Bonus points if checking the news in London explains the price changes. “Sorrow Spider infestation in Spite! Silk prices plummet!”
Actually, I’m pretty sure the game has the tech to randomize at least London’s prices. Just have “Collect messages from the Harbormaster” work like the Iron Republic or Khanate. Except using Time the Healer.
[quote=Bluebeard]I think the game would benefit a lot from a "Patrician III" approach.
In Patrician 3 there were no fixed prices. It all depended on supply & demand. Prices could drop suddenly, or rise. It wasn’t certain. Now, I’m not suggesting that Sunless Sea should adopt a system as complex as that. Patrician 3 modelled it with actual production and consumption of goods. In Sunless Sea it could be mostly random, with some towns generally being better at producing certain goods and at consuming them (but, once again, no certainty). If we randomize prices people will be encouraged to explore, travel and seek opportunities in other ports instead of grinding the same old usual trade route.
Example:
You go to Venderbight —> you notice that that week the price of Mushroom wine is actually lower than usual, so selling it wouldn’t be profitable. So you just go on to Whither, and we shall see if the price there is better. It would revolve around learning what prices are good for buying and seling each good. Also, prices raising or lowering could be influenced by the things you do in certain places. For instance, let’s assume you manage to disrupt the production of scintillack at Port Cecil: the price would rise. A big producer of mushroom wine has an issue at his winery and you solve it for him: the production would be increased and the price would lower.
edited by Bluebeard on 11/26/2014[/quote]
This is a fine idea but it’s actually much trickier to program than it sounds. The problem is that it is easily exploited – with a little understanding of market manipulation, you can quickly learn "triangle trade" style routes where you purposefully collapse one market while bolstering another, using a go-between as a way of maintaining even profits. Then, once the collapsed market is practically giving away its goods, you buy EVERYTHING you can from it, and sell them in the new market for a literal boatload of cash, forgive the pun.
In real life, this isn’t feasible because other traders are constantly regulating these markets by competing with each other. In a game where only one player is controlled by a human being, these kinds of "observe and respond" reactions are difficult, and easily circumvented.
It CAN still be simulated to show a little fluctuation, but Patrician 3’s system might be a little too easily exploited, here. Especially when the developers have emphasized that this is NOT a trading game, like Patrician 3.
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It’s also worth considering that, with the full release coming up, the game doesn’t really have the time left to dev complicated and far-reaching experimental content.
Oh! Since I haven’t seen it mentioned: swinging by Avid Horizon and returning what you find there to the First Curator seems to be a pretty good way of getting some early starting capital.
Certainly, it’s faster than sailing circles around Mutton Island in search of valuable floatsam, or ferrying tomb-colonists back and forth until you feel like one yourself.
(Though, I do wonder: is the new Tomb-Colonist storylet meant to refresh eventually? Or is it really only doable once?)
Hopefully it indeed does refresh - I threw mine overboard after he ate my supplies and there seems to be no way to solve this.
It is possible to get more Tomb Colonists - I managed to get the three needed for another story hunting Albino Morays. I don’t know if one of those will allow you to continue the Venderbight story though.
I do recommend having Secure Storage before collecting them though - it stops them wandering around and eating your supplies.
The Last Tomb colonist run I had after the update had a live one in the mix that I left with them, instant trouble 120 and no way around it.
Not that I miss the dusty buggers you understand, but there’s a place on the eastern edge that likes them a lot…
Something must be changing with that, because between a couple updates my TwtTC quality went from “190” to " ".
Excellent, because I just started again and the first time I did anything with the tomb colonists that was anything vaguely resembling honesty, the trouble with them went through the roof…
That said, it only happened when I was being honest on both occasions…
But as a player, I like taking the high ground when i’m doing things, it makes me feel that I’m keeping the spirit of the admiralty out there, rather than resorting to piratical shenanigans…
[quote=Nocculi]Oh! Since I haven’t seen it mentioned: swinging by Avid Horizon and returning what you find there to the First Curator seems to be a pretty good way of getting some early starting capital.
Certainly, it’s faster than sailing circles around Mutton Island in search of valuable floatsam, or ferrying tomb-colonists back and forth until you feel like one yourself.
(Though, I do wonder: is the new Tomb-Colonist storylet meant to refresh eventually? Or is it really only doable once?)[/quote]
Thanks for pointing this out! It is a good point. I, too, am wondering if it will ever again be possible to pick up more than one colonist at a time – perhaps even a small randomized number at some point (I do recall the storylet text saying a "clutch" of immigrants are usually looking to head to the colonies from London).
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[quote=SouthSea Rutherby][color=rgb(194, 194, 194)]Thanks for pointing this out! It is a good point. I, too, am wondering if it will ever again be possible to pick up more than one colonist at a time – perhaps even a small randomized number at some point (I do recall the storylet text saying a "clutch" of immigrants are usually looking to head to the colonies from London).[/color]
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[/li][li]The problem I have is that it feels more like a one time bonus rather than an ongoing story arc, I’ve seen a few different ways the story goes, like a live person turning up in the tomb colonist bunch, or a tomb colonist wanting to have someone brought to join them, but whatever you do, it goes straight to massive trouble and no more colonists…[/li][li]
[/li][li]Pity[/li]
Figured I’d put this here instead of starting a new thread, but my tomb colonists want me to take them to irem. Unless I am sorely mistakeen, irem doesn’t exist yet. Is the quest just broken, with my only option to deliver them to…somewhere else?
Figured I’d put this here instead of starting a new thread, but my tomb colonists want me to take them to irem. Unless I am sorely mistakeen, irem doesn’t exist yet. Is the quest just broken, with my only option to deliver them to…somewhere else?
Irem does indeed exist. No stories of its own as yet, but the interaction with your colonists is present (as are some interesting shops).
Gee, they don’t want much do they :P
You should see what they do when you take them out the next time…