How to improve trading

[hawkpryde]

Hi, I have played every Pirate game since Sid Meier's Pirates on Commodore 64 and I have never seen trading so difficult. The reason it is difficult is because player production is not worth the effort. 

Example:

I built a an Oak Logging Camp and Iron Mine with the intention of making a little extra gold between missions. It costs 73 Gold to move 1 oak log from the camp to the Warehouse and 60 Gold to do the same for the iron. I would lose over 1/3 of either of their value if I sold them out right on the market ANYWHERE on the map. So then I read somewhere from the game designers that its better to take your resources and make something and sell it. You would make more Gold. Okay so I decided to make Hull Patches which takes 250 Oak Logs and 200 Iron to Make 50 Patches. It costs 18,500 gold to take 250 oak logs and put them in my warehouse and 12, 000 to take the iron and out it into the warehouse. That's 30,500 gold. That means I would have to sell my 50 Hull patches for more then 610 gold per patch. Guess where I can sell them and make a profit? NOWHERE! 

Suggestion: Lower the cost of moving items to the warehouse by 10 gold for each item. I still won't get rich making and selling things but at least I would make a profit. That would also see more players moving cargo around the map making PvP more rewarding. 

Suggestion 2: Make a base price for each item. Products put on the market by the Devs should have a set price in both the buy and sell for each item. This forces players who do production to beat those buy and sell prices and you will see competitive marketing. 

Hope this helps.

[jodgi]

Guns and repairs should sell ok at patrol mission freeports, have you tried that?

[Jean Ribault]

Hull repairs used to sell for high dollar (or at least a good profit) prior to the time devs offered them by AI at ports at undercut prices and killed that market.  I sold thousands of them before they cut the legs out from under it.  I'd like to go back to that, but others may disagree because there would likely be a shortage (good for the crafter then on supply and demand principals, but bad for pvp play).

There have been a number of proposals for more profitable crafting, but right now it's basically just craft to put you or your clans ships together, and then move on.  Nothing really exciting.