Taking control of the shipping company after reaching tycoon

[nfangio]

I've reached a few hours ago tycoon status and got a message from my assistant I had to conclude all my jobs and contracts to be able to get rid of the investor.
I finished all the long term contracts, have no loans, and all my 15 ships are without cargo at ports.
At the moment, I'm loosing 1 million a day on port fees, waiting for a message to pop-up giving me the option to take control of the company. At this point, the investor was cashing to her pockets over 300 million each quarter.
The only thing I haven't done is a mission to dock 2x a ship of each class.
Is that mission really relevant or am I missing something else?

I'd really appreciate If someone could provide me with a clue.

[Andrea]

Hi nfangio!
Yeah, you really have to fulfill the other quests, too. So sail around with your ship classes each 2x and then it will go on :) .

[nfangio]

Thanks for answering. One hour after I wrote this post, I had already that mission done, and the other on the middle east, so I got a number finnally: 4,906,461,418 euros, and she is now taking home every quarter arond 800 million.
Is it possible to tone down a bit on those numbers? I mean, twice the value of my fleet + the amount of money I had when they made de valuation?! A bit too much in my opinion!

[Andrea]

Hi again.
But compared to your current money on your account it is a small amount (the 800 million I mean), isn't it? Imagine real life investors that put some money in you as a startup and then want to have their share, because in the end they want only money as well.

[nfangio]

Its not an irrelevant amount but, Its not impossible to save those nearly 5 billion. But to do that, had to re-think all my strategy, selling all my ships that had high fuel spent/day and doing some changes in my shipping lanes so that I could regularlly pass in those ports with lower fuel price.

One last thing I'd like to ask: Is it possible to some-how re-think those ULCV? Most of them are less profitable than the new-panamax ships and not really worth it.

Either than that, good game. Needs some tweeks here and there, but the base game is enjoyable.

[Andrea]

Well that sounds like a great planning task that you are up to, right? Scanning your ships for good/bad fuel consumption versus TEU loading capacity, deciding which to sell and so on...

@ULCV: How exactly do you find them not profitable? Too expensive versus too high tugboat costs? Or other parameters? TEU, fuel, speed?

[nfangio]

Putting some quick maths into planning, they are slower than the best new-panamax ship, cost twice as much in port operations, waste more fuel daily, can't cross the Panama canal and the cargo amount is not that greater than the Super-Speed S-Scale ship (new-panamax). Basically, for pure profit on big hauls, a fleet with 10 of those new-panamax ships is ideal.

[ScruffyBamboo]

Originally posted by Andrea:

Well that sounds like a great planning task that you are up to, right? Scanning your ships for good/bad fuel consumption versus TEU loading capacity, deciding which to sell and so on...

@ULCV: How exactly do you find them not profitable? Too expensive versus too high tugboat costs? Or other parameters? TEU, fuel, speed?

That's weird... I'm not as far as these guys (I'm in the post-panamax stage), but I'm having the opposite problem. I can't lose money. I'm making so much money, it's insane. I don't even have to look at capacity, fuel consumption, anything like that. It makes almost no diffence - the game just gushes cash.

I currently have over 600 million, and I'm not really trying. I don't even care when I get caught with contraband - it's just a drop in the bucket. I'm already world-famous, even though I rarely if ever dock manually (that gets pretty old kinda fast, unfortunately).

Maybe it gets tougher when I get to the next class? Right now, it just feels like a gring to get there - the only thing I'm missing is contracts (I don't do them because I don't really need them - they bring in even MORE money).

BTW - all my ships are fully maxed out. It's so cheap to do so, that I max them out as soon as I buy them.

Don't get me wrong, I like the game... it's strangely addictive. And I haven't tried the free-playh yet, so maybe there's difficulty levels in there. But right now, this feels like it's set on "kid-friendly".

And yet, the "special" missions are almost impossible to complete! lol... :P

[nfangio]

Beginning from the last part, there is one of those special missions you'll really have to complete or the investor will shut down your company. For that one, you'll better still have some Feeders still because you'll have to grab items from all sorts of ports.
The question on latter stages in the game is that, as you complete the missions and so on, and get to open all types of ships, you'll get one avaliation of what the investor will charge you for letting you buy the company. In my case, the amount is nearlly 5 Billion and, given that the investor is eating 800 million each 4 months, you really have to improve the efficiency of your fleet and operations so that you can pay the investor each 4 months and still save enough to get the full amount asked to get rid of the investor.
Its a big grind!

Btw, also my ships are all fully tuned. When I buy them, I don't let them even leave the first port without being fitted with everything.

[ScruffyBamboo]

Originally posted by nfangio:

Btw, also my ships are all fully tuned. When I buy them, I don't let them even leave the first port without being fitted with everything.

Same, since the upgrades are so cheap. Makes one wonder why the mechanic is even in - we should be able to buy the ship new with all the required upgrades. Right now, it just means my new, 100% ship will sit in port for 30 days when I buy it. Boo.

And I'm not sure I read your post correctly, but there BETTER not be a late-game mission (that needs feeders, of all things!) where a failure would mean game-over - that would be essentially gamebraking, in an economic game. I did go through the Greenland mission, but I couldn't finish it on time (only 1 feeder left)... and btw, the description said I'd be fined 5M for failing - but I was fined 40M. Still made very little difference to my bottom line at that point.

[nfangio]

Unfortunatelly the Dubay mission is a difficult one, and you have 6 months to fullfill almost 20 orders. And yes, the investor threathens you to shut down the company If you fail.
Either than that, you'll have a nice surprise when you get to the new-panamax ships, but I don't want to spoil that for you. :)
As for the fleet, I kept 3 feeders (1440TEU), 3 Panamax, 2 Post Panamax for missons/contracts involving smaller ports. The main force of my fleet are 15 new-panamax and ulcv.

[Maligner]

I like the idea of having a fully upgraded ship available, but there should be a randomness to it; ship costs and availability should fluctuate, as should global economy of fuel and commodity prices.

I still haven't got it downloaded, but is there no adjustable difficulty?

I'm really loving reading these discussions. Provided we all have the common goal of discussing towards improving our experience, in a respectful fashion, I will continue to check in here.

[nfangio]

No Sir, unfortunatelly, the career part has no asjustable difficulty, but in free mode you can somewhat tune the difficulty by choosing or not the online price database. In this mode, price and demand will be affected by other players also playing online (but it is not a multiplayer, just a database)

[dark-breed]

hmm i'm tycoon all missions done why i get not the offer to buy my company back ?

[Falcon07]

Originally posted by dark-breed:

hmm i'm tycoon all missions done why i get not the offer to buy my company back ?

So I just did it, had to sell my ships to lower my rank, and crash a few to lower my respect, then buy them and dock a few to get it back up then it triggered.