New technology :

Merchant Skills


Some just haggle : the lazy take the first price on offer : but your fledging empire needs sharper business skills than that : In your Academy your instructors will educate your Merchants in the Dark Arts of Business : advanced abacus studies lead the way : they also gain knowledge of the mysteries of bribery, kick-backs and corruption, thus ensuring they garner the best prices for your trade goods.

Each level of research will add 1% (0.125% on GB's) to your sales direct into the market on arrival at port.

Cost of research should be comparable to Warehouse Tycoon.

Trade route sales?

Aye, trade route sales only. I see this complementing Warehouse Tycoon : one is good for cheap purchases into stock like a WIC : this would add trade bonuses as a sort of permanent EIC.

Not so keen on this one, but still a good idea.

-1, again we have voodoo cards for increasing trade profits on regular trade routes.

Also, as I stated in a previous Academy tech thread. New Academy Techs will be fully appreciated and utilized by the few in the game that can afford to fully research techs, now. The rest of us are relegated to the long (years for some) task of accumulating resources and researching.

IN my humble opinion, Academy Techs are a nice new feature, but adding more at this point will only further increase the divide between the haves and the have nots!

Crackedcubes wrote:-1, again we have voodoo cards for increasing trade profits on regular trade routes.

Also, as I stated in a previous Academy tech thread. New Academy Techs will be fully appreciated and utilized by the few in the game that can afford to fully research techs, now. The rest of us are relegated to the long (years for some) task of accumulating resources and researching.

IN my humble opinion, Academy Techs are a nice new feature, but adding more at this point will only further increase the divide between the haves and the have nots!

In that case, no-one should have a hide-out because not everyone can, no banks, no marinas, no academies, no goldsmiths : lets take it to a logical conclusion : no MoW's (cos only a marquess can get one), no SotL's, cos not everyone has that much coin or gold bars, no LMM's (same reason) : in fact, no-one should have more than the ship they started with : a silly conclusion, maybe : Hideouts, academies and technologies are not beginners tools, nor even maybe mid-level players tools : they are what you aim for as you grow your fleets and skills. Knowing what you may be able to add to your tool-box when you finally get there might inform your strategy for growth, or enable you to target buildings and technologies more precisely. Its not an instant process, it should take many months, if not years, to gain that high ground, and the consequent rewards. I have an Academy, but many of the technologies are of little use to me under my current strategy : should I demand they be scrapped? No, in the same way I dont use certain ship types does not mean they have no place in the game, others may feel differently and benefit from them in their own way: that's the variety the game offers and technologies add to that variety and the depth of play. My recent round of suggestions for new technologies are offered for that purpose : to increase the variety of strategies and tactics that may benefit players who then choose to research them. Its not compulsory, you know : there will be many veteran players who choose not to develop hide-outs and technologies and put the coin into others areas instead.

-1, again we have voodoo cards for increasing trade profits on regular trade routes.

Okay.....??

We have voodoo cards to add speed : so scrap the Galleon technologies? We have voodoo for lowering buying prices : so scrap the Warehouse Tycoon technology? : we have voodoo to bribe officers : so scrap the 'Contracts' technology? We have voodoo to make ship attack better, so scrap 'Gunpowder' technology? we have voodoo to defend better, so scrap 'Metallurgy? Where do we stop with your logic? Scrap voodoo cos some can buy more than others? Shall we scrap the daily present from your wife because some cant afford to woo one?

All good points....but I never said "scrap this or that". Just put my two cents in, but I guess one cannot comment in this game anymore without having the "mickie" torn out of them. Cheers!

+1