…Namely, how to get some fast. I’ve been blowing all my cash on supplies and fuel, and charging out into the black, trying to make money via port reports. I tend to keep my charts between characters (don’t know how that works- What, does the UnderZee feel sorry for killing good Ole Captain Carbanger and it decides to carry the map he added **** all to back to London?) so that makes it easier to do, but I still tend to die a lot. Actually, now that I think about it, I think my attempts to make a buffer of cash so I can get upgrades, buy fuel and supplies from those stupidly expensive colonial pricks, and maybe attempt to get more than 2 storylets down the average story before dying wound up with me getting deadafied even faster than the runs were I just go "DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!" and charge blindly off into the unexplored areas with no plan but to see what I currently don’t (While occasionally wondering how my character pitched this clever scheme. " Step one: We all go on a Suicide Mission for my map.").
So, I decided to get some help. I’ve heard that running goods gets you cash, but I don’t see how. Too little profit margin. And I’ve heard of Some thing called Judgement’s egg, witch sounds nice, but I can’t find it. Other than that, the only ways of making cash I’ve heard are shacking up with the Admiralty, and I sorta already do that. And It doesn’t get me anywhere. So, if you have any ideas for how to make cash so newbies can start getting to the good parts of the game, such as further down story lines and such, then kindly post them in this thread please.
Do you know how “Something Awaits You” Works?
Yes. I muck about in the great black sea for a while, and when I come back to port, there’s storys waiting for me.
Judgement Eggs come from a storylet on Mutton Island. The storylet is randomly available when you have the quality "Something Awaits You." You get SAY when you’ve been at Zee long enough. (It seems like a fixed distance because the trip down from Venderblight to Mutton Island always triggers it twice in about the same spots.)
It’s not a super reliable way to farm. It’s unclear what affects the frequency of that storylet. It seems resistant to farming. After about 10 stops at Mutton Island with SAY, it’s been something on the order of 1 Judgment Egg Storylet, 4 - 5 Riddle Storylets and 4 -5 "Let me tell you something…" Storylets.
You can eke out a living running Tomb Colonists up to Venderblight, along with selling Recent News there, and collecting for the Port Report. Killing a pirate and looting a Parabola Linen or Spider Silk can make the trip reasonably profitable. In my last game I tended to keep a buffer of about 500. I’d go out to Zee with 20 fuel, and usually make it back with 5 to 7 fuel left. And that would take me far enough to see most of the Gold content. But that was back when pirates could be farmed for a cool 300 every 8 to 9 minutes or so. Now the farming is much leaner, and the good money is almost all based on the luck of drops or the storylets SAY makes available. (There’s another storylet at Port Cecil that, while tough, will get you a Live Specimen, that can get you a nice chunk of change at the University as well, among other things.)
Currently at least, profit is…difficult. And mostly luck-based. I hope it changes with later updates, because right now there isn’t really much you can do for profit except hope like hell you get lucky.
edited by Inky Petrel on 7/4/2014
I just posted my general strategy over here: http://community.failbettergames.com/topic8582-gold-feedback--corsairs-edition.aspx?messageid=67059&Page=24#post#post67059
[quote=Inky Petrel]Currently at least, profit is…difficult. And mostly luck-based. I hope it changes with later updates, because right now there isn’t really much you can do for profit except hope like hell you get lucky.
edited by Inky Petrel on 7/4/2014[/quote]
Not totally true. Once you have been out to the Khanates and that whole chain of ports, the weight of Port Reports, Special Assignments and storylet rewards starts to add up. It just takes a long time currently to get to the point people feel comfortable doing it. (On Merciful even.) You don’t really need ship upgrades to survive out that far. All enemies can be avoided with a little ingenuity. Really all you need is 20 fuel, some supplies an idea where you’re going and, most importantly…the money to re-buy fuel when you return to Fallen London. (Mount Palmerston actually has the cheapest fuel in the game last I knew.) It’s just having to work to make enough money to essentially buy 40 fuel + supplies that isn’t all that pleasant. But getting the right storylet or perhaps a certain box can really give you a lot of cash very quickly. It’s just so very random.
edited by Nenjin on 7/4/2014
That’s true. I guess I just haven’t had great luck, so it still seems very very slow. Stupid RNG.
Do you still get exp for exploring with a new character if you keep the chart of the old one?
EDIT: I uh, posted this in the wrong thread. Gonna go ahead and re-post to the feedback one…
edited by ZackOak on 7/4/2014
[li]
Nope. And since the map isn’t randomized yet, there’s no reason to inherit it.
I’ve been playing the game since yesterday, if I have to be honest I don’t see all that trouble in getting profit. If you really want easy cash, you can farm the smaller pirate steambots (I always find them between Hunter’s Keep and the Iron & Misery, sometimes a bit on the western side). Even at the very start of the game you can fight two of them, send them back with a skeleton crew, make the trip home and collect 200 easy echos. What I do is generally take an Admiral’s request, go collect his strategic information and while I am on my way back I try to sink one or two pirates (it’s important to do it on the way back because if you are close to London you won’t mind too much having to go at half speed, and you’ll be in less danger). If I get 2 that’s a total of 350 echo waiting for me in London, even accounting repairs and fuel it’s still better money that trying to trade merchandise for a 1 echo profit…
If anything, it seems to me that the main problem is the lack of ways to spend cash, I got a few new guns for my ship but for example my real problem is the illumination, and there’s nothing really worthwhile to buy for increasing mirrors.
[quote=Freemark]I’ve been playing the game since yesterday, if I have to be honest I don’t see all that trouble in getting profit. If you really want easy cash, you can farm the smaller pirate steambots (I always find them between Hunter’s Keep and the Iron & Misery, sometimes a bit on the western side). Even at the very start of the game you can fight two of them, send them back with a skeleton crew, make the trip home and collect 200 easy echos. What I do is generally take an Admiral’s request, go collect his strategic information and while I am on my way back I try to sink one or two pirates (it’s important to do it on the way back because if you are close to London you won’t mind too much having to go at half speed, and you’ll be in less danger). If I get 2 that’s a total of 350 echo waiting for me in London, even accounting repairs and fuel it’s still better money that trying to trade merchandise for a 1 echo profit…
If anything, it seems to me that the main problem is the lack of ways to spend cash, I got a few new guns for my ship but for example my real problem is the illumination, and there’s nothing really worthwhile to buy for increasing mirrors.[/quote]
[li]
You’re on an old build; distressingly, pirate bounty has been reduced to 50. But yes, that’s still the gist of it, along with picking up as many port reports as you can. Ultimately, the thing to buy is a new ship, but those are still along grind, even when making fairly decent profits.
I’d argue a good engine (less time spent in terror-inducing areas and easier to escape trouble) and then a better weapon (to kill enemies faster) are more useful than a better ship as first priorities over a new ship.
edited by Mordaine Barimen on 7/4/2014
[quote=cheshster]
[li]
You’re on an old build; distressingly, pirate bounty has been reduced to 50. But yes, that’s still the gist of it, along with picking up as many port reports as you can. Ultimately, the thing to buy is a new ship, but those are still along grind, even when making fairly decent profits.[/quote]
[/li]
[li]Wait that’s odd, how am I on an old build? When I first launched the game I clicked where it says to get new stories, ever since then it says that my game is up to date… am I missing something? (At least now I understand why everybody has problems making money, it did seem rather strange XD)
[/li]
Content updates and patches are entirely separate systems; it’s kinda weird and confusing and you’re far from the only one to make that assumption. You need to redownload from Humble Bundle if you want to get the latest build- the Steam version automatically updates with patches, so that’s a major point in its favour, at least.
edit: Lol, ninja’d by Spacemarine.
Freemark, it sounds like you need to download the new patch (which is a different thing to the smaller updates) it bought in the changes with the pirate bounty as well as a few other things. There are also LESS pirates in the starting waters now, which makes the nerf doubly annoying. To get the new patch you need to either redownload from humblebundle, or, um, I’m not sure how it works with steam? I guess there will be a new download there? depending on where you got the game from. Don’t worry, your old saves make the jump so you don’t have to start again.
edited by Inky Petrel on 7/4/2014
[quote=Mordaine Barimen]I’d argue a good engine (less time spent in terror-inducing areas and easier to escape trouble) and then a better weapon (to kill enemies faster) are more useful than a better ship as first priorities over a new ship.
edited by Mordaine Barimen on 7/4/2014[/quote]
I thought this at first, too, but upon grinding up the profit for the largest engine (the +3500 power, 5000 cost one) I found that it ate up almost twice as much fuel to travel the same distance, causing even my most profitable runs to veer into the red very quickly. Has anyone else run into anything like this? Am I missing something? What’s the point of better engines?
I can’t say that I have. My engines seem to provide the same amount of distance for fuel, just faster. I know that there was a bug that made engine efficiency from officers work the wrong way, but I thought that had been corrected. (I rarely get a decent Officer for that role in my games.)
So the Pirate Frigates of Corsair’s Forest are absolute gold mines. Not necessarily because of the loot you get (although Drowning Pearls are among the drops)…but because you get fuel and supplies, up to x3 each, in addition to any other loot (which once I got 7 fuel) for each ship.
Talk about a mid-trip refueling point. Yeesh. My Mirrors are 51 and Iron 82. It’s a two shot kill and they can kill ships with ~50 Hull Remaining. But if you can open fire on them quickly, like I said, floating Echo barge.
edited by Nenjin on 7/5/2014