Rags to Riches

[Ferax]

I'm at the stage where things are starting to develop but nothing is happening yet.

My first fields are growing.
My first charcoal is burning.
My first boards are drying.
My first leather is tanning.

But looking ahead, I'm wondering, how does one transition from selling hides and cotton to the governor to loftier riches?
On the trade forum there seems to be precious few 'Want to Buy' ads, and I expect for established players I will have nothing of interesting to them for some time to come.
I expect I'm still quite far away from Mercantilism, and I still have so many other things I need first to secure my defences, and at any rate the 400sp a week stall rent seems mighty intimidating at this stage.

[DarkNacht]

Make/forage for useful things that people buy and set up a trade thread or if you don't want to become a merchant find one and supply them.

[jcwilk]

I'm wondering, how does one transition from selling hides and cotton to the governor to loftier riches? . . . and I still have so many other things I need first to secure my defences, and at any rate the 400sp a week stall rent seems mighty intimidating at this stage.

With many fields, selling cotton can be extremely profitable, though it takes a bit to ramp up to that. Once you can kill deer and beavers then you should have a steady supply of leather which you can use to build torchposts which will make your base far more secure than not having defenses at all... And then later when you're able to make wrought iron you can add braziers which will mean only a fairly small percent of players will be able to break in, and far fewer will care to if it doesn't look like you have much.

But yeah, in general, huge qauntities lead to success. Challenge yourself to build as many timber piles, coal clamps, and iron bars as possible. Once you get to wrought you'll be able to sell those bars for over 200s a pop if you happen to make more than you need for braziers, etc.

Also, put in an effort to establish relations with other players... Having a good reputation and a list of people who want to buy and sell things is very useful. If you're able to join a town or get people to join your town then you'll really be able to start producing huge quantities and afford a town bell which will help a lot with security. A high amount of risk comes with trusting others enough to live with you, but that's part of the fun

And yeah, as DarkNacht said (Hi dark) being aggressive with foraging can lead to some big wins. Many of the items end game players list as things they're buying can only be found by low level hunting, looking in stumps, and foraging, eg:

http://salemwiki.info/index.php/Whispering_Snake_Skull
http://salemwiki.info/index.php/Teasel
http://salemwiki.info/index.php/Giant_Willow_Aphid
http://salemwiki.info/index.php/Cricket_Violin

[Ferax]

Thanks for the great advice!

I'm currently working on iron amalgamation now, though I'm still 2-3 days away from hammering out my first pig iron bar. I have 3 singing logs which will almost get me there.

I've foraged quite a lot but so far only found a single cricket violin from that list, though so far I've only killed a couple of snakes. They're not too common around me.

Still, it's reassuring to hear that cotton can turn a good profit. For now I'll focus on that and see if I can find a dragon to park itself on my soon to be accumulating treasures.

[jcwilk]

Thanks for the great advice!

I'm currently working on iron amalgamation now, though I'm still 2-3 days away from hammering out my first pig iron bar. I have 3 singing logs which will almost get me there.

I've foraged quite a lot but so far only found a single cricket violin from that list, though so far I've only killed a couple of snakes. They're not too common around me.

Still, it's reassuring to hear that cotton can turn a good profit. For now I'll focus on that and see if I can find a dragon to park itself on my soon to be accumulating treasures.

Singing logs are sometimes purchased by elder players as well for ~50s or so. But yeah that list certainly isn't complete, and it's just an example of how grinding on foraging for yourself can lead to profit as well... Though it's not as profitable as getting a well oiled farm setup going.

See if you can get a couple candles from someone ( http://salemwiki.info/index.php/Waxen_Candle ), those are great for getting up your s+e and are relatively cheap to buy from someone who already has bee colonies but laborious to initially start producing. You need -lots- of coal for making wrought though, and the more iron you convert in one go the more efficient (it takes most of a coal clamp or so just to heat up the forge, and then you can maybe squeeze 2-3 wrought out of each clamp after that if you're doing it by yourself and efficient about it by using an alt to keep it going while you hammer), and of course it takes a lot of coal to make pig iron so grind that coal

Oh and if you're doing the whole mining thing, sifting away all that rubble can lead to some profit as well from the gold, glass (black sand), and gems... Though sifting can be kind of tedious.

But yeah, farming will make it way easier to get your humors up into the range of being able to hunt bears and eventually darkness monsters... Hunting argopelters used to be one of the more profitable ventures in the game (~2 yeas ago), but the game has changed a lot since then and I've just recently started playing again.

[Ferax]

Gotcha.
Thanks again


My morale just took a gut swipe seeing what I need for glass blowing. OF COURSE I need swimming and waterways..

Low blow, John. Low blow.

Back to work!

[jcwilk]

Gotcha.
Thanks again


My morale just took a gut swipe seeing what I need for glass blowing. OF COURSE I need swimming and waterways..

Low blow, John. Low blow.

Back to work!

Mineral sifting, you mean? Eh it's not so bad, try to grind to Packrat (most profs up to 2500) and then all the other early game skills will be a piece of cake in comparison

[Ferax]

No no.
I got the ceramics skill thinking I'd have glass soon.
To make glass panes you need Glassblowing.

I thought that was a next skill for me, but before I can get it I have to get waterways.

So many things to do..

Getting there.