Game is extremely difficult

[💋 💋 💋]

100% 100% is insane, how are you suppose to get a foot hold at all?

[librin.so.1]

Elaborate, please.

[💋 💋 💋]

Originally posted by librin.so.1:

Elaborate, please.

Capping zones is nearly impossible, the spawn rates are so fast and the money gain is so slow progress just isn't a thing.

[librin.so.1]

Get a better ship, improve your items and then You'll have much easier time.
Also, what challenge rating are You talking about?

[💋 💋 💋]

Originally posted by librin.so.1:

Get a better ship, improve your items and then You'll have much easier time.
Also, what challenge rating are You talking about?

You can set difficulty.

[librin.so.1]

Uhm, areas have a challenge rating asocialted with them, typically ranging from 0 to 13, with higher being harder.
I am asking what is the challenge rating of the area that is giving you trouble.

[Zaen]

Indeed. It does feel slightly hard when you start a new ship. However progression speeds up alot after you get slightly better gear. and then slows down abit once you start going into harder areas.

[💋 💋 💋]

Originally posted by librin.so.1:

Uhm, areas have a challenge rating asocialted with them, typically ranging from 0 to 13, with higher being harder.
I am asking what is the challenge rating of the area that is giving you trouble.

Challenge 2, 4 is also pretty insane.

[librin.so.1]

Yep, You just need a netter ship / better items / more talents.
Also,

PROTIP: if You see pirate ships spawning non-stop, they are coming from a town. Forego sinking ships and just get into the vicinity of this town – thid will prevent new ships spawning. (i.e. a town won't spawn ships if there are ship[s] of a faction hostile to the town near to it; for pirate towns that means any non-pirate ship)

[Justin]

I do kind of agree that unlocking new ships is more of a grind than it should be, but I've never had issues with regards to beating up enemies (assuming I'm not overwhelmed).

[MoonlightEmber]

Early game, you need to stay in your starting sector while you build up a bit. If you're starting a brand new game, you shouldn't be on challenge 2 yet, you won't be equipped for it. Do some quests and such for the towns in the beginning and it should help you out.

[💋 💋 💋]

Really wish it didn't take what seems like six hours at a time to build up enough money to get the first ship upgrade.

[Justin]

Yeah, I agree with Ewe.

[Vorus]

I must be in the minority, but I like slow progression. I don't feel like the early game progression is too slow at all. In fact, I think it's a little too easy to get your first (And really, all subsequent) new ship.

[ArenMook]

At an average of 50 gold per quest in challenge level 0 (starting area), and an average quest taking about a minute to complete, that's already 3000 gold an hour. The first ship costs 4000 gold.

If you do trading instead of questing, your profit can increase greatly (assuming you have the Diplomacy for it). Moving outside of the starting area raises the profits as well. 25% per challenge level, so challenge level 2 would be giving you ~75 gold per quest, thus giving you 4500 gold per hour.

None of these numbers take into consideration items that you will find as you sail about which can easily sell for quite a nice profit on their own.

I am not sure why it took you 6 hours to earn 4000 gold needed for the first ship.

As a side note, by challenge level 12 you will be easily earning tens of thousands of gold per hour from trading, and from selling items you find.

[librin.so.1]

Originally posted by (Ewe-lala):

Really wish it didn't take what seems like six hours at a time to build up enough money to get the first ship upgrade.

Really now?
I started from scratch on this game several times already. (various reasons...)
And each time I'd forego the first upgrade and go directly to schooner, which is the second upgrade and IIRC costs some 8k gold.
On my first time, when I didn't know how to play, it took me ~3 hours to unlock it.
On the rest of the runs, it used to take me a bit over an hour.

So, I assert You must be doing something very wrong if it takes You 6 whole hours to unlock the first upgrade...