When we were making "Caribbean!", there was always one thing we had at the back of our minds — implementing some kind of a "global economy presentation". It would let players see what they produce and in which towns, have an ability to sell everything they wanted and, ideally, be able to transfer their goods from one town to another.
Here's how we decided to deal with this in B&G. We added two new characters, the "Clerk" and the "Banker". Clerk is needed if you want to start having business in the town you're currently in — you can no longer just come with lots of gold on hand and buy some tobacco plantations. He will also be responsible for managing your storage and convoys. Banker can replenish your deposit, thereby keeping your savings in case you get captured (see our previous post on this subject). With Banker you can get access to your statistics, it looks like this:
Here you can:
- Transfer money to an account — gold from there will be spent for purchasing raw materials for your property.[/*]
- Get information on which towns contain your fleets (you can now have several), your army and your property.[/*]
- Choose if you want to automatically sell goods or buy raw materials for your property.[/*]
Clerk gives access to another presentation:
Here you can form a convoy from some of your available ships, load it with goods and choose a destination point. Convoy can be attacked and robbed, and its ability to defend depends on the state of your ships. If they don't have enough ammo or crew, their cannons don't work properly, there's a chance you won't ever see it again. At the same time nothing stops you from going after your convoy and defend it personally from sea robbers (like yourself).
