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In-depth more specialized traders

Shino

Shino

New member
Wrongfully posted on the mods forum because I can't read.
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It sounds like a nightmare to do but I'm working (at least trying) to make traders more in line with their appearance/personality. This means, a stock unique to each one of them, selling @%$# that makes sense and not being a convenience store for players to go dump @%$# after horde night.

According to the wiki

  • Trader Joel: Armor
  • Trader Jen: Medical supplies
  • Trader Bob: Tools and vehicles
  • Trader Rekt: Food and seeds
  • Trader Hugh: Weapons and ammo
Which is fine, but I really don't notice the difference between them.

I've drafted a few good ideas from friends that play with me for each trader.
 

Trader Joel: General stuff & workstations
Joel has that scavenger vibe all over his god damn sexy face. Let's give him an inventory worthy of someone like him
General food (mostly canned, some meat, eggs and little vegetables), wood and iron ( be it the raw resource or the frame blocks) and the @%$#tiest weapons and makeshift armors you can find (low quality, tier and cnd no matter the gs (also dirt cheap) ) 
His secret stash may contain workstations or their blueprints.

Trader Jen: Medical supplies
And medical supplies only. (Bandages, first aid kits and buff items galore. All at a fair price considering the state of the world outside of course. Guaranteed at least 1 antibiotic) 
You've got an infection? Got no honey? Go to Jen's.
Abrassion and out of bandages? Go to Jen's
That direwolf just took a bite out of your god damn leg. You've guessed it, go to Jen's
She has no guns to buy, no ammo to buy and no misc to buy. She's a pharmacist not a harmacist

Trader Bob: Tools and vehicles
He sells bits and bobs. Get it? Trader Bob, bits and bobs??????
He has a inventory similar to Joel's, more iron oriented and sells repair kits almost every time.
The catch? His secret stash has only 1 item. A gamestage+1 vehicle in acceptable condition.
So bikes, minibikes, the cooler bike, 4x4 and gyro. (neither of them guaranteed) (secret stash is either the vehicles or the parts to make them and the blueprint)
To balance this, ofc, they're pricey.
He also has electronics in stock, lights, speakers, generators and stuff.
 

Trader Rekt: Food and seeds
A ray of sunshine on the wasteland.
He sells food (raw, cooked and seed) and hunting stuff. (Mid quality hunting rifles and ammo for it)
His grandma taught him to cook so he has the best @%$#ing food you'll ever eat.
Also, remember the Grandpa's recipes? Well, turns out he's that grandpa. Secret stash filled with them.
He buys NOTHING but food too. Canned, liquid, rotten, don't care. 
Secret stash might have farm plots ready for you.

Trader Hugh: Weapons, ammo, armor, traps.
The guy only knows one thing and that's how to kill zombies.
Weapons and their parts.
Armor.
Mods and Ammo.
Any kind of trap.
Secret stash has weapon blueprints and the best quality weapons you can find on the wasteland these days.
If you have beef with the undead, he's the right guy to pay a visit. Otherwise get out of his compound cause you're burning daylight.

That's it, what do you think about my rambling?

 
So I was working on a specialized Trader mod for Alpha 19 and that is similar to what I did on my approach (the mod is still a WIP since we went to Alpha 20):

Trader Jen - Since it references medical, I went for her to be smart overall (so I limited things like chem station and higher level build items to her specialty).  I also was looking to distribute weapon / equipment so I figured she was always overlooked which suited her best since she was more of a stealth fighter.  So gear to support a hidden strike / stealth build was also her specialty.  So think knives and bows

Trader Rekt - Farming is his specialty so I aligned that with him.  He also comes off rough so unarmed combat and shotguns.  It fits the farmer stereotype that way

Trader Hugh I saw more of a specialist in terms of hunting and survivalist.  He does deal with firearms but more aligned with hunting (so rilfes and pistols)

Trader Joel was ex-military so he got the machine guns, explosives, armor, and mods more tied to a military setting (the other mods were distributed based on role so Hugh got scopes while Jen got silencer).

Trader Bob like you mentioned construction, handyman, electrician, etc. He got spears and clubs and sledgehammers.  

I am going all out though with my mod.  Things like schematics and perk books are tied more to the traders who you would have to located and purchase from.  You couldn't unlock them from perks and find them in loot.  So if you wanted to craft a shotgun, you had to track down Trader Rekt.

One thing you could do is setup the traders to you have a higher chance of getting items that they specialized in.  I think that is the goal for the TFP, but not sure how much of that has been implemented.  Or those descriptions could just be fluff  😉

 
BFT2020 said:
So I was working on a specialized Trader mod for Alpha 19 and that is similar to what I did on my approach (the mod is still a WIP since we went to Alpha 20):

Trader Jen - Since it references medical, I went for her to be smart overall (so I limited things like chem station and higher level build items to her specialty).  I also was looking to distribute weapon / equipment so I figured she was always overlooked which suited her best since she was more of a stealth fighter.  So gear to support a hidden strike / stealth build was also her specialty.  So think knives and bows

Trader Rekt - Farming is his specialty so I aligned that with him.  He also comes off rough so unarmed combat and shotguns.  It fits the farmer stereotype that way

Trader Hugh I saw more of a specialist in terms of hunting and survivalist.  He does deal with firearms but more aligned with hunting (so rilfes and pistols)

Trader Joel was ex-military so he got the machine guns, explosives, armor, and mods more tied to a military setting (the other mods were distributed based on role so Hugh got scopes while Jen got silencer).

Trader Bob like you mentioned construction, handyman, electrician, etc. He got spears and clubs and sledgehammers.  

I am going all out though with my mod.  Things like schematics and perk books are tied more to the traders who you would have to located and purchase from.  You couldn't unlock them from perks and find them in loot.  So if you wanted to craft a shotgun, you had to track down Trader Rekt.

One thing you could do is setup the traders to you have a higher chance of getting items that they specialized in.  I think that is the goal for the TFP, but not sure how much of that has been implemented.  Or those descriptions could just be fluff  😉
Click to expand...
I'll need to start looking into how to edit trader stock then. I got massively sidetracking with my other pet project that was bringing back Class diversity. Thanks for the tips!

 
Shino said:
I'll need to start looking into how to edit trader stock then. I got massively sidetracking with my other pet project that was bringing back Class diversity. Thanks for the tips!
Click to expand...


FYI

This is what I started to do, but you can do it differently.

I first grabbed all the items in the trader groups and brought them down.  Then I figured out what would be general stock (any trader could have) and made a special trader grouping for those.  Then I started working on the individual traders.

For example, Jen has a JenPerkBooks group, JenT1Schematics group, etc.  I kept those naming conventions the same for each trader (obviously replacing the Trader's name).  Then when I redid the specific trader stocks, I could just copy and paste, then replace the names.

I replaced the entire trader file with my own.  That was the easiest way of doing it since I made such extensive changes to the trader stock.

 
BFT2020 said:
FYI

This is what I started to do, but you can do it differently.

I first grabbed all the items in the trader groups and brought them down.  Then I figured out what would be general stock (any trader could have) and made a special trader grouping for those.  Then I started working on the individual traders.

For example, Jen has a JenPerkBooks group, JenT1Schematics group, etc.  I kept those naming conventions the same for each trader (obviously replacing the Trader's name).  Then when I redid the specific trader stocks, I could just copy and paste, then replace the names.

I replaced the entire trader file with my own.  That was the easiest way of doing it since I made such extensive changes to the trader stock.
Click to expand...
How do you determine their secret stash? Does it pick up the xxxSecretStash keyword or something or is it completely random? Is there a way to force it?

 
If you look at the traders xml file and at each individual trader, you will see these groups.  Those are the groups where it pulls for secret stash (this is the generic data file)

Code: 
<tier_items level="1,499" count="all"> <!-- requires Perk 0 -->
            <!-- Bug: The count is overridden by "all" anyway so all probabilities are =1 -->
            <item group="tools" count="1"/>
            <item group="weaponsGunsMixed" count="1,2"/>
            <item group="weaponsGunParts" count="1"/>
            <item group="ammo" count="1,2"/>
            <item group="groupArmorLightMixed" count="1"/>
            <item group="groupArmorHeavyMixed" count="1"/>
            <item group="commonBooks" count="1,2"/>
            <item group="rareBooks" count="1"/>
            <item group="perkBooks" count="1"/>
            <item group="modMeleeT1"/>
            <item group="modAllT2SecretStash" count="1,2"/>
            <item group="vehiclePartsMixed" count="1"/>
            <item name="drinkJarGrandpasForgettingElixir" count="1"/>
        </tier_items>

        <tier_items level="3000,3999" count="all"> <!-- requires Perk 3 -->
            <!-- Bug: The count is overridden by "all" anyway so all probabilities are =1 -->
            <item group="traderElectrical" count="2,3"/>
            <item name="cntVendingMachine" count="1"/>
            <item group="tools" count="1"/>
            <item group="rareTools" count="1"/>
            <item group="weaponsMeleeMixed" count="1,2"/>
            <item group="weaponsGunsMixed" count="1,2"/>
            <item group="ammo" count="2,5"/>
            <item group="groupArmorHeavyMixed" count="1,2"/>
            <item group="groupArmorLightMixed" count="1,2"/>
            <item group="commonBooks" count="2,3"/>
            <item group="rareBooks" count="1,2"/>
            <item group="perkBooks" count="1,2"/>
            <item group="vehiclePartsMixed" count="1,2"/>
            <item group="stashOnlyItemsLow" count="1,2"/>
            <item group="modAllT3SecretStash" count="1,2"/>
            <item name="drinkJarGrandpasForgettingElixir" count="1"/>
        </tier_items>

        <tier_items level="4000,4999" count="all"> <!-- requires Perk 4 -->
           .......
        </tier_items>

        <tier_items level="5000,-1" count="all"> <!-- requires Perk 5 -->
 
Oooh I see.
Well, now that that's out of the way I almost have the mod ready for playtesting.

I do gotta re-tier everything since I put every trader's stash into a level"1,-1" just to see if they would show up without investing into perks.

TYSM for answering all my questions!
Have a great day!

 
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