Trade Partner Management

I'd hit the -

Thanks for you candid reply!

I agree...

Everyone has the complete right to play the game as they wish to play it. But at the end of the day it is supposed to be fun. If something is bothering you about a neighbour, such as never managing to get a shop trade then I would also hit the minus...

I have been mill free for ages and was only adding mill free neighbors. With 5.0 and already at level 80, I am finding parties and new friends more important than having a few mills.  However, if a neighbor plays the game in a way that doesn't mesh with my style and takes away some of my enjoyment, I would delete them.  Nobody owes anyone anything.  This is just a game and it is made for us to enjoy.

I have 1 mill on my Frontier which I could easily sell. On Classic, I have 4 each of the mills. I have been very tempted to sell them off as well, but my concern is that at my level, which has grown steadly, I may need the mills to show I am active and accepting trades as I have limited shops. My shops fill up just about as quickly as I clear completed transactions. And with most of us only accepting 24 hour trades, it can take awhile to get an order in if you don't have the 'short trade' (mill) option.

However, I clearly see that with the market, which I actively play, I really don't need the mill trades accept to give me a little XP to help me along in the game. I would greatly appreciate the thoughts of the seasoned players on my current challenge. To keep mills or sell them off?

I give them a few chances. With this new idiotic token system, everyone seems to be looking for long-term trades. With long-term trades being the norm, each nation has far fewer trades available per day than they used to have. Being a member of this site though, means that I have absolutely no use for anyone else's stupid mills/cutters/looms. I wonder if the server from which this game is played was close to over-capacity. Let's see, how could we reduce the load on the server? Fewer trades per day per nation would work. I CAN tell you this. I won't be spending one dime more on this game.

I remove them from my friend list as I myself have a mill-less nation, and while I will happily have milled neighbours it seems a little unfair that I may be tying up a neighbours shop while they can't access any of mine due to neighbours with only mills available accessing my shops first. Does this make sense? It might be being a little nitpicky but I believe it keeps it fairer to my other neighbours who have open shops. It's also a huge waste of my time to access a village with a free trade bubble over its name only to find they have thousands of mills available and no shops. 

I won't delete a neighbour the minute I see they have mills and no shops open, but I will take a mental note and if its a common theme with that neighbour they're gone.

I'd go along with what lulug said.  If there's something that irks you about playing with a particular player then just remove them.  I only have 1 of each mill in each land, just to make the villages look sort of complete, but I keep thinking about removing them completely as I know how annoying it is to go into a village and only find mill trades.  

I've gained a lot of new neighbours in the last few weeks, and a lot of them seem to have seas of mills.  I just don't understand why.  If you play the market properly you make tons of cash without needing a single mill.  I appreciate that with doing longer trades most neighbours don't always have shops available.  I know when I clear a shop trade, either the neighbour who placed it is back within seconds it seems and reorders, or it gets snapped up by another neighbour.  So I don't expect to get a trade all the time these days, things have just changed.  If your neighbours are tolerant, they won't hold it against you.  I wouldn't.

I'm curious the restrictions some people put on their shops.

One neighbor had "12 hour only" for a while and some of his shops didnt even have 12 hour options. He would decline any shop trade that wasn't a 12 hour trade. I noticed for days that almost all of his shops were always available. What's the point in limiting your trading if your shops aren't maxed out. Now his message says "no 24 hour!!!!" but he still always has open shops. I just don't understand it. I've been thinking about deleting him just because he seems too odd.

I see a lot of players that say max trade only or max trade preferred. I get that because of the tokens but is it really that big of a deal that they would turn down a smaller trade for a few hours?

Now another neighbor has "2-4 hours only". I don't get that at all. Another neighbor has "12 hour trades max, no 24". Why?

I set my message to "30 second trades only" today as a joke but I started getting all small trades so I had to change it. People are way too serious.

Day in and day out is it really that big of a deal that someone needs to put limitations on there trades? Just trying to understand it all.

I love mills when I try to find the best parties: I do a mill-trade, which removes the $-bubble. That way I know I don't have to visit that village during my second round.

 

Sorry for butting in, as I'm a fairly new player and may not know what I'm talking about but, I highlighted some things in the original post that no one seems to have answered?

Except maybe for the 500 Neighbor limit, what exactly are you loosing out on by keeping them as neighbors?

You are entitled to play the game the way you want to and to have a neighborhood that suits you. However, please do not project your opinion of towns with mills onto the forum. We don't all share it.

Thank you all for such great feedback. I guess my thought in removing the nation was that if their trading policy doesn't match my needs, then I should remove them as we don't have any production reason for keeping the relationship open. Like so many, I have a hard time ignoring the bubble, and if you have say 5 - 10 % nations that really don't serve your needs, then that is more work you need to consider as it takes time to place outbound orders with nations that don't supply the type of trades you are seeking.

I did like what friendlybanana said in that some of the messages are very funny. I saw the 30 second rule when I placed orders at this nation, and just chuckled and placed my 24 hour order and hoped it would go through - so thank you personally for that! I can also say that I have scratched my head more than once at a nations trading restritions. In one instance, I questioned the restriction, and they said they had forgotten to update their message, and thanked me for the help.

As for the fate of my mills, I may remove the one mill from the Frontier and perhaps downsize by one mill on classic for a total of 3 each. I just hit level 60, so I think I am hitting my stride with the game.

Finally, if you are reading this, you are an active player, and a candidate for my nation. Please feel free to send me an invite if you would like to become trading parnters.

Gee, I was under the impression that forums were places to make your opinion known. I realize not all may share my opinion nor I theirs. Load your village up with nearly-useless mills/cutters/looms if you like. Disagree with me if you like, but save yourself some time by refraining from trying to censor my opinion.
I didn't use foul language. I made a brief case for my opinion. Have a nice day.

When you say "being a member of this site means that..."(followed by your opinion), you are suggesting that that opinion is somehow tied to site membership. I don't have a problem with you having an opinion or expressing it here. Just please don't make it sound like site policy.

Just to clarify, that's what I meant by projecting your opinion onto the forum. It doesn't mean not to give your opinion to the forum, it means not to make it sound as if you speak for the group.

Being a member of this site, I take advantage of market tools and have no need of mills/cutters/looms (mine or anyone else's). I imply no policy other than my own.
XP/hr is still the most important factor in all of MY trade considerations.