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Reference customer: "Bad things occasionally happen to you. Sometimes you can handle the situation yourself, but sometimes you need assistance. Was hiring the T’zak Ryn cheap? No. Was it worth it? Definitely!"
Reference target: "Where are my ships? My gold? And why am I no longer King of my nation? Curse you, T’zak Ryn!"
So, let’s take a look at each individual course available to the citizens of Avonmora. We will be looking at the costs and benefits of learning level 1, level 2, and level 20. And we talk about MARGINAL cost and benefit – that is, for level 2, we talk about the extra costs and benefits of studying level 2, if you already have level 1. Similarly for level 20; we talk about the costs and benefits of studying level 20, if you already have level 19. We use a price of 2400 gc pr gold bar. DISCLAIMER: Several of these calculations were done quickly, without any quality control. There may be some errors. Also, I have made several approximations. Anyway, here we go:
Officer contracts
Level 1: 0,5 M
Level 2: 1,3 M
Level 20: 38,4 M
Effect: Each level decreases officer hiring costs by 2%.
This means that to benefit from level 1, you need to spend more than 25 M gc hiring officers. For level 2, it’s 65 M, and for level 20, 1608 M. Starting with 200 captains, 1608 M will get you approximately 450 more captains, for a total of 650 captains. So this level is only for those players looking to be the largest traders in all of Avonmora. However, factors like bribe and assassins should be taken into consideration. After reaching 650 captains, it’s probably more cost effective to use bribe cards than buying captains anyway, so very few people will actually benefit from getting this to level 20. For level 1, you get from 200 captains to around 220, for level 2, from 200 to around 250 captains. So: These lower levels easily pay off for the medium sized merchant.
Storage Contracts
Level 1: 0,25 M
Level 2: 0,83 M
Level 20: 10,92 M
Effect: Each level decreases Warehouse Upgrade Level costs by 2%.
So for level 1, you need to spend 12,5 M on warehouse upgrades, for level 2 it’s 41,5 M, and for level 20 it’s 546 M. For level 1, just upgrading one warehouse from level 100 to level 200 will make it pay off. For level 2, you need to upgrade three warehouses from level 100 to level 200 – or one warehouse from level 100 to around level 310. But for level 20, you need massive upgrades to make it pay off. For example, you could upgrade five warehouses from level 100 to level 500. So level 1 and probably level 2 would be nice for medium merchants, while level 20 are for the largest traders around. And it’s mainly useful for those using party cards.
Skirmish Tactics
Level 1: 0,25 M
Level 2: 0,68 M
Level 20: 5,76 M
Effect: Each level gives you one extra skirmish point pr day.
So, how much do you gain from one single skirmish? Remember that targets have 20% chance of escaping, so you only get benefit from 4/5 of your skirmish points. Also there’s the issue that skirmish costs you 4 turns (if successful) and gives you 6 danger (whether successful or not) – both whether you lose or not. And expect the occational loss to a trader evil enough to use escorts. And occationally you’ll hit a trader who’s fishing – or simply sending a cutter from one port to another. Taking into account some of these effects (let’s look at turns and danger later), let’s say you get approximately 10k from each skirmish, on average. Piracy tech is not considered here; you get some synergy from having both piracy tech and skirmish tech. Anyway, with 10k pr. Skirmish, you need 25 days to break even for level 1, 68 days for level 2, and 576 days for level 20. However, this is assuming you actually manage to SPEND all your skirmish points. The maximum skirmish points you can save is 72, regardless of level. And perhaps you will gain some hostility from your targets as well. Remember also that spending 23 skirmish points (level 20) pr day means spending 92 turns and gaining 132 danger – every day. Certainly those turns could be spent on other things as well – and that danger is bound to get you hit, costing you some gold. I don’t think anyone would benefit from studying skirmish to level 20. Levels 1 and 2, however, are nice for those who don’t mind hitting people with skirmishes every day. A high Piracy Tech level might make higher levels pay off as well, but level 20 is just waaay off.
Shipwright Management
Level 1: 0,20 M
Level 2: 3,40 M
Level 20: 9,60 M
Effect: Ship building (gold coins) cost 1% less per level, and ship upgrades cost 0.5% less per level.
This technology is a bit tricky to calculate, but let’s give it a try. This will be even more simplified than the other technologies, though. The most used and built ship around is the Large Merchantman (LMM), which is usually used at level 1. Building a level 1 LMM costs 62500 gc, so you save 625 gc for each LMM you build pr. Level of this technology. So how many level 1 LMMs do you need to build to break even? Level 1: 320. Level 2: 5440. Level 20: 15360. I guess several people build more than 320 LMMs, but building 5440 is rather extreme. So to make this technology pay off, you need to build more expensive ships – and level them up. Building and leveling up SoLs is probably more expensive than buying them from the ships market, but Flag Galleons (FG) are popular these days. Building a FG and leveling it up to level 10, you save around 26k pr level of this technology. So, how many level 10 FGs you you need to build to break even? Level 1: 8. Level 2: 131. Level 20: 370. So it seems to me like many people will benefit from level 1, but even level 2 of this technology requires a lot of shipbuilding to pay off. You really need to be making ships for sale on the market as your prime occupation for this, I believe. I could be wrong, of course. Figure it out for yourself if it’s worth it or not to you.
Warehouse Tycoon
Level 1: 5,0 M
Level 2: 12,8 M
Level 20: 30,8 M
Effect: Manual resource purchases at Port Markets directly to Warehouse cost 1% less (0,125% less for Gold Bars) per level (bonus is applied after West India Company bonus).
Disregarding India Company cards and gold bars, this should be rather easy to calculate. How much do you need to spend, buying wares to your warehouses, for this to break even? Level 1: 500 M. Level 2: 1280 M. Level 20: 3080 M. Assuming you have 500 LMMs, all spending 1 hour between ports, that’s 1440k crates moved each day. Let’s say your wares cost 10 gc pr. Crate (Rum or Tobacco), that’s 14,4 M spent every day – if you make sure to buy your resources directly to the warehouse. If so, these are the number of days it takes you to break even: Level 1: 35 days. Level 2: 89 days. Level 20: 214 days. Of course, if you only have 250 ships, it’s gonna take you twice as long. Remember, however, that trading in gold and spending india cards might change these numbers. As for all technologies, this is just meant as a rough estimate.
Political Science
Level 1: 2,0 M
Level 2: 2,5 M
Level 20: 4,9 M
Effect: Each level increases Influence gained through Build Up port by 2%.
Without this technology, you approximately get 1 influence pr. 100 gc spent building up the port. Assuming this, we find that you need to spend the following amount building up ports to break even: Level 1: 100M. Level 2: 125 M. It’s a little more tricky for level 20. At level 19, you get approximately 1,38 influence pr. 100 gc spent. So the increase to 1,40 is actually just an increase of around 1,5%. So, for level 20, you need to spend around 327 M building up ports to break even. For those considering this technology, it’s also necessary to remember the charity donation cards, which is an alternative way to get influence, and usually much cheaper for those with a lot of influence. But this technology will probably be worth it for players who want to run nations that control ports.
Metallury (Gunpowder)
Level 1: 0,25 M (0,25 M)
Level 2: 2,3 M (2,9 M)
Level 20: 44,3 M (46,9 M)
Effect: +2.5% per level bonus on Iron Scantling (Armor Class) (PvP only) (ie, a level 20 Metallurgy will be like having 15 points at Iron Scantling). Gunpowder affects Round Shot rather than Iron Scantling.
So, is this worth it? Note the very high costs for level 20. What does this give you? Nothing that will affect your income directly, but your ships gets a little better in PvP-battles. How much? Well, the exact numbers are hard to determine, but a little. You need to ask yourself, though: How many of my battles are really close calls, where a couple levels in metallurgy or gunpowder would have made the difference? Remember that the increase in combat efficiency for one single level is really small. And how many combat fleets do you really have? Maybe it’s simply better to upgrade those in other ways? Sure, if you want the best ship in the sea, a level 20 MoW with 60 points is no longer enough – you need a level 20 MoW with 20 points AND level 20 gunpowder and metallurgy tech. If that’s so important to you. As it is today, I consider these technologies to be of relatively little value. Level 1 is rather cheap, though, so why not, I guess. But getting this to level 20? If you think you can somehow make that profitable, please tell me how. I just don’t see it.
Education
Level 1: 6,0 M
Level 2: 8,0 M
Level 20: 17,0 M
Effect: Decreases research time by 2% per level.
Well, doing the math on this one is rather hard, however, I also think it’s quite unnecessary. First: Only those with enough gold to immediately start studying something new once their previous level is finished – all the time – has any use for this. For many players, the gold will be the limiting factor, not the time. However, there are some rich players out there, so let’s see if it could be worth it for them. So: This would give you new technology sooner. So, if you had level 1 of this technology, you could get Warehouse Tycoon up to level 20 in 98 days instead of 100 days. I’ll do some mathematical shortcuts here (meaning wrong math), which really hurts me, but doing this exactly would require too much text, and too many wouldn’t understand it. So let’s just say this means you get two more days with the level 20 Warehouse Tycoon (aaah, it hurts to make such approximations…). So, you now have two more days with 20% reduced prices. Can you make this be worth 6M? That means you must buy goods for 30M to your warehouses during these two days; 15 M each day. Assuming a cost of 10gc pr crate, that’s 1,5 M crates each day. Assuming only LMMs (120 cargo capacity), you’d need over 500 ships to make it pay off. Oh, and did I mention that studying Education to level 1 actually takes 3 days in itself? More than the time you’d save to get to level 20 in Warehouse Tycoon?
Yes, I’ve made some shortcuts here. This is not the correct number, for several reasons (one being that there are more technologies to study, and this reduces the time for all of them). Playing with Excel, the correct numbers can be found, given a specific study plan. But you get the idea. I say don’t bother with this technology at all.
Spanish Galleons
Level 1: 3,0 M
Level 2: 7,0 M
Level 20: 23,1 M
Effects:
A) Increases all Galleons type ships speed by 1.5% per level (Bonus applies normally during PvP battles)
B) Increases all Galleons type ships Hull Points by 2.5% per level (they become tougher in PvP battles/more hp/can take more hits)
So, here you get two things: Your galleon type ships become faster (increasing income when used for trade), AND they become better in combat. It only applies to your galleon type ships, though. So, is it worth it? I won’t be doing the math on this one, because that would reveal stuff like ship speed and my opinions on naval combat, which, for some reason, is decided to not be given as public information. But remember: Even if this SHOULD make your Trade Galleons better than the LMMs you use today, it would have to make them so much better that you actually make up the gold invested In this technology. If, indeed, they DO become better at ALL. Then there is the combat factor. For your trade fleets, they will still not be good enough to withstand any real attack, so this mainly applies to War Galleons and Flag Galleons. Now, 2.5% more hits pr. Level is a decent increase. That’s a 50% increase at level 20. The Flag Galleon has a price comparable to a Frigate. And it has more crew, more guns, more hits AND a larger cargo capacity. With this technology, the Flag Galleon can become a very decent combat ship. Which can also be used for trade between battles. So, if your strategy somehow involves applying lots of Flag Galleons, this technology might be worth it. But the total price to get it to level 20 is 260 M, though. It can be really hard to use your ships in a way that gives you 260M more than you would without this technology.
Piracy
Level 1: 5,0 M
Level 2: 6,9 M
Level 20: 12,8 M
Effects: Each level gives +3.5k bonus income from any successful plunder or skirmish ATTACK (not successful defence). The extra funds are paid by the game (not the player who lost).
Let’s do the easy part – to break even, you would need the following number of plunder/skirmish attack wins: Level 1: 1429. Level 2: 1984. Level 3: 3648. Remember that successful defense does not count. Oh, and also remember that this is the number of wins required AFTER you have studied the technology to said level. Let’s take a look at the top 10 plunder win list. We find Juicy at 8th place with 4133 plunder wins, and Slindur at 9th place with 3479 plunder wins, at the time of writing. That’s the TOTAL number of plunder wins throughout their careers. I may be wrong, but I think Juicy has been around for about four years. With skirmish technology, making Piracy technology pay off is gonna be slightly easier, but still: This is for those who do a LOT of plundering.
That’s all for now. Get back to your books, everyone!
EDIT: Will be edited for typos and calculation errors as they are discovered.
