At a loss to profit

[Graufalke]

I must be missing something very obvious as after attempting several times to start the game, I just die the slow death of bankruptcy.

By the time I make it to a town and manage to profit from trade and passengers, I lose the profit to by supplies to keep from starving.

Suggestions are appreciated as even on easy mode I am blowing it :P

[Sloul Des Tucs]

I cannot go into a lengthy answer at this time, but the short answer is task.

[Loothar]

I have been having the same problem. I think Sloul is right that you make more money moving other peoples cargo than your own. i.e. more profit per slot.

I was about to post a question asking if any of the skills decreases the buy price or increases the sell price?

[Psycho Dad]

1. Same problem as above, just starting out I can't make more then 20 bross before I end of going bankrupt.
2. Im not sure what the code is but I have maxed out Beast Lore and Hunting and filled 2 companion depties to get what I thought a very good HUNT/FORGE but NOPE only 32% each time after maxing out everything possiable +tools/dog's....really?? come on.

Playing on wasteland mode.

[For River]

Some early game tips:
Get the traverse (extra moves), the morale while camping leader ability, at least 4 resourcefulness and 2 authority from your character creation.

Dump all of the scouts and most of the workers to slaves. Hire enough fighters to post guards to get that easy max morale and obedience. Try to max vigor to 9 by leaving 2-3 movement points left before camping each day.

Movement is super important because more movement = less travel time = less upkeep cost. I would suggest getting Renkailon + Garrik from Braxius for the supercargo and scout master deputy.

Swap to reptiles for 1 more movement (outdated info, just stick with mammals), and get all of the trade task to the Mines of Plenty or Crimson Gate.

Buy reinforced cartwheels in Mines for another movement point (now in the blacksmith of Avernum). The supplies in the Dragonlands is super cheap and there are usually task back to Torzag. You can also get the dwarven compass from an event that also boost your movement, super helpful.

With all these you should have a lot of movement (around 12-14?) that you would never go broke again as long as you keep doing trade task.

[Timorius]

Try the dwarf which you can get contact from Braxxius very early on.

After some fast violent deaths when trying to help everybody directly in my very first runs, I also went the death of slow bankrupty when trying to be a pure trader for 2 or 3 games.

But now that I have started with one cargo slot more, although I dont like the idea to owe somebody with horns a favor haha, it seems that I will survive a lot longer.
Its still hard. But thats great.

[Mimung]

Same here, no chance of staying afloat or even making profits. Even tho doing tasks and filling the spare slots with good tradewares.

Edit: At the Crimson Gate supplies only cost HALF of what it costs around Tor Zags Shelter so ofc its much more profitable to trade in that direction.

[Brindle]

same here, i tried 4 starts, all were just slow death to starvation and bankruptcy. I get a 6 silver delivery task but it cost 5 silver in supplies to get to destination and then there is no quest for my low level guys at destination to 5 more silver to go back to base... net loss -4 silver. Worse, at start even if you have 2 full cargo spots of supplies you will starve if you take a quest to a place like twin towers as there will be no food there and you will use 2 cargo of supplies just traveling a distance of 6 or so days. it is ridiculous. Supply consumption should be around 1/2 to 1/4 what it is. It makes the game extremely boring that you can't explore or go anywhere outside of 5 or 6 days travel of the main town or you will simply starve and have restart.... gets old fast.

[Corin]

You can make profits from pure trading, it's just much more reliant on you actually making a good route, rather than tasks where they do all the hard work for you by supplying you the goods and profit. In practice, since tasks destination and availability are RNG, to play properly you will often have to mix and match manual trade routes with tasks to fully use your cargo slots.

That being said, it's entirely possible to exclusively play it faceroll style and only do trade tasks, I went from starting to 1000~ bross within a few hours of starting the new build just doing that.

Trade tasks to Crimson Gate/Mines of Plenty and back to to TZS are very profitable as above poster pointed out. If you want to mix trading & tasks, the TZS -> Drusian -> Lumen -> Arken -> TZS loop is very efficient. Mushroom Beer and Pottery is cheap in TZS. Mushroom Beer sells high in Drusian, Drusian sells Obsidian cheap, the Pottery you picked up in TZS sells high in Lumen & Arken. In Arken you can sell Obsidian and pick up Marble to sell in TZS. Marble from Arken to TZS is lucrative enough on its own that you can do very short tasks to Arken, marble/tasks back to TZS loops too.

The main reason tasks tend to win out over trade in priority is that they give you rep, and rep opens up storylines and permanent buffs. Hard to argue with that.

[Kawira]

On my first run i went to hell because I tried to do quest too hard. They pay like ♥♥♥♥ so kinda don't pick if you are not planning to go this way. Another thing is - tasks + passengers (which game tips you at the same beginning btw). Try to pick the best combination of those to squeeze the most money and don't be afraid to run in circles in the beginning. On my current run I'm already on 47 bross and my wealth is slowly increasing.

Also don't go offroad unless you have decent workforce as it slows you down significantly

[identityphobe]

What works for me right now in the very early game is to find and do 2 supply tasks going to the same settlement. But since you only have 5 slots, pick a task with only 1 cargo followed by another task with 2 cargoes. The other 2 slots I just fill with supplies because I can't be bothered to hunt.

And upkeep and consumption should be kept as low as possible, and once you have a reasonable money reserve, add more mount or beast of burden so you can do some extra trading while doing the tasks. I think adding 20 cargo space == 1 cargo slot.

[MoreEvilSquid]

I actually find that staying mostly on the road, but then veering offroad a bit for hunting is worth it, if you have a decent amount of scouts.

Of course this is slower, so it's not as efficient as having less/no scouts and just hauling ass on the road instead.

Surely there must be a point (possibly due to army size?) where hunting + foraging is a better option than just cruising as fast as possible, but so far this is only really required when hunting for something/questing/exploring.

Also don't be afraid to use up some of those "march" points occasionally - just keep an eye on your vitality!

Also, when at a Mansio, sometimes it's worth it to pick the middle option and go 150% food - this is sometimes better than the best option and 100% food. Only worth it if food is dirt cheap though.

[identityphobe]

Originally posted by MoreEvilSquid:

I actually find that staying mostly on the road, but then veering offroad a bit for hunting is worth it, if you have a decent amount of scouts.

Of course this is slower, so it's not as efficient as having less/no scouts and just hauling ass on the road instead.

Surely there must be a point (possibly due to army size?) where hunting + foraging is a better option than just cruising as fast as possible, but so far this is only really required when hunting for something/questing/exploring.

Also don't be afraid to use up some of those "march" points occasionally - just keep an eye on your vitality!

Also, when at a Mansio, sometimes it's worth it to pick the middle option and go 150% food - this is sometimes better than the best option and 100% food. Only worth it if food is dirt cheap though.

What I hate being on-road is the Imperial tool. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying haha.

The thing about hunting + foraging which I find interesting is the multitude of things you have to consider: vigor, morale, speed, food reserves, scouting, potential food gain, and risk.

2 movement point for a vigorless hunting but your caravan will be slower.

Or you can hunt with vigor but vigor is limited and with low vigor comes lower speed.

Scouting is possibly(?) essential to optimize food gain from hunting but it requires 1 MP and if you want vigorless hunting, you have to set aside 3 MP. I'm not sure if it's worth it for low MP caravan especially if you're pressed for money with upkeep piling up, but when you're in a stable spot moneywise and reasonably high MP, those MP costs might be worth taking to optimize supply gain.

And with low scouting skill, it's probably better to have a reasonable reserve of food because hunting can be a bit of a crapshoot.

With the Mansio though, I like the second option more because of the vigor increase. Then again, both options seem worth it to me considering what you get.

[cANe]

So is this another one of those games where you can get tasks/missions whatever that consist of some kind of delivery yet the profit is less than the costs? Where somehow expecting someone to not only risk their lives but also pay to do it?

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by identityphobe:

Originally posted by MoreEvilSquid:

Also, when at a Mansio, sometimes it's worth it to pick the middle option and go 150% food - this is sometimes better than the best option and 100% food. Only worth it if food is dirt cheap though.

And with low scouting skill, it's probably better to have a reasonable reserve of food because hunting can be a bit of a crapshoot.

With the Mansio though, I like the second option more because of the vigor increase. Then again, both options seem worth it to me considering what you get.

Well i am still exploring all the changes made since the beta, but the trade is mostly terrible especially for low and mid tier. (I read the post above for a good trade route, but giving info out would be a bit cheezy i would say.)
The thing is so far i think i can make money by either doing faction quests around the starting area. (I get 5+ silvers or bross for transporting 2 stacks of marble, and if i do it on me own than i make 2,72...It is similar with every transport quest it seems.) Or foraging and spamming hunting, then sell all the food to the guys in the quarry. I can make with decent scouting about at least 7 lyrgs or 0,7 silver a day, after paying my fees, and i do not need to buy supplies for my folks. Is also a good option to rest up to heal, raise vigor, obedience, fed status etc. Is hillarious. Hell even transporting the food from Torag to the Quarry can be worth it, since i can take 1500 supply to Torage, and without stop it would take 4-5-6 days to get there. Which is max 3 silver(bross) as upkeep, and i would lose about max 400 supplies due to eating, but i still make 11 silver as profit:D Or i just cut it down a bit cuz i move back empty handed and it is still 6 silver per to and from as profit!

[urartu]

You get to make profit from your own cargo after you learn a good deal about the routes and what sells where. It is always better to stick to tasks for covering initial costs of a small comitatus.