Problem with the "special" contract (spoiler)

[ScruffyBamboo]

So I'm doing the career, having a blast, just about to buy my first panamax ship... then I'm told I have to drop everything to deliver a bunch of different goods to Hamburg. Ok, no problem I think.

Only two months? Wow, that's short.

Hmm, there's some fragile cargo there... let's see, I have to upgrade my ships. But wait, my ships can't be upgraded for that type of cargo. I guess we'll just have to risk it with customs. Hmf.

Ok, so I've managed to deliver 5 of the 6 products, but it still want furniture... but NOBODY is shipping furniture to Hamburg! I've actually got my ships going from port to port (since you can't see what's on offer without having a ship there - no internet I guess). I sail to almost every port on the map (before I run out of time) - not a single shipment for furniture at all, let alone for Hamburg.

So mission failed, - a bunch of reputation, and - $10 MILLION. Yey, for a mission that was unpassable.

Look, I'm having fun with the game, but stuff like this makes me want to smash my mouse. If you're going to throw a super short timed mission (with a SEVERE penalty), the least you can do is ensure that the goods required to complete it are actually available!

Or am I missiong something?

[MinionJoe]

I failed that one too. And the next one where you have to deliver coffee to St. Petersburg from a half-dozen different sources. I pretty much just ignore those missions now. You'll lose a LOT more money once pirates start demanding ransoms on your ships.

[strykerpsg]

You need more port visits, they're there and the mission is doable, but as you've stated, very harsh if you fail. Same for the coffee mission, I used 4 different feeder ships in as many Atlantic/Mediterranean ports as I could and found them. Again, doable, but you have to be in as many ports as possible and know you're not making much money at all on any of those missions during the pickups. It's the success of the mission that pays you well.

[76561198137496017]

Furniture is availible at Giaro Tauro Port in Italy . If sometimes no furniture are in list, try waiting for 2 days to get new offers.

[HansOlav]

I managed the first mission to Hamburg, but the one with Coffee to St. Petersburg I failed. I could not find any places that had any freight for Havana where the last 100 TEUS of coffee was. So I have not got any freigth for Havana so far and it is still closed for me.

[76561198137496017]

Havanna is one of the smallest Ports in the game, only Feeder can go there.
As long as there are no Feeder in your Company you won't get a contract to Havanna.

As you maybe noticed , there are 5 different harbor icons, showing the Level of the Ports.
Havanna , Stanley, Nuuk, Reyklavik and Honululu are the smallest and can only be reached by Feeder Class Ships.
You should also keep that in mind for Company Contracts!

[HansOlav]

I have 2 feeders!

[HansOlav]

Do you need to use the Feeders to chek each harbor?

[76561198137496017]

Contracts to these small habors will only be apear for feeder ships.
If there is no contract in the list , try waiting 2 days , until new contracts are generated, sometime it will last a bit longer ... but i promise you ALL of the special contracts are possible, i
managed them all , sometimes just by 1 or 2 days.
But where is the fun without a challange ? ;)

[Andrea]

Yes, you need to check with a Feeder if there are jobs to Havana. I'd recommend checking in a big harbor nearby because there are more jobs available in total. So for example New York or Georgia Ports.

[HansOlav]

Thanks, I will try that. I really love this game!

[76561198137496017]

Oh and by the way... to save time you can speed up your ships to full speed, thats maybe expensive on fuel but in the end it may pay out ..

[HansOlav]

Now I got it, thanks again.

[ScruffyBamboo]

Originally posted by Slick:

But where is the fun without a challange ? ;)

Zero fun at all, when completing the challenge is essentially luck based.

I had no way of knowing that there was furniture in Giaro Tauro - I hadn't actually been there yet when the mission popped up. And when I DID visit, there was no furniture waiting to be shipped to Hamburg. So I'm just supposed to wait at the port, losing money, in the hopes that they'll decide to shop furniture? That's stupid. THE ORDER SHOULD BE WAITING THERE ALL THE TIME, UNTIL THE MISSION IS UP.

Now that I know exactly where to get the furniture, I could probably pass the mission. But my point is that I didn't have that information the first time around, which mades it (almost) impossible, especially with the super-short delay and slow ships at the beginning. It wouldn't be so bad if the penalty was minor, but it's incredibly harsh.

I love the game, but these "missions" are just incredibly bad game design. Not the concept - the execution. It's a good thing it's so easy to make money in the game that I can just ignore them, but still.

Oh, btw - I failed the coffee mission too. I DID go to every port where they were supposed to sell the coffee, but one of them just never produced any coffee for St. Petersberg. So more money lost, through no fault of my own. Grr.

[Andrea]

@ScruffyBamboo: Did you see the "export goods" list in every harbor that is at the top on the right? Just under the port name. With this you can check where you can get everything (or something).

[ScruffyBamboo]

Originally posted by Andrea:

@ScruffyBamboo: Did you see the "export goods" list in every harbor that is at the top on the right? Just under the port name. With this you can check where you can get everything (or something).

I did (eventually - although this is not really explained) - but as I said, when I did get to Giaro Tauro, there was no furniture waiting to be shipped. I'm just supposed to wait? The clock was ticking - fast. I had to try another port to see if I could find some there. It's not like I could check a "master port list" to see which port produces what product (and why can't I do that, btw?). I could ONLY check ports where I currently had a ship.

Look, for you guys, the devs, the mission is obvious. You know where all the cargos are being produced, you know exactly where to go, and if you should wait (because you know it's the only place to get furniture). But a new player DOESN'T know that, and has VERY, VERY limited ways of finding out before it's too late. And a $10m penalty that early in the game can be crippling.

Like I said, the problem isn't with the idea behind the mission - it's the execution. And it's such an easy fix - simply tell us WHERE to get the goods (during the mission briefing), and make sure it's sitting there when our ship arrives! Frustration would be gone, challenge would still be there, and it wouldn't feel like passing this mission is all a question of luck.