Been playing for 8 hours and been travelling/exploring the north eastern part of the map and have yet run into a single trader.

Where are they?

closest major trading post to the north east might be general atomics galeria, if you've discovered it.

there's also a general and a chem vendor at the little diner near starlight cinema

other, deirdre at the slog does a little trading, same for daniel finch and claire (?) abernathy in the west

only other trader at all i know near vault 111 would be a guy in a little shack at the very west end of the map, height abernathy farm

not that many around anyway, except for the caravans, unless you create some at your settlements

Thanks for the info

Bunker Hill also keep traders. You have also Goodneighbor, but that is not caravan station.

Cheers,

-Klevs

In the northeast there's a trader on a side road just off the beach between Salem and the north end of the map.

I really only know of three traveling caravans. One is general, one weapons and one armor. If there's more then they are dead in my playthrough.

rather middle of the map too than north east, most of all

ok for story reasons they're all concentrated there, but awkward to play.

guess i'll have to mod a couple peripheral trading posts...

I play since Release and Yesterday i saw the first Time this Smiling Larry Merchant.

i know of at least 4:

general (trashcan carla)

chems (doc uuhwhatshisname)

armor (lucas)

weapons (cricket)

problem with them though, they appear to have pretty fixed as well as limited trading routes.

like, the doc, i've only seen him at slog, finch, county crossing and bunker hill,

carla seems to do northeast, starlight cinema to sanctuary etc

never saw this one, is he a caravaneer or a stationary trader? (and if so, where?)

Oops. I forgot about the doc. He got in the way of an epic battle and it didn't end well for him.

I started writing it all out and then decided http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_4_merchants. It's the trader page at the wiki. That shows their main location. The ones that travel (Lucas, the doc, Carla, Cricket, etc) go all over the map. I've seen Lucas at Greentop Nursery and The Slog. Carla makes it over to County Crossing as does the doc. That's in that corner of the map. I don't know if they all go to every location but I've seen caravan merchants at Tenpines Bluff, the Drumlin Diner near Concord (although that's always Carla), Covenant, outside Diamond City (I've only seen Cricket there, but don't go out that way often), they go to Bunker Hill, etc.

Edited for clarity

If you set up a caravan station at your settlement, they will come. They visit Egret Tours Marina all the time. Well Cricket did until she got destroyed by several super mutants.

Cricket is...special. I was fighting at the Gunner's Oupost and it was nasty, and here she comes wandering through the middle of the fight completely oblivious to all the bullets and laser fire flying around her head.

A random Encounter with Caravan.

never met.

also never met that ominous brahmin selling woman.

i could by junkyard dogs to not end though.

i'm getting the suspicion the guy's following me

Caravans show up quite frequently when you get to the point of creating supply lines between settlements you've established, but can be buggy. I just saw a Caravan Guard hanging out by himself at a small farm settlement I was building, in nothing but strapped leather armor and underpants, telling me to stay away from his Brahmin, which was nowhere in sight. Then when I traveled to Hangman's Alley, the nearby settlement I supply linked to, there was a Brahmin by itself constantly going into a small shack, but it had no containers on it.

I also stopped to ask a Caravan Guard to trade, and upon exiting he disappeared and re-spawned going the other direction about 50m away, twice in a row. I'm about level 30 something though, and have yet to buy anything from anyone, or sell anything. If you use bottlecap perks and scavenge a lot, you end up with SO much money and gear, you literally have to drop it. Literally every time I've tried to access someone to get a small item like something with one oil, gear, etc, for building a beacon or generator, they don't have it.

All you really need do is apply perks well and know what items to scavenge.

Besides the traveling ones, there is a single merchant named Leonard in a small raised wooden building, sort of bar-like. He is located North of Hugo's Hole by the road, near a bus. That it is probably your best bet in the NE.

Don't know of any unnamed ones tho (like the one in the tunnel just east of Hangmans alley)

re caravans:

The Bunker Hill trading caravans walk the roads and should appear on the defined caravan routes if you bump in to them or at some settlements where they will sit for a while at the little campfires.

In the North East the best bet to catch up with them would be The Slog if you have discovered it. You could try waiting to see if one turns up.

edit: but if you don't stick to the roads your chances of meeting them would be reduced, especially in that area of the Commonwealth.