Trading Game Suggestions?

airboy · December 26, 2013, 09:34:23 PM

I'm looking for a beer & pretzels type PC trading game. Like the old Merchant of Venice but simpler.

Any recommendations for a Beer & Pretzels trading game set in the medieval era, fantasy, or prior to the medieval era (nothing modern day please).

Philippe · December 26, 2013, 09:50:35 PM

Believe it or not, Age of Pirates 2. Play as a merchant.

What I really like about it is that your journal lists what goods are available where and at what price, but the amounts and prices are only accurate to your last visit or your last conversation with some who has visited recently (which gives you an enormous incentive to chat people up). Buying low and selling high sounds really easy untill you discover that you have to really work at it to find trades that make sense. But don't spend too much time in the local brothels or your competitors will jump on the trade and prices will change while you're squandering your profit margins on entertainment.

From time to time someone will try to mug you on the high seas. Because you're concentrating on being a merchant you'll probably be under-gunned and under-manned, so that will set the scene for a gripping chase as you try to outsail your pursuers.

besilarius · December 28, 2013, 08:20:03 PM

Really don't know any Beer and Pretzels trading games that aren't too kiddie oriented.
If you're willing to try something a little more comprehensive and difficult, try Patrician 2. Should be available at GOG.

BanzaiCat · December 28, 2013, 11:16:05 PM

Take a look at Rise of Venice. Not my bag, but if you like trading sims you might like it.

republic · December 29, 2013, 03:38:22 PM

Patrician 3 is pretty fun and simple. $1 right now at Amazon.

undercovergeek · December 29, 2013, 03:48:56 PM

dont forget the 'annos'

Staggerwing · December 29, 2013, 04:07:27 PM

You can also get Patrician III for $6 at GOG. Costs $5 more but it's a DRM-free download. IIRC Amazon always requires a key of some kind, usually Steam.

http://www.gog.com/game/patrician_3

steve58 · December 30, 2013, 10:19:37 AM

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on December 28, 2013, 11:16:05 PM
Take a look at Rise of Venice. Not my bag, but if you like trading sims you might like it.

Rise of Venice is on sale at Greenmangaming. Its $10, but code GMG20-ZB5D1-93X49 knocked it down to $8. Might be worth investigating at that price. Steam key.

airboy · December 30, 2013, 03:23:03 PM

The two trading sims that may work seem to be:
Patrician 3
Tradewinds

I don't want to struggle with real time twitch reaction and I'm not looking for a sea combat game like many of the Pirate games & Port Royale.

Has anyone here played any of the Tradewinds series?

Bison · December 30, 2013, 03:54:42 PM

Patrician is a good series. It's the same as Port Royale and Rise of Venice essentially. There is naval combat, but it's not too twitchy honestly. gog has all three iterations of the game.

Nefaro · December 31, 2013, 01:29:08 AM

Quote from: Bison on December 30, 2013, 03:54:42 PM
Patrician is a good series. It's the same as Port Royale and Rise of Venice essentially. There is naval combat, but it's not too twitchy honestly. gog has all three iterations of the game.

I'd say choose whichever of the three has the time period you would enjoy most. They're all pretty much the same.

I have Patrician 4 and Port Royale 3. I'd only bother loading the latter because I love the 1600s-1700s period, especially in the Caribbean with all the various great nations having their colonial claims and constant disputes/wars over them & their valuable trade resources. I'm pretty sure it has the most ship variety too.. at least it should.

You can also go a'pirating (aka adventuring) in PR3 but I don't think it was ever very profitable in the PR series. Not sure how that has shaped up lately, but I'll likely find out the next time I'm in a "tall ships" mood.

republic · December 31, 2013, 10:48:20 AM

Quote from: Philippe on December 26, 2013, 09:50:35 PM
Believe it or not, Age of Pirates 2. Play as a merchant.

Thank you for reminding me about this game! I bought it years ago and completely forgot I owned it. (Ugh, I've got to stop doing that). I discovered and downloaded the Gentlemen of Fortune mod which looks amazing.

Staggerwing · December 31, 2013, 07:46:15 PM

^Omigawds, I forgot that I bought AoP2 as well, just before I moved. Now I'll have to go through all the mystery boxes to find it again.

Philippe · December 31, 2013, 09:06:32 PM

When you find it and are about to start playing let me know. There's a problem area that was never patched but that can be manually fixed really easily. [Easily means adding and/or subtracting a few words from a textfile].

I've tried the game in modded and un-modded form, but actually prefer the look of plain vanilla. The mods I've seen include a lot of material that was accepted in a spirit of modding democracy, and many of those mods may have been made under the premise that anything I attempt to mod will look better than the original. That is in fact not the case as some of the mods make things worse. What tipped me over the edge was realizing that the floors of the merchants' shops had been modded for the sake of modding, and weren't all that well done.

The big thing that you'll miss by not using mods is the fix for an area and set of quests that cause the game to crash. There's a mistake in one of the lines of one of the textfiles that causes the game to go crazy and crash (I'm talking about the lead-up to the Tenochtitlan quest), but it's trivial to correct. The game needed a couple more patches than it got, but I don't recall anything other than the Tenochtitlan problem that actually spoils the game.

On some of the boards I've seen people complaining that one thing or another is broken. It usually turns out that these are casual players complaining because things aren't going their way. The way the game is written, it is almost impossible for it to go your way if you don't respect how the game is supposed to work. Case in point, if rum is more expensive in St. Maarten than San Juan, don't complain if your Dutch merchant goes broke trying to sell rum in Puerto Rico. Finding an effective trade requires patience and observation, but when you find a trade route for a good that works, you can make a lot of money exploiting it (until everybody else does it and the arbitrage goes away).

But I really, really wish the people who made these games would wake up and notice that Caracas is not a port and (as far as I know) never has been. The modern airport is more or less where game designers put the town of Caracas -- and it's a really long cab ride inland to get to town (you have to cross a big ridge or a low mountain).