Politics in Business: Port Royale’s Staggering Economic Systems

Stage 1: Horizontal growth and buy-and-sell economy

The game starts with most of the player activities unpermitted by the government, so the player will get familiar with the game in a rather simple system: The player travels between towns, buys cheaper items, and look for another town where the price of the item is higher. The bigger amount of one product a player buys from a town, the stock of that product in the town decreases, and the price will be increasing dramatically. The same rule applies to selling items: The more you sell to a town, the less you earn from each trade, due to the shrinking of demand. This is one of the core mechanics of the game. It’s inspired by real-life trading, and can prevent players from spamming trades repetitively.

However, the stock and pricing system in each town is are not totally dependant on the player’s actions. There are AI ships, plantations, and factories in each town, generating a varying amount of stocks; there is also a population value in towns that consumes these goods. With each town having its specialties of production, the player can memorize the best locations to purchase different items, and hence figure out an optimal trading route.

The more cash the player has, the more valuable products the player can buy and sell, making even more profit. The player will grow horizontally in the market, until its stock covers every type of product. Sailing around and trading is rather risk-free and easy to learn, but the productivity is very limited due to the unpredictable prices in each town, and the maximum storage on the player’s convoy. In order to make more profit, besides buying more ships from the shipyard, the player can produce its own goods by building in towns.

Stage 2: Vertical growth and Produce-and-sell economy

Before building in a town, the player needs to purchase permission from the authority, which will be more expensive as more permissions are bought. Besides cash, the building will also cost wood and bricks, which could be bought in as goods. After inducing labors, building a residential area, a warehouse, and a production building, the production process will start automatically. Usually, the player needs to start with a primary production estate, and then move to the secondary industry. Since each town only has certain types of buildings available to construct, the player will eventually need to expand into multiple towns, and constantly transfer goods between them. For example, Cartagena is a garment-producing town, and Santa Marta is a cotton-producing town. If the player wants to produce a large number of garments, a crossover industrial chain between the two towns is necessary. With this chain of production, the player can achieve vertical dominance in the town’s market.

Just like in real life, producing one’s own goods is always more profitable than buying from other merchants. The ones being both the supplier and the retailer can always make money than either of these two. After the player has enough total assets to level up, the governor will be happy to talk to you and give you tasks, out of which some are war-related, and some are not. Normally, a player would not immediately purchase the letter of marque and start sea battling, because a large number of sailors, ships, cannons, weapons, and ammo are required in the convoy to win a battle, not to mention the disastrous result of losing one. Starting off with more peaceful tasks, such as negotiation, looking for survivors, and supplying selected towns with goods, the player can gain lots of rewards, plus the reputation needed to hire sailors.

Stage 3: Battling and plundering

After all the necessary gears for a sea battle are purchased by the player, it will be the time to start conquering. With permission from the letter of marque, the player is able to attack weaker convoys of enemy country’s convoys, claim their properties, and collect governmental rewards. However, the battle needs lots of experience, since the controls have made it incredibly hard to aim and dodge. Winning a sea battle is a huge boost to the player’s total assets worth, but losing a battle could also be a nightmare. The player will lose all the ships involved in the battle, which in most situations means losing most of the property.

Sea battles are good ways to boost a player’s financial status. It’s also essential for future developments since enough enemy slew will give the player permission to attack and claim an enemy country’s town. In order to successfully defeat the original armies in the town, the player’s convoy needs to be very massive and well-equipped. Attacking governmental towns is almost impossible, but smaller towns are generally easier to conquer. With fewer benefits too, of course.

Stage 4: Automatic profiting

Claiming a town will generally take the player 10-20 hours to complete. After claiming a town, there will be no more new activities left in the game. However, the game does not come to an end, so the player can always build up more convoys and trade even more frequently. Automatic trade routes could also be used to control multiple convoys at the same time. Since there are no technical “losing” conditions of the game, no matter how unskilled a player is, this invincible and infinitely growing state will ultimately be achieved.

Summary

Viewing from a larger scale, Port Royale 2 is very much like an incremental game, but with less dramatic growth and more strategic planning. As the total amount of assets grows, the player unlocks more and more features, which could be used for further growth. In smaller-scale observations, this game is purely about making the optimal plan to avoid opportunity costs. To encourage players to plan more, the game even has a time slowing button that can slow down the speed of the game by 10 times. Every player that played through the game will develop their own distinct strategy, and here is mine:

• Finding opportunities of buying and selling in another town
• Increase the convoy size
• Purchase building permission
• Build a warehouse, a residential area and a primary plantation
• Take governor’s tasks (non-battling)
• Build secondary production buildings
• Increase convoys size, buy battleships
• Hire sailors, buy weapons and ammo
• Take governor’s battling tasks
• Attack enemy country’s convoys
• Claim a town and expand real estate numbers
• Buy more ships and split into multiple convoys
• Plan automatic trading routes and make a cultivation-production-trade profiting system
• Buy more battleship, weapons and hire more sailors
• Attack enemy country’s towns and claim them
• Loop the last 4 steps infinitely