Xinxan

????? If a merchant wasn't worth having on your boat, you're probably done with the Ports in the first place. Get 4 merchants, never let them leave any ships. Thats just no. If the voyage is sub-100% you don't want a merchant, better to have a different unit for 100%. I can see Quy's point though I would be of the opinion when you have basically 'finished' ports presumably you'd be able to 100% most trade good missions (which are kinda the only reason to still be there) so surely you would be wanting a merchant on most voyages at that point. Absolutely not. Let me give you probability 101 right now. Specific lesson: expected value. Our goal is to maximize the expected return of each mission. There are two factors contributing to the expected value: the probability of success (p) and the amount returned if successful (x). The relationship between them is simple: the expected return on a voyage, E(V), is equal to the probability of success times the amount returned when successful. Thus, E(V) = px. We have two scenarios to consider: one with a merchant, one without a merchant. Without a merchant, suppose the best success rate we can get is P, and the expected return is X. With a merchant, the return given success increases to 1.3X. How much does p decrease due to the lack of a merchant? Well, suppose you lose 2k of unit stats (conservative overestimate), and the mission has requirements of 16k (roughly typical, though it doesn't matter much if this changes). Then that changes p from P to 0.875P, and thus E(V) = 0.875P(1.3X) = 1.1375PX. This is a roughly 14% increase in expected return by using a merchant. Note that as mission requirements increase, it actually becomes more beneficial to use a merchant, as the decrease in p becomes smaller while the increase in x becomes larger. TLDR: ALWAYS use a merchant, on ALL your voyages, except for voyages for 3 or fewer trade goods, where the effect will be rounded down to nothing. You wouldn't want to use a merchant if it decreased your success by more than 30% (roughly, 1/1.3 to be precise), but there are no such missions. Except you are not factoring in one thing... Time (as in overall time needed to harvest resources). Yeah, i do get that ON AVERAGE and in the long run, you get more resources by always deploying a merchant on your trips. But picture this scenario: Every mission you fail, sets you back on the race* for first tetsu plate/seasinger thingamajig/scrimshaw X by the same time that mission lasted+. On Scythe or Bowl missions (especially the first ones, as you are trying to get new crew/ship parts/occasional port upgrades), this can be very hurtfull because it can POTENTIALLY raise to many hours lost. Also, when you first arrive to a new region the gap between what stats you can dish out and the actual requirements is greater while using the merchant, so you risk bigger penalties. And you could say that on the Scythe and Bowl, since it already takes days to move on to the next region, the sample is big enough to just risk it, because it will probably even out. But you can also say, that half the people taking your approach will have either ok to good to excelent progression, and the other half will have ok to bad to really poor progression; following a normal distribution... I'm not saying that people that always go for better stats don't have this too, because i know even then you can't ace all missions, but the lower the risk involved, the lower the variability of results. That's why I THINK it's not so inefficient to follow a more guaranteed approach, or a mixed one (using merchants only after getting a bit more familiar with a new region), because the greater the risk, the more penalties# you should be prepared to face. * I'm assuming that you want to reach the pincers for faster resource gathering. Please correct me if i'm wrong. + The delay is even more if you lose resources/crew/captains, even though lifeboats help here. # Even though this can go the other way around (major winning) with equal probability...

Do you know if you get to repeat it? (!)

*Looks at my only 10k captain, whom came with cursed trait, and cries a little bit on a corner*

Not really to nag about it, but i was also under the impression it always DID pick up, and since you so vehemently argued that it didn't i tested it too. It picks them up, and i always used them before EoC. OT: Thanks all for the replies. I'll follow the consensus here that it's all due to royal being superior in many aspects AND the majority of the player base actually having picked up on that fact. Already sold all 200k Broad bolt unf i had for store price (before GE mid price fell under it) and all 300k bolts for about that plus a feather (74gp each). It's just odd since 2 weeks ago i was still selling broad bolts for 120gp each...

The price on this item is currently at 52gp and unsellable. They are 50gp each at the slayer masters and soon they'll turn out not profitable to buy. My question is: what alternative bolt has made broad bolts obsolete to the point their price decreased this much? Royal? Also, is there any alternative stuff that i may fletch anywhere, with similar low-attention span? If not, is there any activity, relevant at high levels, for any other skill? (As in, previously i could literally just stand on the most remote, far-away-from-a-bank, spot on the Runescape map and skill indefinitely, as long as i had the materials on me...)

On the lower bit of your image it says "Currently built: Occult artefact", so... EDIT: nevermind, someone beat me to it...

Well its a bit late now that a lot of us have done it.................................. :lol: Well played... (Queue Citizen Kane aplause...)

Might wait a while for confirmation on randoms nerf, but if it is true, it's been a fun ride nonetheless (for 2 days or so). Didn't really get extra voyage rerolls, but i still managed to max on bags of wind, ration packs, crew rerolls and get some useful "lower row boat effects", which i'm looking forward to spend once i reach the bowl.

Mod William "UPDATE: We are aware of an issue with the XP rates of this update, and will be implementing a fix within a few hours." QFC: 15-16-672-64172667

What level are the slayer "fanatic" targets? And weaknesses, if that matters?

I wasn't raging at him. I actually wrote my master thesis on sleep disorders, so i was just giving a honest, expert opinion. Nonetheless, everyone's free to aknowledge this advice and/or following it. On Topic: Did the convict just say that soothsayers use INTESTINES to frickin predict the future?! Wushanko lore just got a lil bit darker for me... (which is actually nice to see on runescape, i mean, it's not really that gore-y)

That definitely affects your sleeping >_> Maybe I worded that wrong. It doesn't affect how much rest I'm getting. Probably because I have a lot of free time over the holidays, so if I need more sleep, I can sleep more until I'm not tired. I don't really see it as any different than waking up twice in the night to go to the bathroom or have a drink of water. Not to nag on this (also, it's quite off-topic, really)., but as it should be obvious, it's not just about the amount of sleep (how many hours) but also about quality. If you wake up on the middle of the night, it probably messes up your sleep pattern (whether you are in phase 1-3 or REM, for example) and have consequences on how well rested you feel on the day after. If it's just once on a fortnight, sure the effects will be minimal, but over the course of 1-2 weeks, it'll probably make noticeable difference when you get back to school, making you especially sleepy on the mornings (and by this i mean more than usual if that's actually normal for you). This said, I'd recommend against that behaviour, especially over a slight advantage at a Runescape mini-game (/D&D?). PS: Doing that is actually a technique used to increase the likelihood of lucid dreaming (especially on begginer levels), so don't freak out if you find you are having those more often. This is especially true if you wake up at half / on the second half of your sleeping hours.

Hey, i also got 99 Sum recently and i'vve been wondering... I charged my FSH with scrolls but they don't seem to ever hit on tasks. I'm not sure what is wrong. Also, i can never use it even twice in a row (i get a message saying that the ability is not ready or something). If someone would be willing to explain how scrolls on a helmet work, i'd be thankful.

Lucky that it's morale, makes it easier to add a merchant. That's a nice 800 cherrywood for you :). Then it's just me, but i think he posted it because of what can be read there*...

Has anyone here been faced with the option of sending a captain who already has 4 traits on a trait mission? Does it lose one to learn a new one (like pokemon) or does it just ignore it? Might send crew to grind some sweet Xp (like pokemon... *sighs*).