introduced. If you are WATCHing a thief, you get a penalty to catching any a theft by anyone who you are not WATCHing.
6/13/2000 - The formula for bonus to selling items has been reworked. It is based on trading, appraisal and charisma. Also, the maximum bonus has been increased. At this time, the formula is only applied to selling gems and bundles.
6/10/2000 - New titles are available for qualified Traders! Use TITLE PRE LIST in the game to see whether you qualify to be called a Teamster, Furrier, Lapidary, Moneylender, Auctioneer, Financier, or Mariner.
6/9/2000 - You can now count the number of gems in a gem pouch by using COUNT MY POUCH.
6/9/2000 - The TIE verb is now live for gem pouches. When you TIE a pouch shut, all information about the pouch is saved, but the gems in the pouch are deleted. This means that the gems in the pouch no longer count as items on your character and it decreases your chances of becoming corrupted. Once a pouch is tied, the action cannot be undone.
6/2/2000 - A typo in the gem selling code which caused the cap on the amount of trading you can learn per pouch has been corrected. This will cause the cap to be increased by approximately 50%.
5/10/2000 - The FILL verb is now live! Usage is FILL [containerA] WITH [containerB]. It will put all gems that are in containerB into containerA, while leaving all non-gems in containerB. It will only work if at least one of the containers is a gem pouch.
5/10/2000 - The Auction System is now live! You must be a level 30 Trader in order to auction items, but all guilds may bid and join in the fun. You must have the money on you to bid, however, there are no bank runners. To go check it out, go to the Trader's guild Auction Hall in the Crossing.