Privateer Newbie 3

K

Kalor

Spaceman
Okay... um... how on earth does the original Privateer's economy system work? Costs of commodities don't seem to be based on anything but some randomly generated value within a certain range that changes almost constantly. How are you supposed to tell which places are the cheapest to buy things if prices constantly change?!

Sell offers change just as often, making it hell to find out the best place to sell something. After hours of experimentation and flying back and forth between Achilles, Hector, and Helen, I think I've determined that it's not specific locations that are the best to sell at, but specific types of locations (as in Mining Stations or Agricultural Worlds). But I happen to know that there are more than two types of locations, none of which I have access to at the moment. This wouldn't be a problem if prices didn't constantly flucuate so much. A price or offer recorded 30 minutes before is no longer valid as a judging point! Argh!

How on earth are you supposed to play this game when it's damn near impossible to keep up with all the price changes?! I mean, you can't even seem keep something in your cargo hold for more than 5 minutes without it becoming worthless or very close to!

None of this would be an issue if I could just create a table of all the commodities and the best places to buy and sell them, but no matter how much I try, available commodities, their prices, and offers constantly change, meaning my table is meaningless after 20 minutes of gameplay! I try to use averages instead, but averages start to become based on such a wide range of numbers that they're of no use to me anymore.

And don't give me, "Welcome to the real world!" I don't want the real world when I'm playing a game, I want a game in which I don't need to be a memory wiz and statistical genius to get anywhere.

I'm pulling my hair out in one system, screw four quadrants with some 10 systems apiece with location types and commodities I've yet to encounter! This game is a nightmare! It could take me 60 hours to simply figure out the economy, let alone play the actual game and upgrade my ship!

Thanks,

Robert Aronson (Kalor)
 
Thanks... those will come in handy.

The reason I want to play the game as a cargo runner is because I can play space sim combat all I want in the "regular" Wing Commander games or the X-Wing games.

Thanks,

Robert Aronson (Kalor)
 
I might suggest Privateer 2 for that. You can lease giant cargo ships that will follow your escort. It's a bit more lucrative than the Privateer 1 commodity trading, though the combat can be difficult if you're going through dangerous routes. It's easy to get stuck at a nav point in dense pirate regions.
 
I got privateer up and running on my 2003 server laptop last night.... oh how it all came flooding back.

I find the best way to know if you are going to make a profit is to head to producer factories... mining bases produce metals, agriculture produce food, etc... the key however is not to going too far up the "chain". The cheaper goods (iron, titanium for mining, grain, food for agri) can be sold on for a profit fairly easily... the more expensive items (the radioactive metals or furs) needed a more specific base that desperately bought those items.

I'd forgotten though just how "bad" the graphics are, don't get me wrong, still, VERY playable but oh how times have changed. Nice to know I still have it, got into a fight with two retro in the base tarsus last night, chewed it up good and proper but after a long (need to upgrade that single laser) and desperate battle I came out on top.

I don't remember any recent games that inspire such a feeling of achievement (or desperation and fear!! heh).

now if only I could get the WC Saga to work ... :(
 
WC1/2 are just as easy to get running in DOSBox as Kilrathi Sage is these days. I'd actually recommend the DOS versions instead. They're much cheaper to obtain, and there are new bugs in the KS version that don't exist in the originals.
 
well I have my eye on a couple of ebay auctions ;) ... I'm sure my old man still has his old WC diskettes, wonder if they still work...

The saga version of WC I/II just generate an application runtime error, same one in DosBox as if you just try and run them from Windows (as mentioned, I run 2003 on the laptop). So I'm hoping that'll go away with a copy of either the original disks, or the CD with WC I and II on it.


Anyone else get a little "quirk" on Privateer with the music... sounds a little slow in game, but during autopilot cutscenes and also if I "alt-o" to the options screen, it returns to normal speed, or am I alone in this one?
 
Concerning prices in Priv, well, it isn't that bad. Buy ore in mine, sell in refinery, buy goods, sell anywhere else, so on, so forth. You don't need to nail down every exact price to make some profit. And delivery missions for the merchants guild are somewhat lucrative too.
 
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