Tips For Making Money In The Game

[corsair91]

Tips For Making Money In The Game

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ironic lettuce
Jul 4 2007

I was just wondering if anyone could give me any tips on how to make money in decent amounts in this game?

I like to have a 'fleet' of two sloops, be it Royal Sloops or Sloops of War, and I like t o have an overall crew count of between 200 and 250 because I think its a good number for attacking towns. The thing is, I find it very difficult to make enough money to keep them happy for very long!!

I know that attacking towns is a good idea which is what I do, and Im thinking I should stop changing governer to my country whenever I get the chance, and just let the town build its riches back up and attack again later! (I dont like using the tactic of installing governors of my enemies, it seems cheap to me!!)

When you play, do you every ship you come across, or do you pick and choose?? I tend to ignore the smaller ones and concentrate on the trade galleons, smugglers and treasure ships, or ships transporting imimgrants or governors. Is that a good tactic?

In the game Im playing now I'm also going to employ the tactic of letting the other pirates stay alive for longer so that they have more money when do get them!

any other tips would be great!!

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CaptainPatch
Jul 5 2007


A few ideas for you to dwell upon.

1) At the beginning while you're first building up cash and crew, you should also be trying to build your ranks with the 4 nations. Higher rank helps your reputation with that nation (larger groups of eager sailors enlisting), gets you better prices with the Merchant, and gets you cheaper/free repairs and upgrades for your ships. Attacking un-named pirates and Indians improves your standing with all four nations. Attacking the enemies (At War) of a given nation will gain you favor with a nation (while dropping your favor with the nation being attacked). At the beginning, check to see if any nation is at war with more than one other nation -- then attack _that_ nation. It gains you favor/rank opportunities with those other nations. [Exception: Eventually, you will be attacking Raymondo and Montalban, and possibly Mendoza. Doing so hurts your standing with the Spanish. I prefer to hold off attacking them until I've become a Spanish Duke. That's when I freely attack the Spanish every chance I get. (Even then, it takes quite of few ships and a couple of sacked Spanish towns before they start to post a bounty on me.)]

2) At the beginning, pick an area of operations that has many ports and several nations close to each other (like around St. Kitts). This gives you a) a target nation, and b) someplace to sell off captured ships quickly. (As long as you can sell a ship for _anything_, it's still a profit. And if you're getting free repairs -- for being at least a Count, the profit becomes quite substantial.) The close proximity also means that heavily damaged ships won't be slowing you down too much before you can dump them in a port.

3) If you are going to have more than one main ship, make them different classes. One should be highly maneuverable (like your Sloops) and the other should carry a lot of guns and crew (for hammering other big ships). For the larger ship in particular, definitely get most of the upgrades. (A fully upgraded Large Frigate is nearly as nimble as a non-upgraded Sloop.)

4) Early in the game don't waste time on long voyages going from one end of the Caribbean to the other. The clock is ticking, and if the booty isn't mounting quickly, the crew's morale is dropping like a rock.

5) It is vastly more preferable to get your Special Items from dancing well with governors' daughters than it is to buy them from the Mysterious Stranger. (But if the Stranger looks like Sid Meier, buy what he's offering if you know what is good for you.) Also keep in mind that the Stranger's items are cheaper in ports where you have a higher rank.

6) Don't carry too much Food. (Another reason for staying in an area with many ports.) The less money you spend on Food, the more cash you keep on board, the less surly the crew gets. Plus it leaves more room for booty in case you simply _must_ sink a captured ship.

7) Having many cannon may be impressive, and it assures that you have max guns going into the next battle. But you'll usually only get 1 gold/cannon when you sell them; sometimes 2 and rarely 3. Compare that to the money you get for something as simple as Food -- and a cannon weighs as much as a ton of Food (or anything for that matter). Keep this in mind if you have to be selective about what you keep versus what you dump.

8 ) If you absolutely must Divide the Plunder, sell off all but the ship you want to keep for the next voyage. And then sell _everything_ onboard that ship, including ALL of the cannon. Also don't bother to repair that ship prior to the divvy (unless you're getting free repairs). At the start of the next voyage, the ship will be 100% and have a given number of cannon (less than max).

You're goal early on is to accumulate **at least** 1,000 gold/crew member. That will assure that the crew morale will most likely not dip lower than Unhappy. This will allow you to keep voyaging indefinitely without having to Divide The Plunder.

Hopefully you will find these suggestions useful.

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Slip de Garcon
Jul 5 2007

Target military payrolls!
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Firewalker
Jul 8 2007

I like to target smugglers, treasure ships, & payroll couriers. I leave cargo ships alone unless the barmaid gives some good information about it. I like the sloop class. When I attack ships, I maneuver to avoid taking shots. I avoid shooting and take the ship by dueling.

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DavyJones
Jul 8 2007

Don't use galleons!

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Rabbagast
Jul 8 2007

A couple of East Indians as cargo ships ans a SoTL as Battleship works wonders for me


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Shadow81Dan
Jul 9 2007

As for how to get a lot of gold quickly? Get a treasure map right away, get the treasure, go back to a tavern and get another treasure map. Rinse and repeat. The idea of leaving the pirates themselves alone is a good one as they'll have a lot more in 20 years than they do right off the bat. Their treasure however, that won't change and I'd recommend picking that up first thing.

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CaptainPatch
Jul 9 2007

Except that you don't want to spend too much time chasing after too little reward. The treasures vary from 2-12,000 gold (if I recall correctly). Morgan's is the big treasure, and Blackbeard's is like 11,000. If you happen to get a map for a treasure nearby, that's one thing. But if you have to sail clear across the Caribbean, through areas of slim pickings, by the time you find that treasure, the crew is ready to mutiny. If you go for a treasure North of Vera Cruz, fighting the wind to get back into the main area that stretches from Panama to Trinidad, you'll have much the same problem.

I find the real key to racking up the money is to capture ships and then sell them off _quickly_ at a nearby friendly port. Running all over the Caribbean for little return undermines that effort.

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Eyepatch
Jul 9 2007

2000 to 10.000 gold, not higher (if not an lost city, but thats an exception).