Full notes
Full High Seas, High Profits! update
Read the full published notes in a cleaner layout. The original post stays linked below.
What changed
- Balance
- Gameplay
- Store
- UI and audio
Mayors
Mayors in High Seas, High Profits! have been a powerful tool towards becoming respected, profiting and expanding your operations in cities, especially in the early-mid game. Their standard features were fairly solid, but it was clear they can be brought to life a bit more.
The 1st game changer is that now, mayors can fill in their quests on their own, over time. You can still contribute to these quests, and can have a bigger impact than the mayor himself! Manipulating goal orders becomes so much more powerful since mayors will complete their goals in order.
With this change, even remote cities have a chance to improve and become more lively. The one goal that mayors can't quite achieve on their own is expanding the city size, as this is quite a big task, requiring donations and the collection of more and more stone.
Ah, what about choosing your mayor? That's also possible now! A new quest has been added where you can cast your vote for the best mayor to rule the city. Your growing reputation has more and more weight in the city's future, so take a minute to learn about mayor types & vote for the best man for the job!
Storage
Storage in High Seas has been a bit of a mini-game in itself. Some move goods around on their ships simply so they don't have to pay rent. Getting storage without renting it was difficult: you had to build more businesses (which end up producing goods anyway). There are now 3 new tools to help you tackle this issue.
Prices for rented space are now halved! Spicying up the meta a little bit, I'd like to see more central-hub playstyles developing. Lower costs for rented space should allow players to have some items lingering around without breaking bank. In the future, we'll compensate this lowered price with something else (probably increased sailing costs 😈 )
Shops now give a cargo storage allowance. Since they have their own needs, it's more than fair that shops should contribute their fair amount of storage to your warehouse. More storage!
- There is now a new, HIGHLY anticipated buildingthe Warehouse! Available through the building menu, the warehouse gives out a flat storage allowance for a monthly cost. You'll still have to strategize around whether the monthly cost is worth it, or you'd rather just rent the space, but this new building still brings in heavy discounts to storage cost, especially in cities where you have tons of goods.
Shops
I mentioned them above, but also wanted to have a dedicated section for them. Shops are here!
Ever felt like the world's not absorbing your pottery quickly enough? The new shops have your back! These new city-owned businesses will allow you to become a manager in someone else's business, supply it with goods and collect the profits!
There's 7 of them and they each have their own needed input goods. Strategically competing for them & providing them with everything that's needed will be a source of great profit, as well as continuous reputation gains. Say bye-bye to 'Not enough reputation'.
There's another interesting advantage you get with shops: you don't need to manage employees at all, there's always someone at the counter. Use that wisely.
Oh, have I mentioned you won't be the only one managing the shops? AI traders are perfectly capable (and willing) to do it themselves!
You'll have to take care of your shop and supply it with needed goods often, otherwise you'll end up having a heart-to-heart with the mayor.
Auctions
If you don't own the Shop, you're surely wondering how you end up building & managing it? Mayors now have new quests to build these Shops! You can help them or let them figure it out themselves.
Once a Shop is built, you can join an auction for its management (provided you have enough reputation).
Be aware: AI traders will always try to get their sneaky hands on these shops too! it's essential that you get your prices straight, learn how they bid & let some of these 'opportunities' slip.
Lastly
It's been a crazy fun month working on all of this. I've had so much great feedback from people in the Discord (https://discord.gg/7sKhteQv4w), and that's actually translated in many tinier features!
Work continues on the few remaining loose ends. Next month I'll share a bit of the new UI. I think it's absolutelly nuts. You'll see soon.
Until next time,
Happy trading!
Lexy.
Source
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