I recently read through CJ's posts in Slack General Chat(I strongly suggest you read) and honestly I am disturbed about the direction this is taking. After talking to a few others about plantations, I decided this thread may be in order. Specifically, I would like to get others opinions on plantations, This is not to argue points but only get opinions. So please take some time and post your opinions about what aspects of plantation work well and which aspects do not work.

So I will kick this off.

WHAT WORKS

1. Plantations give another option for gameplay style.
2. Plantations open up several different possible game upgrades.
3. Plantation finally brings a little nation play into light.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK

1. With the advent of the players market and ability to trade plantation workers, there is no need to sail ships. This is a game based on seamanship and the largest update in recent times has no requirement for ships. Simply go to the resource market to buy your supplies and the workers market to staff your plantation. Sign in everyday and bank your profits.
2. There is no risk to plantations. They can not be raided, they can not be damaged, and since there is no ship requirement anymore, they are simply a gold coin generator. PG is not supposed to be a sim game.
3. Insufficient stat tracking. There should be some built in system to track ROI. The whole units/crates/gc system of tracking is hard to track. There is also no track on Gold Bars invested. (I run 3 different spreadsheets to try and keep track and it is still confusing.

That is my list. I am not asking for suggestions here, only pointing out my thoughts. Please take some time and add your own thoughts on "The good, the bad and the ugly of plantations.

Remember.... this is not a suggestion post, it is just an opinion post for the plantation mechanic as it is now.

Still no option to kill the advisor......

But would agree there should be something that a player can use to target plantations at this point in the game. What happened to natural disasters and guard houses actually being useful.

Expertise and Energy should also have a way to track similar to health and happiness.

Noffin wrote:Still no option to kill the advisor......

I would agree it would be great to see "Money Invested".

Your Hideout has costs well lined out. To max a hideout is in the Billions.

Overall I like plantations - they are arcane enough to be a challenge

They provide an incentive to keep playing at all levels especially for the 3 month drop outs

If you try and rush development they fall off a cliff - making games just difficult enough is hard

They are also a better money sink than Hideouts - better rewards/self paced

They are a gateway to other aspects of gameplay - not too hard to buy a new plantation 100cr plus Operating Permission but then you have to invest in the support level that you want - buy/sell local or self support and use fleets for export/import/immigrants/fishing

I don't see a need for changes

I'm in agreement with feniks. You don't really need ships unless someone really overpriced resources, and even then, people still compete for best prices.

Plantation raids and risks need to be added. The only real challenge recently was a few ports and their renewal rates. Not that it isn't affordable, it really is.

Shouldn't be that simple. Perhaps a way to prevent storing resources in the port you bought those same resources from(aside from default production)

**bump for comment**

For me, plantations just dont work : lack of transparency regarding cause and effect of inputs/efficiency just hinder the whole process. Yes, by trial and error you can figure it out, eventually. But even then, you can not know if you have merely stumbled into a generally profitable method or are still failing to maximise their potantial.
Given the entry costs, the tying up of fleets dedicated to supporting them, the continual investment of gold bars to develop them and, of course, the losses due to experimentation as one seeks to pierce the hidden mechanics : it ends up drifting perilously close to the definition of how to build an airline worth 1 billion : start with one worth 10.

Feniks wrote:WHAT DOESN'T WORK

1. With the advent of the players market and ability to trade plantation workers, there is no need to sail ships. This is a game based on seamanship and the largest update in recent times has no requirement for ships. Simply go to the resource market to buy your supplies and the workers market to staff your plantation. Sign in everyday and bank your profits.

If I understand your point, you feel Plantations don't require a sailing requirement. I have to differ with you there...plantations present a significant logistical challenge. The resources and personnel have to be transported from other places in Avonmora. This exposes your fleet to constant attacks. Either micromanaging the fleets or just using enough fleets that the "slippage" afforded by pirates/raiders is offset with sheer quantity. The alternative is to depend on the in port market, where prices are very high thus reducing the profit.

2. There is no risk to plantations. They can not be raided, they can not be damaged, and since there is no ship requirement anymore, they are simply a gold coin generator. PG is not supposed to be a sim game.

I refer back to what I said above concerning ship requirement. Now let me stop for a moment and ask, Have you figured out (if so are you willing to share) how to divorce your plantations from the need to have a worldwide transport over the seas to keep your plantations supplied?

3. Insufficient stat tracking. There should be some built in system to track ROI. The whole units/crates/gc system of tracking is hard to track. There is also no track on Gold Bars invested. (I run 3 different spreadsheets to try and keep track and it is still confusing.

AGREED! I also run spreadsheets to find the profit/loss, etc. How wonderful it would be if there was a report showing where my profits came from and where the "boat is leaking"

I recognize you are just presenting an opinion here and thank you for doing so...this is a good discussion topic. I too am offering an opinion as I have had similar thoughts.

Psychodad wrote:
If I understand your point, you feel Plantations don't require a sailing requirement. I have to differ with you there...plantations present a significant logistical challenge. The resources and personnel have to be transported from other places in Avonmora. This exposes your fleet to constant attacks. Either micromanaging the fleets or just using enough fleets that the "slippage" afforded by pirates/raiders is offset with sheer quantity. The alternative is to depend on the in port market, where prices are very high thus reducing the profit.

In every port I have a plantation, I can buy workers and all the resources needed to run the plantation. As long as I manage the size of the plantation so as to not drain the available resources on the players market, I do not need ships. (5 of my plantations currently have no ships assigned at all for any purpose.)

Because there is no need for ships, there is no risk.