Ship / Fleet growth

[Swj]

I am uncertain on the details of ship building. Now I seem to understand the whole ship production part.

Where I am not sure of is if you can and how you move from a lower level ship to more powerful one.

1) Can you sell/trade-in or do you just keep building more fleets.
2) Is your investment (cost of ship, level upgrades, etc.) lost or is a portion recouped if you sell/trade-in?

Still exploring but am worried about making a fatal mistake (not all actions have a "are you sure" but a no return) on this world.

[Black sparrow]

Well, there are no fatal mistakes I suppose. More like deadly enemies, so make sure you avoid them

I suggest you keep an eye in Captains cost and your daily income (through treasury -> General trade report). Once you got many captains, you might want to start upgrading your fleets.

Generally,I always tell that you should start with the cheapest ships, get a lot of them and then build 1 offensive fleet (does not need to have Ships of the Line as it is too expensive and only good for the richest of players - upkeep for them is huge too).

Cheapest ships have many advantages that most seem to ignore. When we speak about a merchant ship, the #1 element is PROFIT. Yes, more expensive ships have larger cargo, but does that justify their price ? In most cases it is a NO. You can have better profit with small ships as they cost less to build and less to maintain.

Then, when you grow despicably rich, like some of the top players, then you can start upgrading them.

There have been no players to have attempted a good rush with small ships yet. Personally, I never needed to do this, as I plundered a bunch from other players. This might be even better but if you take this path, you should be ready for some trouble later.

[Sai92]

U r right sparrow....small ships r very important in the beginning. I personally recommand atleast 2 fleets of cheap ships. coz later u cn use them just to collect resources while the big ships for trading.

[Swj]

Is the investment (cost of ship, level upgrades, etc.) lost or is a portion recouped if you sell/trade-in?

[Captain dungeness]

100% of the building and upgrading cost of a ship are recovered when you sell it. So if you want to undo an upgrade on a ship, you can sell it and rebuild it.

[Hellfire]

Sparrow, the only problem with the many small ships idea is the CAPTAINS. i have hit around 150 of them, and it cost over 3/4 of a mil to buy a new one. With small ships, you wont make enough to fuel yourself past your first 100 very quickly.

[Swj]

Where and how do you sell a ship?

I looked in Market and Headquaters but could not find or figure it out.

[M0nkeydluffy]

Where and how do you sell a ship?

I looked in Market and Headquaters but could not find or figure it out.

go to fleet. .remove ship frm fleet. .if it is in one. .go to ship. .fire all crew. .dont have to sell cannons. .but do so if u want. .go to upper right of screen then sell. .

[Swj]

Got it.

Some resource salvage might be appropriate as well!

I see you do lose the resources and turns. Makes sense though you shouldn't get it ALL back. I now have a better understanding of what to expect. Thanks.

[Xepshunall]

U r right sparrow....small ships r very important in the beginning. I personally recommand atleast 2 fleets of cheap ships. coz later u cn use them just to collect resources while the big ships for trading.

The quoted recommendation is the best way of doing things, in my opinion, for a beginner. The larger ships should be built with the gold you have saved and the earnings from one of your cheap fleets while the other fleet either goes, in turn to three ports to collect materials and bring them to the port where the fourth material is produced or one fleet is broken up and programmed to bring back three materials to be stored. The pace will quicken and soon you will want to sell a small ship each time you build a larger one to keep up with the cost and quantity of materials needed. You will likely decide to have three types of fleets. The earners, the transporters (which earn in one direction), and the security forces to fend off unwanted attention. This is the merchant method. It can get slow and uninteresting but there is more to Pirates glory now than just build, build,build.

The other side of the coin is the Pirate way. You don't necessarily have to build most of your ships. you just have to build a few good strong ones. You can take the rest from someone who did it the hard way. This can be equally rewarding in that not only do you gain ships but you also collect enemies who will undoubtedly want to add a little excitement to your game-play. The cost can be lower or higher than the merchant method. It depends on the reactions of those that you have plundered.

I have seen both ways in action. The reason one might fail is that the player doesn't understand all of the variables. This is another thing that adds to game-play. The lessons you learn along the way and the wisdom gained when you see where you made a mistake will not only help you later in the game but can be taken into real life if you choose to see how they can be used.