Not understanding workshop gain

[Starwight/ttv]

So I had a big city that had 2 villages attached that both have flax. According to what I read, flax can be used to make clothing for a linen weavery workshop.

With flax like that easily available, I thought cool, I'll buy the weavery workshop.

It doesn't even bring in FIFTY GOLD. It literally makes 36 at best. What gives? MY understanding was you want to look at surrounding villages to see what, exactly, is produced so they have access to materials needed to make the final product, and then choose a workshop based on that.

Hence, places with good flax production you buy a weavery, places with good grain production you buy a brewery, places with sheep around, you purchase a wool weavery, etc.

What am I doing wrong? I absolutely cannot make money without either A, having to go after various bandits and looters which yield little money anyway, or B, become a vassal and start attacking actual armies (which I can't do because I I'm barely making enough money via tournaments and my workshop and killing bandits to support a group of 40, let alone 70-100).

I am hesitant to try and get another workshop because I don't want yet another bust, but I don't know wtf to do to get a workshop that ACTUALLY produces a fair ammount of passive income for my early game.

This economy crap is totally ruining my early game experience and making it extemely difficult for me to enjoy the game.

[Ricky_Spanish]

make a tannery in sibir, should give u at least 400, smith in epicrotea also runs good, wool always gives a stable income, if u struggle with money, do quests, easy money for early game. im pretty sure nobody really understands workshops now at the current state.

[Starwight/ttv]

Originally posted by Ricky_Spanish:

make a tannery in sibir, should give u at least 400, smith in epicrotea also runs good, wool always gives a stable income, if u struggle with money, do quests, easy money for early game. im pretty sure nobody really understands workshops now at the current state.

Thanks for the tips here. Workshop earnings seem so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ random. I DO try to do quests, but I have ♥♥♥♥ luck and keep getting that dumbass family quest, which is just boring as hell. RNG for ya

[kaleidoscope]

I had a similar problem, I captured Ortysia as my first town with my own kingdom; SO one of the villages produce Silver as primary product, when I saw it I said "HELL YEA BOY I will do a lot of money with a silversmith", well... I didn't. Caravans, they were buying all the silver in the city and my workshop wasnt producing not a single jewelry because the lack of raw material.

Workshops produce like 200-400 denars per day if going well, they recently nerfed Pen Cannoc pottery shop, because was insane the amount of income you were able to get there. I recommend you Caravans and patience... actually I have 2 and I'm paying 200 denars per caravan, and the income is between 2000-4000 per day.

Joining as mercenary is not bad, you will get a lot of $ from items/prisioners +1000to2000 if you cap a Lord.. if you can't fight alone, join big fights

[Bumbleton]

Cheap raw resources help a lot, but it doesn't matter if the end-product is also sold cheap. Check that price as well. At the moment, caravans will bring you most of your raw resources, so just make a workshop somewhere that buys that product high

[Starwight/ttv]

Originally posted by pizzalandia dawi:

I had a similar problem, I captured Ortysia as my first town with my own kingdom; SO one of the villages produce Silver as primary product, when I saw it I said "HELL YEA BOY I will do a lot of money with a silversmith", well... I didn't. Caravans, they were buying all the silver in the city and my workshop wasnt producing not a single jewelry because the lack of raw material.

Workshops produce like 200-400 denars per day if going well, they recently nerfed Pen Cannoc pottery shop, because was insane the amount of income you were able to get there. I recommend you Caravans and patience... actually I have 2 and I'm paying 200 denars per caravan, and the income is between 2000-4000 per day.

Joining as mercenary is not bad, you will get a lot of $ from items/prisioners +1000to2000 if you cap a Lord.. if you can't fight alone, join big fights

Yeah fighting lords for me isn't an option because of my small army size. I'll have to get lucky and join a fight and hope my troops don't get rekt.

I had caravans PRE nerf and they did very well, but now they don't last very long, and I end up out 18k gold, which is hugely depressing.

On a side-note, it would be nice if we could literally role-play a traveling trader or merchant, and not HAVE to support a reasonable sized group or make a profit by becoming a vassal or merc, or selling lords. I expected a lot more freedom from a sandbox game, to be quite honest. I know it's still early access, so I'm giving that a pass for now, but I expect more freedom later.

[Starwight/ttv]

Originally posted by Lord Bumbleton:

Cheap raw resources help a lot, but it doesn't matter if the end-product is also sold cheap. Check that price as well. At the moment, caravans will bring you most of your raw resources, so just make a workshop somewhere that buys that product high

Okay, so in the example of flax. If linen is going for cheap, even if there is good flax production, that's a bad workshop to invest in. so I SHOULD not only be checking village production, but final product cost as well if I am buying it?

Will this be accurate even if my trading is sub-par?

[Bumbleton]

Trading is entirely viable right now, but you need to remember: this is a wartorn land, with bandits taking advantage of the chaos. You either need a large caravan guard, or a fast one, in order to survive. I've been able to do well with around 20ish low-tier units and enough horses for all of them. Pay is between 20-40 gold a day, with trade profits being around 10-20k at the end of my route. Think I've done well as a merchant

[Bumbleton]

Originally posted by alonesilverwolf:

Originally posted by Lord Bumbleton:

Cheap raw resources help a lot, but it doesn't matter if the end-product is also sold cheap. Check that price as well. At the moment, caravans will bring you most of your raw resources, so just make a workshop somewhere that buys that product high

Okay, so in the example of flax. If linen is going for cheap, even if there is good flax production, that's a bad workshop to invest in. so I SHOULD not only be checking village production, but final product cost as well if I am buying it?

Will this be accurate even if my trading is sub-par?

As in trade skill? Yes, more or less. As far as I can see, the skill only has a large effect when certain perks come into play

[hottwiz]

i've restarted 4 times now and every single time i become a trader making loads of ducats. for workshops i usually open a brewery in vostrum for a solid 300ish income. but i can't seem to find any other good spots for workshops. i'm trying a smithy in epicrotea right now only 290 income though. i also i don't want to use caravans.

SO for trading at the start of the game all the prices seem to be very similar so you can't make a lot. but after about a month or so you reasources get used up so you can sell. i tend to like selling FURS early game. buy below 100 and sell around 200ish. If you go WAY south to the city on the nile you can buy grain very cheap. i could buy over 1000 units for 6 ducats.

eventually in the north and north east you will be able to buy food products for very cheap. fish for 6-10 and sell for over 20-40. flax for 6-10 sell for 15-30. beer for 15-30 and sell for 50-80. butter for and cheese will become cheap buy 20-30 and sell for 50-80. also buy cows for 150 or less and sell for around 300 in the far west.

also OLIVES!!! in Galend for around 15 ducats buy between 10-20 and sell 30-60+

note you can find these prices else where but its usually after a lot of fighting has taken place in the world and lords and cities need to restock.

SIDE NOTE i don't find the combat as enjoyable as i did in warband and i'm not sure why. so i only fight a little. but if you want to make money fighting the get some companions and seom tier 3+ troops and 20ish archers and go fight SEA RAIDERS up north. they will give you tier 3-5 equipment to use and you will make a good profit of them. not as good as furs but good enough.

[Kitten Food]

You can rig the economy in your favor if you just buy up the goods in other nearby towns that you produce at your shop. It will create a demand and inflate the price of your goods. Works every time for me.

Also: I just build workshops that my villagers can ensure delivery of supplies to, otherwise I just make manual deliveries.

[TerrorBear]

Workshops depend on the resource that is produced by the villages surrounding the city, more specificaly, if the villagers from those villages come to the city to sell their products. This gets affected by bandit activity in the area and wars where armies seek and kill villagers. The more stable an area is, and the more resources that are produced in a specific area will dictate which workshop you should be building. For a more hands on approach, you can build workshops in an area of the map that do not make that resource what so ever but you can go far away and buy those resources cheapely, return, and then sell those resources to a city for major profit. In these circumstances your workshop will actually make you the most money because you have essentially created a monopoly for a rare product in the region

[hottwiz]

Originally posted by Kitten Food:

You can rig the economy in your favor if you just buy up the goods in other nearby towns that you produce at your shop. It will create a demand and inflate the price of your goods. Works every time for me.

Also: I just build workshops that my villagers can ensure delivery of supplies to, otherwise I just make manual deliveries.

im going to try that now

[Kitten Food]

Originally posted by hottwiz:

Originally posted by Kitten Food:

You can rig the economy in your favor if you just buy up the goods in other nearby towns that you produce at your shop. It will create a demand and inflate the price of your goods. Works every time for me.

Also: I just build workshops that my villagers can ensure delivery of supplies to, otherwise I just make manual deliveries.

im going to try that now

just make sure nearby towns arent competing with similar shops. having 4 nearby towns with weaveries is never going to make much money.