Trading on the High Sea

[Saltypaws]

I couldn't think of a good name for this thread, but figured this might do.  Anyway, the problem is, on the timed opportunities where it wants the hero to trade a good for certain other goods to fulfill that opportunity, when I click on the ship, the interaction to go to another land, is shaded out.  I know, for instance, you have to have cheese or mushrooms to trade for wood to give to the builder, but the interaction is still shaded.  My sister found it in the guide, but did not help.  I just let these opportunities time out and find something for the hero to do to get their focus back up.  I have run into this problem three times now.  Thought maybe someone else might have had this happen or if they could finish it.

[Lilygirl]

What I've learned is that having the trade-able goods in the hero's personal inventory isn't good enough. You have to select the "check/open cargo-hold" interaction on the ship (it's called something like that) which then lets you drag and drop the supplies from the personal inventory into the ship. Now you can set sail to trade.

On the same note, when your hero gets back they have to check the cargo-hold again to transfer the traded goods into their personal inventory to hand them to the Sim that requested the trade.

[Deckayder]

I have found the same thing - and it can really be a pain! Especially if you have a Merchant Hero you end up spending a lot of time just clicking and dragging things in an out of the cargo hold and your own inventory. It would be nice if a screen came up like the one that does when you go shopping at the village, so you could transfer items back and forth quicker.

[Joria]

The trick is to buy every single item in the shoppe, put it ALL in the ship's hold and then just keeping trading from country to country.
You can make 3-4 trading runs per day.  Get your merchant some jerky and energy potion so they can keep going without being starving or exhausted.  By the full end of the day you will have very little in the hold and what you do have will be exotic goods and lots of simoles.  Taking stuff OUT of the hold is easy, you just click on take all.  It's putting it in that's a pain.

[Figwit]

That sounds great Joria and I will try that instead of making lots of little notes about which country has what.  One question though, where do I find the beef jerky?  I have seen mention of it before but I haven't stumbled on it yet.  Is it something the sims make?  I am going to be really embarrassed if you say it is at the shoppe.

[Joria]

BEEF? jerky?  The only jerky I know of so far is venison or rather, deer jerky.  You make it on the round spit thing but have to have venison in your inventory which you can buy at the shoppe.  The other choice to make, and it requires an oven, is rations.  A dried bread type thing.  Doesn't give you the well fed boost jerky does but it does take away the hunger.

[mtglady]

A good trick I found is to 'pause' the game while you are moving items into the cargo hold.  Time seems to fly by otherwise .
If your Merchant is a drunk, then have them guzzle a bottle of 'Drunk Me Not' from the Wizard or Physician before they board the ship.  Keeps them happy for all voyages.

@Figwit, the jerky can be made using one each of salt, spices and venison on the spit. I usually place a spit either in the Merchant's yard or the Training Yard as well as in the Castle's Reception Hall.   

[Schipperke]

Figwit, I just found out about deer jerky too.  To make it, you need venison as Joria said, along with 1 salt and 1 spices.  It keeps forever in your sim's inventory and will give you a +10 mood boost.  Sorry, I meant to say focus!

Sorry, Mtglady, looks like we were posting at the same time.

[Figwit]

Thank you all. Of course I meant deer jerky.    That was a test.

I haven't done much with the spit thing so that is something else to investigate.  I did work out the field rations though.  That kept me happy for days until I started worrying about the negative buff.

[Seabody]

Slightly offtopic here, but when the Planning Table (Octagon table that the Monarch has in the throne room) says "Mithral (6) for Staff of the Watcher", does that mean you give that nation 6 Mithral and they will give you a Staff of the Watcher?
I think that is right, but I am just checking.

[Joria]

@Figwit, and everybody..... put a spit thing in the merchants front yard and if you can, a tent.  That way if they are exhausted and/or starving or just need jerky you can quickly cook up a meal and sleep.   It works for other Sims who may be in the same state, (starving/exhausted).  I did this because I got fed up trying to get my merchant to go inside their house and it works so well I do it every time I have to make a merchant.

@ Seabody, that's exactly what it means.

In the thread where Carl asks for help with the game I wrote out a few lists of who trades for what and what the money you got for the items was.  Only problem is the money thing is VERY incorrect, at least since the patch.  The items remain the same though.  I'm not sure if the new patch messed up what you get paid, or if the game just never did the math, but you only get the actual cash for the first of a kind of items you sell.  In other words if you have six different kinds of swords, you will get a pop up that says what each item sold for, but you will only have the actual money in your bank for one of the swords and not the others!  The sales were made but the money is not there.  Before the patch it seemed like I made a small fortune very quickly by sea trading 3-4 trips in one day.  I literally became a millionaire during one ambition with my merchant, (but barely made that ambition in silver!). Now I'm not so sure that would be possible.  At least not after the patch.

[Figwit]

Thanks Joria.  That's a good hint about the spit.  I noticed last night that sims actually get a longer buff from eating spit cooked food.

I found if you 'view' or 'look inside' - I'm not sure of the correct terminology and I am not near my game at the moment - the merchant's house first, it opens it up so you can easily go inside.

[mtglady]

I found if you 'view' or 'look inside' - I'm not sure of the correct terminology and I am not near my game at the moment - the merchant's house first, it opens it up so you can easily go inside.

When you click on any playable building you have a choice of 'Enter' or 'Look at'.  If you choose 'Look at' the building immediately opens up so you can then click on the fireplace, bed or whatever and your Sim will complete that queue.  

I have my Merchant eat/sleep at the Physician's home before and after going on a trading spree.  She can also receive first aid or purchase medicine before/after traveling.  

[chadgar24]

In the thread where Carl asks for help with the game I wrote out a few lists of who trades for what and what the money you got for the items was.  Only problem is the money thing is VERY incorrect, at least since the patch.  The items remain the same though.  I'm not sure if the new patch messed up what you get paid, or if the game just never did the math, but you only get the actual cash for the first of a kind of items you sell.  In other words if you have six different kinds of swords, you will get a pop up that says what each item sold for, but you will only have the actual money in your bank for one of the swords and not the others!  The sales were made but the money is not there.  Before the patch it seemed like I made a small fortune very quickly by sea trading 3-4 trips in one day.  I literally became a millionaire during one ambition with my merchant, (but barely made that ambition in silver!). Now I'm not so sure that would be possible.  At least not after the patch.

Have you called EA to report it?  They will only fix it if you make a lot of noise.  Also...do you have a hard copy of the game for a PC? 

[Kaliopae]

The trick is to buy every single item in the shoppe, put it ALL in the ship's hold and then just keeping trading from country to country.
You can make 3-4 trading runs per day. 

Note that this approach does not allow you to stockpile wood for the responsibilities. Trading is part of the responsibility, so you have to do a new trade each time you need to complete it.