Am I missing something?

[-- scippie --]

I went through the two tutorials and started up the campain. My goal is to ship 50 tons of 4 specified goods or 3 and sink an enemy.
After several years, I have reached this goal (4 specified goods, each 50 tons). In the meanwhile I get some special orders which I can usually accept or decline.
But that's it...
I have started up some automated routes, and I maybe should be continuously checking how prices go up/down but...

What am I missing? At this point, I think this game is really boring. I was really excited to start playing it, trading with ships brought me back to the old days when I was trading as a pirate on some Apple ][e game in the 80's.

I haven't continued until I finished the campain, 150 years is a long time and it seems that it will just take long (on which I mean, just waiting, and watching the money come in slowly) before I will be able to shoot the enemies down.

So, what am I missing? I really can't believe that this is what the game should play like. Am I playing it wrong? Should I really be investigating prices all the time? Is it normal to be attacked by pirates so much and losing to them because you can't afford decent warships yet?

Oh, and why is it so hard to locate cities? I mean, why can't I just click on a name/flag/whatever and have the chart jump to that location. Is there an easier way to locate cities than to scan the map? I know, I should probably know them all, but I don't.

This is not to make this game look bad, I really hope I am just doing something wrong...

(I DO hate the ESC key though, if you have a window open, it should close with ESC, not bring you to the game menu)

Oh, and why are the no popups on icons? I am new at the game, I see an icon of some kind of good next to "generic trade items", but I can't see what it is...

[Rogue]

I would guess your trying to expand too quickly. I don't play the grand campaign anymore. I play the sandbox one where you get to decide what your going to do. Personally I like to start using Portugal because it has such a close proximity to three different cities. Right off I build 2 additional schooners. When they're built I put them all into one fleet and put them on autotrade with one of the nearest ports. A short while later I start to build more trade ships in groups of three. Again I put them in a new fleet together and autotrade with another close port. I do that until I have 3 fleets autotrading with the three ports. That brings in quick cash.

Venturing too far without at least one warship is inviting disaster from pirates. As my cash builds I start building warships to add to my fleets. Then I make another fleet of nothing but warships. Those can go anywhere on the map and be fairly safe and if they are attacked they usually win. Warships can carry cargo or marines. When I don't intend to capture a port I have them run cargo.

Play it on Easy mode and you won't have to worry about prices because ports will buy whatever your fleet is carrying. On higher levels you do have to pay attention to what the other ports will take. That is the only difference between Easy and any other level. Easy does not make it easier to win in a battle.

After the game has progressed a bit you can double left click one of your captains and it will jump to where ever he is. Other than that you have to drag your mouse to scan the map.

The little icons are mostly just for information. Usually they will tell you what they are for.

It says Generic Trade Items just to tell you what the port specializes in. If it were Exotic Furs that is what it would show in thet space.

You want to build up your wealth and your fleet keeping them well balanced because later in the game you will want to take ports. If you own a port it pays more when you trade there. Other countries may get jeolous of you and declare war or maybe you took over one of their ports.

I've been at war with 4 different countries at one time. That can get hairy for sure.

It is slow at times, especially while your waiting for your cash to build but if I'm not at war I run the game at 4X. Cash builds up fast if your ships are making short trips.

Best of luck to you.

[-- scippie --]

Originally posted by Slowmo:

I would guess your trying to expand too quickly...
Best of luck to you.

You make this game sound great! :-)
I'll try again with another way of thinking! Thanks!

[some moron]

for the campaign, you have to wait until the deadline. even if you make the reqruirements, it doesn't autocomplete, it just at the deadline checks to see if you meet the requirements

[-- scippie --]

I have played this game with a different approach now, and I must agree that it's much more fun that way. I used the free campaign that sets no goals and I understand now why I played the grand campaign wrong.
In the grand campaign I tried to get to the goals as quickly as possible. Wrong way to play imo. You should first secure yourself, earn some more money, make sure you can handle the pirate activity and when you come close to 1615, go get your goals as quickly as possible.
You should also fight the urge to accept all missions that are presented to you. They could end up costing a lot more than you can earn with them. I think you should only accept if they are within your existing network or if you can adjust the workflow easily.

So I must agree that this game is fun! Not what I thought it was when I started this thread.

[Rogue]

good, glad you enjoy it. Yup, you have to pay attention to what missions they want you to do.

I never accept missions that require me to attack another company. I will decide on my own when to do that. The small reward they offer isn't enough to replace a ship if you lose it.

Same with Destroy a Pirate mission. If you lose a ship the reward isn't enough to replace it.

Diplomatic pouches etc I do only if I have a ship or two at my homeport that is free and doing nothing else at the time. I certainly wouldn't take any of my fleets off their trading route for it.

So I do very few missions. The pay is much to small.

[pemmons1]

Good advice, everyone. I would just add that you can't do anything without income. In my experience with the grand campaign on easy mode, you are soon loaned a fleet to capture one Indian port, and that is an excellent thing to take advantage of. Apparently it must be an Indian port, not African. But aside from that, take advantage mainly of nearby African ports at the outset, because the turnaround time with goods in transit is much shorter. The next port you capture should be either Cape or Natal. A port selling ivory and one selling gold are good candidates next. Don't bother capturing any island ports selling generic goods until one of the rival companies begins doing so. I have a hunch that this tempts them to declare war on you.

Too late did I discover the ability of diplomacy to enhance income. Now I open up the diplomacy screen almost every month and sell the other companies as much as I can in return for cash, gold, or diamonds. The prices are often better. But "as much as I can" is often limited by "as much as they can." Pace yourself, otherwise a company may be unwilling to trade with you for several months or the remainder of the year. The wealthiest companies have the most capacity. For optimal results, use a spreadsheet to calculate the percentage difference between each company's offering price of each product and the amount that you would get by selling it at your home city. This gives you a sense of what is best to sell to whom. Ivory and porcelain have usually been particularly good candidates for me (with about a 40% difference) but YMMV.

Yes, of course keep checking prices. It all depends on how much detail and micromanagement you have the patience for. I tend to be a perfectionist, and that means game time passes very slowly with much pausing, but perhaps this is the way to learn the most, get the most out of the game, and enjoy its complexities.