2011-04-20

Mount & Blade: Warband Trading Guide

Trading goods is a great way to make money in Mount & Blade: Warband. In this post, you learn example price ranges and thresholds (to buy under X, to sell over Y) for the most profitable goods. You also learn an example trade route that goes around all Calradia in Warband.

(All information is for the game without any mods, as mods might change the trade/economy/map in the game. UPDATE: This information is valid for game version 1.143. It might work for newer versions too, but newer versions might change the trade routes and economy.)

You can learn all this info in game, by doing trading, using the asses good deals option in the marketplace of the towns, talking to the guild master about trade and production of the different cities, so consider the information below SPOILERS.

Also, there are a lot of trading opportunities in the game I do not list here, because these are the ones I've found working for me. Feel free to experiment and take on the opportunities you see :)

Note: I didn't come up with any of this (although I have "tested" all of this in-game). The hard work has been done by the awesome people and gamers at the Taleworlds Forums. I just put it here on my blog as it's sometimes hard to find stuff from forums.



General Tips


Travel fast:

  • give riding skill and horses to all companions,
  • invest in pathfinding skill (e.g. increase the skill with one companion and have two points on your own),
  • prefer cavalry over infantry (for trading journeys),
  • keep the army size small (but high enough to "scare" bandits away),
  • keep the morale of the army high,
  • have 6 horses in your inventory (as "pack" horses) - the cheapest you can find (quality of the horse doesn't matter)


Put points to inventory management (at least 2) to have more space for goods.

Visit the villages near the towns for cheap goods.

If you increase trading skill with one of the companions, put 2 points in it for your character to get the +1 extra.

Get some experience and levels before you start "heavy trading", as you will run into robbing attempts when entering marketplaces and you'll have a better chance dealing with the robbers if you have some combat skills (and good weaponry, it's good to have a bow/crossbow).

(optional) Do quests for the towns to improve your relations. You'll get better prices this way. To get the quests, talk to the guild master. You get experience while at it, and it's a welcome change to the trading as well. Be careful with bandit quests thou if your low level.



Price Ranges


Here are the price ranges I use in the game.

If I see goods under the threshold I buy. And I only sell if the price is high enough.

If you need to empty inventory, any price over the buying threshold is profit, so it's OK to "dump" inventory if you know that the next cities in your route don't pay well for those goods.

BUY under X means buy when the buying price is below X
SELL over Y means sell when the selling price is over Y



Most Profitable Goods

  • Iron. BUY under 150, SELL over 300
  • Salt. BUY under 150, SELL over 270
  • Oil. BUY under 320, SELL over 450
  • Tools. BUY under 380, SELL over 450
  • Velvet. BUY under 700, SELL over 950-1000
  • Wine. BUY under 200, SELL over 300
  • Spice. BUY under 600, SELL over 800
  • Flax. BUY under 100, SELL over 150
  • Linen. BUY under 220, SELL over 350
  • Wool Cloth. BUY under 200, SELL over 270


"Filler" Goods


Buy these to avoid travelling empty, if the above are not available.

  • Date Fruit. BUY under 70, SELL over 120
  • Fish. BUY under 30, SELL over 100
  • Hides. BUY under 90, SELL over 100
  • Grain. BUY under 30, SELL over 50


If you don't have much trading skill in your party, or the economy in the towns is a bit off because of wars etc, you might not get prices as high, so do drop them by ~10% or so, e.g. SELL iron over 270, SELL salt over 250 etc.
For buying, avoid buying for higher than the threshold. Just move on to another city.



The Trade Route


I learned this route from Floris at Taleworlds forum, from his "after action reports". It's a complete route around Calradia, focusing on the most profitable (small) routes and most profitable goods (only buying "filler" goods in between to avoid travelling empty).

If some goods are not available or not available below threshold price, wait for a day or just move on (I usually just move on). Sell to the other merchants if the goods merchant runs out of money and the price is still high enough (the arms/armor/horse merchant).

1. Ruvar, a village near Wercheg: BUY UNDER: Salt 150
2. Wercheg: BUY UNDER: Salt 150, Hides 90 (although not too much of them)
3. Curaw: BUY UNDER: Iron 150, Tools 380, Sell: Salt 270
4. Ismarala, a village near Curaw: BUY UNDER: Iron 150
5. Fenada, a village near Sargoth: BUY UNDER: Flax 100
6. Sargoth: SELL OVER: Salt 270
7. Tihr: SELL OVER: Iron 300, Tools 450
8. Kwynn, a village near Sargoth: BUY UNDER: Flax 100
9. Sargoth: BUY UNDER: All of the Flax 100 and Linen 220, Wool 70
10. Uxkhal: SELL OVER: Hides 100, Wool 120
11. Suno: BUY UNDER: Oil 320, Wine 200
12. Shariz: BUY UNDER: Date Fruits 70, SELL OVER: Linen 350, Wine 300
13. Durquba: SELL OVER: Flax 150
14. Ahmerrad: BUY UNDER: Iron 150, Wool 70, SELL OVER: Wine 300
15. Bariyye: BUY UNDER: Date Fruit 70, Iron 150, Salt 150, Tools 380, SELL OVER: Linen 350, Wine 300, Wool 120
16. Iqbal, a village near Bariyye: BUY UNDER: Salt 150, Date Fruit 70
17. Fishara, a village near Bariyye: BUY UNDER: Salt 150, Date Fruit 70
18. Uzgha, a village near Ahmerrad: BUY UNDER: Iron 150
19. Tulga: BUY UNDER: Spice 600, Salt 150, SELL OVER: Iron 300, Date Fruits 120
20. Ahmerrad: BUY UNDER: Iron 150, SELL OVER: Spice 800
21. Durquba: SELL OVER: Spice 800
22. Jelkala: BUY UNDER: Velvet 700, Fish 30, Hides 90, SELL OVER: Iron 300, Salt 270, Tools 450
23. Veluca: BUY UNDER: Grain 30, Hides 90, SELL OVER: Fish 90, Velvet 950
24. Uxkhal: SELL OVER: Grain 50, Hides 100, Salt 270
25. Suno: BUY UNDER: Oil 320, Wine 150, SELL OVER: Grain 50, Hides 100, Salt 270
26. Praven: BUY UNDER: Wool 70, SELL OVER: Oil 450, Salt 270
27. Yalen: BUY UNDER: Wine 200, Wool 70, SELL OVER: Salt 270
28. Jelkala: BUY UNDER: Fish 30, Velvet 700
29. Shariz: BUY UNDER: Date Fruit 70, SELL OVER: Fish 100, Wine 300
30. Dhirim: BUY UNDER: Iron 150, SELL OVER: Velvet 1000
(Optional: Visit Narra and Ichamur. Sell according to thresholds.)
31. Tulga: BUY UNDER: Spice 600, SELL OVER: Iron 300, Wool 120
32. Bariyye: BUY UNDER: Iron 150, SELL OVER: Velvet 1000
33. Ahmerrad: BUY UNDER: Iron 150, Wool Cloth 200, SELL OVER: Spice 800
34. Durquba: SELL OVER: Spice 800
35. Halmar: BUY UNDER: Salt 150
36. Dhirim: BUY UNDER: Iron 150, SELL OVER: Wool Cloth 270
37. Reyvadin: SELL OVER: Iron 300
38. Khudan: SELL OVER: Iron 300
39. Rivacheg: SELL OVER: Iron 300

If you have inventory space between towns (could not get enough cheap goods), stop in villages on the route (don't go off it too much thou) and buy cheap items. Also, buy variety of food from those villages (to keep) army fed and morale high). This money will help the economy of the town as well.

Mount and Blade: Warband Trade Route Map
Mount and Blade: Warband Trade Route


IMAGE CREDIT: map modified from the original by Floris. (original)

The Warband Trade Route Video


Here's the Mount & Blade: Warband trade route on video. It's an hour long and it's a part of my let's play series, and there's some other stuff in it but trading, but it shows the whole route.



Watch HD/720p in YouTube:
Mount & Blade: Warband Let's Play E024 - Trade Route Around All Calradia

References and Links



2011-04-13

Let's Play Mount & Blade: Warband - Violet's Tale


Let's play Mount & Blade: Warband. Mount & Blade: Warband gameplay (PC) with gameplay commentary by me (@Zemalf).

180 hours of slow-paced Warband gameplay from the very start to the very end (controlling whole Calradia). COMPLETE playthrough with a female character (commoner) and using the hardest possible difficulty settings.

Violet's Tale


Violet's Tale: This let's play is the journey of a young nomad woman adventuring in the land of Caldaria, dreaming of her own kingdom and making name for herself, trading and fighting for fame and fortune.

All Episodes (Playlist)




Watch all episodes of Violet's Tale, let's play Mount & Blade: Warband (in HD) on YouTube via the playlist: Let's Play Mount & Blade: Warband (Violet's Tale).

More Info and Discussion: Official 'Violet's Tale' Forum Thread

I hope you enjoy this - I sure enjoyed making it :) If you enjoy the let's play, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to get the free updates and more LPs.

Game Stuff:


I played on the hard hardest difficulty, with settings:

Control Block Dir: auto Manual block
Control Attack Dir: manual
Lance Control: manual (hard)
Damage to Player: Normal
Damage to Friends: Normal
Combat AI: Good
Campaign AI: Good
Combat Speed: Faster Fastest
Battle Size: 150 300 after E046 (with Warband Battle Size Changer)

The early videos on the playlist had auto-block on, but I quickly changed to manual and changed combat speed to fastest.

Difficulty: 125% 131% (with Battle Size 300)

(Not 149% cos I have the "quit without saving" ON instead of 'realistic saves', even that I never quit without saving)

MODS


NOTE! I started this LP without mods, and added mods later. You can have it easy, just download and install the latest Floris Mod Pack, which includes all this and more!



Music (4 mods):

Sounds (4 mods):

IF you have ANY question about the mods (how to use them, what they do)
GOTO TaleWorlds forums (mod specific links above)

p.s. As said above - If you're thinking about starting to use the same mods, I recommend using the Floris Expanded Mod Pack instead (or the basic/gameplay version if your machine can't run the expanded - it's the same download and installer). It has it all, including Diplomacy and PBOD, and much much more. One install, super simple.

About Mount & Blade: Warband


Mount & Blade: Warband is a sequel to the award winning Mount & Blade, a mediaval mounted combat game taking place in a fictitious land named Calradia.

The game combines an open-ended sandbox, free-forming game play with action/tactics/RPG elements, and has by far the best mounted combat in any game.

Mount & Blade: Warband is available via its developers website (TaleWorlds), via Steam, and also via Amazon (buying the game via these links will support me, so I thank you for the support if you do):

Mount & Blade: Warband (Amazon):



Click here for all episodes of this Warband LP
Subscribe to my YouTube channel

2011-04-12

Mount & Blade Let's Play Episode 10 - Super Special Highlight Reel

Super special Mount & Play Let's Play highlight reel extravaganza, in celebration of the 10th episode.

After the M&B LP Episode 9, I played for about 4-5 hours, but then lost some footage to a crash.

Plus I didn't do so well and the audio quality was quite bad, thus I didn't feel like posting 30 crappy episodes, but instead I salvaged what I could, and made this montage of the journey.

Enjoy!



YouTube (HD):
Mount & Blade Let's Play E010 - Super Special Highlight Reel Episode

Watch all episodes on YouTube (HD):
Mount & Blade Let's Play Series Playlist

p.s. After this tenth episode, it was the time to move into Mount & Blade: Warband! I went and bought it as it improves the original game so much + I can finally have my own kingdom! Watch all episodes in YouTube (HD): Mount & Blade: Warband Let's Play - Violet's Tale

2011-04-11

Was Buying a Game From Steam a Mistake? - At Least Their Error Messages Could Use Some Improvements!

Mt first experience with Steam didn't go so well.

When I buy downloadable content online, whether it's an information product or a game, I buy it online because it's fast. I want to play the game right away.

Unfortunately this didn't happen with Steam. Or it didn't happen because the system didn't clearly tell me what was wrong. (basic usability and error management for software).

I bought Mount & Blade: Warband because I *really* wanted to play it today (to continue my Mount & Blade Let's Play Series with the newer game).

I had couple of hours for gaming, so I was excited that I could buy and download the game and be playing within minutes...

Or so I thought :(

Game Activation Failure?


Purchasing OK. Installs OK. "Ready To Play" OK.

Click 'play the game'...


Error message says:
#SteamUI_JoinDialog_KeyRequestPending_Text

Is that's supposed to tell me what's wrong? That's supposed to tell me what to do?

How about explaining in clear English what's wrong... And what me as a customer should do.

How about contact support button? How about sending a support request from the Steam tool itself (with all the technical info required right there, and quite probably in the logs of the software as well).

All very basic user interface and eCommerce design.

But noooo - support site was separate from Steam.

Had to register separate support account to even make a ticket. And copy-paste-write all the technical stuff there, and that weird error message too. And after four and a half hours and I haven't had an answer from the support.

I was frustrated.

I'd never had online purchase fail like this.

-BUT-

It wasn't actually a fail in Steam directly...

It was a support failure.

A user interface / error message failure from Steam.

After extensive search I found out that the problem might be in my computer (even that everything else worked for Steam).

It took a long time, because I could not find anything relevant from support site with the error message "SteamUI_JoinDialog_KeyRequestPending_Text":

0 Articles Matched Your Search: "SteamUI_JoinDialog_KeyRequestPending_Text"

How can a support site not list an answer to an error message in the system?

Anyway...

I did find help with "key server"...

Failed to Contact Key Server.

Apparently Steam tried to connect to a "key server". Starting the game from other part of Steam, e.g. via website, it gave different error message:

Can't connect to key server

Don't you think that's a bit clearer message than the one I got first?

Why it didn't give me *that* error message to begin with?

Well, with the "key server" search I found the answer, or suggestion to check the firewall (and router) - So I checked my firewall and sure enough it was blocking Steams activation request.

This didn't occur to me as everything else was working, and my firewall didn't give a warning that new kind of connection was attempted.

After tweaking the firewall I got the game working.

All this could've been avoided if the error message would've been clearer (e.g. check your firewall). Or even that I'd seen "can't connect to key server".

All in all, Steam's system for support could (and should!) be much better. This happened because the error message was very cryptic and unclear + their support site's search did not bring me relevant results with the error message.

2011-04-08

Mount & Blade Let's Play Series

All episodes of my Mount & Blade Let's Play Series:



Watch all episodes on YouTube (HD): Mount & Blade Let's Play Series Playlist

Leave feedback and suggestions on YouTube, here on the blog, or at VoltonArmy Forums Thread if you're a fellow LPer.



This Let's Play is the original (older) Mount & Blade. The new version, Mount & Blade Warband has multiplayer and other goodies in it. I bought the original when it was in alpha/beta stage, it was self-published back then and I never got around to Warband, so this is partly nostalgia let's play :)

Third part in the series, (Mount & Blade) With Fire & Sword is coming out this year. The original and Warband are available via Steam, and Amazon is selling them as well: