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European traders - explained


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Hello Captains. 

 

We started to receive questions on how european traders work and how you can use them during resource shortages. Some captains were confused thinking that european traders are actually european players who have to bring resources themselves.

 

European traders are the NPC suppliers that start acting when prices for the individual resource reach certain level. 

They stockpile the resources bringing them from Europe. They operate using contracts. Once contract buy prices reach certain levels they start to fulfill the contracts delivering you the goods you need instantly. 

 

They only do it in the ports that provide that resource naturally. For example if the port is producing hemp - they will bring you hemp if you price it right. They also can provide you with trading opportunities with towns that have high demand for hemp and does not have hemp production in those towns.

 

For example. We have heard that hemp prices in certain capitals sometimes reach 500-1000 gold per load. 

You can buy hemp from european traders at 360 - and bring it to that capital making 140-640 gold per load destroying the shortage and making a lot of money as a result.

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How "immediate" is this? I mean, is there still some kind of progression, or do you put a contract over 1000 Hemp and 1h later it is fulfilled?

 

 

it is fulfilled immediately because they already have stockpile for such cases. 

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it is fulfilled immediately because they already have stockpile for such cases. 

 

Hm. Makes sense, but I am not exactly sure if this would not make other problems appear... As long as money is valuable, no problem. But as soon as people start to get too much money it could lead to resources being too easy to get. Maybe the system should not only consider the price, but also the total amount of this good available in a region, or maybe put a limit on it. Like a trader will sell up to a certain amount to one player, and then nothing anymore for some time. This can however be avoided by players with multiple accounts...

 

In any case, I hope that money will stay valuable, because then my concerns would be unjustified, but this is relatively rare in games in general.

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Hm. Makes sense, but I am not exactly sure if this would not make other problems appear... As long as money is valuable, no problem. But as soon as people start to get too much money it could lead to resources being too easy to get. Maybe the system should not only consider the price, but also the total amount of this good available in a region, or maybe put a limit on it. Like a trader will sell up to a certain amount to one player, and then nothing anymore for some time. This can however be avoided by players with multiple accounts...

 

In any case, I hope that money will stay valuable, because then my concerns would be unjustified, but this is relatively rare in games in general.

 

 

We have discussed the money problem in the past

Even if we use a historical first rate Captain 32 pounds per months salary + 1/8-3/8 prize money distribution.

You will make a cost of a first rate in 30 days of normal gameplay based on the sheer number of battles you can do in the game.

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Hello Captains. 

 

We started to receive questions on how european traders work and how you can use them during resource shortages. Some captains were confused thinking that european traders are actually european players who have to bring resources themselves.

 

European traders are the NPC suppliers that start acting when prices for the individual resource reach certain level. 

They stockpile the resources bringing them from Europe. They operate using contracts. Once contract buy prices reach certain levels they start to fulfill the contracts delivering you the goods you need instantly. 

 

They only do it in the ports that provide that resource naturally. For example if the port is producing hemp - they will bring you hemp if you price it right. They also can provide you with trading opportunities with towns that have high demand for hemp and does not have hemp production in those towns.

 

For example. We have heard that hemp prices in certain capitals sometimes reach 500-1000 gold per load. 

You can buy hemp from european traders at 360 - and bring it to that capital making 140-640 gold per load destroying the shortage and making a lot of money as a result.

Well if this is the case, these Traders, honestly are not doing a good job.

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Another point I would think of is... sooner or later everyone will know about this European trader mechanic. That means, that if the prices reach a level above the ET-price, noone will buy anywhere else. That means that people who buy goods from ETs will most likely not be able to sell them for a profit. I am actually not sure if this is a problem though :D

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Is there a limited quantity on how many resources can be bought from the european traders? Also is there a way to find what the buy price is for their contracts? Like they kick in at 10x the low cost production price?

 

And is this still going to be in place once production buildings come into play?

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How do we know what is the selling price of those produced resources?

 

 

they start intervention at 3x of max port price - they have been in the game since trading was implemented and act as a central bank basically controlling pricing inflation.

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they start intervention at 3x of max port price - they have been in the game since trading was implemented and act as a central bank basically controlling pricing inflation.

 

That's good to know, leads to a second question though, is there a way to check what the "max port price" is?

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That's good to know, leads to a second question though, is there a way to check what the "max port price" is?

 

Sell 1 unit of whatever good you want to check directly to the port (should be possible if I remember correctly), and then check the selling price of this one unit.

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Ok well its not immediate, if the price is 360

 

I've been sitting here waiting minutes for my contract to fill which is for 10 hemp at 360..  at a hemp producing port.

 

NVM

 

As soon as I put price at 361 it filled immediately

Edited by SKurj (ex JW)
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So I found this completely by accident and reported it because I had no idea wtf was going on. Bought like 2000 oak at a price well below what you can get it at major player hubs, but above what you can generally get a small amount at ports that produce it. Kind of a nice feature to control price I guess, but it does seem to make resource production not really matter as much.

 

It certainly does mean that taking a nations  important resource production ports doesn't really matter since all it means is that they have slightly less cheaper oak/hemp/fir.

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So I found this completely by accident and reported it because I had no idea wtf was going on. Bought like 2000 oak at a price well below what you can get it at major player hubs, but above what you can generally get a small amount at ports that produce it. Kind of a nice feature to control price I guess, but it does seem to make resource production not really matter as much.

 

It certainly does mean that taking a nations  important resource production ports doesn't really matter since all it means is that they have slightly less cheaper oak/hemp/fir.

 

Oh its not slightly less...   unless the hoarders get a bit crazy..  we will all be paying 3x for stuff... hemp and Oak at 361... gold at 502...     BUT

 

In the end the game now is all about money, so long as you control a port which contains each resource and you can grind enough cash you can survive, no need to cross the map for resources, just grind a bit more..  

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Oh its not slightly less...   unless the hoarders get a bit crazy..  we will all be paying 3x for stuff... hemp and Oak at 361... gold at 502...     BUT

 

In the end the game now is all about money, so long as you control a port which contains each resource and you can grind enough cash you can survive, no need to cross the map for resources, just grind a bit more..  

I really do wish natural resources we're more localized. They are so randomly spread right now.

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This feature apparently is there to hard cap prices for resources. And it makes sense

afaik you can get hemp for as low as 108 assuming the stores of the port are full. So that will also be the production price. So hemp will at best sell for 359 now, a profit of 251 per ton. This still sounds like a very fair profit for traders to me.

I also cant understand the concern people are voicing about "unlimited" resources being available. At that price, they're really just a safety net against situations right now where the price for certain resources keeps going up up up up like hemp now.

I wouldn't in a hundred years try to build ships with that kind of cost. Unless absolutely necessary and only one resource is missing (i.e. hemp now). Building the whole ship out of European trader sourced resources is just way too expensive.

Edited by Quineloe
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It still is. You just have a small theatre in a global context and incentives for rationality to exist... either prices remain low, or external suppliers take advantage of the local market to supply at their 'best global price'.

 

No it is not. Player sold goods have to compete with European trader prices now. The devs have put a hard cap on the price of goods. If nothing has changed then perhaps you could explain why hemp was going for $800+ last week in the capital and now it is going for $370?

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