Finally..after many long months of aimlessly dumping gold bars into that black hole called Plantations, I can finally see the point of the challenge. Now, I can see trends and effects of counter actions and actually where GB spending helps your status.
CJ wanted a feature that was challenging for experienced players. That box certainly got checked.

CJ wanted a feature that only extreme amounts gold and cash could hurry the process and then only by a limited amount. He did not want those with high cash flows to complete the challenge in a few weeks or months.
Yep..another box checked.
He wanted something that only needed a couple log ins per day to check on its status.

I would also check this box but where I have a problem is, now I can see cause and effect on the plant game.
I find I am spending way more time than a couple hours fussing with the little stuff like small pop changes, small support building acreage changes, etc.
Now, it may be true I only log in a couple times a day, with 8 current ports, I spend a fast couple of hours on analysis and correction.
I guess I could force myself to do the essential housekeeping like checking support stocks and status of my workers but after months of complaining about how blind one felt when trying to develop things to a point to where they start to make sense, I'll have to say ..no shout... I NOW ENJOY PORT INDUSTRY.
Well Done !

Oh no, Stan has finally cracked up.

I don't know why you guys keep going to so much trouble just for the small stuff.

Stan points out some great points in regards to plantations. I think a key point is Long term development.

What are plantations?

Truth is that I cannot rejoice on your positive review as I am aware of how many more things are still needed (should have been implemented yesterday).

Given the chance, everyone should be aware of a fundamental new element that plantations brought. There are many, but I want to focus on the particular one. This is the ability to profit without having ships. This is entirely opposite of what the game supported till now. However, the beautiful thing is that ships are still needed. They just do not need to be yours.

This creates for a first time a real supply and demand market for resource between players. A market that I am determined to support with the introduction of Port Buildings later in the future. Perhaps with an increase in resources needed in ship building and some extra diversification there for those who want to construct ships and sell them. These and many more will be highly dependent of plantations which is now one core feature of the whole game as they directly or indirectly affects all commerce.

Shadowood wrote:What are plantations?

It's those things that can bring in a 7-8 figure daily income without ever getting a keel wet if you choose to.

Captain Jack wrote::y



Given the chance, everyone should be aware of a fundamental new element that plantations brought. There are many, but I want to focus on the particular one. This is the ability to profit without having ships. This is entirely opposite of what the game supported till now. However, the beautiful thing is that ships are still needed. They just do not need to be yours.

This creates for a first time a real supply and demand market for resource between players. A market that I am determined to support with the introduction of Port Buildings later in the future. Perhaps with an increase in resources needed in ship building and some extra diversification there for those who want to construct ships and sell them. These and many more will be highly dependent of plantations which is now one core feature of the whole game as they directly or indirectly affects all commerce.

The ability for direct warehouse purchasing has opened a whole new depth to the game in general and Plants are a major contributing factor.

Add the fact that no longer does a player need to have 500 ships or more trading to earn a
'big salary'. It does take billions of GC/GB to get to that point and Plants are vulnerable in a completely different direction than the usual threats that appear.
Economic hijacking is just one of the many ways plants will probably affect all players abilities to earn regardless of your chosen profession.

These are all things I can now see after numerous hours trying to figure out where your head was at when designing this addition.

With the current limitations on turn accumulation and the inflexible pricing current in the ship market then I see no way to progress shipbuilding as a main or even subsiduary career choice.
The sums dont add up. Daily turns limit builds. Buying in turns can never produce profits as the credit cost exceeds the market price for what they can build.
The only room to improve this calculus is to provide some means to produce 'premium' products. To an extent traits do this but its too hit and miss for building ten wont mean you get the one that provides the 'premium' trait sought.
My idea would be to make current ship-build tech bonuses transferable. A ship built by a player with say lvl20 Spanish Galleon Tech retains that bonus. It becomes built in. The tech can then earn its costs back. At current rates you would need to build thousands to recoup the investment in any ship build tech but you can neither use them nor gather enough turns at economic cost to do so.
So, I am intrigued as to how Plantations can offer any kind of fix for that. My first thought was that I am not spending millions more on yet another 'tech' or feature which adds costs but not the ability to recoup them in any meaningful timeframe.
Still, lets see what occureth.

The big thing about plant is that it doesn't need a lot of fleet to sustain, and can still make money without any.