Medievia Mudslinger

July 28, 2000

Help for the trading-impaired - By Skyro

This trading article is focused more on helping newbies at trading who need a bit of cash and/or to fulfill those mlr requirements. Before reading any further note that most things mentioned here pertains towards low-level characters.

First off, a quick run down of what a trade is. As mentioned before, trading will fulfill the trading requirement, but trading is also one of many ways in Medievia to earn some of that cold, hard cash that every Medievian can't get enough of. The act of trading is basically buying goods and a freight to carry them from one trading post to another for a profit.

Before we get started below is a list of things found outside the realm of Medievia that can prove very useful on your adventures in trading.

  1. A trade/valuing script: HIGHLY recommended if you use a client that supports it as it'll save you a bunch of time valuing everything manually. Most scripts I've seen just values everything at the post you at for you automatically and puts all prices in a nice, easy-to-read list for you.
  2. A list of how much of each goods fit into a covered wagon: This is useful if you don't have a trade script (most trade scripts calculate the payout assuming you used a covered wagon) and need to calculate the payout manually.
  3. A list of the trade posts and what they sell: Very useful, especially with the trade script as you can just go down the payout list the script made and easily find the best trade within your needs. Otherwise, you can just try to memorize what each post sells, which is pretty hard since you'll have to do a LOT of memorizing, but if you trade enough it kind of just gets embedded in you mind =P.
  4. A list of distances between each trade post: Useful but not necessary as from this you will be able to calculate how much gold you get each step, so as to find if the distance you have to travel is worth the trouble. The exceptions to that would be trade runs to NaerMae, Thanos or after catastrophes (ask your clannies for advice on these kinds of trades).
  5. Get the World map of Medievia: Pretty useful when you first start trading since you won't know where the trade posts are. Its main use as you begin trading will be to see how far the trade posts are from Medievia city and which clan towns are closest to each trade post. If you don't have a list of the distances between each post as noted above, then you can use this map and just estimate how far the trade posts are.

Note: all of the above items can usually be found on the Medievia homepage itself (www.medievia.com) or from links from that page (clan and player pages).

Here are a few things which might help you on your trade that are located in the game itself.

  1. Get a mount: This is a must. I usually get a warhorse from Medievia city's stables and then just portal to the clan town nearest the desired trading post (use the world map as noted above) with your mount and just ride there. Note that many trade posts are near towns, which have stables in them, so you could just call a dragon and fly to the city/trade post and obtain a mount there, which saves you the walking time from the clan town. Some stables offer more than one kind of mount, so if you have a choice try to pick a mount with the most stamina, not breath.
  2. Having some way of casting invisibility on yourself: Another must as you can avoid many battles with this. If you don't have the spell itself then you should get some item(s) that allow you to cast it. Items that I recommend using that are cheap and effective are the shadow cloak, potions (i.e. cloudy) or wands of invisibility.
  3. Emergency gold: An "emergency" is usually when you are being chased by an evil dragon and can't shake him. Calling a dragon will cause a good dragon to come and help fight the evil one. On the other hand, be wary not to carry too much gold as in cast the evil dragon does manage to steal your gold. Also, if you somehow managed to lose your mount and are really rich and have cash to burn (when does that ever happen? =P), you could also just call a dragon and use it as a mount until it flies away. Note that to find out how much it costs to call a dragon you can simply type "call ?".
  4. Stamina and movement boosting equipment: This is only useful if you happen to lose your mount. Not so useful as you don't often lose your mount, and the trouble/money to get some of this equipment is not really worth the bother IMHO.

General rules of trading and deciding on a run:

  1. Before you go about doing any sort of trade run you should value goods at the trade post you are going to sell you goods at by buying a freight and typing "value (name of goods)." Typing "list" lists the goods they have for sale at that particular trade post. To calculate the profit you will make just multiply to price they will pay for the item with the amount you are going to sell them. Note that even though only a certain amount of one kind of goods fit in a certain freight, you may be able to fit some other kinds of smaller goods to get a little extra payout money. An example would be at City of Athelasea where you could only fit 56 flowers in a covered wagon, but you can also fit one bundle of bows as well. Remember to sell your freight after valuing if you do not need it.
  2. Trade posts generally pay more for goods the farther they were from and what areas you had to go through to get there.
  3. The farther you are from Medievia city, the harder the mobs are.
  4. Prices go down at trade posts as more of those kinds of goods are sold there. This means you can't find one good trade run and do that run forever. Prices do go back up slightly over time.

The Trade Run Itself: Get those spamming-direction fingers ready!

  1. After you have valued your goods and found a good payout for the distance/trouble, go to the post where those goods are sold and buy a freight by typing "buy (name of freight)." For freights, you should always buy a covered wagon for any normal trade run. This is because it holds the most goods, and thus gives you the most profit.
  2. After you buy your freight and goods, start moving along the road towards the post you are going to sell it at and you will notice that your freight will begin following you. Make sure you know where your freight (and your form's freights if that's the case). Keep track of you freight by keeping an eye out to see if it follows you or by using typing "freight" to locate the general distance and direction of your freight.
  3. When you happen upon a crossroad, there will most likely be a guide there. All you have to do is ask them where your heading by typing "where (name of destination). The guide will tell you the general direction as well as an approximated distance. If the guide says your destination is "on the horizon," it means you are far away from it. Anything else he says, i.e. "a great distance away," or "tens of miles away" means you are pretty close. There is a vagrant just outside the east gate of Medievia city on the crossroads, so you can practice the commands on him.
  4. Single-class mages and clerics can use the spell refresh to restore movement points to your mount. Single-class warriors and thieves should tether their mount to recover your mount's movement points by typing "tether" while mounted.
  5. If you happen to lose your mount, try to estimate how far the trade post is, as you might just be able to walk the rest of the way if it's not that far. If it is far, try to find go back to Medievia city by walking there if it's close or to go to the nearest clan town and portal there. Note that also there are wild horses as well as other mounts players may have abandoned in the wilderness so you might to be lucky and find one. Wild horses move around if you're not mounted on them so when your resting make sure they are tethered so they don't wander off. If you find a mount be sure to check it's someone's mount which they are currently using. It's kind of rude to just mount it leave if someone was expecting it to be there on his/her return.
  6. Forming to trade: this is highly recommended, especially for singles. Try to pick the right form members so that you can have more access to useful spells and abilities. Remember that if you are the one responsible for valuing the trade, be sure to make the payout worthwhile for the entire form, and not just yourself ;p.

General tips on wilderness mobs: Who can use you and how to avoid them:

  1. Wilderness mobs (short for mobiles) are aggressive, meaning they initiate combat with you. You really want to avoid mob battles as much as possible since time, in this case, really is money. There's not much you can do to avoid battles other than running fast (a good mount helps with this) and having invisibility cast on yourself at all times.
  2. Run from mobs you can't handle easily, as you can most likely just outrun them with a mount.
  3. If you stay invisible at all times and you do only trades near Medievia city, there are only 4 mobs you usually get engaged by who can detect invisibility. They are the fat ogre, swarm of insects, banelar and sunsprite. The fat ogre and swarm of insects are pretty easy enough for even lower levels to handle, but a special feature about the insects is that they can only be hurt by magical attacks. This means non-spellcasters will just have to flee or use damage inducing wands or something of that sort. Banelars and sunsprites may be hard for some lower levels to kill, as they both can blind you, and the banelar can poison you as well. Having access to remove poison and cure blind is very helpful, lest you try to find your way around blinded.

Weather: Sunny skies and rainbows not included

Evil Dragons: The ones that are BAD for you

What are evil dragons you ask? Well, anytime you are wandering through the wilderness you might happen upon seeing a dragon is flying around or has landed and is looking for prey. When it has landed, the dragon moves around in an increasing circular pattern until it has found a prey in which it will hunt until it has killed it, taken it's money, lost it's scent, or fought off. Dragons are very strong and if you are one of those lower levels it can quite literally kill you in a single rounds. This presents another problem you have to deal with on a trade run, but of course I'm here to help. =)

  1. First off, when you get the text that a dragon is looking for prey, quickly pop into medlink by typing "link." Then just relax there at for about 5-10 minutes and the dragon will be gone. If the dragon has already spotted you then you will not be able to enter medlink.

  2. If you are spotted, don't fight the dragon - RUN: You would need quite a large form of heroes (about 18 or so) to even think about trying anything like that. You can try to run away from the dragon as fast as you can, and of course having a mount is very useful here. If you happen to get caught without a mount you can cast quickness on yourself, as well as equip any +stamina/movement equipment you have as an alternative. Remember that you have to do this fast as the dragons move you pretty fast. Try to have a mode for equipping all that equipment (type "help mode" for more info). If your lucky and move really fast, you might be able to lose him .If you plan on running in this fashion I suggest you just run as fast as you can away from the dragon. If are lucky enough to be near a river or stream at the time, trying running along it as it may cause the dragon to lose your scent. If you are near a zone or town of some sort try entering it as the dragon won't follow you in. You will be notified if you have successfully avoided the dragon when you get notice the dragon gives up his prey/hunt and flies off.
  3. Probably the easiest way to get rid of a dragon is to call a dragon of your own (costs some money) like you normally would by typing "call" and your dragon will come to fight the evil one (at the point when the evil one is hunting you). At this point you can help your dragon fight the evil one or just continue on. The first choice is good if your at a high level and if your lucky and manage to get the killing blow on the dragon, you can get some items from the corpse. Otherwise, go with the second choice and run.
  4. If you are close a town you have just been to, you can cast the word of recall to teleport to safety there. You could also cast the spell teleport and hope that it brings you a safe distance away. Both these spells will usually leave you safe, but most likely far away from your freight, so you'll have to make the trip back there.
  5. If you don't have access to the 2 above mentioned spells, don't think you can outrun the dragon it, and don't have or don't want to spend money on calling a dragon, you can just quickly camp and quit before you get engaged by the dragon and just log back on in 5-10 minutes or so, in which time the dragon would have left.

Mob Factions, "mf" for short are a special kind of mob. They specifically appear randomly on the road with the sole purpose of stealing or destroying your freight. Mfs should be handled in ways other than just normal mobs if you want to make a successful trade. The advice in previous articles about trading is still valid so follow the hints there - mfs are generated at a level appropriate to the size and strength of the party they lay in wait for.

Other tricks-of-the-trade requiring specific spells/skills:

  1. The fear and sleep are very useful for avoiding battles that slow you trade down. Fear will work on just about any wilderness mob if you are at a high enough level, making them flee from you instead of the other way around :P. Sleep, on the other hand, only works provided you are at a higher level than the mob you are sleeping and that the mob is not higher than level 20. This spell will make the mob sleep on the spot and you can just continue on with the trade. Sleep can be more effective on tougher mobs when you are at lower levels when your fear is not very effective. I've heard sandstorm could be used in place of fear, as the spell ideally blows the mob away from the area, but in actual play I found it to be very unreliable. I usually just ended up killing the mob straight out instead of sending it to another room. It's a viable spell for clerics to use should they not have the Fear spell available.
  2. If you constantly flee from every battle on a trade for whatever reason chances are those mobs are going to chase after you. Of course you can outrun them but sometimes there may another mob up ahead or need to rest. This would allow the mob(s) chasing you catch up and engage you. The two best remedies to this is the shield room spell and the trap skill. These both can stop mobs from attacking you allowing you ample time to rest or what not. Note that since traps are so heavy that you can only carry a few at a time, so it isn't very effective unless you have the minor creation spell which allows you to create traps on the spot. For those who don't have any of those spells/skills another trick you can use is to try blinding the mob with the blind or colour spray spell, as blinded mobs can't engage you. Of course this isn't nearly as reliable since the effects of these spells do wear off and that you will find some mobs that can't be blinded.

Example run for beginners:

  1. First of all beginners should look for trades close to med. For simplicity's sake, let's do Ranger's cabin to Medievia City, since the two posts are relatively close to each other, and of course close to Medievia City itself.
  2. The next thing you need to do is value what you want to sell at where you want to sell it. So let's say again, for simplicity's sake, that you wanted to sell timber from Ranger's cabin to Medievia City. If you went to Ranger's cabin, you would have found out that only 1 cord of timber fits into a covered wagon. So now go to Medievia City's trade post just outside of the city close to the southeast exit (all trade posts are marked with the $ symbol on you wilderness map). Buy a freight, value timber, and sell your freight. Since you are only selling 1 cord of timber, what you value is the profit you will receive.
  3. The next thing you should do is get prepared for the trade, most importantly getting a mount. And since you valued at Medievia City you are close to the city stables so get yourself a warhorse.
  4. Then you look at your map of the world, and locate Ranger's cabin and what clantown it is close to. For those who can't see it, Ranger's cabin is located just south of Crystal Lake, southeast of Medievia City. Since Ranger's cabin is pretty close to Medievia City anyway, you can just go there and come back.
  5. Buy a covered wagon, buy 1 cord of timber, and start trekking back to Medievia City. Make sure you don't lose your freight and if you run into any problems refer above to the section pertaining to the problem.
  6. Reach Medievia City's trade post and sell your cord of timber and you freight. You have just completed a trade! Gratz!

Conclusion (yes..I am finally done babbling)

Well, I hope this article was helpful. Be sure to check our some of the other articles on trading people have written as this is only this article was geared mainly for newbies. So good luck and have fun (it is only a game after all). =)

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