Can you make caravans worthwhile?

[Pancakelord333]

That's also what I do. I'm less extremist and only just go to towns that aren't so far from my silversmith workshop to see if I can just buy out other workshops producing jewelry to turn them into other profitable shops type.

There's a console command I found (Dev console mod) I forget it now but it will print a count of the total # of each workshop in the game presently. I think there were like 12 silversmiths by default. I also remember there were only 7 velvet weaveries at-start. So that might be another one to try, later, in addition to silver.

There's also an issue with supply. In sargot I found out via the workshop tab in the clan screen that workshops shut down if they lack raw resources - the silver mine couldn't produce enough to power 2 silversmiths, one would say (days without operation =1) i.e. it was shutting down every other day due to supply shortages (maybe one of the city upgrades like lime kilns would help here, needs more testing).

Velvet on the other hand is made from cotton which is far more abundant, so in theory you could pack 3 velvet weaveries into a single city, shut down all the other velvet weaveries then run all your caravans out of there, becoming a velvet tycoon lol.

 

[rowyerboat]

you are getting tons of money because balance issues. You can loot weapons/etc that can be worth in the thousands. That is not WAI as it breaks the economy. So instead of thinking [how to make caravans worthwhile], you should think [what is broken and needs fixing so I dont have too much money]

That may be true, but who knows exactly how cash influx will be re-balanced in the future and how caravans will fit into that. Right now though, the caravan's profit margin over its costs is only, at maximum, a few hundred gold per day. That just doesn't seem like that much, considering it costs me 1 of my (currently) 6 companion slots.

 

[Karl_Magnus]

so in theory you could pack 3 velvet weaveries into a single city

I wouldn't put all three in a same city though, it would lower the price of the final product and rise the price of the raw material much more, so you'd be lowering the possible profits. Just put them far enough from each other in relatively strategic location that they cover a certain area.

 

[Havada]

There's a console command I found (Dev console mod) I forget it now but it will print a count of the total # of each workshop in the game presently. I think there were like 12 silversmiths by default. I also remember there were only 7 velvet weaveries at-start. So that might be another one to try, later, in addition to silver.

There's also an issue with supply. In sargot I found out via the workshop tab in the clan screen that workshops shut down if they lack raw resources - the silver mine couldn't produce enough to power 2 silversmiths, one would say (days without operation =1) i.e. it was shutting down every other day due to supply shortages (maybe one of the city upgrades like lime kilns would help here, needs more testing).

Velvet on the other hand is made from cotton which is far more abundant, so in theory you could pack 3 velvet weaveries into a single city, shut down all the other velvet weaveries then run all your caravans out of there, becoming a velvet tycoon lol.

Nice idea, I will try it out tomorrow. But why do you assume that starting a caravan from a particular city affects this caravan in any way? I once started all my caravans from vladian cities and after some time I started war with vladians. It didn't affect my caravans at all, they just started to avoid vladian cities obviously but nothing more happened

 

[Pancakelord333]

I wouldn't put all three in a same city though, it would lower the price of the final product and rise the price of the raw material much more, so you'd be lowering the possible profits. Just put them far enough from each other in relatively strategic location that they cover a certain area.

The thing is I'm not sure if my own caravans pay for my own goods from my own workshops? (I assume they do)
So, for example, if Velvet is only produced in a single city it's going to be extremely expensive everywhere else just as a function of S/D, so a slight reduction in local price is irrelevant vs the global average price. But if my caravans are buying it from my own city, the cheaper it is the more profit they can make selling it on in other places, as the purchase cost vs sale price will be greater.

And there are a few cities that I've seen with hundreds of cotton in stockpile, so I'd have to experiment and see if 2 or 3 WS are better. If I wasn't so lazy, I would go and dive into the XML or DLL files to figure out what the daily resource consumption/conversion rate for each workshop is, and the typical output rate of each cotton farm, then work from there for the most min-max velvet operation.

In an ideal world (and i've been trying to fully understand the economy system to make a more indepth suggestion/writeup) - I would not have my caravans operate so "freely", I'd have an alternate setting that just made them run like trucks in transport tycoon, I'd give them exclusive rights (so no other caravans could buy the velvet up too and act as competitors) to distribute my velvet to wherever is paying most for it. I'd even let them buy the velvet for 0 gold from my workshops (so the workshops act as loss-leaders) to maximise all that profit the caravans could make in other cities.

Nice idea, I will try it out tomorrow. But why do you assume that starting a caravan from a particular city affects this caravan in any way? I once started all my caravans from vladian cities and after some time I started war with vladians. It didn't affect my caravans at all, they just started to avoid vladian cities obviously but nothing more happened

I've seen them return to the starting city more often, though I do think they can go anywhere if they want to but in general I think it weights which cities they go to most - slightly.
My strategy is all about trying to set up a monopoly in a commodity and exploit the distribution of that commodity, so if I can get my caravans to spend more time in my own "production" cities, buying up my own goods, that'll have a measurable increase in gold per day (both in the caravan and workshop profit lines).

 

[SAbre4809]

The big thing with Caravans seems to be war and Neighboring Factions/Towns. If you are in a Faction(say Vlandia) and at war with 1 or more neighbors, you severely hamper its progress as it; has to travel further, avoid enemy parties, Limits close buy sell options.

So either run Caravans when not in a faction or just from a blown up faction with lots of different neighbors. Vlandia etc bad, Empire Good.