Question about rare ship construction with the DLC

[Kaelroth]

Greetings folks. I was wondering if there was an issue with constructing the rare ship variants with the new DLC. I have completed Fiona's story and I am now playing a new game with Andrew as the MC. So far after a few hours of trying, I have yet to get a single rare variant of the Ship of the Line from the blueprint.

I've leveled up Lisbon to pretty much max (1k Tech/ 1k Trade/ 1k Contrib./ 40k+ Pop) and I have shipbuilding at level 13 with Marlene from Fiona's story . One thing I noticed with her Viking Bloodline skill is that ship construction times for both Ship of the Line and Large Galleons are both reduced to 28 days. I'm not sure how that skill works and if even the longer rare ship variant build times are set to that same build duration.

I reloaded the save dozens of times to see if there was a time period longer than what is the standard with Marlene's ability unlocked

I've tried waiting out the build times maybe 30-40 attempts to check and see if I got a rare variant, but it always comes up as a generic Ship of the Line with random bonuses (and generic Large Galleons when I tried building a few of these). I originally also tried building the ship in Seville as I have read that this city is more likely to spawn the variant I wanted, but it was less convenient for passing time than Lisbon. Regardless, I had the same situation in both cities.

At this point, I'm wondering if the variants are locked behind story progression (it wasn't before I purchased/played the DLC content) or if there's an issue caused by the new DLC. Any help would be much appreciated.

[Sabin Stargem]

I think the SOTL rare goes from 65ish days to 35ish with Marlene.

Anyhow, the production of rare variants is very random. Best bet is to start construction and then cancel it. You get all of your materials back, but lose money. This is the fastest way for trying to force a rare.

My impression about "rarity luck" is that the game sets the odds when you boot it up. If you aren't getting rares, try quitting and booting the game again.

[Kaelroth]

Thanks for the tips. I will give them a try. It's good to know that it actually has different durations for the rare build times. I just thought it odd that after so many attempts there wasn't anything showing up for either ship type (and that the SOTL and Large Galleon build times were the same) and it made me think something wasn't quite right.

[CluelessWonder8]

Marlene's talent seems to shave ~45% off the building time of any and all ships, and then round up to full days.

Thus, you can calculate backward from previously known times to a decent approx of what to look for with Marlene.

[Kaelroth]

Sure. The only reason I asked about Marlene's talent is due to the fact that all I saw for either Ship of the Line or Large Galleon build times of 28 days for about a solid hour or more of save scumming while trying to get a single rare ship.

In my previous game I got rare variants several times (for large galleons) in the span of a few minutes, The only perceptible difference between my 2 playthroughs was the addition of the DLC in my newest playthrough.

After trying again today, with Sabin Stargem's suggestions, I managed to get both the Spanish variant in Seville and shortly after the Victory in Plymouth. It took me about 20-ish minutes for each. I strongly suspect that Sabin Stargem's idea about rarity luck is genuine.

Thanks for the assistance folks. It is much appreciated.

[Hentaika]

Originally posted by Kaelroth:

Sure. The only reason I asked about Marlene's talent is due to the fact that all I saw for either Ship of the Line or Large Galleon build times of 28 days for about a solid hour or more of save scumming while trying to get a single rare ship.

In my previous game I got rare variants several times (for large galleons) in the span of a few minutes, The only perceptible difference between my 2 playthroughs was the addition of the DLC in my newest playthrough.

After trying again today, with Sabin Stargem's suggestions, I managed to get both the Spanish variant in Seville and shortly after the Victory in Plymouth. It took me about 20-ish minutes for each. I strongly suspect that Sabin Stargem's idea about rarity luck is genuine.

Thanks for the assistance folks. It is much appreciated.

You have probably been facing one of those problems:

1) You can only get rare ship if you use blueprint construction(or the chance is nigh negligible as I never managed to get a rare in my loads of attempts)
I doubt this is the case since I assume you knew that... but who knows.

2) If you simply try to RELOAD the save file - it won't work. You need to fully quit the game and attempt construction again.
Otherwise you will keep getting same ship. So if you were supposed to get rare ship and saved BEFORE you invested resources - you will still always keep getting construction time of the rare ship.
Basically it is semi RNG, some part of the RNG is preseeded when you try to launch the game.

The reloading mechanism is as simple as that.
Beyond that your RNG from my experience is ~5-15% with tech 1000 and ~15 shipbuilding(not sure if shipbuilding matters beyond certain amount)
Might depend on ship type since some types constantly had slightly better chances from my tests.

[Kaelroth]

1) Yep I was using blueprints

2) Reloading the save file works perfectly fine as long as you save before you started building the ship. I literally just confirmed this was the case earlier today. There was no need to quit the game and relaunch during each attempt to get a rare variant.

Even during my first attempt that prompted my creating this post, I was getting different ships every time (each regular ship had different bonuses). I just wasn't getting any rare variants. Thankfully, as I stated earlier, Sabin Stargem's idea about rarity luck and reloading the game to change it seems to be true.

[Sanary]

With Marlene:
Clipper and Ship of Line build time are both 28 days
Tea Clipper is 31 days, they are unneeded product anyway...
Ariel and Cutty Sark are 39 days.
Purple SoTL build time are all 37 days.
And yeah, save before build ship work fine, you don't need to quit game like some rumors suggested.