Ports don't sell.. anything.

[Enorats]

What's the deal with ports not selling basically anything at all? In the week or so I've been playing this (since I quit like 2 years ago) I've visited a lot of ports. Every time I leave port the game tells me I should have repair consumables. No port I've ever visited (out of several dozen) has ever sold a single consumable item. No port ever seems to be selling any ships either, just one or two rank 7 or 6 ships. I mean, I'm sitting at a port that says it produces iron ore and literally the only thing in the shop aside from unlimited numbers of cannons is a handful of beans. Even resources are almost nonexistent.

Is the entire economy supposed to be player driven or something? Are we supposed to craft these items and distribute them around the world? Because this game has what has to be record low numbers of players for basically any MMO ever. An economy like that simply won't work when you have a dozen times the number of ports as players actively playing.

This is not how this game functioned several years ago. Back then you could buy repair items at any port, and ports actually used and produced goods which led to a variety of prices and an interesting economy. What happened?

[ThikBrick]

yes thats pretty sad.. there is no reason to visit another port. the main city always deliver more resources. its nothing then just some trade goods and some diff ships 7-5. it would be nice to have more goods around also suddenly popping up rare goods as would a trader delivered some of it to a random harbor... this would negate the sad drop chance mechanism..

[Rabid_Infidel]

Yeah. Ports are useless, and have been for years now.
Trading is crap and not rewarding in any way, shape or form.

Ports themselves do not produce anything of value nor there is a reason to go to one except to find a easy mission to do.

And just to add that in order to be competative in any way you now MUST be in a clan. It is a mandatory feature of the game now.

[davemon]

Trading was rewarding in this game prior to the patch that introduced taxes for no reason other than to grief players. Traders could make a lot of gold and enjoy their trade game, and have fun optimizing their runs. There were also a lot more players online back then, so playing on pvp server as a trader was challenging. Now that game is pretty much dead, deliberately by design.

[Enorats]

It's just so weird, because each port used to produce and consume various resources. The prices for goods would fluctuate depending on supply and demand, and when visiting a port the shop screen would show the entire list of resources (and their prices) all in one window. It was far superior to this new UI that has you scrolling through a list thay shows 3-4 things at a time, if you can even find a port that actually has anything to list.

I just can't wrap my head around why they would have removed all that and replaced it with totally empty shop lists in seemingly every port in the game.

[Marlinspike]

Sounds like good feedback for dev.

[Ink]

Originally posted by Enorats:

What's the deal with ports not selling basically anything at all? In the week or so I've been playing this (since I quit like 2 years ago) I've visited a lot of ports. Every time I leave port the game tells me I should have repair consumables. No port I've ever visited (out of several dozen) has ever sold a single consumable item.

Captain, could you please provide a couple of ports you have visited and also a couple of screenshots with item shop and ship auction windows open?

[Enorats]

I'm at work at the moment, but I've been to most of the ports in the Bahamas region (as all the missions I picked up to start with sent me to that area to hunt NPC ships).

Not really sure how to attach a screenshot either. The store I was using was the one at the bottom of the screen, next to the ship auction I believe. It sells cannons on the first tab, then has tabs for resources, consumables, upgrades, and the like. Those tabs are all almost always entirely empty, aside from the occasional random item or two I assume some other player found on a ship and vendored back at port.

[cornus]

Agree, that trading is not as rewarding as it was. But ist still easy to find goods and establish a profitable trade-route. E.g. All.Skins from Florida to Jamaica and Text. Mach. back. Or Text. Mach. from KPR to S.Dom. and Sev Musk. back. And you still find rare stuff in shops for shopprice (not contracted) Just bought some poods at KPR for 2500 each (no contract) lol
Trading is a dull afk-job, but still possible imho

[Arma Fox]

Hi,

- Trading: i make 4 million a tour with 4 indiamans. Every ressource drops every 1 hour. Trading is rewarding as hell, contact me, if yo u want to know how to figure out a good trading route
- Ships: highter than 6 rate you get in freetowns, crafted by players. La tortue has always good prices
- Repairs: are dropped by AI only in capitals of historical nations. In freetowns they are produced by players. Logistics play an important part now. If a clan plans a campaign and want others clans to join, they ship ton of repairs there
- REASON: to visit other, smaller ports is mainly for missions you can find there: With transport missions you can earn a lot with afk sailing

[Captain Soviet]

Having just bought the game, could this be due to the fact that all the ports - even the mighty Guadeloupe, Port Royal and La Habana - resemble half deserted fishing villages rather than busy colonial ports with dockyards, custom houses, sumptuous governal residences etc etc?

[Green Death]

Originally posted by bsaneil:

all the ports - even the mighty Guadeloupe, Port Royal and La Habana - resemble half deserted fishing villages

Half deserted fishing villages with huts the size of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 1st rates.

[Bullwinkle]

I just came back after 2 years. First thing I did was visit about 8 ports, did a deliver person mission and looked for something I could haul in my hold along with the passenger. No port had anything for sale that I could haul. No consummables, no resources, no upgrades. I laughed out loud when I read the dev's comments above asking for screen shots. It is every port, dude. Play the game as a newbie once in a while, you can't miss it. Boring as hell. Really long lists of interesting-sounding items that the port is willing to buy, like buffalo hides and whatnot. So disappointing to only hear them talked about in the port and never getting to see a single one of them for sale. It is like a big tease.

I made a post in the global chat complaining as the OP did here. Almost identical. So eerie to come to the boards and see exactly what I said there, here. The game obviously has a trading mechanic. I'm looking in the trading tab under resources on the shop store. I want to do some trading. Ghost town. Crickets. Nada. Everywhere the same.

[Ink]

Originally posted by Bullwinkle:

I made a post in the global chat complaining as the OP did here. Almost identical. So eerie to come to the boards and see exactly what I said there, here. The game obviously has a trading mechanic. I'm looking in the trading tab under resources on the shop store. I want to do some trading. Ghost town. Crickets. Nada. Everywhere the same.

Could you please name the ports that were empty?

[Bullwinkle]

Originally posted by Ink:

Originally posted by Bullwinkle:

I made a post in the global chat complaining as the OP did here. Almost identical. So eerie to come to the boards and see exactly what I said there, here. The game obviously has a trading mechanic. I'm looking in the trading tab under resources on the shop store. I want to do some trading. Ghost town. Crickets. Nada. Everywhere the same.

Could you please name the ports that were empty?

Well, it was a couple days ago now, so I can't remember precisely, but I give you credit for asking, so I will attempt to recreate my tracks.

I started on the Peace server as American. I took a taxicab mission to Matanzas and then came back up through the keys. My best guess is I found no upgrades or resources for sale in:

Matanzas, Cayo Vacas, Cayo Largo, maybe Key West, Islamorada, I remember clearly I stopped in Beufort on my way down, not sure if I checked what was for sale there. I took a passenger from matanzas to Turtle Cay. Pretty sure I stopped at Mangrove Cay and looked at what was for sale. Ended up in Sunbury in Florida.

Again, it was a couple days ago, so my memory is not fresh, but add Jobe to that list and I'm sure I checked what was for sale in more than 1/3 of the towns that I've listed and found zero resources and zero upgrades for sale.

Then I moved to the war server. I remember clearly Santanillas had nothing for sale. I just now asked on the server for people to name a port with nothing for sale, and everyone laughed and shouted back "every f'ing port, except major bases like KPR, Trux, etc." This comment got a few "+1"s from the crowd.

Even though I have found more stuff for sale this past day playing on the war server, I have not found a single tradeable resource for sale that would make a profitable haul by sailing for less than an hour. 2 years ago, I could always find something, if I looked long enough that could generate a few money (separate from missions) by hauling tradeables a short distance. The trick was to find a port fairly close to the supplier who was willing to pay a good price. Now all the prices seem to be 100% determined by distance, and short distances usually result in a negative or tivial profit, so no point playing the trading game (aside from missions).

[Bullwinkle]

Originally posted by jthecamel:

Originally posted by Ink:

Could you please name the ports that were empty?

That you can ask this question TWICE is amazing and very telling. Get on your game and go from port to port. They are not making this up. There is nothing worth trading at the vast majority of the ports. Unless you think hauling 10 items, two hours for 50 dubs each is enjoyable or profitable. Open trading is a massive joke. The only way to trade is through missions. Missions that force players on dull, long. tedious trips, through the weakest part of your game...the massive desert wasteland of your lifeless sea. You have taken a huge draw in any game of this era (trading for profit) and made it dull as paste. LOL...name the port that's empty...you guys crack me up.

+1

I'll just add that this is something many new players will look for and get a bad first impression of the game and quit before giving the game a fair chance.