Trade and exploration

[ThePandanator2]

We have a few other threads suggesting an aspect of exploration be added to the game. I'm personally a proponent. I also notice quite a bit of frustration surrounding trading at the moment. Here's a solution I think would be fun and worthwhile for both traders and explorers.

 

At the moment, there's no reason to leave the relative comfort of your home islands, with their protection and abundant missions. Only reason to leave would be to join a port assault, which is certainly fun, but I believe there should be more ways.

 

The most obvious reason to explore would be for trade.Sailing from one port to another, buying, selling, finding the lowest price to buy and the highest to sell. However, trading at the moment isn't very profitable, and certainly not as profitable as it likely would have been historically. Not to mention, it's quite tiresome. With no idea what ports have what, and at what price without sailing to them, there's little motivation, and it's highly likely you will sail for a good bit of time for little to no profit. 

 

My suggestion is to allow the purchase of trade information of ports. Say you are at Kingston, and wish to know the current selling price of gold at Pedro Cay. In the shop, you could have a tab named "Trade information" and there you could purchase the latest trade information for Pedro Cay for a fee. I will touch on the "latest" part in a bit. Now you know the current prices for gold, and can sail about seeking profit. 

 

Now, on the explorer side, here is my suggestion. The trade information shouldn't just randomly show up. It should be obtained by those wishing to explore and visit new ports. What I imagine is a sailor can sail around, visiting ports, and learning their trade info. Now said sailor can sail to another port, and sell the info for a price depending on how current that information is. This is where the "Latest" part I previously mentioned comes in.

 

As we know, the supply, demand, and prices of goods are always changing. The price that an explorer could sell trade info for should be related to how recent, and therefore accurate, it is. Also, the price should be relative to the distance between the ports. The  trading info of Carlisle should have a much higher price if sold in Jeremie than it should if sold in Kingston. 

 

Thus, I believe, we kill 2 birds with one stone. I can think of some flaws this may have, and I feel discussion is necessary. What are your thoughts?

[Ridik]

Implement this Devs! The trading system in this game is setup for failure!

[Jacob van Heemskerck]

Agreed, with this amount of players trade isn't Lucrative any more, even with knowledge of what a port is consuming and produce in a day!

I sailed for hours to get rid of me cargo for a reasonable price not make los on the haul, because my destination port says "consumes (product)" and when entered port around 2000 where already in shop!? And i would lose a substancial amount of money if i sold it there!

Then you see that a port consumes an x amount of that product in a day, but imo it's to low for 2200 people on a server?

So my question/suggestion is the same as the OP, and make the consumation of the products related to the amount of players on server so everybody can trade a little bit and make it more lucrative for us?

Edited January 27, 2016 by Jacob van Heemskerck

[JJWolf]

Agreed, with this amount of players trade isn't Lucrative any more, even with knowledge of what a port is consuming and produce in a day!

I sailed for hours to get rid of me cargo for a reasonable price not make los on the haul, because my destination port says "consumes (product)" and when entered port around 2000 where already in shop!? And i would a substancial amount of money if i sold it there!

Then you see that a port consumes that product in a day, but imo it's to low for 2200 people on a server?

So my question/suggestion is the same as the OP, and make the consumation of the products related to the amount of players on server so everybody can trade a little bit and make it more lucrative for us?

 

+1 While trade holds are much better, the profit is not there because of very low consumption.

[ThePandanator2]

Agreed, with this amount of players trade isn't Lucrative any more, even with knowledge of what a port is consuming and produce in a day!

I sailed for hours to get rid of me cargo for a reasonable price not make los on the haul, because my destination port says "consumes (product)" and when entered port around 2000 where already in shop!? And i would lose a substancial amount of money if i sold it there!

Then you see that a port consumes an x amount of that product in a day, but imo it's to low for 2200 people on a server?

So my question/suggestion is the same as the OP, and make the consumation of the products related to the amount of players on server so everybody can trade a little bit and make it more lucrative for us?

Prices are also quite strange at the moment, I agree. Supply/demand mechanics certainly need some work.