View Full Version : Is there a option to set trade prices already?
The first day that anno 1701 was released, i bought it. I liked the game at first, but i quickly missed the option to set prices on goods. This had been the most fun part of the game for me (played 1602). So because of the lack of economical strategy's i could employ i became quickly bored and stopped playing after 2 days. I didnt touch the game after anymore.
I saw 2 patched have been released, has any of these patched added this option? I would really like to know, cus if so i could give the game another shot. 50 euro's for 2 days is a bit of a waste to me^^
thanks guys.
bah, i still can't understand why they removed the option to set prices. It added such a strategic level to the game. Without it i find it impossible to enjoy it. Might sound like a whine, but i wonder if more people feel like it. The game became way too much mainstream. I can't set up strategies anymore in multiplayer to earn much money, i can make profits by selling stuff. But there is no bonus from having a monopoly.
Eagleclaw
28-04-2007, 16:30
Might sound like a whine, but i wonder if more people feel like it.
It does not sound like a whine to mee. It is an important flaw and I certainly would like to see a patch giving us the possibility of setting the prices manually.
The problem is as you said:
I can't set up strategies anymore in multiplayer to earn much money, i can make profits by selling stuff. But there is no bonus from having a monopoly.
See some other ideas in this thread (http://forum.sunflowers.de/showthread.php?t=13108)
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/2219/anno1701medals02xb1.jpg
bah, i still can't understand why they removed the option to set prices. It added such a strategic level to the game. Without it i find it impossible to enjoy it. Might sound like a whine, but i wonder if more people feel like it. The game became way too much mainstream. I can't set up strategies anymore in multiplayer to earn much money, i can make profits by selling stuff. But there is no bonus from having a monopoly.
Well, as long as the Freetrader is in the game there is really no way to get a monopoly, even if you hold all the islands with a particular resource! The Freetrader always has goods, even if he doesn't have anywhere to buy them! How else can you explain being able to send a courier ship for a huge amount at any given time! Your multiplayer opponents would still be able to buy from the Freetrader at his going price and send courier ships to get the goods they need! So having the monopoly and setting your prices would not benefit you at all. Having the monopoly and selling at the set price would benefit you, because then they would buy from you as well as buy from the Freetrader!
I don't really see you being able to gain a monopoly in a multiplayer game anyway! There is no way you can settle all the islands with a given resource before an opponent gets at least one!
Well, my facts might not be straight (mainly because i stopped playing so soon) , but in anno 1602 for example, there were also free traders. Those traders didnt sell everything, and they didnt sell in big quantities either. If you have to keep a large city supplied with, let's say jewelry. Relying purely on a free trader wouldn't do. You would have to buy some extra from the one who's having the monopoly (and you'd have to accept his price, or think a way to take over his production chain). There is strategic value added to certain islands, or parts of islands because they could make or break a monopoly.
As i said before, i can't recall how much a free trader sells in 1701, but it shouldnt sell enough so you can purely rely on that, because then the competition or companionship between players gets less important. And maybe it shouldnt sell all goods either. Like in 1602 the free trader didnt sell jewelry, this made it really lucrative to get hold of the gold mines that are in the game.
This is my opinion about this matter, it worked in 1602, and it was the game's crown jewel in my opinion.
The fact that you have the courier ship that can be researched in the game, makes the monopoly thing virtually impossible. Anything you can place on order to buy in the warehouse trade menu can be bought by the shipload via the courier ship option! You will not see everything listed in his trade menu at his warehouse, but with the courier ship that does not matter!
BTW - This was not designed to be an upgraded 1602, nor was it designed to be an upgraded 1503, it is a game of it's own standing, designed along the Anno theme! It has a lot of similarities, but it was not meant to be a graphically enhanced 1602!
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As to how much the Freetrader sells, I am able to support a 10,000 Aristocrat city buying all my colonial goods from the trader, with a surplus of the goods, I could just as well buy any other good from him with the same effect, buying as much as he would sell at each of my islands warehouses and then transporting it to my main island.
I haven't played 1701 multiplayer and don't plan on it, but were I playing multiplayer with you and you had a monopoly of a good, I would not buy from you, thus it would serve you no purpose, but to increase your operating costs for no reason. As I stated in the previous paragraph, I could get all I needed from the Trader!
The fact that you have the courier ship that can be researched in the game, makes the monopoly thing virtually impossible. Anything you can place on order to buy in the warehouse trade menu can be bought by the shipload via the courier ship option! You will not see everything listed in his trade menu at his warehouse, but with the courier ship that does not matter!
BTW - This was not designed to be an upgraded 1602, nor was it designed to be an upgraded 1503, it is a game of it's own standing, designed along the Anno theme! It has a lot of similarities, but it was not meant to be a graphically enhanced 1602!
--
As to how much the Freetrader sells, I am able to support a 10,000 Aristocrat city buying all my colonial goods from the trader, with a surplus of the goods, I could just as well buy any other good from him with the same effect, buying as much as he would sell at each of my islands warehouses and then transporting it to my main island.
I haven't played 1701 multiplayer and don't plan on it, but were I playing multiplayer with you and you had a monopoly of a good, I would not buy from you, thus it would serve you no purpose, but to increase your operating costs for no reason. As I stated in the previous paragraph, I could get all I needed from the Trader!
Yeah, and that is exactly what i dislike about the game. They shouldn't sell that much, because it removes a great deal of strategy. The game is being made way too easy now, it's not a challenge at all. But if i am realistic, i guess they won't change it. So no more anno for me then=( I find it very boring now. But that's just my idea, might sound negative, but i'm also a bit disappointed with the game.
Thanks for the reply though, the graphics of the game and the other features are really nice. But i'm more one of those players who doesn't really care about how it looks. I care more about the depht of the game. For example, starcraft really doesnt look good, but it's still the most succesfull RTS online, just because there is so much strategy involved. But again, i'm sorry for only giving a negative feedback, you all worked hard on it. And it does look nice too. But i hope the change i proposed might happen somewhere in the future
zippyriver
30-04-2007, 12:06
It's been a little while since I played 1602, but I seem to remember the free traders providing an adequate amount of goods when I needed them. One of the things I found silly in 1602 was being able to set prices a hair below the market price. Namely, because the AI never adjusted prices to counter the human player's actions. If the AI was selling alcohol at 30 coin (example only, I don't remember the normal price), you could set it at 29 coin and make a lot of sales. This would have been fine if the AI entered a price war and reduced it to 28, but it never did, costing it a lot in lost sales. I don't consider that a strategy as much as exploiting the missing code for the AI. Even when I had a monopoly, I don't recall being able to up the price all that much and still make sales. Namely because the AI, again, would not purchase a lot if the price was past the standard mark.
Granted, if playing Mp, this is certainly more viable. But most people don't play MP. So when trying to appease the larger part of the market, it got removed (I think). I prefer to not have to mess with prices. I think there is quite enough micro management in 1701, and if I had to continuously check what each AI was selling goods for and adjust my prices accordingly, it would ruin that part of the game.
I can understand why you would want to be able to price set, but without the AI code to deal with price wars, it's better the way it is IMO. The AI would have to be programmed not only to deal with fluctuating prices, but also in tactics for obtaining a monopoly, and for breaking one. It's not as simple as just adding the ability to set prices.
One also would not have to have a monopoly to ruin AI sales for a given product. Just over produce massive amounts and sell at a loss. If it costs 50 coin to make a tobacco unit, and your selling it for 25, surplus sales for anyone else would be ruined (you can make up for the loss in other areas). Likewise the AI could use that against the human player and kill your surplus sales, drastically affecting your economy. Given the coin bonuses the AI gets at more difficult levels, it would have an additional advantage the player would be hard pressed to overcome. Although one option could be to set limits on the price options. Like a cap of +/- 20% of production cost might make it viable.
Or, have prices set by the game and eliminate the hassle.
(please keep in mind the post title, it's just a different POV)
Eagleclaw
02-05-2007, 12:11
Well, as long as the Freetrader is in the game there is really no way to get a monopoly, even if you hold all the islands with a particular resource! The Freetrader always has goods, even if he doesn't have anywhere to buy them!
You wil just have to change the way the free trader operates. A simple
way would be to let the free trader operate in the game world AND a virtual world with maybe 10000 Aristocrates. Then the influence of the players prices would increase as the population of the game world increased.
I don't really see you being able to gain a monopoly in a multiplayer game anyway! There is no way you can settle all the islands with a given resource before an opponent gets at least one!
Oh yes you just have to sellect Outcropping:few as used at the hard level. Take a look at zipporivers map #2232876 as an example. How many islands with tobacco do you find?
One of the things I found silly in 1602 was being able to set prices a hair below the market price. Namely, because the AI never adjusted prices to counter the human player's actions. If the AI was selling alcohol at 30 coin (example only, I don't remember the normal price), you could set it at 29 coin and make a lot of sales. This would have been fine if the AI entered a price war and reduced it to 28, but it never did, costing it a lot in lost sales. I don't consider that a strategy as much as exploiting the missing code for the AI. Even when I had a monopoly, I don't recall being able to up the price all that much and still make sales. Namely because the AI, again, would not purchase a lot if the price was past the standard mark.
The gameplay needs to be improved in all parts of the game anyway. We win against the AI because they act stupidly. That is why they need te cheat.
Granted, if playing Mp, this is certainly more viable. But most people don't play MP. So when trying to appease the larger part of the market, it got removed (I think). I prefer to not have to mess with prices. I think there is quite enough micro management in 1701, and if I had to continuously check what each AI was selling goods for and adjust my prices accordingly, it would ruin that part of the game.
You could have four options for sale and four options for purchace:
low, average, high and manual. No big deal.
the game needs more competition....I just can't play the game for a month or more just by building massive cities etc..More focus on multiplayer,I mean Bram is right changing prices would be nice and we could lead an economical war :) . Btw put chargo capture (and ship ) if possible on addon..and yes the war concept needs to be changed!!
Indeed nice game ,but it would be soo much fun with the multiplayer and competition part together.
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