Market/Gold Bar Fees changes

[Haron]

I was more thinking of using ONLY one-cutter fleets until you had been skirmished five times, THEN start using the larger fleets.

[Meliva]

that would work, but the problem with that would be you would be waiting for them to be hit, and once more it would be a time consuming process, you could be waiting for a few minutes to a few hours for them to be hit. there are a few solutions to protect your gold fleets if they do get flagged, but most of them are fairly flawed in one way or another. and in a way, the big players who benefit greatly from gold bar trade have probably spent immense amounts of time, gold and resources to make gold bar trade as profitable as possible.

[PhoenixKnight]

On one hand, more profit each time you sell,in another make it difficult to buy and trade. I seriously disagree with the flagging because you won't advertise that you are carrying gold in real life and the game is not offering specialty shops to do the deed. With gold becoming essential for long term players, I feel that the difficulty of playing is just increasing. While it slows growth, it may eventually frustrate people to give up or abandon the game. Some balance should exist.

[Maha]

flagging gold trade on the gossip page is too detailed.
i understand the idea though; high profit come often with high risks. or from a controlled exclusive environment.

a milder option is that in the newspaper comes an outdated (e.g. two days old report) about the goldbar trade; who was trading, the most lucrative route used and the total amount of the trade all together. no details, no fleets or specific traders singled out, but for the diligent skirmisher a starting point to find opportunities.
since the info is outdated, the traders can take preventive measures by changing volume and routes regular.

this way, those who make their livelihood out of the hard work of others have some extra tools for their honest trade, while the good-willing, honest and oh so hardworking exploiters of the poor have ways to counteract and defend themselves.

[Dejanira]

There is a method, riskless and pirates proof: not trading goldbars

[Most Lee Harmless]

There is a method, riskless and pirates proof: not trading goldbars

Indeed : but I doubt if that is the desired outcome even if it becomes more probable. But if the intent is to stop a handful from making large profit by halting all from making much profit at all, we must consider it to be a successful move.

[Stan Rogers]

There is a method, riskless and pirates proof: not trading goldbars

That is the solution I have chosen to apply currently. Perhaps I shall change it when I see enough shippers getting rich.

Total possible profit with 1 fleet of trade galleons =400k/day on a route of 1 hour transit if CJ's numbers are correct
Total loss of 1 fleet due to skirmish = 1.75 M approx. if my numbers are close.
So, my fleet must sail for 5 days without interruption to make back that loss.

I'm still not willing to take that large of a risk so business remains as usual with GS running when personal GB is needed and shut down when it's not.

[Donald Trump]

On one hand, more profit each time you sell,in another make it difficult to buy and trade. I seriously disagree with the flagging because you won't advertise that you are carrying gold in real life and the game is not offering specialty shops to do the deed. With gold becoming essential for long term players, I feel that the difficulty of playing is just increasing. While it slows growth, it may eventually frustrate people to give up or abandon the game. Some balance should exist.

I think it is kinda obvious which players use gold fleets and which ones aren't. Just look at the top 10 more profitable fleets and their owners. Even tells the fleet names so you can just look at port gossip.

Thing is, even though everyone knows who trades gold bars and who doesn't, no one skirmishes them out of fear or NAP.

[Meliva]

well they also don't skirmish them due to the fact that odds are they have a powerful escort to prevent them from being raided.

[Stan Rogers]

well they also don't skirmish them due to the fact that odds are they have a powerful escort to prevent them from being raided.

Aye...that be true. It's a catch 22 situation really. If you want a GB shipment, get ready to either use the big dogs or copious amounts of voodoo.
Smart pirates keep their big dogs caged as they are high risk/value ships and to expose them, a pirate would be foolish to risk.
Then there is exposure with no guarantee of a GB win.
A high powered fleet can carry 300 GB so the plunder will be closer to 700k if successful. So now, you have 100M worth of ships exposed for 700k of plunder.
Interesting situation indeed