Welcome back, pirates!
In our last update we got to know the history of the Republic of Pirates, the main objectives you’ll be working towards in Campaign mode, an overview of the archipelago map, and even enjoyed a first look at freeplay mode. Today, we’ll be exploring the mechanics you’ll need to master in order to build and maintain a successful resource-based economy.
Specifically we’ll focus on the city-building aspect of Republic of Pirates and explain why resources matter, take a look at the building categories at hand, demonstrate how to set up production chains and show you how to store and transport your resources. There’s lots to learn!
It’s Time to Start (City) Building
Expanding your settlements across different islands is the key to building a successful pirate utopia. Not only will conquering islands provide strategic footholds across the archipelago but it will also provide land to radically grow your population and unique resources to feed into increasingly more complex production chains. This will increase the number of goods you’re able to supply, allowing you to upgrade your pirate citizenry, construct more powerful ships for your fleet, and heighten your chances of fulfilling trading missions with other factions.
Thoughtful city planning and building is therefore at the heart of developing your resource-based economy. Balance your income against maintenance costs, keep a close eye on the flow of goods between production buildings, and maintain a diverse workforce to keep your settlements ticking!
Why Resources Matter
Resources are used in a wide variety of ways and are organised into a number of key categories:
- Needs resources (e.g. dried fish and rum) are used to fulfil the basic and luxury needs of your pirate citizens. Fulfilling basic needs will increase population and income per residence, while accommodating luxury needs will provide a significant income bonus.
- Production resources (e.g. hemp and cotton) are required to feed other production buildings to produce more advanced goods and luxuries.
- Building materials (e.g. timber and bricks) are needed along with gold coins collected through taxation to construct new buildings.
- Shipbuilding materials (e.g. sails and cannons) are used in combination with building materials to construct new ship units at the shipyard.
As previously mentioned, resources can be used to complete trade missions with rival powers. This will not only help you gain valuable resources for your own settlement but will improve your relationship with the respective faction.
Living off the Land: Types of Building Categories
Like resources, city building options are organised into key categories in the construction toolbar for ease of navigation. As you complete campaign and freeplay missions, new buildings will be added to each category, so check back regularly to see how your options are developing!
City: Your settlement won’t get very far without any citizens and an efficient courier system. This category forms the basis of your pirate utopia and includes housing, roads, storage, and logistics buildings.
Build and upgrade huts to house your citizens and create a source of income through taxation. Storage buildings can be used to stockpile materials and distribute goods to nearby buildings, and are therefore crucial for setting up production chains. Lastly, no pirate settlement is complete without a dock which is used to claim a new island, share global resources between islands, and repair damaged ships.
Needs: Produce and refine resources to fulfil your citizens’ basic needs with the help of the production buildings available in this category. Your pirate citizens will demand a variety of resources in order to improve their standing (and taxes!).
While fisheries produce dried fish ready for consumption, hemp plantations and rope makers will work in sequence to manufacture rope, indispensable for fleet building.
Luxuries: Your hardworking pirate citizens deserve to have a comfortable life. Build a sugar plantation and rum distillery to lift their spirits or repurpose the cotton used in sailsmaking at a hammock maker to add a sparkle of luxury to everyday life in your Republic.
Services: Pirates are used to a hard life on the seas, so any additional landbound comfort you can provide is greatly appreciated! Provide specialised service buildings that fulfil citizenry needs via an area of effect.
The black market is the heart of your settlement distributing goods to citizens living nearby, while taverns and brothels will support population growth and increase income by providing entertainment for your community.
Materials: To sustain its economy, your Republic of Pirates needs to always be producing and refining construction materials. If not development will falter, your fleet will fail to expand, and trade deals cannot be struck, so make sure to keep on top of these production chains to prevent an economic breakdown.
With each island having its own inherent resource advantages, you’ll have to consider where best to place your lumbermills, brick kilns, and iron mines.
Seafaring: In order to take to the waves and conquer the archipelago, you’ll need to get acquainted with the seafaring category.
Produce a range of ships in the shipyard, customise their classes and designs and let your fleet set sail! Place the captain’s inn on your island and recruit heroic captains to lead your fleet. But where there is successful piracy, there will be rivalry. Protect your island from unwanted attention by building upgradeable defence towers to automatically attack enemy ships venturing too close to your shores.
Decor: Although they don’t provide any direct benefits to your settlements, decor items can be built to add character! From pirate monuments to figureheads and anchor statues, exhibit the fruits of your voyages and get creative with their placement to make each island unique!
Production Chain Examples
Production chains are one of the main mechanics of Republic of Pirates, and while they are easy to set up, can become incredibly complex as you progress further into the game.
At its core, a production chain takes one or several ‘raw’ materials and turns them into a ‘refined’ resource. A basic example of this would be using the hemp grown in your hemp plantation to manufacture rope at the ropemaker. This works similarly for all major resources such as lumber, sails, rum, etc. which can only be produced if enough of their respective raw materials are available.
Sometimes, if you’re looking to produce luxury goods or more intricate materials like metal, you will find that production chains become much more complex. At this stage, they will involve three or more buildings which all work in sequence to deliver the final product. In the case of steel beam production, the production chain will look like this: Coal produced in the charcoal kiln and iron produced in the iron mine can both be used for steel production in the furnace which consequently enables the steelwork to produce steel beams.
Storing and Distributing Resources
Once produced, you can rely on couriers to transport your goods to storage buildings. Storage outposts can be placed strategically to link production buildings, production chains, and black markets in range to create an efficient flow of goods.
Docks link together conquered islands, allowing them to share global resources with one another. Your Republic of Pirates will have an initial global storage capacity per resource which can be increased by constructing storage sheds.
Similarly individual production buildings have their own individual storage caps that can be upgraded using gold and additional construction materials.
We hope you now have a better insight as to how you’ll set up your own resource-based economy when Republic of Pirates launches in 2024! In our next post we’ll be taking a closer look at the workforce, citizen and housing tiers.
Until next time!
Crazy Goat Games and PQube
