It's just me or Eli is just "too good"

[Herr Gutentauben]

I have no reason to sell soap to anyone else because he's just paying waaaay more and never stops buying it. That and the fact that making the food cans worth the cost is an odyssey makes me feel the people balancing this game worked at riot games.

[jaersavo]

He financed my entire economy which ran at minus 5,000. Got a trade union and all the good buffs which led to having like 20 pig farms... downside, attractiveness of the island took a huge hit.

[Fekin]

I've moved my soap production to another Island using the commuter ferry and with the massive soap profit I keeps expanding my Museum and Zoo on my main Island.
95 Million in cash, probably around 40 million worth of exhibits, a large % has come from soap sales to Eli.
Soap to Eli has funded everything from the beginning.

Beer sales to the Pirates is also very good.

[Herr Gutentauben]

Originally posted by Fekin:

I've moved my soap production to another Island using the commuter ferry and with the massive soap profit I keeps expanding my Museum and Zoo on my main Island.
95 Million in cash, probably around 40 million worth of exhibits, a large % has come from soap sales to Eli.
Soap to Eli has funded everything from the beginning.

Beer sales to the Pirates is also very good.

I'm still learning the ropes (all the hours i have are from the campaign and i've restarted many times as i get better to put in practice what i learnt) but i think that ill disable him whenever i play sandbox.

He's just too good and makes the game too easy. He just pays so much infinitely...Poor Qing will be soapless forever. Madame whatever in comparison is so bad i dont even remember her name or what she sells because all i do with them is Ditchwater to jail with soap and buy coal, go to tennis boi to sell the coal and then back to ditchwater.

Any other route is usually between my islands, as i'm not producing enough excedents to sell to the rivals. I only have soap and bread in excess and all the soap goes to Eli.

Seriously why would a neutral NPC pay more than a rival who requires you to work on the trade rights...Who balanced this?

[steven777]

Originally posted by Herr Gutentauben:

Originally posted by Fekin:

I've moved my soap production to another Island using the commuter ferry and with the massive soap profit I keeps expanding my Museum and Zoo on my main Island.
95 Million in cash, probably around 40 million worth of exhibits, a large % has come from soap sales to Eli.
Soap to Eli has funded everything from the beginning.

Beer sales to the Pirates is also very good.

I'm still learning the ropes (all the hours i have are from the campaign and i've restarted many times as i get better to put in practice what i learnt) but i think that ill disable him whenever i play sandbox.

He's just too good and makes the game too easy. He just pays so much infinitely...Poor Qing will be soapless forever. Madame whatever in comparison is so bad i dont even remember her name or what she sells because all i do with them is Ditchwater to jail with soap and buy coal, go to tennis boi to sell the coal and then back to ditchwater.

Any other route is usually between my islands, as i'm not producing enough excedents to sell to the rivals. I only have soap and bread in excess and all the soap goes to Eli.

Seriously why would a neutral NPC pay more than a rival who requires you to work on the trade rights...Who balanced this?

Don't disable him, you are going to want to hire so many Specialists. Just don't buy or sell goods to him.

[jaersavo]

How many soap factories do you have dedicated for just selling to Eli?
I build 5 plus trade union with strong buffs quite early, even before discovering the new world, but afterwards never expanded my capacities.

[XceptOne]

I mean Eli is a nice income source very early in the game. I usually do about 3-5 soap runs over the course of a playthrough.
What I do not understand is, why fixate on the least profitable of the better trade opportunities?
Why not trade fur coats (Madame Kahina) or weapons (Isabel Sarmento)? Both will turn over lots of more profit than just soap and are available just shortly after soap.
Or if you get friendly with pirates, then beer is an absolute goldmine.
Not to speak of all the stuff Ketema actually buys, like watches, grammophones(!) or carriages all of them going 5 figures per ton.

Not saying you shouldn't sell soap on top of that, but literally everthing else seems much more profitable to me.
Well I still like having Eli around, but mostly for all the nice items he's got to offer (and I have to sink all my money somewhere).

[Shadk]

there is a item you can buy from him, a power generator that gives all your production buildings electricity but increases the upkeep by 50%, this and all the other items he can sell are quite nice if you have the luck to roll them

[jaersavo]

I love the lady pirat captain. I was so late to expanding in the new world and I forgot twice my ships loaded with everything needed to start a colony at the shore of unsettled islands till it was too late, so I took a fleet of 6 ships of the line, went pirate mode and took the islands. Great fun. Not to mention that i got better gear from the ships I destroyed than i could ever find or effort.

[Fekin]

Originally posted by XceptOne:

I mean Eli is a nice income source very early in the game. I usually do about 3-5 soap runs over the course of a playthrough.
What I do not understand is, why fixate on the least profitable of the better trade opportunities?
Why not trade fur coats (Madame Kahina) or weapons (Isabel Sarmento)? Both will turn over lots of more profit than just soap and are available just shortly after soap.
Or if you get friendly with pirates, then beer is an absolute goldmine.
Not to speak of all the stuff Ketema actually buys, like watches, grammophones(!) or carriages all of them going 5 figures per ton.

Not saying you shouldn't sell soap on top of that, but literally everthing else seems much more profitable to me.
Well I still like having Eli around, but mostly for all the nice items he's got to offer (and I have to sink all my money somewhere).

My current play through has gone soap crazy really.
Ended up getting Trade Union cards for the soap factories;

Thielemann's Tube + 50% Productivity bonus
Herve Savonne Suppressor of Grime + 50% Productivity -50% Workforce + extra item Dynamite +1/3
Perfumier Prunella Negative Attractiveness -100% AND replaces Tallow input with wood (of all things)

Add electricity and my 52 soap factories are at 300% productivity, using cheap wood for the base product and free Dynamite every 3rd cycle. The free dynamite can easily fund nearly everything I need to purchase at the docklands depots on all my islands. Just had to set up ferry's to transport dynamite across the map to each island to use as funds.

The soap / free dynamite also funds docklands trading in beer to have 12 or 14 trade lines to both pirates.

[Splutty]

Early'ish game (when you start making soap) it's great to have your supply ship pick up soap at your soap island, deliver it to your cities, and then have it sell all leftovers to Eli, and then circle back to soap island to pick up the newly made ones. Rinse, repeat.

Later on, it's not so useful anymore.

[jaersavo]

Originally posted by Fekin:

Perfumier Prunella Negative Attractiveness -100% AND replaces Tallow input with wood (of all things)

wow, the trade union cards for my soap factory is the most expensive thing I purchased so far, but damn I would like to have yours.

[Gregomoto]

I usually pay my early game soap gains multiple times back to Eli for rolling and buying items^^

[jaersavo]

So we are always talking about soap, what about potatoes? My very early game is dominated by having like 20 dedicated potato farms + 2 shipyards. The schooners first sell the potatoes and then they continue to be sold themselves. Basically this finances my entire economic expansion with my balance being +/- 0.

[kubluu]

They must be dropping the soap all the time.

[Sarsgamer]

I've never bothered selling soap or anything for income. I only sell if I'm actively "dumping" stuff to keep my byproducts going. Even then I sometimes just dump it to a nearby island instead, depending on how much I need to dump. Seems the AI traders can only handle about 8 ships delivering to them, due to one pier, and there's been times I've had to dump that much alpaca wool. I had to switch it to dump to my own island cause the AI route couldn't keep up on unloading time.