MTGA (Make Trading Great Again)

[Zorg the Merciless]

Hi all, so a month or so post the big wipe I'd like to open (reopen) the discussion on trading again. Pre wipe we (CKA) amongst other clans were regularly out and about in escorted convoys running high value loads all over the place and making plenty of cash to support our operations.

Post wipe the meta has changed to passengers and cargo missions. This is really a bit boring and nowhere near as lucrative as it should be. I spend most of my work day toddling around with passengers on board my BC and generate a good return in terms of cash and doubloons. Not everyone has that option though and needs to spend valuable RVR/PVP time grinding reals and doubloons. We also often do runs with the cargo missions so we are not adverse to those - we find these a bit sterile though.

The feedback I have from clanmates and chatting to other players is the thrill and fun of trading has gone. The joy of finding a valuable load and sneaking it into port for profit just isn't there with some random cargo mission. Players are into the game for a number of reasons. Many, like myself prefer the economic game whereas others are into the PVP and stopping us decent hard working salt of the earth traders from getting the resources through to our hungry colonies.

I think there is room for both perspectives as both bring something to the game - although I would prefer more of the trading and less of the sinking!

I'd like to see the trade goods become relevant again. It would be a win for us traders and also for the damn ganking bast***s that keep trying to capture and sink us. I'd also like to propose trade goods contribute to the port's economy i.e generate/contribute to the tax income. Timers are a real burden for smaller clans that don't have ownership of the main port hubs e.g Carta. If we can get trading up and going again, this would help us to sustain our economies and enable more focus on other things e.g PVP and RVR.

Make Trading Great Again

Zorg

 

 

Edited August 15, 2019 by Zorg the Merciless
clarification

[Papillon]

+1

We can dream.  

[Batnavo]

+1

[SnovaZdorowa]

+100500

[Guest]

+1

I can speak from being one of the bastards that spends all my time looking for your juicy ships. Making trading more interesting is good for the game, as it provides content for you and for me 😁
 

[Meraun]

+1

[Guest]

+1

[Macjimm]

+1

Zorg makes sense.

But .... I have no delusion that more effort will be spent improving shop trades.  I suspect there are many players who would complain if the trading with goods was more complicated.  So many players want it easy to earn Reals and Doubloons.  It's not enough that there are simple Econ Deliveries, there must be no other systems that confuse them, or they will whine that they must spend too much time at PvE.

[TheAgend47]

+ 1

[Cetric de Cornusiac]

From my point of view it would suffice if economy missions cargo/passengers would not bring so much profit as they do now. Traditional long distance hauling of goods will gain in importance once missions are nerfed. Don't let one way make the other obsolete.

[Kjartan]

+1

[George Herman]

New player here. What my clan mates describe seems to have a lot more depth than the cargo missions i've been doing.

When I look at purchasing the trade goods I think "Good god i'm not going to Fort-Royal to earn 9k reals."

When I look at purchasing trade goods I think "Why do I want any amount of these when I can't find enough to fill a ship?" "A full ship is worth 120k in Fort - Royal from the Yucatan" I don't spend 60k on trade goods to maybe get 120k after 3 hours travel, I wouldn't try. Has anyone tried? The math doesn't add up.

In Fact I'd have to take these Historical stone masks 1300k+ to double my money and I can carry... 20 of them on a Trader brig(with the perk! on the first brig in fleet only!). Cargo worth 90k, if I sail for god knows how long I can maybe make it safely for 90k reals profit per Trader Brig. woops forgot tax, add 10% when you buy the goods and also pay a price for selling the goods.

I have to invest 90k into those masks and risk them in order to make 90k from them. Cargo missions are way more attractive than this; no risk; no investment.

Someone was looking for Rubber in Nation chat and a few people were scratching their heads wondering why anyone wants rubber, turns out the guys name was Rubber. He was looking for a player.

Edited August 15, 2019 by George Herman

[Teutonic]

+1

[Gregory Rainsborough]

+1

 

[Custard]

+1

 

[Angus MacDuff]

honestly @admin, I cant imagine that anyone objects to this suggestion.  The weight needs to come down on the majority of goods and as a general rule, you should be able to double your money in a 30 min trade run with some very lucrative triple your money runs (like last year).  Don't listen to any complaints from those who claim there is too much money out there.  We already have multimillionaires.

[VendoViper]

I don't think cargo/passenger missions need a change, they already server their purpose perfectly, what needs to change is that carrying trade goods needs to be a profitable enterprise. The cargo and passenger missions as they currently exist serve an important purpose, they allow you to boot strap up your economy quickly. But a player who has successfully completed some trade missions and has a nest egg should be able to use that money to make much more money on trading. Currently with the way distance is factored into price, and with the weight of all goods being so high, it is not really possible to feasibly make as much money as you can running the econ missions. Additionally since a player would have to spend reals to get the trade goods, the reward should be much higher than cargo missions because the player now actually stands to lose something besides their (completely disposable most of the time) trade ship.

I think one of the coolest parts of Zorg's idea here is to have this trader activity reflected in the taxes of ports. This would be a huge boon to the game's economy, all the ports in the game would see a marked increase in tax income. And as a tip for the bastards who spend their effort hunting enemy trade there is a benefit of being able to see on the map the economic indication of existing trade activity. If some random port suddenly spikes in tax income, that means that traders have found an interesting route there.

[Macjimm]

5 hours ago, VendoViper said:

I don't think cargo/passenger missions need a change, they already serve their purpose perfectly, what needs to change is that carrying trade goods needs to be a profitable enterprise. The cargo and passenger missions as they currently exist serve an important purpose, they allow you to boot strap up your economy quickly.

This is a reasonable way to look at it.  It's just offensive to suggest we wreck the Eco Delivery missions because the Shop trading is not working well.  Just leave the Eco Deliveries alone: Just because they are more profitable than Shop trades doesn't mean they are broken.

[AeRoTR]

Yes the real trading has to come back. It is the most risky thing to do, yet you earn little thus bad decision to do real trade now. 

I would like to have the most profitable delivery missions to have some insurance. 

You pay %25 of cargo price as insurance. So 200k mission needs to have 50k deducted from your account. But 50-75k missions without insurance fee for worse times. This way delivery missions can have some risk/reward. 

[HandForged]

I completely agree to this request!! @adminPlease give this some thought. MOST of us would greatly appreciate it. 😉

[Atreides]

Bring back tobacco, was an excellent cash crop historically, and in early 2017.

[Sea Archer]

They may keep the passenger missions, but trade missions should be "bring a certain amount of some good to a certain town, no matter how you get that good", as it was in old times. All those trade goods we have now do not make sense as lang as the current cargo missions exist. They could be reduced to one item called "trade goods", and no one would really recognise it.

[Rufus Swipe]

+1

[James Thomson]

I have already quit the game because of the booring meta to grind reals. Only reason i got here is because CKA posted to come over and like / bump this topic.

 

Make earning dubs and reals interesting again and ill come back.

[Cordova]

+1

I absolutely agree with Zorg. Please bring back the trading! It has been such a major part of the game for years. To just delete a massive draw to the game for a lot of players is not good for server health. You guys have had it dialed in before so just go back to the way it was. The same weights on cargo is not great. Give us some selection and variance in cargo so we have to consider our loads a bit more and get the jackpot feeling of finding good hauls. Perhaps remove contracts for cargo so people can't hoard as easily. First come first server kind of mechanic would be great.

I have asked our clan to stop buying DLC's until this has be fixed. Also as a thank you for fixing this issue, we will buy a whole mess of DLC's.

Any chance and Developer or Admin could address this post?

 

Edited August 25, 2019 by Cordova