Some Port Questions

[Rinc3Wind]

So I've finally done it and got myself established in the Pincers. I unlocked all the steel ship upgrades, have a crew consisting of 5 morale, 5 combat, 6 SF, 2 oxhead, 4 JOD, and 3 merchants. I plan on replacing one JOD and one SF with a oxhead but I've been having a dry run of them lately.

 

Anyways, I think now would be a good time for trying to get some goods, especially plate. I have all the scrolls for Tetsu, so my question is:

 

Would it be worth it to get totems? I can afford to, but I'll run out of Jade and cherrywood completely by the end.

 

And if so, what kind of totem, cherry tree or jade statue?

[Urza285]

I think an ideal setup would be using two telescopes and two jade statues. The 7% trade good and 7% scroll bonus chance outweighs going solely for one or predominantly another.

 

When you are finished collecting either then just go purely on that one. In the end you might want to consider all jade statues when you are looking to make and sell things from ports.

[Quyneax]

I think telescopes are only moderately useful - you can only get one scroll per day anyway. 3:1 jade:telescope would be my recommendation.

[Rinc3Wind]

I think telescopes are only moderately useful - you can only get one scroll per day anyway. 3:1 jade:telescope would be my recommendation.

 

So cherry tree isn't worth it?

[chenw]

Not in the slightest, you will eventually be loaded with those resources a lot lot earlier than you would complete your scrolls or overload on trade goods

[Rinc3Wind]

Not in the slightest, you will eventually be loaded with those resources a lot lot earlier than you would complete your scrolls or overload on trade goods

 

Thanks! Going for the 3:1 ratio (Jade:Telescope) that Quyneax suggested

[Aiel]

I feel like there's a lot of days even with 3 telescopes that I don't get scrolls. For me at least scrolls, not trade goods have been the limiting factor for getting armor, so I'd go 3 telescope:1 jade statue at least until you get all the scrolls you really want.

[chenw]

It is ultimately up to a personal choice, the resources required for changing totems can be acquired in 2 days, or possibly even one, making regrets relatively painless compared to other possible regrets.

 

I personally went for a very strange combination: 2 telescopes, 1 jade and 1 box (yes, Pandora's Box, I wanted to make sure I had the maximum chance of getting randoms, there were days where I didn't get any), and I was racing for scrolls more than trade goods.

 

I now have 2 Jades, 1 Box and 1 Parrot. Don't ask

[Quyneax]

@Aiel: The point is this:

You have 17 chances at trade goods per day - two for adventurers, 15 for standard. You have one chance at a scroll. If you want the most useful voyages per day, increasing your trade good % is much better than increasing your scroll %.

[Aiel]

@Aiel: The point is this:

You have 17 chances at trade goods per day - two for adventurers, 15 for standard. You have one chance at a scroll. If you want the most useful voyages per day, increasing your trade good % is much better than increasing your scroll %.

but, assuming you care more about untradeable armor then scrimshaws/tradeable armor, scrolls are the limiting factor in how long it'll take you to get armor (at least for me). It doesn't really matter how fast the non-limiting factor (trade goods) is, the limiting factor (scrolls) still determines the overall rate.

[Quyneax]

There's plenty of people on the POP thread who've done ports from day one, still don't have the sets and are hunting for that final 5/10/20 laquer. I wouldn't say scrolls are always the limiting factor, a lot of people choose to do them over absolutely any other voyage.

[chenw]

It really depends on how you did your ports at the start of PoP.

 

I for one started gathering scrolls since very early (as in Arc region early), and had completed all armor scrolls before reaching pincers, although I ended up about a month behind everyone else because I could not sent enough voyages to catch up, so the Trade goods ended up being the bottleneck for me. I didn't complete my armor sets until very recently.

 

If you had 5 or less completed scrolls before you reach pincers, then I'd imagine you'd be Scrolls limited, otherwise you'd probably be Trade good limited.

[Rinc3Wind]

I have all my tetsu armor scrolls and that is all I really care about. Getting Death lotus and Sea singer scrolls are my second priority and getting scrimshaw scrolls will be a nice bonus but not needed.

 

All I want to do is make some tetsu armor lol.