Hi all =)

I recently bought Patrician 3, and loved it immediatly. But I'm just stuck. I followed the tutorial, gathered some informations on the net, and played the first campaign. I just barely managed to complete the first objective - and by barely, I mean it happened just once in ten times of play =(

I just don't seem the be able to make enough profit ; I buy what seems the best (iron goods for example, many need them), follow the advices given in-game, and noted which city produced what and which seemed to need something else.

But then again, the profits rarely exceed 10 to 15%. It happens more than often that I have some goods in store I can never sell at higher price again. And each time the game tells me I lost, is because I'm not wealhty enough.

So if someone had some other tips or informations I may lack, please help me ; so far, I just uninstalled the game out of frustration, and that bothers me !

Hi!
Here (and in the post coming after that) are some trading tips I gave for a fellow player some time ago; I think they may be also useful for you.
One thing I'd like to stress here, too: do NOT start with the campaign. Due to the small amounts of time the game gives you to rise to the next rank, it's ridiculously hard for beginners (heck, it's even difficult for non-beginners), and also, it won't let you really enjoy the game, forcing you to always rush forward. Free play is the way to go, at least in my opinion.

Sorry for the delay ^^' But, well, end of year, things like that.

Thanks for the answer, and I took careful notes about the trading suggestions you give ; it's a bit sad about the campaign, as it's always what I look for in a game, but well, let's train before that !

You're welcome, here's to hoping you can build a trade empire!
As for the campaign, it's not much to look at anyway; that's basically an open game with ridiculous time limits.

Well, as a matter of fact, the main problem remains : I don't seem to find the right pace. I hardly ever go over 50.000. I even made an Excel file to note which city produces what, at best prices, and where to sell this or that, but even if I try to meet requirements (that always seem to change when I arrive), my margins are never enough. It happens more than often that some good stay in my office because nowhere can I sell'em for profit. I tried to build some industries, but then again, it's probably too early, it costs more than it profits. I'm supposed to trade mostly with my mother town, but they appear to be the worst clients...

The other big problem I have is : how to get rid of those attacking mercenaries ??

Maybe the problem is that you're trying to start too big? Your comment about goods staying in your warehouse because you can't sell them suggests this.
First, you simply can't afford to hoard goods (right because there's no guarantee you can also sell them with a good profit). Initially, you must stick to amounts you can surely pass off. Also, you should first mainly trade pig iron and iron goods - the latter is very sought after everywhere it's not produced, and the former is required in large quantities in towns producing iron goods, and you can reap good profits on them when you sell them to iron goods-producing towns. There are two towns I can say for sure that often have pig iron for cheap (they are Aalborg and Ladoga, with the latter being my favorite). You can just ship it from there to Lubeck and Reval, given their proximity to aforementioned towns.

Also, I don't know if you're using it already, but hiring a manager for your warehouse is a VERY good idea. Although the little bugger keeps asking for ever more money (saying he has accumulated enough experience to justify it), he seldom does so, and he still brings in much more than you spend on him (if you use him well). You can tell him to buy/sell certain goods until their price reaches a certain point (or you have a certain amount of the goods in your warehouse), making sure you buy/sell said items at a good price. For example, if you've started your game in Lubeck, you can tell him to buy iron goods up to the point when their price reaches, say, 310 gold, or until your warehouse holds for example 50 of it.
Or let's say you've bought an amount of pig ore for 1000 gold apiece. You can stash it in your warehouse in Lubeck and instruct your administrator to sell them until the price falls to 1400 gold.

I'd also suggest planning ahead, as in deciding where you'll open your second office, and doing everything in your power to increase your reputation there. (Having an office somewhere is beneficial even if you're not planning opening businesses there in the near future - you can still use an administrator there to procure/sell goods for you).

Additionally, town hall quests can also give good profits (because they pay a fixed price per unit of goods, and that price is also higher than you usually get when selling to the market).

I followed the excellent advice about hiring a manager, and that sure made a lot of difference =P I just didn't realise its importance... profits are now horizon-steering, and the game's a bit lot easier now. I opened a new office, and my two ships are now conducting profitable journeys. So thanks =)

There is something that I couldn't find a clear answer about yet, and that is if it's possible to make ships go auto-trading - or if it's possible to make goods go automatically from office to ship of vice-versa... or anything that automates thoses transfers ^^

And one last thing, how to cope with attacking mercenaries ? When my city's under siege, there's not much to be done. I'd participate as much as possible, but I'm not important enough in town yet...

Glad to see you're beginning to have a profitable business!

About auto-trade routes: it's possible to set them up, but that requires a captain. If you're lucky, you'll find one in a tavern, but they're very hard to find - from what I've read, there are always two captains in the game world, in two random taverns. (As a side note, you'll also need a captain to form convoys, which will be a must later on).

As for city sieges, unfortunately you can't do that much about it (once you're a council member, you can advise to increase the number of the guard, but until then, nothing, and even then, it's not much - but at least it's a good way to have some tidy profits, as a besieged town requires many goods). Once you're the mayor, you'll have more ways to defend the town against them.

Ha yes, those Captains... that's one tough quest. I'll try to keep a closer eye on that indeed, but it's not that easy, even with three ships (yeah, got a lucky wedding arrangement).

It's rather nice how the game tends to offer such deep mechanics. It's a real treat to adjust prices, manage offices, sometimes send a ship on the western towns to gather some fine luxury, fight, and so on =) There are some tricky things though, like those goods some people try to hide in your office, or some of the trade contracts in the town hall...

Is there a good profit to be made my joining the guild ? Those bastards just kept raising their fee ! Didn't take a good look at that ^^'

You have to join the guild in order to send convoys to the Mediterranean, so yes, there's good profit to be made from that. (If you send a convoy /captain+cog needed, mind you/ to the Mediterranean, you can get some VERY lucrative business opportunities - you can buy clothing, wine and spices at a very low price and sell some Northern goods with a tidy profit, and you can even discover contracts, which means a 100% sure market for a large number of a given type of goods, but is ended after a certain time.) There's also a map of the Mediterranean in the Guild, with already discovered cities marked on it, along with what they buy/sell.
Also, when you have more ships than you can use (mostly from capturing pirate ships if you decide to fight them), you can put them up for auction at the Guild hall.
(The price for admission depends on your rank.)

As for quests... just forget about the "hiding goods" one, it's just not worth it, plain and simple, as you have to have a ridiculous amount of goods in your warehouses to hide the goods. The town hall quests, on the other hand, are a VERY good source of income, as the price is fixed (and way higher than what you'd get at the market). Just make sure only to accept ones you can actually carry out.