What are good things to ask hermits/noobs/small towns for?

[Miss_Min]

I'm currently offering metal to my new neighbours in return for silk eggs. I don't currently mind making silk but don't have mulberry trees up to any quality, so I am just going for All The Pockets, plus it turns out it adds the option of creating an artefact for Psyche without having to find any flotsams.

And when I end up forgetting about a few tables of q±15 eggs, nbd. I do understand that for people with a slightly more automated system it's probably easier to avoid this situation entirely but for me, that's where I'm at.

I'm also considering getting someone to come fill a windmill with cupboards because I have an apparently irrational dislike of carpentry. They could dig out the cellar while they're at it, too....

[Vigilance]

I'm currently offering metal to my new neighbours in return for silk eggs.

In what valuation does this become a feasible trade that wouldn't just annoy both parties involved, if it were to be automated on a market stall?

I'm also considering getting someone to come fill a windmill with cupboards because I have an apparently irrational dislike of carpentry. They could dig out the cellar while they're at it, too....

This sort of fuzzy trade is almost certainly not what this thread is looking for as an answer.

Buying ropes/leather/cloth/curios/bone

But this is something most well-off villages have no need or desire for? I often go through spells of drowning in these resources because production has come up to par as the world progresses.

This world is seriously hurting for anything meaningful to do in commerce as a little guy. Nobody will even buy bulk shitty food any more because eating anything but the best crap is a huge detriment to your satiations that could be spent on the actually good stuff, or your hunger, which will often hover in the 150-200% range unless you A: don't do anything in your village B: quest often to receive stomach pumping from Asburgis.

And most markets almost certainly would not offer an actually respectably backed (ie, you can melt it down if all goes to shit and not feel like you've been horribly scammed) currency. Most people are minting garbage metal (IE tin spam-metal) in to their coins for their stalls, thus making every deal with them a transaction in monopoly money.

[loskierek]

coins are good if you plant to spend as much as you get for example o shit i want this pickaxe, lets sell this and that and i am gucci. So its sort of middle man money in goods exchange

[Hrenli]

But this is something most well-off villages have no need or desire for?

Sure, well-off village doesn't need anything from hermits just by definition. Even in our case (and we are just two players there) we do the whole market thing just for fun, not because we need something. But I see some of the income as a convenience. Why bother making ropes or low q cloth if we can buy those (they are still useful for us, we are not done with all what we planned to build, realm expansion takes cloth too). And for us reasonable q bones aren't bad trade to buy, as we aren't too lucky with quality animal spawns around (and me as main hunter being lazy).

I often go through spells of drowning in these resources because production has come up to par as the world progresses.

And we try to sell not needed things cheap. Not because we need something in return. I'd give the stuff away for free, but most people enjoy it more when they feel they earned it, not just be given. And we get something which is at least somehow useful in return too.

And most markets almost certainly would not offer an actually respectably backed (ie, you can melt it down if all goes to shit and not feel like you've been horribly scammed) currency. Most people are minting garbage metal (IE tin spam-metal) in to their coins for their stalls, thus making every deal with them a transaction in monopoly money.

That is true. But it's not too bad when it's a small local market (and that should be enough for hermits). Either people trust you (not the metal of your currency) or use it as a short term media (earn just enough for what you need and spend it right away) without saving it.

[Miss_Min]

In what valuation does [silk for metal] become a feasible trade that wouldn't just annoy both parties involved, if it were to be automated on a market stall?

Ugh yes ok, having been the person coming back from Community Fair with my bag still full of wool because the stall had run out of space for it, this gets annoying. You'd probably have to go up to silk threads and screw the quality - bear in mind here that as per the original post, I'm currently only trading with people who want My First Scythe and suchlike, so I'm not selling anything with quality in return for it.

This sort of fuzzy trade is almost certainly not what this thread is looking for as an answer.

And yet, the OP states that he had been considering hiring cheap labour but come down against it on grounds of intra-village disapproval of cruelty to toons, and of metal sales for cosmetic purposes. I get that my specific example is a one-off though, whereas a hypothetical pyramid would provide ongoing employment prospects and educational benefits (oh, those q2 odd tubers! so long as you're not just piling up mine waste anyway) for the local population.

This world is seriously hurting for anything meaningful to do in commerce as a little guy.

I'm pretty much inclined to agree. I think it's already becoming a service economy - find something you hate doing, and pay someone who either doesn't hate it as much, or has less resources than you, to do it instead. The catch is of course that within a group of players, hopefully you've already got people who don't-hate a wide range of things, so your village ends up being self sufficient anyway.

[borka]

I don't think labor for stuff isn't bad ...

In w4 i manufactured bricks for brickwall for a village and got metal in return (and a bunch of neighbours helped transporting!), also i collected mussels for another one and got good tools for it.

in w5 i had someone fetching logs for me and gave metals in return.

If you don't want to play the big bois rat race game and also don't like what's going on with tokens and trade it's a good thing ... on the other hand what's the problem to give the lower q tools just away when you don't need it anymore?

[Sevenless]

I definitely give away tools for free to friendly neighbours, this is about running a trade thread/market. I'm not going to ask my villagemates to throw their time away for free to random strangers though. I want it to be mutually beneficial so we don't burn out.

Orchestrating labour is such a pain, even back in W5 I hated it when it was useful to get bulk wood hauled.

[borka]

yep i know you share since you play

Honestly i have no clue what a lowbie could offer now to the developed ... low q cloth for banners, bricks for walls maybe ... at last it comes back to "service" as nearly everythings quality is tied to stats ...

Orchestrating labour

should be just "drop here" (ok i also gave command to chop selected only - one of each 10 trees and not at one place only)

I'm in the lowbie position because i don't want the burn out hazzle and certainly ask myself what i could offer ...

[jock]

Took thia thread into consideration and have added a few things to my own shop thread. More accessible to newer players. I will also continue to create some low ql stuff that is cheap for them to buy.

[Grog]

Honestly i have no clue what a lowbie could offer now to the developed ...

And I for one have no idea how you all are so uncreative to not strike deals.

Give them double nettle gear from your village sewer and they can collect you various forageables.

Flowers for curios.
Toads, Toadstools, Frog's crown,
moon moths,... all become quite useful in higher quality.
Forest conches.

Just outsource some of the more simple time heavy processes in your village.