7-Jan-2014 - Player-Owned Ports - The Next Journey

[chenw]

 

I assume, hypothetically, 66643 standard/tcm/jod is ideal for the Loop?

So I should just let go of my Oxheads first when recruiting new crew?

I'm getting exactly that or 665431 if i can. Don't get rid of oxheads until you've completed the final trio. Then, yeah, only triple missions you'll do are barmaid.

 

 

1 of each MCS is better than 3 oxheads because of JoD (Same stats, oxheads and MCS gives 3000 stat points each, but MCS gives more solidarity).

[xpx]

The one there would be wisp. Reason? seafaring hull has low speed and i'm planning on getting max port score with no shield crew. Also for MCS to be better than oxheads they need to be on average level 9. Don't think anyone is going to wait deep into the loop to do trio voyage.

[chenw]

Well you have an exception to that rule already, I am not going to do the new Trio until I am in shield, don't want story missions taking up valuable ship voyages that don't help my progress in Loop whatsoever. I will hold it out until Shield if possible.

 

(For the record, I can only send 1 round of ships per day during weekdays, so loss of 1 ship's progress is pretty detrimental to my progress into next zone. Also for that reason, I have been doing far fewer Terracotta than most people expect (I have been doing special and trade good voyages more than terracotta). I am currently 23% into loop, and so far I have only bought the cannon upgrade, and literally nothing else. No rudder, no crew, just that 1 ship part.

[xpx]

Well, 4 of the top 5 in distance have already completed all story voyages, so i think that's the way the overwhelming majority are going. Also, cotta is hard to come by at the start of the loop and becomes increasingly easier as you move along(which has already been discussed alot). If you can only do 4 voyages a day, you should be getting more cotta than everyone else as adventurer voyages take up a bigger percentage of the overall voyages you do. Also- why would you get the cannon upgrade first? sounds like a terrible idea(short term gain for long term pain instead of the opposite). In any case, i don't think alternative gaming styles matter much with regards to this thread.

[chenw]

I got cannon because I knew rudder is not going to help me, 1 voyage per ship per day here is non-negotiable (I have no means of rs access during work, and my off time is shorter than the shortest possible Terracotta), and the Cannons are end game ship parts (so it's more short term pain over long term gain, so I will not have 'wasted' the terracotta in the long run.

 

BY 4 voyages a day, I meant that I can only send my ships out once, hence I cannot prioritise my voyages on terracotta, as that would hamper my already behind progress even more by shortening the distances my ships make each day. I send on terracotta only when I have rolled no other really long voyages. Besides, Terracotta is not end game, hence whatever I do here will hardly be of issue when I reach that end game stage. Sure, shield is going to make my life miserable, but the pain will not last long once I start replacing my crews.

 

But I digress, I have delved too deep into my personal playstyle.

[Urza285]

They may have planned people doing end game ports on a similarly overlapping rotation like warbands.

[Yoko Kurama]

I don't have much to say, but I would like to say thanks to 'xpx' in particular for the information provided here relating to Ports which has been invaluable, and without which this probably would have been a confusing region. Thanks, and keep up the good work, xpx. 

[inner fears]

max story voyages atm?

 

since when 50 terracota changed ? got 4 voyages at 75 and 1 at 125 ... massive forum whine worked?

 

whats a good tactix guyse? spend 2,5k terra on 1h shorter voyages or keep until 5k for better hulls?

[chenw]

1. 63

2. you start with only 50 terracotta voyages for the first 10% of the loop region, after that higher terracotta voyages starts to be available. No whining was involved

3. If you can send more than 1 round of ships a day, rudder, otherwise i'd work on ship parts (figure head being last).

[xpx]

max story voyages atm?

 

since when 50 terracota changed ? got 4 voyages at 75 and 1 at 125 ... massive forum whine worked?

 

whats a good tactix guyse? spend 2,5k terra on 1h shorter voyages or keep until 5k for better hulls?

Max story is 63- 6 per each adventurer and 3x3 trio voyages. 

 

Evidently, you just passed the 10% point in the loop. 

 

And as for strategy, i think you'd be well served reading up a few pages of this thread.

 

In any case, ports really isn't something you do alone. When i first started doing ports around 2 months after the first release i read up on the 100+ pages of the old thread and that gave me a big advantage over everyone else, which made it possible for me to catch up to others much quicker. Right now, i'm able to atleast contribute somewhat to the discussion and derive my own theories as to what the best course of action is and be subject to the criticism of others. In that, contributing here helps my progress atleast as much as it does everyone else´s.

 

Chenw, i understand the difficult spot you are in and it's nice to see it hasn't hampered your progress too much- evidently your strategy for the kind of situation you are in is a good one. That said, i'm still in doubt of your move to buy ship parts first. As i stated before, ship parts are the first priority in the loop, however, that does not mean they need to be bought first. Buying ship parts first would only be a good strategy if you are expecting not to be able to buy anything else while still in the loop. I would atleast assume you'd be able to upgrade all jade merchants first before doing ship parts- because, remember, ship parts do not need to be trained.

[chenw]

That was what torn me over, Merchants or ship parts, I chose ship parts, which, my justification was, since they do not need to be trained, like you said, i'll be able to reap the benefits of improved stats right away (same can be said for merchant, but merchant would only affect 1 ship, while the ship part applies to all 4 ships. Of course, i won't use the same ship part across all 4 ships all the time, but at least the upgrade won't be limited to 1 ship, like I would be had I bought the merchant instead.

 

Edit: Just realised my flaw in that logic, i had totally disregarded the fact that the cannon costs nearly 3x as much as merchant, so Yes, I may have had a lapse in judgement :p

[xpx]

Another thing you should consider is that terracotta becomes increasingly easier to get once you hit the 20% mark. According to my progression, i was going to barely hit 20k cotta total and thus was considering if i can get 3x MCS. Right now, with the higher cotta missions and a better crew, i might even hit 40k cotta total(more likely around 35k) and get any crew i want. However, if i went for ship parts first i'd likely only get 30k cotta total and end up with barely trained crew.

 

Anyway, i went back and looked at the voyages from previous regions. Up to the scythe where there still are chime only missions, those missions are all triple stat. Also, all island unlock missions are also triple stat. Thus the fact that the loop has chime only triple stat missions is no coincidence and is likely to continue in the shield.

[yuyuhakush13]

I took a few months break from RS about a year ago and only just noticed that I don't have all of my building fully upgraded.  I do not have the resources to upgrade them at the moment.  Would it be worth stopping my progress (91% to the loop) to go back to gather the resources and upgrade?  

 

Current buildings are:

Refurbished Bar

Renovated Workshop (not fussed about the 5% difference in xp seeing as I'm 99 in the processing skills used and don't particularly value xp past that)

Renovated Lodgings 

Nautical Shipwright 

 

Also, will it be worthwhile to go back to get cherry wood for the Cherry Tree totems?  And how many should I use?

 

Thanks 

[strilmus]

i've stuck them all at jade statues, and there really hasn't been any significant change to scroll voyage frequency, so it's more useful this way altogether, given that raw materials can be rolled from both adventurer and regular voyages

[Urza285]

The best combo for trying to get two things is to go 2 and 2 with the statues. It just works better percentage-wise than 3 and 1.

[Blutters]

Is there an animation when the ring's effect activates? Would guess they copied it directly from Aegis/Warpriest/Giant Mole (now, lol) if there is one..

[Yoko Kurama]

A lot of people, in game, seem to be buying Wisps. I thought they were pretty bad for Loop/Shield (and I thought this was established in this thread). Am I missing anything or is there any reason to get them?

 

What are the useful triple voyages for Loop/Shield? I presume for double voyagoes, Wisps aren't really all that good?

[Saradomin_Mage]

Useful triples are Architect Terracotta and Standard 6 Bones.

 

If you run the Blackwater Hull for either of these then yes, the speed boost from Wisps will be useful.

 

For CS doubles, Wisps are equivalent to standard crew, but with an extra Solidarity bonus from JoD. If not running a JoD on the ship, Wisps will cover the speed requirement.

[Leik]

A voyage failed pretty badly and I had to pay ~550 teracotta in repairs. I think I cried a little ;-;

[Yoko Kurama]

Useful triples are Architect Terracotta and Standard 6 Bones.

 

If you run the Blackwater Hull for either of these then yes, the speed boost from Wisps will be useful.

 

For CS doubles, Wisps are equivalent to standard crew, but with an extra Solidarity bonus from JoD. If not running a JoD on the ship, Wisps will cover the speed requirement.

 

Hmm, so it might be worth it to pick up just one? 

 

What's the ideal crew at the end of Loop looking like now?

 

 

---

 

Also, I know a lot of people already complained about this, but anyone else get annoyed the arbitrary level of difficulty added with the reduction in Terracotta? The barmaid voyage for example is less than may of the other regions, when before this, there was a clear increase for each region over the past one.

[xpx]

Yoko, i'd say it's worth getting one wisp IF you can afford one, meaning you get all other crew first.

 

As for the difficulty in gathering normal resources, although it might seem annoying, you just know it was absolutely the right thing to do. And in any case, if you play it well enough, you will be able to afford everything in the loop(crew and ship parts), you just have to really work for it(can't just send out trade good/trait/xp/empty scroll voyages).

[Yoko Kurama]

Yeah, it doesn't seem impossible I suppose. I was never one of the "send out empty scrolls, or whatever, kind of guy anyways". 

 

What about the ideal crew at end of Loop? I know there was discussion about it earlier but that was before we figured out the rate of increase in Terracotta.

[Quyneax]

It's still roughly 6 of each basic crew, 4 merchants, 3 judges. Sacrifice any basic crew for a wisp instead, if you like.

[xpx]

It's still roughly 6 of each basic crew, 4 merchants, 3 judges. Sacrifice any basic crew for a wisp instead, if you like.

Yep. I'm substituting a seafaring one for a wisp. Another good thing about the wisp is that it helps to train other crew.

[Yoko Kurama]

 

It's still roughly 6 of each basic crew, 4 merchants, 3 judges. Sacrifice any basic crew for a wisp instead, if you like.

Yep. I'm substituting a seafaring one for a wisp. Another good thing about the wisp is that it helps to train other crew.

 

 

I haven't studied *all* the potential  voyages yet, but I would thought replacing Morale would have been better as you still have the merchants, and (I think) there's still some sort of SF imbalance, though if there aren't as many good voyages for SF I guess that doesn't matter.