Trading For Dummies

A comprehensive guide.

By Squill

Are the markets a mystery to you? Are you left in the dark while your neighbors have that new skylight in their keep? Do you know how they managed to afford such a luxury? Read on and you will be enlightened. 

They played the market; wised up to the ways of Illy trade and sold their soles. Now it your time to turn in a profit and walk the Silk Road. Follow your feet as you follow this guide.

"Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it."  

Warren Buffett

Buildings:

The first thing that you should upgrade/build to start earning a profit is a Market Place, and then followed by a Common Ground, and a Paddock. Upgrade these buildings (not at the expense of upgrading other buildings) continuously, the higher you upgrade the faster you produce the more profit. Certain research requires that you have certain building already built. All these buildings can be found under the City Research Tab.

Most Profitable Resources To Sell (In descending order):

Chainmail - Blacksmith

Cows - Common Ground

Swords - Blacksmith (You can only build one type of product at a time in a Blacksmith)

Books - Book Binder (Horses replace Books in this spot during Tournaments)

Horses - Paddock

Plate Amour - Forge

Bows - Fletcher

Beer - Brewery

Spears - Spear Maker

This list was created by the examining the cost of basic resources; advanced resources, and gold required to produce an individual product. Also note that while Saddles are the most expensive resources on the market they require two cows to produce; this in turn lowers their profitability. Another important observation is the producing siege block and selling them on the market is operating on a loss; so I would not suggest building a siege workshop at all as you can just buy siege blocks for much less.

Research:

Most research under City is required in order to build Advanced Resource producing buildings. Additionally, research under Trading is also important as this allows you to have more caravans in your town; also enabling you to increase the carrying capacity.

Research required produce:

Chainmail - Smiting

Cows - None

Swords - Smiting

Books - Bookbinding

Horses - None

Plate Amour -Forging

Bows - Fletching

Beer - Brewing (under Quest)

Spears - Spearmaking

More Caravans - Haggling, Bartering, Trading, Mercantilism, Cartels ... (under Trade)

Higher Carrying Capacity - Improved Loading, Reinforced Cartwheels ... (under Trade)

The Market:

The market place is where everything comes together. This is where you are able to buy and sell resources. The market is fickle and largely dependent on what is going on around you.

•           The price of advanced resources such as spears, saddles, swords, bows, horses, chainmail, plate amour, and leather amour are all used in large quantities when producing troops. So in times of war, and tournaments: when players produce more troops, these Advanced Resources become more expensive. 
•           Cows and books are not directly used in war, so there prices remain relatively steady. Cows however are used indirectly in the production of troops because they are used to produce leather amour and saddles; the prices of cows remain relatively calm because people tend to produce Advanced Resources regardless of war. This is of course a profitable exercise so I suggest you do the same.
•           The price of Basic Resources will continue to rise because as new players enter Illy they mostly require basic resources; so their demand will increase and thus their prices.
•           Selling Advanced Resources that you have produced continuously is the only method that can bring you a large amount of wealth; taxing your cities is relatively insignificant until you have a huge population.

Buy and Sell

Buying and Selling is a simple process; if you desire a product you can accept a sell order or place a buy order. If you want to make a profit sell: Resources by placing a sell order. Buy orders only require one caravan to carry the gold, sell orders require as many caravans as the goods can fit into.

•           Always remember to place your buy order or sell order with a relatively reasonable price; insure that the price you place it at; is the price that will see that your order is at the top of the list. If it is not there when you place it then it is unlikely that your order will be fulfilled. 
•           I also believe in buy orders to get a much better price for goods: you should place buy orders instead of accepting sell orders. This might mean that you wait for a while; but in a relatively short period time, your buy order will be accepted for a much better price.
•           Do not place large sell orders for advanced resources (over 500 products), this requires you to wait longer for you product to be sold because some people do not need that many Advanced Resources, or they do not have the funds for it.

 Other wealth gaining tips:

•           Sovereign plots require a lot of Basic Resources and gold. The bonuses they provide do not amount to the price of the goods they require. So do not build them; especially if you are new to Illy.
•           Set your tax to 0 percent when starting out as this provides you with more Basic Resources; this is far more valuable then gold at smaller populations.
•           Do not produce troops when you are new to Illy; rather sell the resources that you require to build those troops. A rune is much better protection at younger stages.

That concludes this guide, further editions and alterations may be made later on to keep up with current trends.

Koragg wrote: Oh so THIS is the reason the price of cows dropped... Oh well, according to market theory it was 'supposed' to happen.  Sale price was waaay higher than production price, hence economic theory states the market should have been flooded long ago, but that only just started happening now.

The price of cows for the last couple of months has been relatively steady( though at a downward trend). We have only recently seen a significant drop in their prices for the last three weeks. Related to demand it seems; however I think it's just temporary. 

The slow downward trend is related to newbies being able to build and sell cows when they enter the game; without much hassle, so supply is picking up. I doubt that this has anything to do with the production price; because unlike the our markets in RL; Illy's market is not profit driven to that extent; it's more the fact that it's there and you can trade on it; so why not?

Er- Thank you everyone for your welcoming remarks.

<Squill> wrote:   The slow downward trend is related to newbies being able to build and sell cows when they enter the game; without much hassle, so supply is picking up. I doubt that this has anything to do with the production price; because unlike the our markets in RL; Illy's market is not profit driven to that extent; it's more the fact that it's there and you can trade on it; so why not?

The reason newbies build and sell cows is because it is the most profitable for the material expenditure and per unit (with a limit to how many units you can put in a caravan, that's important).  Compare: Horses.  Horses cost more resources to build, and yet sell for 1/2 the price (well, until the cow prices tanked).  You say that the downward trend of cows is because newbies can build livestock right away, however they can build horses right away, and we don't see the market flooded with them.

The market might not be 'profit driven' for veterans who have billions in the bank, but for new and new(ish) players who only have a couple of million, it is.

You list 'swords' as being more profitable than cows.  That wasn't true until very recently.

Well now; cows are used in the production of saddles and leather amour. In fact: around double the amount of cows are traded on the market compared to horses. Now their price is determined by their demand.

Of course buying siege blocks is an example; they are extremely expensive to build; and selling them does not make any profit. So the majority of siege blocks sold on the market; are there because they could be sold. (Their price is determined by demand; which in turn is determined by how people are busy sieging, which no one is doing )   

Vets are the chief buyers of these product; - cows included. The wealth they are able to generate from tax is used to purchase these goods. So in essence the market is driven because of their demand...

Agreed; the guide will be updated in time. 

I like this Cuddlefuzz; it was constructive rather than overly argumentative for no reason. A good post +1. :D

The vets "might" be running a gold surplus largely because of tax revenue they get from there cities. However; generally over a period of time many of them build troops in preparation for battle/war/tournaments. In which they go through a stage at the bigging whereby they have a lot of gold flowing until most of the gold revenue is consumed by units they have built and they go into deficit.

Generally the tournaments are a way to relieve inflation; where troop and gold reserves are spent in huge amounts.    

<Squill> wrote: The vets "might" be running a gold surplus largely because of tax revenue they get from there cities. However; generally over a period of time many of them build troops in preparation for battle/war/tournaments. In which they go through a stage at the bigging whereby they have a lot of gold flowing until most of the gold revenue is consumed by units they have built and they go into deficit.

Generally the tournaments are a way to relieve inflation; where troop and gold reserves are spent in huge amounts.

Ah, I forgot about the tournaments!  Yes, they are the pressure valve, good point.

I have a good friend who has some odd ideas about economics so I have given myself the briefest and shallowest of educations.  The economic simulations in games like Illy are really fascinating, though they lack some very crucial components of real-world systems.  Glad you enjoyed my thoughts.  I'm a subscriber to Keyensian economics and Illy's system does, to me, show a clear demand-side market.