Peaceful Trading?

[Cobalt]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and this is my first post.

Q: How do you make your pirate be a strictly peaceful merchant (only attacking Baron Raymondo & other villians) *and* keep your crew happy? I have tried this strategy, but my crew has been largely dissatisfied with the gold income.

P.S. Do you know any good trade routes?

Thanks in advance for your help.
- Cobalt

[Roland]

I have not yet tried the peaceful-trader scenario for a whole game. But, as a professional economist, I suppose I should!

I have, however, always supplemented my income as a privateer with some arbitrage profits, taking advantage of price differentials between ports. The ideal situation is to find two cities relatively close to each other that have complementary price structures, so that you can just run back and forth between them exchanging cargoes at a profit. One of my favorite places to do this is between Florida Keys and Havana. When they are both prosperous or wealthy, Havana tends to pay big bucks for Sugar and Spice, while Florida Keys pays well for Goods and Luxuries. You just sell the high-priced products, buy the low-priced products, sail to the other city, and repeat.

Another way to play the arbitrage game is to find two close ports with radically different wealth levels. Buy in the poor city and sell in the rich city. The northern part of the Lesser Antilles is good for this - eight islands of three nations will usually give you plenty of trading opportunities until they all become wealthy. At that point, you can switch to the strategy I outlined in the previous paragraph.

Once you have visited a city (or learned about it from the mysterious stranger in the tavern), you can always see up-to-date prices for that city by clicking on it on the world map. If you know where you're headed next (e.g., to capture a criminal or court a daughter), then just compare the prices there to those in your current city. Find the product with the biggest price difference, buy as much as you can, and dispose of it for a profit when you arrive.

You need to realize that your crew's happiness depends entirely on their share of the gold. If you keep a smaller crew, then each member's share is larger, and they are therefore happier. If you do not plan to engage in naval or land combat, then you can keep your crew small. You can also supplement your trade income with bounties on criminals and treasure maps.

[Laurence Bowen]

This is how I'm playing my current game. I thought it might be difficult to keep the crew happy so I'm playing on Adventurer level, but so far it's not been a problem so I will switch up a level next time I divide the plunder and see how it goes there.

Roland's given most of the advice I would give, I would definitely recommend the Lesser Antilles (the islands at the far east side of the map) - there are so many ports here and the travel time between them is so short that you are bound to find a good route. Even heading south to Martinique or Trinidad can sometimes be an idea. And definitely keep a small crew as you don't need the extra men for anything at all.

Some extra tips though - buried treasure maps are a good and non-violent way of supplementing your income. If you're not going to be capturing ships, choose a start era/nationality that gives you a good ship to trade in (although this can limit the available ports as the best merchant ships are in the early eras). Alternatively, make one capture of a pirate raider early in your career (this shouldn't be too morally unacceptable) - you shouldn't need any more crew for this and it should give you a decent amount of cargo space. Three ships or more is a waste really as you won't often be able to buy enough goods to fill that much and if you do you will have a lot of trouble selling that much again without bakrupting the merchant!

The money doesn't pour in as fast as it does when pirating, but because my crew is so small (around 25 - 30 men) I've found that their share is actually significantly larger than they would normally get in a pirating game so I have no trouble keeping them happy.

I'm also doing all this on the PSP version which is a bit of a pain as you can't access any economic information from the map screen at all so I have to keep my own records in a notebook! It's making it much more of a time-consuming game but it's an interesting change. I've also noticed a pattern whereby each port varies between 2 sets of prices each month - i.e. one set of prices for January, March, May etc and one for February, April, June etc - with the second set being higher (these stay almost constant until a pirate or indian attack changes the economy). So if you can buy at a cheap port in Jan/Mar/whatever and sell at an expensive port in Feb/Apr/whatever then you can make an even bigger profit. This might only be the case in the PSP version though.

[zandy]

Hrmph! Stumbled across a problem, eh lad? Well now, I haven't run to many merchant runs, however. There are some small merchant boats that can carry a ton! I might suggest sniffin' around that there guide section for specifics.

Never the less, keep a nice low crew, on a nice low boat. No more then required to move, eh? Should do ye fine for the begin'n.

This is a big problem right here though, lad. The longer this here game last, the tougher this is gonna get, if you have any plans of advancin' anywho!

Still, you can figure that out, if you're a true to the heart merchant, by plunder!

Oh, and you could capture treasure! Thats "peaceful" perse... I mean theres only so much peace a ruddy pirate can have! You wouldn't mind stealin, would ja?

Just remember: A pirate is nothin' without a crew!

[Tom Pullings]

Look for some older posts from Airsaw on the "Honest Merchant" - there are some tips and an entertaining tale or two.

[Capt. Cannon]

I have never, ever found the need or want to be a trader.
Th e game seems to be funner with deuling and ship battels galore
I mean, it;s called Pirates, right?

But, whatever floats your galleon (hahaha)

blynch
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Capt. Cannon <((((((<

[Roland]

The vikings practiced this mixed, opportunistic form of piracy. They would raid one village and then sail on to the next village up the coast and set up a trading camp to liquidate their booty and spend their ill-gotten gains. There's no reason not to get the best price for your booty!

[rupertlittlebear]

[Eternal]

Just thought I would add. English East Indiaman (if you are willing to capture one) would make good trade boats.

One of the best places to trade would be between St.Kitts and the towns surrounding it. Buy spice for around 20 and sell in St.Kitts for up to 48 each. Just make sure you don't bankrupt the poor merchant.

Keep a really small crew (say 16 for an East Indiaman or any of the other Merchantman ships. Don't carry too much food as the ports are a short distance and the extra food takes up space. If you don't plan on attacking anything at all cannons are also useless.

[Murcadh]

I've actually never given honest merchantin' a try, but personally, I'm far too fond of swingin' aboard one of those fat tubs (any kind'll do) and loadin' their cargo onto my two merchantmen and then haulin' the loot off to whatever port I can get the best price for it.

Your strategy sounds like an interestin' one though, and I'll have to give it a try. Probably take one of the East Indiamen and run the spice and luxury markets. Get me own little trade fleet goin'. Sounds like a lucrative venture, but then again, a pirate's a pirate.
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Not all who wander are lost.

[Swordeater]

By the way (old topic, I know, but I'm just bumping this so that someone wouldn't accuse me of making unnecessary topics), did you know that it might be worth to just take a stop at one of those Indian settlements you always just look at before sailing on to that rich Spanish city to sell your haul of goods? They buy and sell goods for 10 gold/ea, right, but they do sell spices and luxuries at a price for which I'd say they don't have a clue.
_________________
Every time you capture a SoL a kitten dies. So please sink the SoLs

[Smiley the 13th]

That may be true but they have so little luxuries and spices that you make only a little profit. I tried being a peaceful Dutch trader once (Dutch because of their smuggling reputation) and it worked out o.k. for the first couple years but then all of those treasure ships and all the juicy prizes the barmaid kept telling me about finally got to me and I turned privateer.
_________________
Vive Le Liberte!

[Swordeater]

[jbsmith]

simple
Buy in the poor ports.
Sell in the rich ports.
It is different in every game, so you shall have to
figure out what port & where on your own.
Barkeepers are good for information as too who buys
at high prices.
If at all possble,,keep you trade runs North+South.
West + East are slow when eastbound.
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"There's plenty of time to win this game and to thrash the Spaniards too."- Sir Francis Drake,20July1578

[Chiko]

I have never tried to play the game like a peaceful trader. It sound interesting... but it would be great if the other pirates could attack ye like the Pirate Hunters do. That would be of much fun and ye will be sinking pirate ships in self-defence.
Besides, ye will be recovering the gold and stuff that they stole from others.