Merchant Houses- Merchants More Interesting

[Snowy McScruff]

The are many parts to Pirates glory and they are connect through player interaction however one of the basics of the game trading isn't.
I would like to suggest the creation of trading houses ie Merchant houses that inhabit ports. One merchant house to each port.

These merchant houses could interact with ruling country by wanting lower taxes which could be pushed by lowering that's country's player influence in their port, or more plantation licenses being given out.

They could interact with plantation owners. Not a plantation owner so I am uncertain about there specifics. But the Merchant house could provide some of the requirement goods for a percentage of the product. or outright buy some of the product.

It could also tie in with pirates where merchants house could have itself a small bounty board where it offers a gold reward to attack
1)competing merchant houses in other ports, or
2)players who are competing merchants, ie using their ports location and buying the goods there.
3)Also to attack pirates attacking its merchant fleets ie make certain NPC merchant fleets belong to Merchant Houses

Where each port has a merchant house that can give you benefits for joining them.
1) They could you give you a slightly better price if you ship ship over a certain amount of goods per day from there port
2) Limited mission where a certain port would pay large amounts for the goods their port produces
3) Limited offer to buy goods at high price Ie the Merchant house is building a lot of ships wants more wood and iron


For these benefits there should be cost. One of those cost should be requirements to join them

Ideas for Requirements to join
1)Pay a fee every time the prices change,
2) Have an influence cost or requirement,ie the Merchants wants to use your connections
3)Buy goods consistently from there port, ie The merchant house needs to have 10000 goods bought daily from there port
4)Not be in another merchant house

Another potential cost could be rival merchant house of other ports
1) they could sent pirates after your fleets via their bounty boards
2) Raise the cost of goods bought in there ports or lower purchasing price.


I personally want a feature similar to this to make the markets and being a merchant more interesting. Since it would give merchants another layer to trade route optimisation.

[Lachlan]

Hmm interesting...

[PFH]

In our approved list, we have many approved mechanics for merchants to come, includig forced trade routes snd advanced trade routes.

There is much interaction with trading. You are able to buy resources from other players with recent updates, plantations allow the use of more trading which promotes the purchasing of land to produce these crates. Trading is one of the core functions of the game since it is the most profitable path to take.

Plantation licenses are expensive and giving them away would take away a credit sinker. 100 credits is about 25 million approx give or take for the average cost of a credit.. -1 to this personally.

We already have bounty mechanics and we shpuldnt have separate bounty mechanics that do the exact same thing. However nation bounties is a different topic to discuss...

East and west indian company only change the total profit by about 1 coin per crate and it boosts profits like crazy. This would be an op feature if it did this effect stacked.

Who pays the fee for the price change? This is a question that i need elaborated

Most of what you have in the suggestion has been implemented as a general mechanic, however there are more layers to come for merchants. Check through the suggestions and peek around for what is available

Overall -1 from me

[Snowy McScruff]

Yeah there are a few trading suggestions. I more suggesting that merchants by being the main trading power have agenda they wish to push.

I didn't mean to suggest giving plantation licenses away, but have merchant houses put a small penalty on the governor or nation such that it is 1-5% harder to gain influence there. This would be merchants pushing the governor to approve more plantations if there was less than 10 licenses or below a certain amount of Acres.

The price change of a gold would be bit much. However thinking it over maybe a discount buy 500 crates get 25 gold off, if you join their merchant house.

[PFH]

Yeah there are a few trading suggestions. I more suggesting that merchants by being the main trading power have agenda they wish to push.

I didn't mean to suggest giving plantation licenses away, but have merchant houses put a small penalty on the governor or nation such that it is 1-5% harder to gain influence there. This would be merchants pushing the governor to approve more plantations if there was less than 10 licenses or below a certain amount of Acres.

The price change of a gold would be bit much. However thinking it over maybe a discount buy 500 crates get 25 gold off, if you join their merchant house.

This is where we go into trading gold bars. they can push for powerful profits with these, up to over 7 million gold in profits from a single fleet daily. This alone can really show the power that traders go for. If you do it right, you can make billions in a few months. Its just a long term investment is all.

[Snowy McScruff]

Gold was not really the point of the suggestion. I think your getting the wrong idea. It was more to add the concept of influence through economic power. How goods would be sold a little cheaper if bough in bulk. How merchants would want more goods produced at their ports if they were running out, pressuring the governor to accept more plantation building requests. I concept that merchants would have to invest themselves in a port location to get better prices their. In the end this is all for more gold but the journey there is more important.

[sXs]

I actually like some of the points made here. This could be a port building separate from the market. This could be the genesis of the contract shipping idea.

Each port could have 1 Merchant house upgradable by the port controlling nation. Each level would allow for more Merchant slots.

This needs to be tweaked and details added.

Possible tie ins....

-Contract shipping boards. Post your shipping requests on a contract board with good, price and quantity.



This needs work but it could be a great suggestion.

Think big!!!! and add some details.

[PFH]

Needs votes

[sXs]

Needs further development.

[PFH]

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