Merchant versus merchant

[Admiral Nelson]

As there are currently few active pirates, that makes for fairly safe profitable trading. Hopefully that will lead to merchants with large fleets and fat purses. In turn that will hopefully spark the interest of real pirates to get out an collect on those fleets.

I find this statement to be wrong.

If they are few pirates about - Chances are the merchant will be running with the bare minimum required, I do.

[Dmanwuzhere]

Most choose trading as it obviously, with a little luck requires far less effort for the coin

As there are currently few active pirates, that makes for fairly safe profitable trading. Hopefully that will lead to merchants with large fleets and fat purses. In turn that will hopefully spark the interest of real pirates to get out an collect on those fleets.

I am positive those huge fleets exist already. But most seem to be attached to tigers so those tails rarely get pulled.

[Maha]

Your goal for this trade suggestion, which you do hardly any of, is to create Merchant vs. Merchant conflict. You state it quite clearly in the first couple of sentences. Conflicts do not maximize profits. For merchants to maximize profits, it is best to just stay away from this suggestion.

i have done some months of trading, carefully avoiding the top 10 lists (although i was on it for a few days due to surplus of howkers needed for the 500 ship mission). i managed to stay of the radar, casting my party cards and building up my hide out. truth is that i got bored by it. the war with [AYES] helped me to walk away from the trading side.

at the moment it is best for a merchant to avoid conflict since conflict does not maximize profit. My proposal aims to change this. by owning a contract profit gets maxed. yet contracts are scarce and cannot be owned by all. so obtaining and defending a contract is worthwhile.

see it like stipends coming from port ownership. only all players can join nations freely, no-one can really stop them from doing that. joining a guild is by invitation or application. a guild can avoid a contract been diluted by leeches who just join for the extra cash.

MvM, through this proposal or other means, will change the game. new strategies will need to be developed to do well in the game. not that you need to do so, but that it is smart to do so. if you like to stay in the safety of obscurity, feel free to do so.

yet i do not understand the complains. my proposal is not forced on the unwilling. it offers something new. different from huge changes like legendary voodoo or port battles or player produced supplies. those changes will effect all. this one doesn't.

MvM may sound frightening because the old pirate vs Merchant is known and accepted. what happens when other merchants become real competitors for boons (this proposal) or resources (player produced resources/ limited resources)?

Just imagine that your guild owns a few export contracts and an import contract. each providing 2gc per crate extra. that is 4 gc extra per crate. 2/3rd more profit made by your guild. for that you have to get another guild lose those contracts and be able to defend your fleets. these defenses will limit your losses against normal skirmishes etc as well.

some guilds will become contract merchants while other guilds opt to stay of the radar. each his own. but adding an element that makes MvM profitable is not bad in itself.

[Vane]

Most choose trading as it obviously, with a little luck requires far less effort for the coin

As there are currently few active pirates, that makes for fairly safe profitable trading. Hopefully that will lead to merchants with large fleets and fat purses. In turn that will hopefully spark the interest of real pirates to get out an collect on those fleets.

I disagree with part of this. The real pirates will work regardless of merchant setup. Too many think the only piracy is ship stealing and this is a bad perception. Frequently raiding ships leads to setup change and emotional whining. Then no ships left to plunder and those so called "real pirates" have nothing to target so they go and trade... Hardly real pirates in my mind.

The sole focus on ship stealing as a pirate is a poor one for so many reasons. Those with this thought have been taught wrong.

[Dmanwuzhere]

Most choose trading as it obviously, with a little luck requires far less effort for the coin

As there are currently few active pirates, that makes for fairly safe profitable trading. Hopefully that will lead to merchants with large fleets and fat purses. In turn that will hopefully spark the interest of real pirates to get out an collect on those fleets.

I disagree with part of this. The real pirates will work regardless of merchant setup. Too many think the only piracy is ship stealing and this is a bad perception. Frequently raiding ships leads to setup change and emotional whining. Then no ships left to plunder and those so called "real pirates" have nothing to target so they go and trade... Hardly real pirates in my mind.

The sole focus on ship stealing as a pirate is a poor one for so many reasons. Those with this thought have been taught wrong.

ouch x 2

[William one eye]

I would like to see some sort of merchant vs merchant action possible. My current thinking would suggest it is set up as an opt in for only those that are interested. So it does not interfere with those who currently enjoy things the way they are.

A merchant trades to make profit. By default, that would mean avoiding conflict.

This is off the top of my head,

Here is an example of non violent merchant vs merchant possibility.

A sale is announced - ports determined by admin or some sort of randomizing code

- port A is selling 20 million of x product at -2 regular price
- port B is buying 20 million of x product at +2 regular price

Merchants that are interested could move their fleets to take advantage of this sale. As it is a limited supply interested merchants would need to choose if they wanted to divert fleets, if so how many fleets, and then decide if they wanted to move the cargo from port A to the nearest port and go back for more buying as much from port A as possible, or move the cargo to port B for maximum instant revenue.

For this I would suggest warehousing not be an available option.

also this obviously benefits anyone already trading in one of the ports selected for a sale.

[Dmanwuzhere]

I would like to see some sort of merchant vs merchant action possible. My current thinking would suggest it is set up as an opt in for only those that are interested. So it does not interfere with those who currently enjoy things the way they are.

A merchant trades to make profit. By default, that would mean avoiding conflict.

This is off the top of my head,

Here is an example of non violent merchant vs merchant possibility.

A sale is announced - ports determined by admin or some sort of randomizing code

- port A is selling 20 million of x product at -2 regular price
- port B is buying 20 million of x product at +2 regular price



Merchants that are interested could move their fleets to take advantage of this sale. As it is a limited supply interested merchants would need to choose if they wanted to divert fleets, if so how many fleets, and then decide if they wanted to move the cargo from port A to the nearest port and go back for more buying as much from port A as possible, or move the cargo to port B for maximum instant revenue.

For this I would suggest warehousing not be an available option.

also this obviously benefits anyone already trading in one of the ports selected for a sale.

That is a workable idea with the possibility of profit. I would ignore the sale. But in keeping with the topics original idea I would expect to be lit up upon port entry and need a warfleet to beat the other black friday shoppers off.

[William one eye]

Most choose trading as it obviously, with a little luck requires far less effort for the coin

As there are currently few active pirates, that makes for fairly safe profitable trading. Hopefully that will lead to merchants with large fleets and fat purses. In turn that will hopefully spark the interest of real pirates to get out an collect on those fleets.

I disagree with part of this. The real pirates will work regardless of merchant setup. Too many think the only piracy is ship stealing and this is a bad perception. Frequently raiding ships leads to setup change and emotional whining. Then no ships left to plunder and those so called "real pirates" have nothing to target so they go and trade... Hardly real pirates in my mind.

The sole focus on ship stealing as a pirate is a poor one for so many reasons. Those with this thought have been taught wrong.

I was referring to raiding not ship theft.
Pirates should be raiding fleets for the merchants gc or profit from tech. Ship theft from active players is not a sustainable activity.
In most cases, the more targets you have and the more fleets your targets have the better.

[Bmw]

if I ever raid someone (unless its to completely destroy them) i'll try to take less than 1/4 of there ships.

[Maha]

But in keeping with the topics original idea I would expect to be lit up upon port entry and need a warfleet to beat the other black friday shoppers off.

this is where i think you don't understand the game yet. why should you get lit up? there are already plenty of party traders stuck between a few ports because of their warehouses. do they get lit up all the time? are they lit up because they frequent a known port?
MvM is not a scheme to provide sitting ducks for pirates, it's providing competition between merchants.