Characters issue buy and sell commands to indicate
their desire to trade goods. Every trade must be between a buyer and a
seller. Whenever a compatible buy and sell
request are found, the trade will be executed.
Trades are only matched in cities, where merchants gather at the local bazaar to swap goods.
(Note that characters are always free to use the give command to
exchange items, regardless of where they are. But buy and
sell orders are only matched in cities.)
A buyer indicates what he wants to buy, how much of it he wants, and the most he is willing to pay. A seller indicates what item is being sold, how much of it is to be sold, and the per-item price.
A trade will match if the seller's price does not exceed the maximum price specified by the buyer; if the buyer has enough gold to buy at least one of the item; if the seller possesses at least one of the item; and if the buyer and seller are both in the same city.
If the buyer is willing to pay more than the seller is asking, the trade takes place at the seller's price.
Example: A noble who wants to buy five iron [79] at no more than 10 gold each issues:
> buy 79 5 10 Try to buy five iron [79] for 10 gold each.
If someone who had iron issues a sell order which matches this
buyer's request, the trade would be executed:
> sell 79 5 10 Sold five iron [79] for 50 gold.
The buyer would see:
Bought five iron [79] for 50 gold.
Either the buy or the sell order could have been issued
first. If the order can't be matched with pending trades from other
units in the city, it will become a standing order and remain in effect
until executed or canceled.
> buy 79 0 Cleared pending buy for iron [79].
Note that the buyer and seller can't specify what character they will
deal with. They will trade with any unit that has a matching
The location report for each city includes a market report listing
pending trades.
A trade will not be listed unless it could be executed. For instance, a
unit might issue an order to sell iron [79], even though the unit
doesn't possess any. (Perhaps the character plans to get some iron
later in the month, and wants the
Similarly, the buyer must have enough gold to buy at least one of the
item. No buy order would be listed for a penniless unit that wanted to
buy five iron at 10 gold each. If the unit later obtained 10 gold,
enough to buy one of the five desired units of iron, the order would be
listed in the market report for one iron, not five.
Some traders may work through middlemen to hide their identity. In such
cases, the who field of the market report will not show their unit
number, and their identity will not be revealed when the trade is
executed.
Even sneakier traders may have their pending trades omitted from the
market report entirely.
Some cities will issue
Enterprising characters may turn a profit by using skills under
the
If a buyer has a choice between two or more sellers, the one offering
the lowest price will be chosen. If several sellers offer at the same
price, the one nearest the top of the location's character listing will
win the trade. A seller with a choice among two or more buyers will
pick the highest unit as it appears in the location's character listing.
Since characters are added to the end of the list when they enter a
location, the units who have been in a place the longest tend to appear
toward the top of the list. Characters who have been in a place the
longest have an advantage when one of several possible trades may be
matched.
However, consumption or production by the city itself will always have
lowest priority. Cities defer to characters when multiple matching
trades are possible.
The location market report is ordered according to how multiple trades
will resolve.
A buyer would get 3682's iron, since the price is lower.
A buyer would get 2019's iron. 2019 must appear before 3682 in the
location character list.
4846 would win the buy from a lone seller. 1783 must come after 4846 in
the location character list.
sell 79 1 10 will match 4846. sell 79 1 11 will match 1783.
Partial trades are executed, if possible. If a buyer wants 100 iron,
but only 25 iron are available, he will buy 25. The pending
A buyer who desires three iron at no more than five gold each orders:
Suppose the only seller of iron in this city had ordered:
The trade will not take place, because the seller's price exceeds the
buyer's. Later, the buyer travels to a different city, where another
seller has previously issued:
As soon as the buyer enters the city, the trade will be matched:
Note that the trade takes place at the seller's price, and that the
seller will still be offering seven iron at four gold each.
If the seller had only one unit of iron for sale, the trade would have
executed, but the buyer would still be looking for two more iron to buy,
at five gold each or better.
buy
or sell order.
Market report
trade who price qty item
----- --- ----- --- ----
buy 2019 100 1 peasant [10]
buy 4274 74 3 iron [79]
sell 3682 12 11 sailor [19]
sell 2019 50 1 elite guard [15]
buy order to be in place when
the iron arrives). This order will not be shown in the market report,
because the seller doesn't have any iron to sell.
City purchasing
buy or sell orders
on their own behalf for certain goods. Cities trade orders are identity
to those submitted by players when participating in markets.
Trade [730] category to find new tradegoods for
sale in city markets, and buyers for those tradegoods in other
city markets.
Resolution of trades
trade who price qty item
----- --- ----- --- ----
sell 3682 10 1 iron [79]
sell 2019 12 1 iron [79]
trade who price qty item
----- --- ----- --- ----
sell 2019 10 1 iron [79]
sell 3682 10 1 iron [79]
trade who price qty item
----- --- ----- --- ----
buy 4846 10 1 iron [79]
buy 1783 10 1 iron [79]
trade who price qty item
----- --- ----- --- ----
buy 4846 10 1 iron [79]
buy 1783 11 1 iron [79]
Partial trades
buy
order will be reduced so that 75 more will be bought whenever possible.
More market examples
> buy 79 3 5
Try to buy three iron [79] for 5 gold each.
> sell 79 5 6
Try to sell five iron [79] for 6 gold each.
> sell 79 10 4
Try to sell ten iron [79] for 4 gold each.
Bought three iron [79] for 12 gold.