Otherwhen
Junior Officer Lesson 3: Trading and Foraging
The purpose of this lesson is for ye to learn more about how to make poe using a ship without necessarily pillaging.FORAGING:
Foraging just ain't what it used to be.To forage, ye sail to an uncolonized island, and then click the hold and the forage icon. This will give ye a pretty good chance at getting one unit of some kind of fruit. Each island has three different fruits available, two common and one rare. Sometimes when ye forage, ye don't get anything, but that doesn't mean that the island be stripped yet. Each time ye click forage, it uses up one hour of yer stall/shop working time, which be limited to 24 hours per account (on all yer alts) per day.
Khatovar (the palace on Beta) is set to buy fruit, but ye can make more poe on limes and passion fruit if ye ship them all the way to Alpha to sell.
Every once in a while when ye forage, ye will get a gem. Gems can't be left alone on a boat fer more than 15 minutes (they disappear). They can only be sold at the capital island of the archipelago that is named after them. Fer example, ye sell diamonds at Alpha, and ye get 1000 poe each fer them.
Extremely rarely, ye will forage gold ore. This is currently worth about 20K each. Call fer help getting it back to port safely, and ask advice on the best way to sell it.
Unlike gems, fruit can be left on yer ship as long as ye like. If ye park yer sloop at an island, ye can whisk back later and forage some more, but ye will have to wait about ten minutes after either whisking or logging on.
Once ye have a cargo of fruit to sell, island hop to each port ye be willing to sail to, to see which will buy the fruit and fer what price. Normally reasonably close ports will pay very little fer fruit, and probably won't even be buying the rare fruit.
PRICE CHECKING:
Tis easy to check the prices of the port where ye be docked; just click the hold and buying and selling. Change from "Relevant Commodities" to what ye be interested in either buying or selling.Ye don't need a ship in port to check prices though. On the map, click Government and then Market. At the market ye will see two icons; one gives ye the same buying and selling screen as ye see on a ship, and the other be the market bid screen. Ye can't buy items without a ship to put them in, but ye can check the prices.
If ye be buying dye or cloth or similar items, then ye will also want to comparison shop the order ahead prices from the apothecaries or weavers. Frequently dye and cloth will be far cheaper purchased this way, but fer some strange reason rum and shot be usually more expensive ordered ahead.
In any case, after ye write down the current prices of the island ye be on, then ye check prices of all the islands that ye can get a ferry to. If ye don't mind going to another arch, then ye either take the navy boat or whisk, and repeat the process at the next arch. Find where ye want to buy the items (cheap!) and where ye want to sell them (high!) keeping in mind that the farther ye have to sail, the more rum ye will use, the more time it will take, and the more likely ye be to lose a battle (so that the brigands take 10% of yer cargo).
Please be aware that all prices on the ocean be volatile. Somebody else could hit port with a hundred of whatever ye be planning to sell, and fill all the high buy prices. Similarly, somebody else might buy up all the cheap items right afore ye reach port.
MARKET BIDS:
Ye can make a market bid either at a market or from the hold of yer ship. A market bid says that ye will pay XXX poe each unit fer YYY units of whatever it be ye want. Ye have to give the poe (XXX times YYY plus the bid fee) when ye make the bid, but ye don't have to have a ship in port. If ye think that the price is stable, and have patience with waiting, bid the current high bid price. The volume tells ye how many units have been ordered by people at the current high bid price. If the volume be high ye might want to bid a poe or so higher than the current high bid price. If somebody comes along after ye and bids even higher, then he gets it instead of ye, but if the price drops later then yer bid will eventually fill.Ye can deliver a unfilled bid, which refunds yer poe except fer the bid fee. If ye deliver a partially filled bid, then ye get a partial refund and the rest of the bid be cancelled. If yer bid fills completely, then when ye deliver it, as much as will fit in the hold of yer ship is delivered, and the rest stays on the bid ticket until later. This is handy if ye don't know what size ship ye will be bringing to pick it up, or how much can fit in a sloop or whatever.
The market bids fill when the island spawns the commodity ordered. Some commodities spawn quickly, and other spawn slowly. If ye bid on a large number of items, then yer bid will fill more slowly than other bids at the same price fer smaller number of items. Bidding higher than the current high bid price is supposed to make the commodities spawn a bit faster.
CUTTERS:
Cutters hold up to 12 pirates, and twice as much cargo as sloops. Do not try to sail one alone (unless it be yer own cutter - then ye can make yer own rules). Fer trading runs, three experienced crew aboard will work as long as at least two of them be excellent at sails. Normally ye will want four or more crew aboard fer trading runs, and six or more aboard fer pillaging.Normal restock levels fer cutters be 30 fine rum and 30 small cannonballs. If ye buy a cargo and don't have time to get it to port, then edit the officer's bulletin board to say who the cargo belongs to, and which port it be destined fer. Don't count on other officers delivering yer cargo, and don't leave the cargo aboard a ship that be not yers fer more than 18 hours. Others want to use that ship too. If Lord Kalvan sees cargo aboard fer too long, he will sell it at whatever port be convenient.
If ye be alone on a cutter and click Hiring Jobbers ye will get 3 bots. If ye be not alone, then Hiring Jobbers will bring enough bots aboard to bring yer crew to 5. Ye will probably need one full time on carp, one on bilge, and put the rest on sails.
THE LESSON:
After reading the above, ask fer JO Lesson 3. Be prepared to answer questions on the lesson.
PERMISSIONS:
After passing this lesson, ye have permission to borrow Otherwhen cutters that be marked as borrowable, as long as ye have enough crew aboard to defend yer cargo (or don't mind having to restock out of pocket). Ye still do not have permission to either fire the guns or attack other ships; that comes with the very next lesson though.
