PotBS Journal - 10-January-2008

Day 3 of Pirates of the Burning Sea, and I already achieved the goal of becoming rich. While the price of granite is dropping towards 100, that still means that my granite production is making 60,000 doubloons a day of revenue, of which 90% are profit. I was already able to buy an overpriced level 14 ship for 22,000, although I'm still only level 10 and won't need it right away. But player-built ships are still extremely rare. I think I'll make it to level 14 with my civilian Bermuda sloop and then continue with that level 14 player-built Snow I bought.

I also spent quite some time shipping ropes from the French to the British. All auction houses started with some quantity of seeded goods, and of course the devs gave equal amounts of goods to every nation. But as there are far more British players on my server than French or Spanish, I could buy the last seeded ropes the French never used and ship them to the British ports, where the seeded goods had run out long ago. I choose ropes because even in the normal economy those sell for over 100 doubloons, and the seeded price was only 34, thus I could sell at triple the buying price.

The disadvantage of such trips is that they take quite some time, time that is then missing for leveling up. So I just made 1 level, from 9 to 10. And tonight I'm signed up for my first Karazhan raid with my WoW guild, so I won't level up in PotBS. Well, I'm not really in a hurry for level, they aren't that important for the economy. Although getting to the level 21 cap of the pre-order would be nice, as there are some good freetrader ships at level 19 and 21. And at level 20 you can build some structures you couldn't build before. I'll see how I'll manage my time between PotBS and WoW.

I still don't know how long I'll continue producing granite, it depends on how fast the price deteriorates. It is totally possible that many people built granite production because of the high prices, leading to the price undershooting the long-term price, which in the closed beta was around 60. And of course with more players than the beta, and a more permanent outlook, long-term prices could be lower in the retail version than in the beta. But I don't worry, I already have enough cash on hand to demolish everything and build up a new industry elsewhere. Just where?

I'm tending towards splitting my production over two cities in Yucatan, making fir and hemp to combine to rope and other textiles, including sails for ships and sail outfittings. The other possibility would be to build up the same industry in one port in the Bahamas, but then I'm on the wrong side of the Antilles, north, while most British ports are south. And it isn't very clear yet where the front and the main activity of fighting will be when PvP is enabled on the 22nd. I could also try something crazy and build up wine production in a French port, because they have a monopoly on the stuff. That would mean paying higher taxes on production, even with the freetrader tax evasion skill. That could still be profitable, as wine is hard to get for the British, but in the beta the wine prices never really took off. It is strange, but prices in PotBS don't follow strict economic laws. Sometimes goods are underprices just because they aren't sexy, while others are overpriced even in the long term.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:12 AM Permanent Link