building Building Ships

[HMS Victory]

Hey Captains,

I'm very new to this game but I have already learned that crafting ships is a time consuming and expensive process, however, with it's own bonuses. I haven't yet researched this topic on different places since I am almost sure that I will find the best and most updated info on the Forums.

Could any of you, let me know a good Guide on the whole process of building ships and crafting and what would I need to get to have a decent start to learn the basics of these two to avoid possible stepping stones since the lack of time as I can not grind all day (perhaps you can't too)?

1. What ships should I be focusing on building first to get started and grow fast, regardless of the market cost and expenses (I care to get more XP than income in my current situation)?

2. Is it worth breaking up a ship and what happens when I do so?

3. Any tips or important things to know will be much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance,

HMS Victory,

May the wind be with you.

Edited June 28, 2017 by HMS Victory

[Jones el Tuerto]

Well focus on building small ships a lot of them and sell them to get some money to keep buying resources to build more ships you should have a wingman or two making materials for you so you don't use your hours on taking resources from buildings (Oak, Fir, Hemp, Iron, Stone, Lignum vitae, food supplies..) when you have the good level and nice ships start getting good woods like teak, white oak, live oak..etc. It takes a lot of time btw.

[HMS Victory]

12 minutes ago, Jones el Tuerto said:

Well focus on building small ships a lot of them and sell them to get some money to keep buying resources to build more ships you should have a wingman or two making materials for you so you don't use your hours on taking resources from buildings (Oak, Fir, Hemp, Iron, Stone, Lignum vitae, food supplies..) when you have the good level and nice ships start getting good woods like teak, white oak, live oak..etc. It takes a lot of time btw.

Can I use different types of wood for any ship or there are restrictions accordingly? A very useful table this is, thank you.

[Baptiste Gallouédec]

At first would advise to craft small trader ships (trader lynx, trader brig) or fast ones (lynx, privateers),  there is a good demand for them as they are easily lost.

 

You can use http://www.navalactioncraft.com/craft-info to get more info (not sure if 100% up to date since the last patch)

Another  advise would be to join a group of players, as you will not be able to produce everything needed by yourself. Assembling and crafting all the materials by yourself (trade, hunt, contracts) is doable but it's very difficult to get rich that way.

[HMS Victory]

2 minutes ago, Baptiste Gallouédec said:

Assembling and crafting all the materials by yourself (trade, hunt, contracts) is doable but it's very difficult to get rich that way.

This said, I should focus on one type of material, is that right? For instance, wood production?

[Remus]

You start off with zero craft XP which severely limits the ships you can build. Fortunately one of them, the Traders Lynx, sells very well as it is not seeded in shops so can only be bought from players. For small traders you don't need to look beyond Fir/Fir Planking for the wood and trim, which makes things rather easier (and cheaper) for gathering materials. But you will need to 30 Combat Marks to buy the blueprint from the Admiralty.

I created a crafting guide which is still pretty much up to date here:

One thing became very clear through playing that a a lot of raw materials and low level manufactured items find their way into shops, which may well spare you needing to set up resource buildings. Be very wary of prices - shop prices are all over the place - and you will need to work out a pricing strategy for yourself early on so you can determine whether those fir logs or small carriages in the shop are a bargain or a rip off. Personally I used crafting cost plus 100 gold per labour hour, but you can choose whatever you like. You'll need to know costs (and probably labour hours) anyway, so I created a spreadsheet and cost calculator here:

Oh, and don't believe anyone who tells you solo shipbuilding is hard. It is easy until you get into the realms of needing some of the rarer woods for frames and planking. The biggest difficulty by far is start up costs: You'll need 250k, maybe more, to set up outposts and buildings, and can probably add on another 100k to harvest or buy your first batch of resources before you can build your first ship. After that you can be more careful, just harvesting what you need rather than everything you can, but even so you can easily spend more than you make for the first week or two. Because of this, I'd say before you even start, make sure you can make money. Check ship prices in your capital. Check each day to see what ships have actually sold. Ask yourself can you compete with existing sellers, and can you still compete if existing sellers then lower their prices when you enter the scene?

Good luck.

[HMS Victory]

Thanks for the info, much appreciated!

[Fargo]

Remus guide is pretty good, but its a guide for self supplying. As a shipbuilder with the goal to sell ships, maximise profit and supply the market, you only want to use your labour for the ship itself. This way you can craft about 3-4 times more ships. More XP, and more profit. Youre also helping the contract based market alot not doin self supply.

All resources can be bought via contract for pretty much the same cost as harvesting them yourself and often below, dont waste gold in production buildings!

When you got some gold to invest in something, start to buy materials you need from the market. It can take a while for material contracts to fullfill, so start buying before you run out of mats. When contracts dont work, maybe team up with someone who crafts materials for you, or buy the resources and pay random people for crafting the mats. 

Its important to know for what prices you can buy materials for, depending on the prices you can sell ships for. With fixed resource harvesting cost you can calculate a labour value for any crafted good. When ships sell for 100g/lh, buy your materials for 90g/lh. This is where you make profit. When youre selfsupplying, youre only selling your labour for a certain amount. But this way each material included in your ship gains you a little margin. Not much, but it adds up.

You can use simple lists like this: https://www.docdroid.net/58eQDoN/price-table.pdf.html, to check for what prices you can buy for. This is a very basic one though.

Always watch the ship markt and what ships people use. Compare prices to see what ships are currently selling for good profit, and what ships are selling fast. When a ship is not supplied, and you see people using this ship, it probably sells well. Traders lynxes are well supplied in our capital e.g., but not traders brigs. I crafted one earlier today, and it already sold. But e.g. dont craft traders snows even if the market is empty, when you dont see anybody using it. It might be just a bad ship, what is true in that case.

Dont craft "trash" ships. Combat ships should always be made of teak frames, while the best planks are whiteoak, sabicu and bermuda. Teak/bermuda is a good pvp speed build, but on a ship that already is very fast (renommee e.g.) it doesnt make sense, cause there is a speedcap. Use sabicu only when you dont have access to whiteoak. Even when you need to buy whiteoak for a high price, as long as your ships sell for an accordingly high price, youre fine.

Good luck and have fun!

Edited June 28, 2017 by Fargo

[HMS Victory]

13 hours ago, Fargo said:

Good luck and have fun!

This is some quality content, thank you very much!

[seanjo]

I can't believe HMS Victory tag wasn't taken already!

[Jones el Tuerto]

On 28/6/2017 at 0:43 PM, HMS Victory said:

Can I use different types of wood for any ship or there are restrictions accordingly? A very useful table this is, thank you.

You can mix all of them 

[HMS Victory]

18 hours ago, seanjo said:

I can't believe HMS Victory tag wasn't taken already!

Hah! I knew it would so I registered in the very early stages of this game

[Gustav_Fuchs]

Is this comparator still valid or the woods' characteristics were changed after 10,4?
Shipbuilding woods comparator.xlsx

Edited August 1, 2017 by Gustav_Fuchs