What are the best ways to reduce Suspicion in the Khanate? I’ve been avoiding it like the plague on my journeys now, since the options are slightly too expensive for me right now.
[quote=IHNIWTR]Right! forget about honey, forget about wine - candles is where the money’s at! get on to Venderbright with a holdfull and sell them for a tidy profit of some ten echos each!
There are also new options up in Whither that trade supplies and Fuel for stories and terrors, which in turn you can use to buy some rare new goods; I think you can sell the Zee monster ivory down in Polythreme?[/quote]
Candles? I’ve just updated my game, and the price at FL is 40 Echoes, and you can sell them at Venderbight for 33 Echoes. Venderbight only buys Candles and Wine now - you have a minor profit of 2 echoes/wine from FL. If you’re referring to Stygian ivory, one can also sell them at Whither for 3 Tales of Terror. edited by Chevalier Wynne Langlais on 6/27/2014 edited by Chevalier Wynne Langlais on 6/27/2014
Shipping mushroom wine to Godfall is still profitable, I think - invest 105 echoes (five barrels of wine), get 150 back. They’ll take as many barrels as you can pack in your hold, as long as it’s a multiple of five. I seem to be able to make the round trip in less than five Fuel (starting ship, starting engine, Maybe’s Daughter - still looking for that darned magician). I haven’t tried to optimize that route for minimum Fuel or Terror cost, though, because so far I’ve been doing this on my way to somewhere else.
It’s very profitable with a new game so long as it still works. You can (or at least I can) make it to Polythreme and back with ten fuel and five supplies, so that leaves room for 25 wine casks per trip. Only downside is there’s nothing to bring back and it’s not like Polythreme has a lot of local stories. At least with Venderbright runs, you were also grinding chances at the Magician and Poissonnier.
Gaider’s Mourn will buy wine and honey for a small profit - haven’t run the numbers yet as regards the cost to ship them over there. Incidentally, can anyone tell me - is it quicker to buy a middling sort of ship, like a freighter, and increase my profitability immediately, or to save up to go directly to one of the bigger’ns?
I didn’t know about Godfall until my Time Passing was too high to profit from them. I never sold them a single bottle and they still act like I’ve been drowning them in it :p
Regarding the ratsender, has anyone been using it? Does it make any real difference at the moment?
[quote=Inky Petrel]I didn’t know about Godfall until my Time Passing was too high to profit from them. I never sold them a single bottle and they still act like I’ve been drowning them in it :p
Regarding the ratsender, has anyone been using it? Does it make any real difference at the moment?[/quote]
As it is now, unless you truly need to get some emergency repairs done, and can afford the extra time, it’s better to just avoid getting hit at all, and keep your illumination low. Most things are going to deal so much damage that the amount of healing from repairs isn’t that worth it.
[quote=Zack Oak][quote=Inky Petrel]I didn’t know about Godfall until my Time Passing was too high to profit from them. I never sold them a single bottle and they still act like I’ve been drowning them in it :p
Regarding the ratsender, has anyone been using it? Does it make any real difference at the moment?[/quote]
As it is now, unless you truly need to get some emergency repairs done, and can afford the extra time, it’s better to just avoid getting hit at all, and keep your illumination low. Most things are going to deal so much damage that the amount of healing from repairs isn’t that worth it.[/quote]
That’s why I have a shoot first policy in combat. If I can’t kill it in one shot, first, it’s probably not worth my time to fight at all. Dry dock repairs are nice in that they scale well with increasing hull values, so while expensive you get your money’s worth for basically any amount of missing hull value above 3. It’s just that a lot of players haven’t found a reliable source of easy cash that isn’t a cheesy, unfun grind. Plus, there’s no where else in the Zee to put in for dry dock repairs other than Fallen London Harbor. The amount repaired by supplies for what they cost even at their lowest price makes them completely inferior to dry dock repairs, to the point it’s not even worth doing your own repairs.
So the 40 echo on dry dock repairs seems prohibitive (I’ve yet to see them repair less than 25, so why pay the 60 echoes), because it’s a constant large money sink for any real amount of damage. Which is why damage avoidance, while always smart, ends up also being the least irritating and resource draining way to play. It’s a hardcore game so being risk averse isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But playing in a risk averse fashion tends to exacerbate the grind and puts all the focus on pricing as the point of woe. It made me start playing Merciful.
A really easy solution would just be to randomize the amount of hull points you get back from performing your own repairs. Say, 1 to 4 hull points per repair action, and maybe the odds for higher hull points is mitigated by some stat (Hearts, Pages or Iron I’d think.) What stat most relates to things technical. Doing this would be the value back into repairing your own ship, cause players to need supplies more often (supplies are by far the easiest resource to manage) and make them more willing to actually take hits in combat. Dry dock repairs would be for serious repairs, instead of what should essentially be maintenance (5 to 10 hull damage.) I know I’d play a lot looser in combat and mix it up more with harder enemies, if field repairs were more viable. They’re just not. 200 echoes and 20 cargo space for ~25% hull back on the tramp steamer, not including actual food supplies? I think not. edited by Nenjin on 6/28/2014
That event isn’t specific to Gaider’s Mourn. I’ve gotten it at Mount Palmerston too. There’s also a couple options that don’t relate to the God’s Favor or state increases.
I have two questions guys, possibly without spoilers:
Does increasing the Admiral’s favor get you some kind of benefit? I noticed when you repair your ship in FL there’s a locked option, something about admiralty docks (don’t recall exactly), I assumed maybe with enough favor with the Admiral you’ll get a special place to repair your ship at a discount?
The “mafia” guy that makes you the proposal at the beginning and then sends you on smuggling errands… is there a benefit for refusing straight away his request?
1)That’s exactly what the Admirality Docks are; if you’ve updated to the latest story content then you should have them available.
2) If you accept the dispensation but don’t do the first smuggling mission I think he sabotages your ship somehow (it’s the same quality as the budget repairs, I’ve never seen it do anything but it probably does); if you refuse straight away he just leaves and never bothers you again, I think.
About the Blind Bruiser: is it worth it to do his “commissions” after smuggling the souls?
Does it pays good enough to make up for the risks to being sent to ports far away?
He gives you 200 echoes when you return with his souls, but you have to give the 1000 to the contact in order to get them. So it really depends on how far he sends you and what else you can pick up on route.
[quote=tyrrelduckard]About the Blind Bruiser: is it worth it to do his "commissions" after smuggling the souls?
Does it pays good enough to make up for the risks to being sent to ports far away?[/quote]
It’s helpful not to think of just the Blind Bruiser’s payment as a source of profit. Very few if any storylet tasks are actually worth the trip by themselves. It’s only when you’re doing several different tasks, selling a few different items, hitting every port you can for a storylet hoping for a good and rare one, that your profits start to soar. So the BB’s request is just another chunk of change in the bag of Strategic Information, Port Reports, Storylets and trade goods you amass along a good route.
Basically, I can make a minimum of ~500 echoes going north out of FL, and doing Venderblight, Wither, Chapel of Lights, Mount Palmerston, Port Cecil, Gaider’s Mourn, The Khan’s Heart, Station III, Abbey Rock, Mutton Island and back to FL. If luck is on my side, I can make ~1500 to 2000 echoes! The fuel costs are steady at about 250 echoes, and probably 100 for supplies. Terror can and will kill your profit margin but that’s what you zail zmart, so you only need to spend 150 to 250 echoes to bring it down to reasonable levels.
From what I’ve experienced, anything out Godfall and Polythreme way is expensive in terms of terror. There are just not good shipping lanes in that area, each one is isolated in a big sea of darkness, so you accrue a big terror debt going out there. edited by Nenjin on 7/6/2014