A spectacular game that simulates Age of Exploration sailing, exploration, trade, manufacturing and politics, along with a lot of enjoyable content, screwed by companies that turned it into a pay-to-win game. Who eventually broke even the original, expansive world and its economy that the developer spent so much effort to build. The actual game itself, its trade, and its economy are nowA spectacular game that simulates Age of Exploration sailing, exploration, trade, manufacturing and politics, along with a lot of enjoyable content, screwed by companies that turned it into a pay-to-win game. Who eventually broke even the original, expansive world and its economy that the developer spent so much effort to build. The actual game itself, its trade, and its economy are now worthless. What is called nanban trading is the only worthwhile economic activity to engage in, and that is only after you grind by putting a gigantic amount of time into this game. All those game mechanics and complex setup that simulates the Age of Exploration discovery, trade and manufacturing are shadowed by the player-run in-game economy that has an inflation that skyrockets into high heavens. The player-run economy itself is basically a bunch of resellers buying and selling things and inflating prices, compounded by pvp players inflating the market even more. So much that the game itself and the player economy look like two different games. Even when you stomach that and hit the endgame after a VERY long grind, you still won't be able to make a reasonable amount of money by doing the nanban trading thing in order to sustain your gameplay. Each of these runs take 1 hour and may bring you 600 million ducats. Which will immediately pale in comparison to the collection of in-game items that you actually need to do Nanban itself, which, sell for 100 million ducats to 1.5 billion ducats each because they are premium items. So, if you want to play the endgame, you either spill real-world dollars after so much grinding, or grind even more and lose gigantic amounts of time. And when you do that, some obsessive-compulsive pvp players or pvp players who grinded or bought high-level premium battle ships will jump you and your trade ships in the game, sinking you and plundering your cargo, money, and items, and screwing up your endgame. Because the endgame does NOT have consensual pvp. If you don't want your hours of effort for each of these nanban runs that take one hour to complete to get screwed by some random pvper, you can - surprise - AGAIN pay the game's publisher to buy the in-game no-pvp item. That lasts only one day. So when you need to do nanban next time, pay up again! Or someone will jump you and screw up hours of your effort. Which is very fun. Not for you, obviously. And if you stomach even that and keep on, you will have to do FIVE HUNDRED or so of these nanban runs, each of which take ~1 hour, in order to be able to buy one single, middling in game premium ship, which sell for 300 BILLION DUCATS. You read that right. 300 billion ducats. These are middling cash-shop ships that may be 1-2 years old, by the way. Ships that can do reasonably well in the endgame. You need one of these because the premium ships that the publisher company has been pushing out over the years in order to profit off of the game, have made ALL the other ships in the game obsolete. This includes player-built ships. So you eventually have to get these premium ships to play the endgame in addition to the premium consumables that you regularly need. Note that the game's own currency is no longer used for these item trades between players anymore. Because the in-game toons cant carry more than 200 million ducats in the game and the inflation has gone way beyond what the game software can handle. So the players use the premium item, Captain's Ticket, as the actual currency inside the game. These are lottery tickets that give you various items or a very low probability ship. It's considered to be equal to 1.5 BILLION in-game ducats currently, and you have to get these in order to be able to trade the endgame in-game items. Because nobody can carry and store billions of ducats otherwise. So that's another premium item that you need to be merely able to participate in the endgame. A gaccha, basically. It's amazing how this publisher is able to get away with basically running an online casino that minors can participate in. Possibly because its in a no-regulation jurisdiction. Overall, the game is not worth the effort that it requires at this point. The original game's content that was released back in mid 2000s and what's left of it in the game could take you some way and entertain you to some degree. Even if that part is also a long grind. But at the moment you try to progress further than the first 20-25% of the game, you will hit the long grind, the need for the premium items, gankers who cripple your gameplay, resellers, and pvpers who literally made the actual game itself irrelevant and who seems to have pushed out the former, very helpful and friendly community. Find another Age of Exploration, another sailing game to scratch your sailing itch.… Expand
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