Port Royale trading is difficult and confusing
henri Arsenault
I have played many. The problem is that there are about 20 items to
trade, and the prices not only vary from town to town (depending on
supply and demand), but they vary with time.
There are indications on the Ascaron forum how to start a trade route,
and that works pretty well. But I find that after a while, the trade
route stops making money. The reason seems to be that all of the prices
rise with time. so one has to continually twiddle the prices. However
this requires either pencil and paper (a no-no for me with computer
games) or a photographic memory to remember what the prices were the
last time I visited a town.
It would help a lot if one could call up a sheet with the buy and sell
prices the last time that one visited a town, but one is not even able
to check the prices in a town unless one has a ship there. So one has no
choice but to go from town to town manually adjusting prices on the
trade route, which is very tedious when a trade route has ten towns. As
if this were not enough, the tedium is compounded because the prices
fluctuate wildly from town to town, so this also has to be an iterative
process where one has to go to each town more than once to adjust the
prices.
It would help a lot if one could just call up a spreadsheet indicating
the buy and sell prices in all the towns the last time they were
visited.Then every few months one could just call up the trade route and
adjust the prices based on the spreadsheet. It is not reasonable for a
computer game to require the user to use pencil and paper or to make his
own computer spreadsheet outside the program.
Is my impression that the prices gradually increase over time correct?
This could be due to inflation, or maybe to increased demand due to
growing towns, which amounts to the same thing.
There is an automatic trade route generator available from the Ascaron
forum, which I downloaded but haven't tried yet. It looks a bit
difficult to understand, and I don't know if it takes into account the
changing of prices with time or if it is connected to the game (it is an
Excel spreadsheet).
Two other problems I have are winning naval battles (I have yet to win
one) and fulfilling Governor missions (I have yet to finish one on
time). Do empty ships sail faster than full ones? I usually try to
combine a governor mission with some trading, and if that slows down the
ship, then maybe I should be more focused?
Comments?
Henri
PS: there is a Port Royale 2 coming in September. I hope that it will
make determining prices easier.
Michael Vondung
> Port Royale is one of the most difficult games I have ever played - and
> I have played many. The problem is that there are about 20 items to
> trade, and the prices not only vary from town to town (depending on
> supply and demand), but they vary with time.
Port Royale uses a fairly complex economical system, and it's entirely
possible to buy a market dry or flood a city with the same good(s). If
there is frequent demand (for instance: caused by your steady buying),
the prices will go up and stay high, and if you ship in more goods than
the local population or factories/farms can use, prices will drop and
stay low. The automatic trade routes need some adjusting later on,
though the more complex ones tend to make money for years. You can look
at the statistics and keep an eye on how profitable your routes are.
Personally, I usually start to produce my own goods after two or three
game years (even the raw materials), and then always produce at or below
the average price. I've never used the trade routes maker, though, but
it did take me a while to get the hang on "designing" my own routes.
> if this were not enough, the tedium is compounded because the prices
> fluctuate wildly from town to town, so this also has to be an iterative
> process where one has to go to each town more than once to adjust the
> prices.
It depends on the type of city and what goods they produce. Does the
English version come with a map? It's generally save to buy import
wares (hardware, wine, etcetera) in governor cities and sell them in
somewhat small quantities in colonial cities. This is more or less
guaranteed to make you some money. The trick is to get those import
wares at good prices, but your storage manager(s) can buy them
automatically. (If I'm unspecific, it's because I've been playing Port
Royale 2, and prices are somewhat different.) I always dropped wares in
the store house and loaded from there -- and had my manager do the
selling and buying. You get a small bonus this way, too.
> It would help a lot if one could just call up a spreadsheet indicating
> the buy and sell prices in all the towns the last time they were
> visited.
There is K. Rowe's Excel spreadsheet, currently hosted by Fame'n'Fortune:
http://www.famenfortune.com/downloads/krpratrg1.6.1.zip That's not what
you suggested, but it should help a bit with prices.
> adjust the prices based on the spreadsheet. It is not reasonable for a
> computer game to require the user to use pencil and paper or to make his
> own computer spreadsheet outside the program.
Well, it is a complex ecosim. I've beaten the game without paper and
pencil or a spreadsheet (pretty much for the reasons you stated), though
I didn't make as much gold as some people. After a while of playing
(manual trading), you'll remember the average prices for goods. Take
wheat, for example. Ir's save to buy it for 95 or less, and sell it at
any price over 100. You won't make a lot of money (not like cocoa), but
it'll be steady. http://www.famenfortune.com has some guides, and you
already found the Ascaron boards. :)
> Two other problems I have are winning naval battles (I have yet to win
> one) and fulfilling Governor missions (I have yet to finish one on
> time).
The naval battles are difficult at first. When I started playing PR, I
kept reading how easy they are, and I just had a heck of a time and
wondered what I was doing wrong. I never got really good at it, but I
managed, except against large pirate convoys. My strategy was usually to
immobilize the enemy ships with the second type of cannon balls (don't
know the English name of them -- those two "chained" balls that take
down a ship's sails), then either sink the vessels with massive cannon
balls, or use grape to slay the crews before entering the ships. It's
easier in PR2.
> PS: there is a Port Royale 2 coming in September. I hope that it will
> make determining prices easier.
Yes, in several ways. The buy/sell list shows what goods are produced
locally (a "P" in the icon of the good), geographical areas tend to
produce certain goods (a bit more realistic), and the buy/sell list also
shows the average price at which you bought (and/or produced) the goods.
More importantly, if the captain of a trading convoy has at least four
skill points in trading, you can instruct him to trade automatically
between pre-defined cities. You can limit the selection of goods he'll
trade with, or just let him decide freely. He'll consider the cities
that are included in the route, as well as the economic situation, and
do his own thing. It's a rather safe way of making money, as long as you
choose the towns sensibly (six colonial cities and two towns with a
governor or a vice king should do). You can also still set up the trade
routes completely manually, like in PR1. It's quite flexible and should
appeal to a broader audience.
M.
henri Arsenault
Michael Vondung <mvon...@gmx.net> wrote:
> You can look
> at the statistics and keep an eye on how profitable your routes are.
>
My spanish oroute as described in the forum walkthrough was doing great
initially, but after a few months I was making 1200 gold a year (or
whatever the period covered in the report is)...
> It depends on the type of city and what goods they produce. Does the
> English version come with a map?
Yes, but it's so small that I can't see the goods without a magnifier.
But it is useful to see where the towns are.
>It's generally save to buy import
> wares (hardware, wine, etcetera) in governor cities and sell them in
> somewhat small quantities in colonial cities. This is more or less
> guaranteed to make you some money. The trick is to get those import
> wares at good prices, but your storage manager(s) can buy them
> automatically.
Yes I do that. In my home port Margarita, I buy for the warehouse only,
and use the transfer to get the goods into the convoy. I also sell back
to the town from the warehouse if the prices rise enough. That is not
too difficult to manage, it is the multiple and changing town prices
that are a chore to manage.
>
> > It would help a lot if one could just call up a spreadsheet indicating
> > the buy and sell prices in all the towns the last time they were
> > visited.
>
> There is K. Rowe's Excel spreadsheet, currently hosted by Fame'n'Fortune:
> http://www.famenfortune.com/downloads/krpratrg1.6.1.zip That's not what
> you suggested, but it should help a bit with prices.
>
I think this is the automatic trade route manager I have. Some parts are
hard to understand, but I have not yet had much time to spend on it (got
it only this morning before going to work).
> > adjust the prices based on the spreadsheet. It is not reasonable for a
> > computer game to require the user to use pencil and paper or to make his
> > own computer spreadsheet outside the program.
>
> Well, it is a complex ecosim. I've beaten the game without paper and
> pencil or a spreadsheet (pretty much for the reasons you stated), though
> I didn't make as much gold as some people. After a while of playing
> (manual trading), you'll remember the average prices for goods. Take
> wheat, for example. Ir's save to buy it for 95 or less, and sell it at
> any price over 100. You won't make a lot of money (not like cocoa), but
> it'll be steady. http://www.famenfortune.com has some guides, and you
> already found the Ascaron boards. :)
Unfortunately my memory is not as good as it used to be, and I can't
remember most prices from one town to the next. I couldn't do it if they
were all the same in different towns, and they are not, and they change
with time. It is mind-boggling. Sheesh! Yesterday I calculated a forced
mate in nine in a blitz chess game, but that is small potatoes compared
to remembering ten different prices for ten different cities that are
changing all the time (OK, I didn't calculate all the variations, but I
DID sacrifice a Rook to begin the combination that Fritz later showed me
was a forced mate in nine...).
that sounds good to me: I am not a strong advocate of micro-management -
I like to delegate (grin).
Henri
CurtAdams
>Port Royale is one of the most difficult games I have ever played - and
>I have played many. The problem is that there are about 20 items to
>trade, and the prices not only vary from town to town (depending on
>supply and demand), but they vary with time.
>There are indications on the Ascaron forum how to start a trade route,
>and that works pretty well. But I find that after a while, the trade
>route stops making money. The reason seems to be that all of the prices
>rise with time.
Frankly, for a long time, I just did it manually. Long-term, the trick is
to learn the demand and supply at various towns on the route. Generally
buy only at efficient production towns and sell only at towns that
can't produce. Sometimes you spot areas where some product is
hard to come by; you can buy at low-efficiency sources before the
route heads there. A route like that will continue to make money.
Yes, you may have to adjust prices now and again; but when that happens
it's your cue to start making factories, which can bring costs back
down.
Curt Adams (curt...@aol.com)
"It is better to be wrong than to be vague" - Freeman Dyson
Alfredo Tutino
> with time. It is mind-boggling. Sheesh! Yesterday I calculated a forced
> mate in nine in a blitz chess game, but that is small potatoes compared
> to remembering ten different prices for ten different cities that are
> changing all the time (OK, I didn't calculate all the variations, but I
> DID sacrifice a Rook to begin the combination that Fritz later showed me
> was a forced mate in nine...).
Ah, well... THAT, I can do as well (some rare times, that is...)
As for actually calculating all the variations in a combination leading to a
forced mate in nine, I might have done something similar once or twice in my
life, possibly, but not in blitz...
(well, thus far, of course...)
:-)
Alfredo
< cut >
Peter Parker
> http://www.famenfortune.com/downloads/krpratrg1.6.1.zip That's not what
> you suggested, but it should help a bit with prices.