Automatic trade routes just won't produce money

[Czezar]

Yes, I know. Many people complained about similar issue, but guys, I tried everything.
( and no i am not out of money, i have like 4 mil from manual trading )

If I use the STANDARD option in the towns interface, and let AI take care of the buying/selling, prices… the money doesn’t grow, it stagnates.
I literally watched every article, video, review, tutorial…but no help.
I also tried playing with prices, (max, min ), quantities, priorities, etc… but zero help.
( One thing I noticed is that the town interface, where I set the prices, in my game, is totally different than the one in any articles, video, etc…one example being the lack of the 123 button…)

Please help me out here, because I was super excited of this game, and doing manual trade is cool, but not being able to automatize this, will stop me of fully explore it.

Thank you

[FiatLux]

When you start writing something like : "I literally watched every article, video, review, tutorial…but no help.: then how can you expect anybody to want to try , you already read it all and heard it all and you obviously think that the game is broken....
I have read many posts here at the Steam forum by players trying to advice new players about how to set up trading routes but you claim that you already know how and you apparently know it all already ! I am not trying to be unkind , I am merely communicating how you 'come across' to me !

What I personally have picked up , and can remember , from what I have read , then people usually write advice like , do not have any sailors on your trading only fleets as that is too expensive , do not have have too many warehouses or businesses as that will cost you, then profitability also depends on how fast and how big the ships are versus length of voyage (not sure but 'i think that smaller ships are best suited for shorter local trading routes and the big ones for long with fewer stops ?)
Then , I have not bought the game myself yet so I do not know how PR4 specifically works , but there often in such games are a captains skill effect on trading...

Otherwise , I can not do this for you extensively so if you want more then read the threads about trading and trade routes in the forum you are in here :

BlackBeard on profits :
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1024650/discussions/0/4819392984410120051/#c4819392984411554224

Tanitha , on general playing here and onward :
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1024650/discussions/0/4265444591471276789/#c4265444591472507784

Soup to Nuts: The Economy Guide
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2248590166

P.S.
A lot of people b.i.t.c.h.e.s. about why I would come to this forum if I do not have PR4 myself.
The case is that I have played all the previous games in franchises Port Royale and Patrician and became very unhappy and frustrated with the course that the franchises took, so I spent a lot of time in the Kalypso Media forum when that existed experiencing the local mob of fanboys and also became very unhappy with how Kalypso Media and Gaming Minds handled criticism.
So while I have had some , let's call it better communication with the companies now then I have not been in any hurry to cough up my money. I'd rather give my opinion on things to the companies and may eventually buy on a sale if I think they have learned what they needed to learn.
Of , course in the end all this is such a massive waste of time but so is any use of computers for 'gaming' and 'idle chatter' if you start looking at it that way !

[BlackBeard]

Other advice I can give are:
- Create a commercial route to sell colonial products in the city of the Vicerè. You can also use the city of the viceroy of another nation to sell colonial goods (in case the city of your vicerè was already full or non-advantageous sale)

- Pay attention to commercial activities and their bonuses. The production of every good has a cost (which you can see in the city card in the "Production" menu), if you do not have a commercial office in that city the product will be automatically sold to the city market. This can cause a dual loss if you don't pay attention to you, I'll give you an example:


Your two metal factories produce 16 metal a day at a price of 60 gold and are sold directly into the city market (you don't have a warehouse). If the city reaches a high altitude of metal availability (when there are 2 green bars), the selling price will fall at 59 gold, so you will lose 1 Gold for each unit sold in the market (in this case 16 metal units produced every day It corresponds to 16 Gold lost every day), if the availability of the metal further rises in the city market (3 or more green bars) losses will be even greater.

With the progress of the game, when you have many activities, you lose a huge amount of money if you don't build a warehouse.

The warehouse must be built in a city where you have many activities to prevent the goods from overheating excessively (it is good to deactivate the production as much as the city reaches a threshold of 3 green bars or when you can't sell that product in the various cities anymore)

Many players do not know how to use the counselor's options and end up increasing their losses by building warehouses. The purchase prices in the Councilor tab must be set to 80%, in this way the Councilor will not buy goods in the city or better will buy them only when the price becomes very advantageous ..
In this way you will avoid the adviser to sell and purchase goods continuously in your city (do not lower the minimum sales price under 100%).

- If your business route is a secure route (it does not cross the red zones), deactivate the auto-repair of the convoy in all the cities of the trade routes, so you will disappear the costs of maintenance of the convoys. You will easily watch the Councilor's page to see if there is some convoy to repair or the list of convoys to see if there is someone who drops below 70% of HP. If you see that a convoy falls below 70% of HP you can repair it.

This allows you to have two benefits, the convoys do not stop every ride to repair (so they take less time to finish the tour) and reduce the costs of maintenance of convoys to a minimum.

[jonnin]

automatic as in 'it will drive itself in a circle and do what you told it' is very profitable.
automatic as in 'click the towns and mash go' is not only far less profitable, it can lose money esp if your production was randomized or something is going on with the map or businesses, or wars.
the key is that 'do what you told it' part. Look at the towns you want to connect. See what they make. Hey, barbados makes rum but has no sugar, and the town next to it has sugar plantations... !!! what do you do? Once you know what the 'advanced' goods (takes other goods to make) require you can quickly spot places where the production requires something else and you and order your convoy to supply them, then take their products, and sell those which are usually worth more. That is on top of running colonial goods back to vic for fame and profit.
also be sure your convoy has no sailors, they will drain your income to 0 in a hurry sailors means 'warriors' not 'crew' in this game. You don't want them on trade convoys in general.
Also stagnation can be caused over a long period of price changes: look in the hold of unprofitable routes to make sure its not holding 80% of its space in something it can't find a buyer for.

start simple. Make a new game and find where you can get the colonial goods, and make a route that buys them up and drags them back to the viceroy. Get that working exactly as you like it, follow it as it hits each town watching its cargo hold to be sure it is doing what it was told. This exercise will teach you how to set it up right, and its a good thing to do anyway. Once you understand it, you can do the same on your money routes to buy the right things and resell them profitably much easier; well this combined with the above idea of knowing what goods a place needs based off what it makes....

[Czezar]

Originally posted by FiatLux:

When you start writing something like : "I literally watched every article, video, review, tutorial…but no help.: then how can you expect anybody to want to try , you already read it all and heard it all and you obviously think that the game is broken....
I have read many posts here at the Steam forum by players trying to advice new players about how to set up trading routes but you claim that you already know how and you apparently know it all already ! I am not trying to be unkind , I am merely communicating how you 'come across' to me !

What I personally have picked up , and can remember , from what I have read , then people usually write advice like , do not have any sailors on your trading only fleets as that is too expensive , do not have have too many warehouses or businesses as that will cost you, then profitability also depends on how fast and how big the ships are versus length of voyage (not sure but 'i think that smaller ships are best suited for shorter local trading routes and the big ones for long with fewer stops ?)
Then , I have not bought the game myself yet so I do not know how PR4 specifically works , but there often in such games are a captains skill effect on trading...

Otherwise , I can not do this for you extensively so if you want more then read the threads about trading and trade routes in the forum you are in here :

BlackBeard on profits :
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1024650/discussions/0/4819392984410120051/#c4819392984411554224

Tanitha , on general playing here and onward :
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1024650/discussions/0/4265444591471276789/#c4265444591472507784

Soup to Nuts: The Economy Guide
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2248590166

P.S.
A lot of people b.i.t.c.h.e.s. about why I would come to this forum if I do not have PR4 myself.
The case is that I have played all the previous games in franchises Port Royale and Patrician and became very unhappy and frustrated with the course that the franchises took, so I spent a lot of time in the Kalypso Media forum when that existed experiencing the local mob of fanboys and also became very unhappy with how Kalypso Media and Gaming Minds handled criticism.
So while I have had some , let's call it better communication with the companies now then I have not been in any hurry to cough up my money. I'd rather give my opinion on things to the companies and may eventually buy on a sale if I think they have learned what they needed to learn.
Of , course in the end all this is such a massive waste of time but so is any use of computers for 'gaming' and 'idle chatter' if you start looking at it that way !

Fair enough! I agree on what you said about the way how I wrote my post. That being said, I Really did read and watched all I was able to find. Thank you for the links and the willingness to help. I appreciate it.

[Czezar]

Originally posted by jonnin:

automatic as in 'it will drive itself in a circle and do what you told it' is very profitable.
automatic as in 'click the towns and mash go' is not only far less profitable, it can lose money esp if your production was randomized or something is going on with the map or businesses, or wars.
the key is that 'do what you told it' part. Look at the towns you want to connect. See what they make. Hey, barbados makes rum but has no sugar, and the town next to it has sugar plantations... !!! what do you do? Once you know what the 'advanced' goods (takes other goods to make) require you can quickly spot places where the production requires something else and you and order your convoy to supply them, then take their products, and sell those which are usually worth more. That is on top of running colonial goods back to vic for fame and profit.
also be sure your convoy has no sailors, they will drain your income to 0 in a hurry sailors means 'warriors' not 'crew' in this game. You don't want them on trade convoys in general.
Also stagnation can be caused over a long period of price changes: look in the hold of unprofitable routes to make sure its not holding 80% of its space in something it can't find a buyer for.

start simple. Make a new game and find where you can get the colonial goods, and make a route that buys them up and drags them back to the viceroy. Get that working exactly as you like it, follow it as it hits each town watching its cargo hold to be sure it is doing what it was told. This exercise will teach you how to set it up right, and its a good thing to do anyway. Once you understand it, you can do the same on your money routes to buy the right things and resell them profitably much easier; well this combined with the above idea of knowing what goods a place needs based off what it makes....

Thank you for the advises Jonin, and hereby I also thank for BlackBeard!
The idea is that I rather would play than spending time here and chatting. Why am I saying this?
Because before I decided to come here and post a new discussion, I tried to read the existing ones. But most importantly tried the tactics you guys are mentioning: I do not have a single Sailor, I do not have a Warehouse, my ships are the smallest ones to be more nimble next to the shore, delivering all the goods to the Viceroy, changing the trade routes length, directions. I tried just Standard settings, but I also tried customizing the prices. Definitely played around with quantities and priorities.
What I am trying to say, that i am not the most most beginner in the field of strategy games, but this one is kicking my a...s..s:)
I will comb trough your advises and will try to utilize some i might have not used it before.
Last thing though, the part I mentioned in my original post: Why my town interface ( where i am setting either Standard or individually the prices for all goods ) looks different than 100% all articles/videos out there? Is is possible that I got a Beta version, or a broken side branch of a game? I don't know at this moment how to post an image here, but basically on my interface for every goods I see stars( priorities ), the Quantity and the Price, while on the articles/videos this interface has buttons like "123" and so on.
Thank you all for your help!

[FiatLux]

Originally posted by czezarcsongi:

Last thing though, the part I mentioned in my original post: Why my town interface ( where i am setting either Standard or individually the prices for all goods ) looks different than 100% all articles/videos out there? Is is possible that I got a Beta version, or a broken side branch of a game? I don't know at this moment how to post an image here, but basically on my interface for every goods I see stars( priorities ), the Quantity and the Price, while on the articles/videos this interface has buttons like "123" and so on.
Thank you all for your help!

There should be / ought to be a game version information somewhere in the game interface ? that you could supply people (?)
(Make sure that your version number in the bottom right of the main menu is: "1.6.21040") (or higher ?)

But from what I have read then you should go to game properties in the Steam interface and check that you are not running legacy version or something else and I am sure that the suggestion to verify game files may also pop up !

Sorry that I can not be of better assistance , but I do wish you best of luck and plenty of fun playing your game(s)