Shadowood wrote:Merchant –
A) 2% Extra Income on Trade Route Sales. .5% Gold Bars. Can be stacked with Indian Company Cards. Max rest time is 48 Hours. Max Benefit Time 96 Hours.
B) 10% Ship Speed Gain. Can be stacked with Favorable wind. Max rest time is 48 Hours. Max Benefit Time 96 Hours
C) 70% chance of fleet avoiding skirmish. Max rest time 12 hours. Max Benefit Time 24 hours
Pirate –
D) Lower Danger Gain per attack by 2. Max rest time 12 hours. Max Benefit Time 24 hours
E) 10% better attack roll. Can be stacked with voodoo. Max rest time 12 hours. Max Benefit Time 24 hours
F) 5% more plunder. Paid by game. Max rest time 24 hours. Max Benefit Time 48 hours
OK, let's take a look at the benefits you suggested. I've named them A through F for ease of reference. Let's keep in mind that it requires X hours rest to get 2X hours of the benefit, meaning 1/3 inactivity and 2/3 active with benefit. It also costs 10k per hour rest.
A) Most big traders probably prefer party cards anyway. And for those who don't: Getting 2% extra for 2/3 of the time seems like a worse deal than just trading normally 3/3 of the time. For gold smiths, though, getting an extra 0.5% could be very valuable. In my eyes, this would be for gold smiths only.
B) Again: 10% extra speed for 2/3 of the time, or "normal" speed for 3/3 of the time? If this is meant for merchants, the choice is easy. Getting this bonus for combat is another issue, but I don't think that would be worth it either. As I see it, this would not be worth it for anyone.
C) Well, definitely only an option for gold smiths. Getting 24H protection for ONE fleet costs 120k plus 12H inactivity for that fleet, so for anyone else, this is a definite no go. Some gold smiths MAY consider this one, but I think they would much prefer other ways to avoid skirmish, and besides, they would probably rather go for option A, which gives them a higher profit.
D) Super duper option for pirates! Plan a raid for a specific time, place your fleets in the Inn for one hour prior to the attack, and during the entire attack (which will last less than 2 hours), you get only 2/3 danger. A great deal!
E) Really? When plundering trade fleets, no such bonus is needed. When stealing Big Ships, voodoo to reduce the target is needed anyway. You really need to know exactly how combat works, and plan attacks which are really even, for this to be worth it. And even then, maybe consider using a fire ship instead?
F) If this was paid by TARGET, I'd say great deal! If it increases payout from "piracy tech" as well, then still a decent deal. If it only increases plunder value from target, and this is paid by the game: Well, it still gives you a little extra if you plan an attack on a trader with lots and lots of ships. A target with 1M on hand gives on average 30k payout. 5% of this is 1.5k. Yet, you only need 2 hours rest (20k to pay) for 4 hours of this benefit (which is MORE than enough). Still not a very good option, and in addition, in most cases, going for option D would be better - reducing the fleet's danger is valuable.
Summary: No options really worth it for "normal" traders. Option A may be worth it for gold smiths. Option D is really good for pirates. Other options are inferior. At least, that is my opinion of these options.