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[Surgeon]

Originally Posted by zirkoni

You don't see this when you left click the big ship?
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/1994/1869000.png

Do you have that small ship image at you home harbour?

Ah, click at the big ship, then choose which ship from my fleet. Got it. Thx

[Icewolf]

I found something really helpful:

http://www.1869.de.to/

Though it's in german, it should be relly helpful.
I like the trading chart that we have on the site but this one provides better planning possibilities.
You can look up who trades what and then you can click on the good that you are going to buy. This again shows who trades that good. And so on.

Watcha' think?

[Capo]

Yea, Gewürze in Mandao.

[Icewolf]

Originally Posted by Capo

Yea, Gewürze in Mandao.

What's so funny about that, huh?! :tongue:

can anyone help me? i have no idea how to sail from one port to another. i have the ship + crew, but clicking on another port just shows me the information about it...

[Capo]

THIS post is pretty usefull.

== MAIN TIPS FOR WINNING ! ==

So, I've been playing this game for two days (without doing anything else...) and I've mastered it for the most part now. Don't feel bad if you've been at it much longer than this, I'm pretty good at this stuff.

Most important things have been said in this thread. If you need a solid tactic for the start, here are the most helpful hints IMO:


1. [Earnings vs. expenses]

Be aware of your earnings vs. expenses. Earnings come from sold goods.
Expenses are:
- Monthly pay for your crews.
- Repairs on your ship ( find our for yourself what happens when the ship is heavily damaged ... :P ).
- Your annual taxes.
- The price for getting a loan (credit).

If you wonder why you never make any surplus money, you should investigate those four expenses.


2. [Reduce repair costs]

You don't necessarily need to sell weapons to Odessa at the start. I tried to make profits normally, but couldn't make any profits regardless of which trading routes I took! This is what REALLY worked for me:

Buy the steam ship for 8000. If you start the game with 7000, get a loan, then you have 11000. That makes 8000 for the ship and 3000 to buy wares. The advantage of the steam ship is that you only need to repair it half as often, which easily reduces the repair costs per year by $800 if you're sailing long routes between the continents.

The steam ship is not only the cheapest in repair, I think, it's also the cheapest in crew expenses. It only needs 12 crewmembers, which is the same number the smallest ship in the game has. But the smallest ship has 300 tons of freight capacity, while this steam ship has 400. This helps to speed up the profits.


3. [Reduce crew costs]

Simply, don't pay your crew too much. A difference of $20 per monthly pay makes $240 a year. Try to find a good level.


4. [Reduce credit costs]

The credit over $4000 will cost you $500 per year first (=$1000 in two years) - but you can quickly pay parts of it back, as soon as you've earned a little money, so these expenses will decrease.


5. [Find the right trading routes]

I won't tell a lot so to not spoil the game for you. A good idea is looking at which goods bring the highest percentage of profit, and trade them between Europe/Africa/America. You should get things going and at least stop making losses. If you make a long game, you can later include Asia.


Enjoy!

If somebody tries to get a high score, he should really make a table that lists him all the profitable trading routes. Here's my idea (example):

Ware : Coal
From : Lagos
To : Le Havre
Investment* : $750
Profit per trip* : $750
Profit per year* : $2500

*you have to use the same ship and cargo size, let's say 300 tons, for all trading routes in your table to get comparable results.

Why this table? Because it answers the questions that you ask often.

- You're going somewhere and want to know how much money to bring for buying goods - look at the table. If you don't have enough money, sail for another port instead where your money will be sufficient. It's important you never sail with a half empty ship because the cargo was too expensive for you.

- The profit per year tells you which routes are the best in the game. That's the most important thing to know! Example: If you make $750 profit on one trip, and you can do 3-4 trips per year, it's about $2500 per year.

The expenses (crew cost, repairs, taxes) are not considered here, that would make things too complicated.


IF someone ever makes such a table, publish it for everyone

Sorry I didn't register, so I can't edit my post... I want to add my high score:

Company worth of 32,000 after 5 years.

I think the 2,000 tons ships (biggest in the game) bring you about 10,000 per year, so if you have several of them, beating the ingame high score of 225,000 shouldn't be too difficult in 26 years (in my impression there are more than enough goods in the world, I'm making 10,000 per year after five years and only sail between Europe and Africa).

What you need is some planning, so someone make the darned table I spoke of.

[Matori]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr, I still can't sail

I am following the instructions:

a) I click a big picture of ship

b) I get this very exact ribbon
(zirkoni provided the image)

c) I click the ribbon and get the compass like cursor

Now I should click the target port, but I am just remaining stuck. Both left or right button fail to help...