April 21, 2000

An Overview of Trading - By Gandore

Medievia: Thousands, maybe even millions, of lines of code/text/modules working in sync to provide a very entertaining MUD (Multi-User-Dimension or Dungeon) for everyone around the world to enjoy. This text-based paradise has many, many things to do, and a most of the time you'll need a specific thing to get the most out of these activities: money!

There are various ways to earn gold coins (universal currency in the world of Medievia), including selling equipment, selling eggs, doing a big favour for someone, or just plain asking a fellow player politely for a small donation. The main method of earning a living I would like to focus on is trading. A basic description of trading is taking a freight full of goods from one place to another and selling for a higher price. Unfortunately for all we Medievians it's not so simple.

Section A: Finding a decent trade run

Let a = the maximum weight of the wagon you plan on doing the run with
Let b = the weight of the item you plan on bringing along
Let c = the price for *1* of the item you plan on taking with you
And v = the total value of the trade run

Therefore the formula would be v=(a/b)*c

Although most values can be calculated using only the weight of an item, sometimes you will have to substitute the size into the formula. If you notice that the size of an item is quite higher than it's weight, then substitute the maximum size of the wagon for "a" and the size of the item for "b." For example, I want to take an item from point A to point B in a covered wagon. When I type list I notice that the size of that item is 35, and the weight is 20, which is 15 less then the size. I suspect, because the size is substantially larger then the weight, I would have to substitute the size for the weight in the value formula. You can also compare how many of each item fits into the wagon by dividing the max size of the freight by the item size, the max weight of the freight by the item weight, and then comparing the two answers. The largest one is how many items that wagon can carry.

So let's say I wanted to do a trade run from point A to point B, and I happen to know the weights of all the items at point B. I would fly over to point A, buy a wagon, and value each of the items. Now then, let's imagine that one basket of corn is worth 22342 coins, and we know that one basket of corn weighs 85 units, and we plan on doing the trade run with a covered wagon which has a maximum weight of 1700. We would stick all these values into the formula and come up with v=(1700/85)*22342, which would come to a total value of 446840.

So you have calculated the total value of the run. Now you have to decide whether it's actually worth running (by comparing distance vs value). At www.medievia.com in the medweb section you can find a big map of medievia, which has almost every trade post location on it, such as Riverton, Trellor, and so fourth. It's extremely useful for visualizing the distance between point A and point B and whether your total value is worth the distance between the two points. There is also a list of distances (in steps) between almost every post lurking around the web and even in the mud itself (on clan boards). If you are really picky and want to know the exact amount of money you will get per step find yourself one of these lists, and divide the total value by the amount of steps to figure out the amount of money you will gain for each step. Personally I think a good run is one where you get 1000 coins or more per step.

Section B: The actual run

You have a wagon, the goods, a mount, a form (if any) and you know where you're headed. Basically all a trade run is following the road on the map to your destination and avoiding baddies who want you dead. Carrying staves or wands or potions that grant you invisibility is a very wise thing to do to avoid some of these mobs. Having a cleric/mage in your form to cast this or refresh you will help a bunch too. If you do not posses the refresh/mass refresh spell then tether (by typing "tether") your mount and give it a few ticks to get full, or just rest for a while if you are not mounted on any beast.

Guides are mobs that sit at intersections and point you in the direction of wherever you wish to head. One does this by saying "where ". For example, at a guide I would say "where riverton" if I were headed to Riverton and it would tell me which way to go.

Section C: Wilderness mobs and how to deal with them

Wilderness mobs are simply mobs you find in the wilderness (the wilderness being outside of towns/cities/etc.). MOST of these will attack you on sight if you're not invisible, and a lot can even see invisible players. As mentioned in the helpfiles, the farther you go from the City of Medievia the harder and more dense the wilderness mobs will get. There are, however, skills/spells that assist you in avoiding a battle to the death with these pests, which will be covered in the important skills/spells section. In most cases it is best to flee from a wilderness mob, fetch your wagon, and quickly run to the next room. Here is a basic rundown of most of the mobs, from easiest to hardest.

• Kobolds, Goblins, Owls, Stirges, Bandits: These are very weak and can be taken at a low level. Type: Very weak melee only
• Gnashers, Wombats and Jackals: Intermediate mobs. Still only a nuisance to most travellers. Type: Weak melee only
• Gnoll lords, Troll Chieftains: Takeable at levels 17-22. They hit for medium- low damage. Type: Medium melee only
• Banelars and Sunsprites: Much more difficult, because they are casters. However, they are both under level 20 therefore making it possible to put them to sleep using the spell. These may blind you with the color spray spell. They can see invis as well. Type: Weak melee, casters
• Ogres: Cast :fear: on these or just flee, grab your stuff and run. Medium hitters. Type: Medium melee only
• Forest Abominations, Acid Slugs, Plains Barbarians, Phantoms, Rogue Elves: These are only found nearing the edge of the world of Medievia. I generally flee from these or trap them then continue along. Each one hits hard and plenty per round. I do not recommend taking them alone as it will just slow you down greatly. Type: Hard melee only
• Winged Fire Demons: These are rare, yet extremely strong. They have medium melee strength and also cast powerful spells. Type: Medium melee, powerful casters
• Renegade Wizards: Much like the fire demons, although they cast much more powerful spells and have weak melee. Type: Weak melee, powerful casters
• Xorns: The infamous "small, squat ugly creatures" that will kill an unsanced mage in only two or three rounds. These shouldn't be approached at all. They cast a variety of strong spells including plague, shockwave, call lightning, and color spray and are level 28 mobs. They also hit very hard. Type: Hard melee, VERY strong casters

The most important thing to do when approached by a hard mob is flee and run quickly out of the area with your freight. If you stick around the mobs will follow your tracks and hunt you down until you're a pile of rotting flesh on the ground. It's often a good idea to flee from any mob to make good time.

Subsection 2) DRAGONS, THE EVIL ONES

Dragons, like humans when not logged onto medievia, get bored quickly. For this reason they need to find someone to terrorize. Every once and a while, an evil dragon will circle around in the sky, looking for prey to steal gold from or kill. These are simple to kill by a form of 4 or 5 heroes, however often while trading you won't be fortunate to have a form of 4 or 5 heroes along with you. This is why you, alone, must know how to deal with these magnificent lizards. The first sign you will get is a dragon circling at * o' clock looking for prey. There is nothing you can do at this point other then continue along or wait for it to land and start hunting. Once you see the beast land type "link." If it says you cannot link because you are being hunted then immediately call a good dragon to defeat the evil one for you, or head for the nearest river or stream to make the evil dragon lose your scent and become a sitting duck. Or if there is no rivers/streams around or you're short on funds, then run around mindlessly in the wilderness until he gives up his hunt and flies off.

If you are feeling foolish then you can lure the dragon closer towards you and call a good one to initiate combat with the bad one. Once you see your dragon pounce on the evil one find them, and watch the fight. Often times the evil dragon's corpse will contain orbs, money, healing potions or even a dragon brain, which sells at a very nice price on auction. (note: you can turn in 2 dragon brains, 2 dragon crystals, and 20 million coins for 2 amulets of telepathy which allow you to telepath stuff to your friend without having to be in medlink or in the same clan).

Subsection 3) MOB FACTIONS

Mob Factions are not to be confused with your average wilderness mob. While running down a road with your freight the code will notice that you are doing a trade run and create a group of mobs out of nowhere to steal and sometimes even destroy your goods and attempt to kill you as well. The beauty of this complex module is that the strength of the mobs depends entirely on your level. This way it gives low level players who trigger a mob faction hope of actually defeating the mobs. All mob factions consist of leaders and their minions. The leaders (the strongest of the mob faction) stay stationary on the road unless you bring your freight to them at which point they run off with the goods. The minions are much weaker and come in larger numbers (usually). Once you kill all the leaders, the mob faction will end and the minions will disappear. Some common tips to all mob factions are:

1. Never ever bring your freight into a mob faction. Back a ways up down the road until you stop seeing warning messages and quickly dispose of the leaders. If you do bring your freight into the same room as the leaders of the MF then other leaders will jump into the battle and you will be largely outnumbered.
2. As soon as you see warning messages you must identify what MF you are dealing with, back up a ways, and then dispose of it asap.
3. If you find that the MF leaders are much too strong for you to take alone, then don't be afraid to ask for help over shout or link a friend. If you cannot manage that then move back down the road a ways and wait the mob faction out.

The five MFs, in order from easiest to handle to hardest, are kobolds, rogues, bandits, demon lords, and trolls. Now let's look at each:

Kobolds

• Signs (appear in red text): Many eyes watching, bowstrings creaking, many small footprints, and arrows that hit you from different directions.
• Fighting type: Melee only
• Mobility: None
• Kobolds are by far the easiest MF to deal with, mainly because the leaders are very weak. As soon as you see signs of kobolds keep on walking forward until arrows start flying at you, at which point you should back up a bit then move out of the road (so you're wagon doesn't follow). Then move a few rooms ahead and get back onto the road and keep on moving along the road until you find 2 or more kobold leaders. These are non-aggressive so there is no hurry at this point. If you wish (for xp/potions) kill the archers alongside the road. Once you are finished disposing the archers, find the leaders and kill them. Remember, do not bring your freight with you, because it will likely get you killed. Once the leaders are defeated you can go back, grab your freight and continue on.

Rogues

• Signs: Twigs will snap, the road up ahead will seem too quiet, you will sense an ambush up ahead, and leaves will rustle.
• Fighting type: Melee only
• Mobility: None
• The rogues, like the kobolds will NOT move unless you walk into them with your freight. Once you see the obvious signs, back your freight up a ways then leave the road and continue forward alongside the road two rooms and get back onto the road. Once that is done keep moving in the direction you were originally until you find a rogue scout. This is the mob you want to kill. Once he is dead the MF is over and you can continue on your trade run.
• Note: if you have the trap skill/shield room spell lay a few traps down or shield the room where your freight is, because there is a very slim chance that the scouts become mobile, at which point you must find the rogue leaders and kill them.

Bandits

• Signs: Most of the rogue signs. Bandit-specific ones include bandits dashing by and movement on the side of the road.
• Fighting type: Melee only
• Mobility: Scouts yes, leaders no
• Bandits are basically just rogues with different names. The only major difference is that the bandit scouts will in fact move around in search of you and your freight, and there are often more then one lurking around. Once you notice road bandit signs, back up a ways as you do for rogues until you no longer get the messages and quickly dispose of the leaders further down the road. There is often more then one leader as well so room spells work great against them. Again, entering the MF with your freight will likely get your goods stolen and give you a much harder time.

Demon Lords

• Signs: Unspeakable fear will grip you, a vortex will crackle, dogs will run at you, and a blatantly obvious sign is "a demonlord must be near"
• Fighting type: Strong melee/casters
• Mobility: The spectral hounds do move (quite fast in fact), but the demon lord himself is stationary.
• Demon lords are a very unique mob faction. The lord will send a never-ending stream of spectral hounds at you to kill you and destroy your freight. Once you see dogs running at you move forward slowly making sure you do NOT run out of the road until you run into a form of spectral hounds. After there is 1 or 2 hounds left the lord will send even more. For this reason it is almost necessary to have someone help you kill the lord while you take the hounds. If you are not with your freight while the hounds are then they will begin eating your goods until the freight is totally destroyed. The demon lord himself has very little hps but casts shockwave (call lightning in rainstorms and lightning storms) and will summon a blood demon to take control of your freight if you enter the room with it.
• Very Important Note: If you have the minor creation spell and the trap skill, you can make this MF so much easier for you to handle. What you do is create 7 traps and lay 2 in each room while moving away from the direction you were heading, finally laying 3 in the last room and then move another room back and stay there until you get no more messages showing dogs running at you. This clever trick will trap ALL of the dogs in the 3 rooms up ahead making it very easy to run alongside the road (without your freight of course) to the lord and killing him. This is the only way I know so far to take a demonlord mf solo without having to kill even one spectral hound.
• Another important note: the shield room spell is useless against dogs because they will eat right through the shield.

Trolls

• Signs: The war cry of a horde of trolls, nasty smell, remains of humans which trolls tore apart.
• Fighting type: Mix of strong melee and casters
• Mobility: The thieves/clerics/warriors/mages will move around but the captains will be stationary unless you walk into their room with your freight.
• Trolls are a tricky MF to deal with and I do not recommend attempting to take these alone unless you have been through the thief class, cleric class, and most of the mage class. The first thing you have to do is kill/blind/trap the troll clerics/thieves/mages/warriors (remember, always move your freight a ways back before assaulting a MF). Once the mobile trolls are dealt with you must find the troll captains and deal with those. To make life easier you can always blind each captain and then unform them using the hands of wind spell and take them one by one (this strategy works well with the other mob factions). Once the troll captains are dead the MF is over and you can continue on the run.

Section D: Useful skills/spells

Spells

• Refresh/Mass Refresh: Mage/Cleric class spells. Refresh replenishes around 100 movement points of the specified target (caster level dependant). Mass refresh has the same effect but it will refresh everyone in your form including yourself, and eventually at a higher level will cost 2 mana less then refresh when used on yourself only.
• Invisibility/Mass Invisibility: Mage class spell. This is a pretty self- explanatory spell. Whatever can't see you can't hurt you. It works the exact same as refresh/mass refresh however casting mass invis in a room will make everyone including unformed people/mobs invisible.
• Shield Room: Mage class spell. Shield room is by far one of the most important spells to know. What it does is it wraps the whole room in a yellow shield, keeping normal wilderness mobs from entering, giving you plentiful time to tick up or just block the road from a mobile mob faction.
• Sleep: Mage class spell. Casting this on a mob lower then level 20 and lower then your level will cause it to fall asleep (it is however allowed a save vs spell). It's a very easy method of avoiding banelars and sunsprites.
• Fear: Mage class spell. The fear spell will "cause fear in the hearts of the brave," causing them to flee the room and the fight. This is very handy if you are confronted by some insects or an ogre.
• Sandstorm: Cleric class spell. This has the exact same effect as fear, however it will also cause damage. It's not as reliable as fear, however.
• Minor Creation: Mage class spell. Minor Creation is a must-have spell. Using it to create traps in conjunction with the thief skill "trap" will allow you to trap any aggressive mob that may be following you for a few minutes, giving ample opportunity to put some distance between you and your enemy.
• Armor/Shield/Sanctuary: Mage/Cleric class spells. Having finished the two spell casting classes gives your average trader a very large advantage over the great outdoors. Armor, shield, and sanctuary are each protective spells which will assist you in taking damage from your enemies.
• Heal: Cleric class spell. Anyone who plans on doing a solo trade run successfully should have the heal spell. It replenishes your hitpoints at the cost of mana. One cast can heal anywhere from 80hp-150hps for current class clerics.
• Attune: Cleric class spell. Attune is a great way to get back to your freight in a split second. What the spell does is it marks your exact location (the current room you are in) with an earth crystal. And then as long as you are in range you can use that crystal to get transported back to the spot you attuned it to. It works much like a mobile recall point.
• Quickness/Mass Quickness: Cleric class spell. Quickness is an extremely important spell for when doing a trade run unmounted (for whichever reason). It raises your stamina greatly allowing quicker movements without running out of breath as fast. Mass quickness has the same effect as the other mass spells.
• Resurrect: Cleric class spell. Resurrect is almost essential for at least one person in your form to have. It allows you to bring a player back from the dead before they corpse. (note: You must have a "heartstone" held in order to successfully resurrect someone)

Skills

• Trap: Thief class skill. Trap allows you to set up to 3 large traps in the room. When a mob walks into the room there is a 85% chance of it getting caught inside the trap rendering it unable to move for a few minutes. This is a very handy skill when wilderness mobs are hunting you.
• Dodge: Thief class skill. Most of the wilderness mobs and mob factions are pure melee. For this reason it is important to be able to dodge most of their attacks with this skill. It will often mean the difference between life and death.
• Parry: This Warrior class skill has the same effect as dodge but less occurrence during melee.

Section E: Trading without a warhorse

• Mountain climbing boots from Asnor: +10 stamina - feet
• Cotton shirt from Ruella: +3 stamina - body
• Riding skirts from Riverton: +3 stamina - legs
• A staff made of stripped elm wood from Crystal lake: +10 stamina - held

Section F: Miscellaneous tips

• If a mob faction mob has ran off with your freight and you are sure that you cannot get it back by force, then die! Yes, your freight will stand still when you corpse. Do not pray at an altar until the mob faction leaves, though.
• Never forget to value before you trade. Spending 2 hours getting from point A to point B only to find out that the run was worthless is a very disappointing experience.
• Try to have a +stamina mode. It is possible to achieve over 80 stamina as a hero using a carefully picked combination of equipment. This way if you lose your mount you will still be able to keep at about the same speed.
• When you plan on having a formation tag along with you, try and bring along clannies. This way the clan benefits from the trade rating going up.
• When planning a trade run never forget to take in account the difficulty and density of the wilderness mobs around your planned destination. They often account for a hefty portion of wasted time during a trade run.
• Don't be afraid to give a shout for help. There will generally be a generous player with their hands free to help you in your time of need.
• Take advantage of catastrophes (read help catastrophes), because they don't come along too often.
• Always keep an eye on the weather. If you are formed have a formie do this for you. This way you don't run into a tornado merely because you didn't check to see if there was one :P
• Be courteous to the fellow player. If you spot someone in need killing a mob or who needs a res or something, assist if you can! The favour will most likely be returned in the long run.
• There is no necessity to fight battles to the finish (unless its a MF). Flee! Time is money when it comes to trading.
• If you are completely new to trading and want an easy trade run to do, then run timber from ranger's cabin to medievia. It's about a 200k profit and is a very short run as well. Also, use the medmap on the medievia web site to pinpoint tradeshops close to the City of Medievia, because this way you won't run into any very strong wilderness mobs.
• If you would like to receive a list of distances between tradeshops mudmail me and I'll be more then glad to send them over.
• There are two tradeshops not accessable by wagon. These are the NaerMae one and the Ur-Vile feeding hall. They both require that you ferry your goods from you wagon to the shop by using a packhorse. Generally items sell for very high prices here because of their isolation from other shops.