Ocean Trader [Archive]

another_guest

06-07-2005, 10:21 PM

The big advantage of coal is that bulk carriers can transport it, plus it doesn't cost much in comparison to chemicals or more expensive loads.
I tend to run out of money to buy cargo... Especially when I'm taking a few of those huge forwarding offers. I have the impression those contracts as well as those with a not-too-tight time limit are far more profitable than regular hauls.

For bulk ships I've found a few other decent trips, like carrying grain to Sudan (an easy $ 70 profit per ton, at a buying price that's only some $ 155 per ton)
Though after my second bulk ship decided to take a vacation on the bottom of the ocean, I haven't used any other ships than large freighters... At least it looks like bulk carriers have a much higher chance of a collision, which always sinks them no matter how often you give them maintenance.

janm.l

04-08-2005, 02:48 PM

Did anyone find out the use of Passenger Ships?

thanx, :blink: Jan

another_guest

07-08-2005, 08:51 PM

Not yet, maybe I'll buy my first during next week, if I happen to have enough spare time. I'm curious myself to figure it out.

Shrek

07-08-2005, 10:13 PM

i builded one, but i didn' t figure what to do with it... i can' t load any cargo at it and i don' t know how to get people in it... so i' m stucked with this huge ... i was expecting some kind of special menu for it, to create a cruise or something like that, but nothing new happened. if anyone knows what to do, i also appreciate an answer :ok:

another_guest

11-08-2005, 02:51 PM

Finally... It took me 28 months to build a passenger ship.
You don't have to load cargo to it, just choose a destination and at arrival you'll be notified of how many people were aboard + the profit you've made.
Apparently it's best to sail between very important ports. I tried a few other routes first like Sydney - Wellington, and I only got 400 passengers, generating less income than the docking costs. Sydney - Tokyo seems nice enough, about 4 million profit from a single crossing with a 1000 pax ship (now I'm building a bigger one).

Passenger ships are a huge investment and take a long time to build, but they're the best way to make money, especially once you reach the 25 ships ceiling.

Does anyone have any tips on how to lower your taxes? I tried buying more ships to make my "income" as it is shown in the tables negative, but I still had to pay as much as ever.

Tip of the day: New York - Halifax and Fremantle - Tokyo make for some good trade routes too.

Shrek

11-08-2005, 07:34 PM

Originally posted by another_guest@Aug 11 2005, 03:51 PM
Finally... It took me 28 months to build a passenger ship.
You don't have to load cargo to it, just choose a destination and at arrival you'll be notified of how many people were aboard + the profit you've made.
Apparently it's best to sail between very important ports. I tried a few other routes first like Sydney - Wellington, and I only got 400 passengers, generating less income than the docking costs. Sydney - Tokyo seems nice enough, about 4 million profit from a single crossing with a 1000 pax ship (now I'm building a bigger one).

Passenger ships are a huge investment and take a long time to build, but they're the best way to make money, especially once you reach the 25 ships ceiling.

wow, is that true? my passenger ship is a big one (2500 passenger, it costed me 360000000$) andi had it stucked at the harbor expecting to find a way to load it. i' m going to try right away :D

as for taxes, i' m still trying to figure it out too... apparently having a negative balance is not enough. there must be something else...

another_guest

11-08-2005, 08:38 PM

Could you check whether this theory of mine is correct?
I have the impression that a passenger ship's income is calculated as:
(distance in nautical miles) * (number of passengers)

This would mean that the longest possible routes between large ports are the most profitable routes for passenger ships, as the docking costs don't depend on the length of the route.

In the meantime I've already lost my newly built passenger ship to a collision, even if it was at 100%. Good thing that I was insured.

Shrek

13-08-2005, 12:15 AM

Originally posted by another_guest@Aug 11 2005, 09:38 PM
Could you check whether this theory of mine is correct?
I have the impression that a passenger ship's income is calculated as:
(distance in nautical miles) * (number of passengers)

This would mean that the longest possible routes between large ports are the most profitable routes for passenger ships, as the docking costs don't depend on the length of the route.

In the meantime I've already lost my newly built passenger ship to a collision, even if it was at 100%. Good thing that I was insured.
you are corrected, according to my calculations it's $1 per passenger per s.mile. my ship with a capacity of 2500 passenger made the route "New York - Tokyo" and payed me: 13037 sm x 2500 passenger x $1 /passenger/sm = $32592500 :D

and if you stablish a frequent route, the number of passsengers will increase until reach it' s maximum (my first trip betwen NY and Tokyo only took 2440 passengers, the second from Tokyo to NY took 2450 and the following ones were allways full)

oh, and you should save your game from time to time, to prevent that kind of hazzards - i do it, because i don' t want to lose my $360000000 passenger ship after a few trips knowing it's completlt new, and because when one of my ships sink, another one or two follow it' s fate and sink too. that leaves me completly mad :ranting: i mean how can someone have that amout of bad luck :D

another_guest

13-08-2005, 03:29 PM

Thanks, that's good to know!
I do save often, but so far I've been playing without reloading. After all there's about $ 1100 million in passenger ships being built right now. If only it wouldn't take that long...

Another advantage of passenger ships is that you only have to take an insurance for the ship. In the case of cargo ships, the value of the goods they're carrying is huge, so to be really safe you would have to insure those goods as well.

PrejudiceSucks

13-08-2005, 03:56 PM

Hmm it´s a bit of a dilemma whether to insure ships or cargo. My cargo is usually far, far in excess of the ships´s value.

another_guest

13-08-2005, 10:44 PM

True! For large freighters I would still take the risk of sailing without insurance -except maybe for quite expensive loads-, but not for the bulk good carriers or large tankers...
And by all means always insure your passenger ships.

It's a bit surprising that so far no one seems to have done the calculations of cost vs. merit for Ocean Trader.

another_guest

15-08-2005, 06:56 PM

Sorry for the double-post...

Figured something out: for passenger ships the monthly insurance cost is 1% of the ships new value. In other words, do you expect a fatal accident in just over 8 years or not?
Also, the standard passenger ship isn't really interesting because its range is just too short to link most very important ports, unless you only sail at 55% speed or so. So it's a better investment to design your own, with a range of 15000 miles preferably.
Passenger ships seem a lot more trustworthy when it comes to collisions, haven't had a single one so far. So this makes them imo a lot better than tankers or cargo carriers, even if the initial investment is bigger.
One word of warning: make sure that your passenger ships never run out of fuel. In that case, your ship is tugged to the nearest harbour, where the angry passengers leave it immediately. Not only do you lose your income, but it lowers your status significantly.

In addition, the company status thing still has me puzzled. All I know is that buying your first passenger ship gives it a nice boost, that disappears the moment your ship sinks. Also, selling a number of ships takes a huge bite out of your status, but simply buying a few passenger ships has little or no effect. :blink:
I've had excellent financial results for several years in a row, assets that rise quickly, and still my status doesn't increase anymore.

demons19

20-08-2005, 07:46 AM

This game looked interesting but I can't seem to get it to work on winXP. Is it possible to get it to work with XP? what OS are people using?
Thanks

another_guest

20-08-2005, 02:10 PM

I'm using Win XP (SP 2) and most of the time this works fine. Every now and then the game shuts down, but I've learnt to save often.
Have you tried running it through Dosbox? The reason I don't use Dosbox here is that it takes up a lot of processor time and I've got a lot of programs running in the background. But Dosbox should do fine...

Shrek

20-08-2005, 03:33 PM

Originally posted by demons19@Aug 20 2005, 08:46 AM
This game looked interesting but I can't seem to get it to work on winXP. Is it possible to get it to work with XP? what OS are people using?
Thanks
it works fine on XP. which file are you trying to run? i allways run _trader.exe :ok:

Guest

23-08-2005, 09:36 AM

umm...could anyone please tell me how to start this game if you are running on XP? How to go about the UNIVBE? Pleaseeeeeeeee....anyone???!!! The last time I play this game was on my Windows 3.1 and I've been searching for this game since 2003...

Guest

23-08-2005, 09:45 AM

when I start the game by clicking trader.exe and _trader.exe I got this message:

fehler: VESA_Treiber nicht gefunden

Hybrid rewls! bug off... send email to: electro@tripnet.se

so please anyone HELP ME!!!!

Pung

25-08-2005, 06:27 AM

What about buying 'used ship' as another option of getting 'cheap' ship? Did anyone ever try this? I found it really cheap to get large freighter for $13 mil (built on 1985)

another_guest

25-08-2005, 07:51 AM

Originally posted by Pung@Aug 25 2005, 06:27 AM
What about buying 'used ship' as another option of getting 'cheap' ship? Did anyone ever try this? I found it really cheap to get large freighter for $13 mil (built on 1985)
I use that quite often early in the game. Another advantage is that you get your ship immediately, you don't have to wait so many months until it's completed.
However, keep in mind that many of those used ships are in a bad condition, so it will cost you money and time to repair them. I never let any of my ships get below 90%, therefore I've never lost a ship to storms, only to collisions.
Plus, take a good look at the ship's characteristics: some are quite limited in terms of cargo capacity, others have a very short range or are really slow.
But early in the game it's a really good way to buy more ships.

As for the people who have trouble installing and running Ocean Trader: I'm sorry but I don't know how to run it for the first time either; I just tried until I got it working. After that, running _trader.exe simply opens the game without further notices popping up, so I can't see what you're talking about...

demons19

28-08-2005, 05:23 AM

When I click trade.exe, a dos box pops open for about 2 seconds and then closes, nothing else happens after that. I guess its hit and miss with XP :cry:

another_guest

28-08-2005, 08:17 AM

Originally posted by demons19@Aug 28 2005, 05:23 AM
When I click trade.exe, a dos box pops open for about 2 seconds and then closes, nothing else happens after that. I guess its hit and miss with XP :cry:
You should use Dosbox (download it from http://www.abandonia.com/main.php?nav=programs )
On that page you'll also find the tutorial on how to use Dosbox.

And the exe to run the game is _trader.exe, not trader.exe :)

Hope this helps...

Dave Sherwood

07-09-2005, 07:13 AM

:D I have the game "Ocean Trader" and have enjoyed many hours startegizing and sailing twixt various ports. The game is good and a bit slow especially when you have a large fleet of ships. The interface doesn't help much with trying to remember what you have loaded and how much you paid for it, you have to keep switching between screens to see what this port or that port will buy or sell. It gets hectic trying to remember all this when you have 27 ships of various capacity and loading ability. Also, the ports that supply various commodities do not regenerate their stock fast enough.Here's a few tips. New York is always good to go supplying steel, Take out the maximum loans that you can and use this to buy the right ship and to give you operating capital (or you won't be able to fill the hold), Vary the commodities you carry EG (sugar, corn, steel. At the next port offload the steel and load copper, next port offload sugar and corn, load copper, take this copper to a port that needs it. Repeat this cycle with all your ships (except tanker and Passenger liners) with various commodities). My current score after 16 Years $6 984 548 210 and 26 ships, bank loans all paid up, now it gets really tough. I'll have to sell all my biggest ships (12) as there are not enough commodities to keep them going. stdave@absamail.co.za.

pung

09-09-2005, 04:11 AM

Hi another_guest, thanx 4 ur help. Ur right, it cost more money when we decide to buy 'second hand' ship. Btw, i had another tips to avoid taxes (that cost me 40mil$!!!, darn). NEVER...EVER...Ask loan from bank. Just keep trading (although ur balance may up to -12mil&). Eventually, it will rose up (eg, especially when you sold machines from New York to Maracaibo, or another developed country).

another_guest

10-09-2005, 08:42 AM

Originally posted by Dave Sherwood@Sep 7 2005, 07:13 AM
My current score after 16 Years $6 984 548 210 and 26 ships, bank loans all paid up, now it gets really tough. I'll have to sell all my biggest ships (12) as there are not enough commodities to keep them going.
I try to avoid that by buying passenger ships. Sure, they take a couple of years and a lot of cash to build, but after that you don't need any cash on hand to buy goods. Just fill the fuel tank, insure the ship and start making huge profits.

Tip: New York - Vancouver is one of the best passenger routes in the game, as long as your ship's range is sufficient. In real life I can't imagine anyone paying some $15000 for this trip, but in Ocean Trader passengers just pay per nautical mile, even for weird routes :D

Leo

16-09-2005, 05:16 PM

:help:

If I want to save, it says: "Wrong file, can not be opened or something" , I got Windows XP, doesn't work in DOSBox either. Has anyone an idea?

Noticed comparable problem with "The Patrician", can't save too.....

Shrek

16-09-2005, 09:52 PM

Originally posted by Leo@Sep 16 2005, 06:16 PM
:help:

If I want to save, it says: "Wrong file, can not be opened or something" , I got Windows XP, doesn't work in DOSBox either. Has anyone an idea?

Noticed comparable problem with "The Patrician", can't save too.....
to save a game you must have a sub-folder named "gamesave" inside the game folder. i don' t know if the version of the game from this site creates it but in case it doesn' t, you will have to create it yourself. your games will be saved inside it. if there is already a folder with that name then, i' m sorry but i can' t help you.

Kim

20-10-2005, 07:09 PM

Okay, it seems like all of your guys are very good at this game so I really need som help! I have tried all I can think of but I just don't get it... How do you offload? When I have to deliver something I sail to the right harbour but then how do I offload my wares? :crazy:

Shrek

20-10-2005, 07:28 PM

Originally posted by Kim@Oct 20 2005, 08:09 PM
Okay, it seems like all of your guys are very good at this game so I really need som help! I have tried all I can think of but I just don't get it... How do you offload? When I have to deliver something I sail to the right harbour but then how do I offload my wares? :crazy:
There are 3 ways of transporting cargo:

1st: you buy products available in the harbour from a kind that your ship can carry; in this case, just travell to another harbour that has demand for these products and sell them

2nd: someone gives you a task named "freight business". this is the easy one because your ship will be load and unloaded automaticly. just make sure you can get to the destination on time, or they will not accept the cargo anymore and will force you to pay a fine.

3rd: someone gives you a task named "forward business". at this one, you will have to buy the product they are asking (it doesn' t matter where you get it) and put it in a warehouse at the destination harbour. just make sure you have the right quantity and at the date they asked for it. when the scheduled day arrives, they will take the cargo from the warehouse and will pay you the money.

I hope this helps :cheers:

Kim

20-10-2005, 07:54 PM

:kosta: I think I got it now! I must have used the forward business and then thought I could just sail to the right harbour but that's the freight business!

Thank you very much :ok:

Professor Nopants

06-11-2005, 01:50 AM

First time poster... right off let me say I love the site, and i think this message board set up for each game is killer, especially since there aren't (game)faq's for a lot of these older titles.

Anyway, I was wondering if anybody is making any sensible use of either the warehouses or the dock-side oil tanks in this game.

It seems the only real use for the warehouses I've had is for Forward Business, but these warehouses seem to be quite prominent in the game. Am I missing something here? Is there a way to automate routes between two warehouses or something? Or are they just basically a useless feature...?

As far as the oil tanks go, the only purpose I can see would be to have your ships auto-fill fuel at those ports, but I haven't tried using them yet.....

another_guest

06-11-2005, 08:36 AM

Welcome aboard!
For the fuel tanks, I never bothered using those. If they would indeed auto-fuel your ships, that would be handy, but I haven't tried them yet.

I also just use warehouses for Forward Business (though I've never calculated if it's cheaper to buy warehouses or to rent them, if it's just a single time you've got any Forward Business to that port, or an exceptionally large load). However, I've noticed that every month I'm getting some income from my warehouses. Here again I really should try to see how much profit this yields, compared to the initial cost of buying these warehouses.
In addition, a downside of owning warehouses is that either you have to insure them for a modest price, or risk losing them during one of those port fires.

Speaking of Forward Business: sometimes you'll get contracts for hauling for example well over 100,000 tons to some port, of a certain cargo that's hard to find. In those cases it's quite often possible to buy the remaining part in the port itself and stock it in your warehouses, while still making a profit on this part of the transaction.

It's a bit surprising how no one seems to have done any reverse engineering on Ocean Trader yet, with regard to profit vs. investment, most profitable trading routes, etc.

Professor Nopants

07-11-2005, 01:00 AM

Well this game at least deserves a basic FAQ.... some tables of supply/demand for each port would be pretty easy to put together, and pretty useful for beginning players...

another_guest

07-11-2005, 01:24 PM

That's a good idea!
However, the prices do vary with time, so they should all be captured early in the game when they haven't been affected by your trading yet.
Secondly, supply volumes vary even more, and good import/export cargo in a certain port isn't always listed among the "major imports and exports".

Guest

15-11-2005, 08:42 PM

When I run Ocean Trader my processor immediately starts to run at 100% and continues to do so when i play. This makes my computer overheated, which finally causes it to switch off. How can I avoid this? I am using Windows XP pro, a 2.66 ghz processor on a portable computer. Thankful for any help regarding this, I really like the game!

another_guest

16-11-2005, 08:23 AM

Originally posted by Guest@Nov 15 2005, 09:42 PM
When I run Ocean Trader my processor immediately starts to run at 100% and continues to do so when i play. This makes my computer overheated, which finally causes it to switch off. How can I avoid this? I am using Windows XP pro, a 2.66 ghz processor on a portable computer. Thankful for any help regarding this, I really like the game!
I'm also running it on a laptop, and all these games are using 100% of my CPU. You should have a look at your fan, check if it's still working, not too dusty, etc. Even a few hours at 100% shouldn't cause your laptop to overheat.

You can always try lowering the number of CPU cycles in Dosbox and skipping a few frames as well, but I'm not sure if this can lower your CPU usage to below 100%.

tomf

10-12-2005, 03:08 PM

Is there any cheat codes

another_guest

11-12-2005, 06:16 PM

Originally posted by tomf@Dec 10 2005, 04:08 PM
Is there any cheat codes
I wouldn't know of any. But why would you need them? On the easier levels it's quite easy to rank first.

Guest

30-12-2005, 03:31 PM

Hi guys.
I'm just wondering, are the warehouses a way to take forward business that is bigger than my ship's load capacity. I tryed to do forward business in 2 journeys but it didn't work, if i had put my first load in a warehouse and then came back with the rest of the contract, it would have worked?

Guest

30-12-2005, 04:09 PM

Forget about my question, I just read Shrek's post. Thanks

DiggerD21

16-01-2006, 07:58 PM

Originally posted by another_guest@Nov 7 2005, 02:24 PM
That's a good idea!
However, the prices do vary with time, so they should all be captured early in the game when they haven't been affected by your trading yet.
Secondly, supply volumes vary even more, and good import/export cargo in a certain port isn't always listed among the "major imports and exports".
Hi!

I know this game under the german name "Der Reeder" and really loved it. When I played it years ago, I had also an offer&demand overview of the ports. It didn't give the explicit prices (as these can vary heaviliy) but tendencies like "++", "+" for demand, "--", "-" for offer and "o" for neither. I'm sure you can find it somewhere in the web.

max_luppo

21-01-2006, 03:26 PM

Information please .... what is the exact name of save game folder for OCean Trader???

Help please fast
Tnx

another_guest

21-01-2006, 06:12 PM

Originally posted by max_luppo@Jan 21 2006, 04:26 PM
Information please .... what is the exact name of save game folder for OCean Trader???

Help please fast
Tnx
It's called Gamesave
The .sve files in there are the separate saved games.

Guest

09-04-2006, 02:34 PM

Originally posted by Professor Nopants@Nov 6 2005, 02:50 AM
First time poster... right off let me say I love the site, and i think this message board set up for each game is killer, especially since there aren't (game)faq's for a lot of these older titles.

Anyway, I was wondering if anybody is making any sensible use of either the warehouses or the dock-side oil tanks in this game.

It seems the only real use for the warehouses I've had is for Forward Business, but these warehouses seem to be quite prominent in the game. Am I missing something here? Is there a way to automate routes between two warehouses or something? Or are they just basically a useless feature...?

As far as the oil tanks go, the only purpose I can see would be to have your ships auto-fill fuel at those ports, but I haven't tried using them yet.....
As far as i remember warehouses and oiltanks in ports around the world that you dont use sometimes generate income as though they were rented out for other companies.

Personally I have maxed out oiltanks in the middleeast and 4 supertankers running out of there to Europe, North and South america and Japan / Australia.

I buy all the oil in all the ports at the lowest price instead of buying "small shipments" that would over time drive the price up.

Sure it costs something to rent the rest of the oiltank space to have 1.4 mil gallons in store but it pays of in the end :)

I just wish I could buy my oiltankers as large as reallife ones... 350.000 cargo in the game but irl theres a 500.000 tonne one right ?

another_guest

10-04-2006, 07:09 AM

Originally posted by Guest@Apr 9 2006, 02:34 PM
As far as i remember warehouses and oiltanks in ports around the world that you dont use sometimes generate income as though they were rented out for other companies.

Personally I have maxed out oiltanks in the middleeast and 4 supertankers running out of there to Europe, North and South america and Japan / Australia.

I buy all the oil in all the ports at the lowest price instead of buying "small shipments" that would over time drive the price up.

Sure it costs something to rent the rest of the oiltank space to have 1.4 mil gallons in store but it pays of in the end :)

I just wish I could buy my oiltankers as large as reallife ones... 350.000 cargo in the game but irl theres a 500.000 tonne one right ?
True, warehouses and oil tanks generate some income even if you don't use them actively. However, you have to see if it's worth insuring them, as the generated income is fairly low. Plus, it's investments in something that's outside your "core business" so you have to think whether there aren't better options to invest your money, like buying new ships, trading more expensive cargo, etc.

Guest

27-04-2006, 07:23 PM

Can anyone tell what is the ballast for?
Does it decrease the chance of an accident?

Thanks in regards and sorry for bad english

jakal323

01-05-2006, 12:33 AM

I'm not sure, but it seems that my ships suffer more damage if they're not filled to the brim. In case circumstances don't allow that, you could use ballast to overcome it.

another_guest

01-05-2006, 12:34 PM

Quite frankly, no idea what ballast is for, but quite likely you're right.
In any case I always fill with my ships with ballast rather than letting them sail empty. And I've even had routes where it gave me $3 per ton --> reduced costs on the trip back by 100-150 K$

Guest

08-05-2006, 04:31 PM

I'm selling tropical fruit from Cape Town to Salvador, but Im losing money due to port charges. Anyone have ideas for better routes?

another_guest

09-05-2006, 01:38 PM

Very early in the game, when you don't have much cash on hand to buy more expensive cargo, this is imo one of the very best routes:
Sydney - Tokyo, hauling iron (or what was it again, grey commodity costing about $1150-1200 per ton) from Tokyo, taking coal on the way back.

However, if you're aiming to get a high "ranking", visit ports in other continents, as that seems to influence your score significantly.

Guest_Shadow

23-05-2006, 02:13 PM

Heya folks.
Great pages for us nostalgic people :D

Downed and played Ocean Trader just now, had to sue that Dosbox to play it. Worked fine, but the game are incredible slow. It takes a few seconds before it changes the screen. Are there any way to improve the speed in the dosbox, so the game will work faster?

Icewolf

23-05-2006, 02:15 PM

Did you set up DosBox correctly?

another_guest

24-05-2006, 01:54 PM

And increasing the number of CPU cycles improves the game speed (I seem to remember about 12000 worked fine for me, just to give you an idea). Note that there's an optimum for each computer; if you increase the number of cycles beyond that, performance will grow worse again.
If that doesn't work, try skipping a few frames as well (1-2 usually don't hurt the gameplay but make things go quite a bit faster).

Guest

25-06-2006, 09:33 AM

How do you do the contracts? i mean i accept the contracts and then what? am i suppose to then BUY the cargo and then go to the destingation and sell it in port as per normal?

Great game though :D

Guest

26-06-2006, 02:13 PM

It depends: there are 2 types of contracts:

1) Get a certain amount of a certain good at a port by a fixed date. In that case you have to buy it, store it there in own or rented warehouses. You get a fixed price per tonne. You can get the goods from anywhere you want.

2) 1 load of a certain good needs to be transported from a fixed destination to a certain port. You'll get a fixed amount of $ if you do this in time. You don't need to buy the goods, you get them.

-another_guest in Moscow

Guest

27-06-2006, 04:02 AM

kewl thanx that is what i was after

Guest_Superrob_*

01-07-2006, 02:05 AM

I managed to get a above average tanker for 25 million. It was a little slower than usual, by about 10 kps, and had 83,000 unit of stuff. they usually go for 60 million. However, it only had 50% health. Overall, it was a good deal. So, buying used CAN give you great deals.

another_guest

01-07-2006, 09:40 AM

True, early in the game it gives you faster access to larger ships.
But with only 50% of health, you'll spend a lot of cash and time to repair it... And not only the size matters, so does the speed (15 knots instead of 10 will almost give you 50% more revenue)
One last point: 83,000 units of oil will require about 7 million $ to fill the tanker, so at all times make sure that you can use those large ships you buy to their full advantage: it's not worth pumping your last cent into an even larger ship if you don't have money left to buy cargo...

Guest

18-08-2006, 12:45 AM

How do i install this game? :unsure: O.o

another_guest

19-08-2006, 12:36 PM

Can't test it right now, but have you tried running setup.exe?
Though I believe you can run it straight away (trader.exe) without any prior installation. See for yourself whether it runs better under Dosbox or whatever Windows version you have...

Guest

08-09-2006, 07:12 AM

How do you do to accept the contracts??

I make a mathematical expression to foresee the time expend in the travel.

The expression are below:

(Range)*(diesel use)/(diesel fuel)= speed (nm/day)

In this expression you will find the speed in "nautical miles/day" in differents percents of speed.
So, I make the list contends this information and the range:

for example:
Large Freighter
100% - 360 nm/day - 8183 nm
90% - 324 nm/day - 9511 nm
80% - 288 nm/day - 11115 nm
70% - 252 nm/day - 12827 nm
60% - 216 nm/day - 14400 nm
50% - 180 nm/day - 15553 nm

When I analyse a contract, I go to the map and see the distance between the ports. So I divide the distance for the time avaliable to finish of the contract, and compare this result with the above list, and choice the best speed to travel.

What do you think about it???
How do you do???

another_guest

08-09-2006, 10:35 PM

I do something similar though I take some buffer for loading/unloading. In addition, I look at the profit I would make from such a contract, sometimes it's less than when following one of my regular profitable trade routes.

Guest

11-09-2006, 04:28 AM

Do you know a new game similar with "ocean Trader"??? Or any trader game???
I like very much but I don's found any new game about it.
Can you help me??
Thanks

pharmy

18-10-2006, 09:07 PM

Sorry can anybody help out, I can't save my game, it will always say cannot create file. Perhaps someone could send me their saved file, and I could put it in a trader\savegame folder and save onto that.

Guest

27-10-2006, 08:04 AM

I think there is a "gamesave" folder or something like that.

This game is great, even if my original freighter, and a large freighter I bought with the insurance money and some extra, are now being turned into coral reefs. I noticed that my ships were being "suprised" by hurricanes and the like when they weren't insured, it looked like it was a subtle warning to get insurance, because the "surprises" didn't happen anymore. The new "surprises" were my freighters sinking after colliding with what must have been ghost ships, because the competition didn't seem to lose any ships.

Is there any point to buying shares or making time deposits, or whatever they are called?. And when will that lady in the bank find what she is looking for in her handbag, she's been looking for almost ten years now! :D

B.

another_guest

27-10-2006, 09:10 AM

1. True, I have noticed the same, ships are far more likely to sink (collision, hurricane, ...) when they are not insured. However repairing them every time they drop below 80% usually keeps them safe except for the bigger ships, see point 2.
Don't forget that it's often more important to insure your cargo than your ship...

2. Bigger ships (bulk freighters, passenger ships) are more likely to collide than even large freighters. Definitely insure those ships and perhaps their cargo as well!

3. No idea about time deposits.
However buying shares can generate some income while you're saving up for a new ship and you don't use the cash to buy cargo. Suppose you have $ 10 million that you don't use but you need 40 million to buy the ship you want. This means that you can speculate with those $ 10 million for the entire time it takes you to save up the other $ 30 million. Get an advisor ($ 80,000 per month) then buy stock that's nicely going up. Even with costs and all deducted you can have a net interest of a few % per month. It's not huge but it helps a bit in the early stages of the game.
But yes, the profit to be made on the stock market is negligible compared to the money you make off trading.

Bob The Sailor

01-11-2006, 11:46 AM

I insure both cargo and ship, seen as I have lost a coastal freighter, two freighters, one large freighter, and a tanker, all to collisions, me and the insurance broker guy are good friends! :)

I have established some trade routes which are making money, but I find even with the smaller ships, that cargo availability is an issue, especially in Asia.

I actually want to buy a passenger liner, but at $280 million, a bit more than I can afford at this stage, but working towards it. Regarding ship maintenance, does it need to happen more often, and become more expensive, the older the ships gets?.

I was running the Sydney-Tokyo trade route until a Russian "trawler" sank my freighter fill of Core 2 Duo processors, but are their any other routes like this?. I find that the residents of Hamburg like coffee, and the Central/South American countries like their cars/machines/electrical goods!.

B.

another_guest

02-11-2006, 09:50 AM

No idea about the ship maintenance. It would be logical that an older ship needs more maintenance (in the sense of "more often"), seeing that the prices in the game for used ships are so much lower for old ships.

I like coal from Sydney - iron from Tokyo (or what was the "grey" metal again?), doesn't run out if you don't use too large ships.
Also nice: coal from Sydney - machinery (the green things) from Tokyo - Hong Kong. Then back to Sydney with whatever Hong Kong has available.

Quite profitable: machinery or cars from Western European harbours to West Africa, then haul cotton or fruits back. Just change African ports quite often to keep some availability.

Wood from Halifax to some Eastern USA harbours, take iron on the way back.
There's also a route between 2 Eastern USA harbours that involves the yellow-grey and red metals (don't remember by heart what those are called) one way, and iron the other way.

Very profitable using bulk freighters: rice from Brazil to Hamburg (Hamburg pays quite a high price for rice). You can switch to coffee and/or cocoa whenever the rice availability would be too low.
Lineseed oil (or something to that extent) from Brazil to Rotterdam. The same oil also works well from Chinese ports to Sydney.

Rice from China to some of the ports North of Australia, then take oil from there to Sydney.

Passenger ships are awesome once you manage to buy them...
You can easily get over 10-15 million income from 1 trip. Just make sure to transport passengers over the longest possible distance: income = # passengers * distance
Maintenance costs and times are huge though, so keep some other ships to keep your cash flow steady during these maintenance intervals.

Bob The Sailor

08-11-2006, 06:03 PM

Originally posted by another_guest @ Nov 2 2006, 10:50 AM

Passenger ships are awesome once you manage to buy them...
You can easily get over 10-15 million income from 1 trip. Just make sure to transport passengers over the longest possible distance: income = # passengers * distance
Maintenance costs and times are huge though, so keep some other ships to keep your cash flow steady during these maintenance intervals.

I borrowed $280 million to buy a passenger ship, and paid it off over a year. Boy, did my freighters etc have to work to pay it back, but I did manage to without going bankrupt or having a ship seized, but it was close in the last few months. I am now expecting it to be ready in the next few months, in game time.

Another route I have found profitable is Grain to Casablanca, or most African ports, and back with Phosphates, with a bulk freighter, to Adelaide.

I have a refrigerator ship running from San Francisco with tropical fruit, and if that doesn't fill up the hold, then meat usually, to either Madras or Colombo depending who has enough Tea. I was running Tropical Fruit to Europe, and back to Los Angeles with meat, but availability became an issue, so I switched to this route.

One of my coastal freighters were "suprised" by a typhoon or something, and then sank before it could even get to it's destination. I thought that wasn't very nice, I haven't replaced it yet, don't know if I will. I might buy a larger freighter and put it to work on a route once the passenger liner is in service.

B.

another_guest

09-11-2006, 07:35 AM

Never cared much for refrigerator ships, they never seemed to offset the extra costs (ship price + fuel consumption) with profitable routes for their unique cargo.

Coastal freighters are so vulnerable and so limited in their routes that I never use them, I'd rather save up for a large freighter, skipping the medium sized ones (the standard medium freigher has quite a small range, preventing it from working on some of the most profitable routes)

kiwimac

11-12-2006, 11:56 AM

I feel really stupid but HOW do you transfer items FROM the ship TO the warehouses?

Kiwimac

another_guest

12-12-2006, 07:33 AM

This is a little tricky to explain since I don't have the game in front of me, hopefully you can follow my explanation...

In the cargo screen (where you see the various goods and their prices), you have a couple of icons at the bottom, featuring ships, green warehouses, etc.
Normally if you move the mouse cursor over such an icon, at the bottom of the screen it will display a text saying what the icon does. Or you can look at the icons and look for "Ship" "Arrow to" "Warehouse"

kiwimac

17-12-2006, 01:00 PM

Tried that & it won't let me do that. I had, for example, a cargo from a middle-eastern port to hamburg, freight forward, needed to be there before the 5th of April, I arrived on the 25th of February, I had enough warehouses for the goods but as far as the game was concerned I could NOT transfer from ship to port or to warehouse.

I'll be deleting this dog of a game.

GUEST 345

14-01-2007, 04:43 AM

Hey, just found somethin intressting...
First I allways concentrated myself on trading goods ... but then I checked out the Stock Market!
Its easy to earn a lot money! I mean a lot ... Of course in the beginning its hard and it doesnt works better then trading. But when you have more then 200.000.000, u should invest in a share. Of course u have to change the shares often.. but if u do so you will be rich soon! Once I bought a paper with a value of 1.600.000.000 after 1 month it grows up to 2.256.000.000 thats more than 40%... Now I have to much money to count and for some reason the company doesnt allows me to buy more shares. Does anybody have a clue why? Now I have to trade again :( , I m lucky to have some Passenger Ships their easier to handle...

I also have some good freight routes:
L.A. - RIO (Computers), Manila - Kapstadt (TV Stuff), Naples - RIO (Chemical Stuff), Bombay - London (Tea)

Well, its a cool game but if u have big ships & a lot money, u allways have to wait for goods, their runing out all time, does some realized that? And in the end, how does this "Freight Business" work.. I tried it once, brought the stuff to the harbour like supposed to but I didnt get more as normal??? Have I done something wrong?
Please Help!
Cheers..

another_guest

14-01-2007, 01:17 PM

1) You are limited to a certain percentage of your company's worth (probably total cash + total value of assets) when you buy shares. Sort of limit to the risks you can take.

2) Indeed most goods run out quite quickly when you're using vast ships. Solution: transport coal, iron, aluminium, probably oil as well since these come in such vast quantities in the best source ports that you can't cause them to run out. In addition, build some passenger ships.

3) What exactly do you mean with freight business (since I don't have Ocean Trader here)?
- For example: get 10000 tons of oil in London by March 25th
- For example: in Tokyo there is 13000 tons of steel waiting to be shipped to Hongkong
In the first case, only take assignments where the price they pay is much higher than normal for this good.
In the second case, only take assignments where this trip will make you much more profit than your usual freight route.
Sometimes these special assignments are not profitable at all and should be avoided...

Guest

18-01-2007, 12:31 PM

ok , I think I understand!
so its just depending on some unknown "circumstances" if those special assignments will bring you some money... I was just surprised, that I never earned more than may 10% when I accept those assignments.
But I improved my shareholder activity: So its easy to double your money twice a year. have a look at the stock market... hire the expert... and concentrate on the share called "Atlantic Airline" its actually weird to invest in a airline as a boss of a shiping company but never mind.. This share will usually grow up to 50% twice a year.. so when u recognize that "Atlantic Airline" is about to raise, buy!!! Take all you money its worth it .. have a look once a week and dont miss 3-4 weeks later the point to sell them before they start to fall...

Sartoris

17-02-2007, 12:42 PM

Really interesting game, just downloaded it, and I really like all the options....:)

Guest_Michael_*

19-10-2007, 12:59 AM

hey i just got my game again i think Ocean is a awsome game a old pall showed to me some years ago but it seems i cannot get it to work on vista :/ what could that be?

Guest_Michael_*

19-10-2007, 12:59 AM

doh forgot plz if you can give me a answer fastest way for me is to get a mail on
[BEEEP]@msn.com
thx :)

dosraider

19-10-2007, 01:48 AM

You can forget that email respons, but:
-> Dosbox (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/download.php?main=1) <-
-> To begin with, a nice read (http://www.abandonia.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14913) <-

Click between the -> <- above.

Yeah yeah yeah, you never know .......

Guest

28-10-2007, 09:11 AM

Originally posted by Professor Nopants @ Nov 6 2005, 03:50 AM

Anyway, I was wondering if anybody is making any sensible use of either the warehouses or the dock-side oil tanks in this game.

Hi, I havent done it yet but i was considering setting up a warehouse in a European port. The plan is to ship goods from Africa and elsewhere to the warehouse with a large ship and then distribute to nearby ports (ports that demand the specific good) with a coastal freighter. Should work ok if the small ship does multiple loads in the same time the big ship loads up from distant ports.

Also you can set up Oil stores at relay points between the producer and consumer. For example Jakarta is a tanker port so you could build storage and ship Middle East oil to Jakarta with one ship and then onto Tokyo (or anywhere in Asia/Oceania) with another. This would halve the shipping time.

Does anyone know where to get the manual from or a newer version or similar recent game? (No disrespect to the original)

S.

saxon215

06-05-2008, 06:59 AM

umm
thius is going to sound liek a very silly question indeed
but hwo do you
you knwo
do things
and move from screen to screen
i cant seem to ever get back to the normal screens :o:o:o

robbo316

08-05-2008, 03:33 PM

_r.u.s.s.

08-05-2008, 04:13 PM

I'm in the process of creating a couple of excel worksheets, for the goods that can be carried by the ships, and for the principal imports/exports of all the ports in the game. If anybody would like this then all you have to do is e-mail me at your mail and get it sent to you. It should be done by tomorrow!

please use private messages here on abandonia instead, the mail adresses are not allowed here, cause of the hordes of retarded spam bots abusing it

btw i see that your account is one of the 'bugged' ones and didn't get registered on forums. post in site comments/ suggsetions and admins will solve it=)

saxon215

09-05-2008, 06:06 AM

yeah i hate to seem bothersome and sutpid but if you guys could give me a list of controls and sutff i;d much apreciate that, nothing i press seems to do anything so i get stukc on one screen

Havell

09-05-2008, 01:57 PM

The game is almost entirely mouse, rather than keyboard, controlled.

Navigation through the game's screens is done via the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. Some of the buttons can be safely ignored by a beginneer (eg, the stock market, or the banking screen, both accessed via the mobile phone button on the port screen) Right click in order to return to the previous screen.

When you're in port and looking at the world map, click on a port twice in order to get your ship to sail there. Click on a port once to see that port's principle imports and exports.

Hope I helped. Post again if I missed something you'd like to know.

robbo316

01-09-2008, 05:00 PM

I've finally got round to finishing the worksheet for the goods that can be carried by ships. If anyone wants it PM me.:)

_r.u.s.s.

01-09-2008, 07:26 PM

post it in here for the future generations=P

robbo316

01-09-2008, 11:00 PM

This is the excel sheet. Just unrar it and give it a whirl! It lists each ship and the goods it can carry. I decided against doing a sheet for the imports/exports because its easy to see those in game. Hope you enjoy it ;)

_r.u.s.s.

02-09-2008, 12:20 AM

please use normal standart fonts or images, all i get is this for example=/
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/6790/weey3.th.jpg (http://img527.imageshack.us/my.php?image=weey3.jpg)

and no, wingdings 2 is far away from standart

robbo316

02-09-2008, 06:54 AM

I can't understand why your getting that result; I was under the impression that wingdings 2 is standard, with ms office. I'll have a look and see what I can do to make it work clearer.

OK, What I've done is added an extra sheet, I've kept the one for wingdings 2 for people who can display that font; I've also included one with Y/N in Times New Roman. I hope that is better.:)

_r.u.s.s.

02-09-2008, 11:22 AM

thanks!
wingdings 2 is standard, with ms officeno, that's micro$oft $tandart :p

anyways, i converted the file to original standart xls for people who don't have office2007 (yes, xlsx can be opened only in 2007 and +)

and also made an image

robbo316

02-09-2008, 11:26 AM

Great, thanks for that! As I said I hope it helps as a quick reference guide for people.

Engelados

28-10-2008, 06:13 PM

For a good challenge, choose professional level. You start off with a tiny coastal freighter & only about $1.5M. Freight & forward contracts aren't very lucrative & you really need to borrow a lot & repay over several years, use your pen & paper to locate the best routes and constantly revise them as prices change, wait for a good second-hand large freighter to appear on the market, risk sailing uninsured & have a bit of luck to avoid disasters :).

damnyankee

15-11-2008, 05:07 PM

I haven't bought one yet, not sure I want to. The real world advantage to container ships is stupid fast turn around, does the game reflect this? Does any one use container ships?

Christopher

ihotpockets

04-01-2009, 07:17 AM

Hey Gang,

I took some time to get port sale-pricing and all the exportable items for the most beginner settings. For harder game settings, I'm sure that the same differentials apply, just with less gaps between high and low price. Anyway, you can sort by columns to see what are the high, and low, priced ports for each good. The exportable goods are marked in green.

Reminder: this is the sale price, the price at which you can sell to the port. To get the buy-price, multiply by 1.05 / add 5%.

Great game.

IzNohGod

23-04-2009, 06:32 PM

Nice, but could you make an pdf or png file out of that xlm file? Would be appreciated. :clap:

*My route so far has been. Tokyo (Chemicals)- Calcutta (Iron ore or Silk)
*Another Route is Tokyo (Steel, Electronics, Cars - Shanghai (Chemicals, Cars) - Calcutta or Bombay (Tea) to London.

You could also use a bulk freighter to buy most of the raw metal in Indonesia and sell them in Sydney or Tokyo. Alot to earn on raw metals, if u know where to buy and sell. You earn more on raw metals than buying coal.

*Oil 88$ from Qatar or Dubai to Tokyo or Sydney 158 to 167$
Buy the ballast 2$ and bring back to Dubai 3$. saves some of the expenses.

Im most sentered in Asia, but should be establishing bases in europe and America since your gamepoint sink if u trade only on one continent.:noworry:

_r.u.s.s.

24-05-2009, 08:28 AM

IzNohGod- www.openoffice.org

mgj

26-10-2009, 11:16 AM

Does anyone know of any sort of high score list for this game? Would be fun to see!

hansz

26-12-2009, 11:02 PM

True, warehouses and oil tanks generate some income even if you don't use them actively. However, you have to see if it's worth insuring them, as the generated income is fairly low.

The warehouses are GREAT way to make money.
When you are in any port you can see two values:

The price of 1 ton warehouse is: x (from 8$ in Sudan to 55$ in Tokyo)
The daily storage cost is: y (from 0.01$ in Sudan to 0.15 in Tokyo)

The "daily storage cost is" is the value that you will be EARNING each day per 1 ton of your's EMPTY warehouse. But beware! Buying good warehouse is not easy because cost/profit are DIFFRENT in every place.

I had made computation of ALL ports' warehouses and oil tanks in the game
and i had created indicator "cost/profit". The results are following:

The value of cost/profit is always somewhere between: 366 and 450.
The usuall average is about ~390. Theofore in order to maximize profit invezstor should buy only those warehouses with cost/profit ratio is as samll as possible.

Examples:

Barcelona:
The price of 1 ton warehouse is: 40$
The daily storage cost is: 0.1$
cost/profit= 40$/0.1$ = 400 [Bad place to buy warehouse]

Sudan:
The price of 1 ton warehouse is: 8$
The daily storage cost is: 0.01$
cost/profit= 8$/0.02$ = 400

Dar-Es-Salam:
The price of 1 ton warehouse is: 11$
The daily storage cost is: 0.03$
cost/profit= 11$/0.03$ = [B]366 [Very low ratio, good warehouse to buy]

Tokyo:
The price of 1 ton warehouse is: 55$
The daily storage cost is: 0.15$
cost/profit= 55$/0.15$ = 366 [Very low ratio, good warehouse to buy]

As you can see, the results can be sometimes quite suprising. I had created list for all warehouses in the game, and I will upload it soon as Excel document.

You can buy maximum of 500.000 tons of warehouse per port. Theofore you can made quite good profit from it even if the price of warehouses seems high.

Example:

Tokyo:
Funds required for buying 500000 tons on warehouse:
500000 * 55$ = 27.500.000
Profit:
Tokyo: 0.15$ *500000 = 75000$ per day
Days required for return of investment: 27.5m/75.000: 367

Dar-es-Salam:
Funds required for buying 500000 tons on warehouse:
500000 * 11$ = 5.500.000
Profit:
Tokyo: 0.03$ *500000 = 15000$ per day
Days required for return of investment: 5.5m/15.000: 367

As you can see on previous examples, the warehouses gives you about 99.5%
Return of Investment per year. Its much more comparing to the investing money in bank (usually about 5% per year). And what is most important: you are earning money EVERY day - theofore you can earn for fuel/port charges while you sailing to your destination. It really help you with cashflow.

Remember to insure the warehouse! Cost of insuring warehouse is ALWAYS 6250$ per 500.000 tons per month.

Example:
Cost of insurance as percent of monthly profit from lending of warehouse:

Tokyo: 6250$/(75000$*30days) = 0.27%
Dar-es-Salam: 6250$/(15000$*30days) = 1.38%

While im still converting my data for Excel spreadsheet, here is the quick hint about few most profitable ports (cost/profit ratio) in the world:

Asia: Tokyo: 55$ / 0.15$ = 366
Australia: Fremanntle: 37$ / 0.1$ = 370
Middle East: Abadan: 15$ / 0.04$ = 370
Africa: Dar-es-Salam: 11$ / 0.03$ = 366
Europe: London: 44$ / 0.12$ = 366
North America: Houston: 52$ / 0.14$ = 371
Central America: Puerto Barrios: 15$ / 0.04$ = 375
South America: Salvador: 26$/ 0.07$ = 371

Enjoy! :) Hans

fleabag

05-02-2010, 08:52 PM

Feel free to comment and discuss this game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

Review and Download (if available) (http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/553)

This is one of the best trading simulation games for DOS that I've played so far!!!:thumbs:

fleabag

06-03-2010, 12:41 PM

The warehouses are GREAT way to make money.
When you are in any port you can see two values:

The price of 1 ton warehouse is: x (from 8$ in Sudan to 55$ in Tokyo)
The daily storage cost is: y (from 0.01$ in Sudan to 0.15 in Tokyo)

The "daily storage cost is" is the value that you will be EARNING each day per 1 ton of your's EMPTY warehouse. But beware! Buying good warehouse is not easy because cost/profit are DIFFRENT in every place.

I had made computation of ALL ports' warehouses and oil tanks in the game
and i had created indicator "cost/profit". The results are following:

The value of cost/profit is always somewhere between: 366 and 450.
The usuall average is about ~390. Theofore in order to maximize profit invezstor should buy only those warehouses with cost/profit ratio is as samll as possible.

Examples:

Barcelona:
The price of 1 ton warehouse is: 40$
The daily storage cost is: 0.1$
cost/profit= 40$/0.1$ = 400 [Bad place to buy warehouse]

Sudan:
The price of 1 ton warehouse is: 8$
The daily storage cost is: 0.01$
cost/profit= 8$/0.02$ = 400

Dar-Es-Salam:
The price of 1 ton warehouse is: 11$
The daily storage cost is: 0.03$
cost/profit= 11$/0.03$ = [B]366 [Very low ratio, good warehouse to buy]

Tokyo:
The price of 1 ton warehouse is: 55$
The daily storage cost is: 0.15$
cost/profit= 55$/0.15$ = 366 [Very low ratio, good warehouse to buy]

As you can see, the results can be sometimes quite suprising. I had created list for all warehouses in the game, and I will upload it soon as Excel document.

You can buy maximum of 500.000 tons of warehouse per port. Theofore you can made quite good profit from it even if the price of warehouses seems high.

Example:

Tokyo:
Funds required for buying 500000 tons on warehouse:
500000 * 55$ = 27.500.000
Profit:
Tokyo: 0.15$ *500000 = 75000$ per day
Days required for return of investment: 27.5m/75.000: 367

Dar-es-Salam:
Funds required for buying 500000 tons on warehouse:
500000 * 11$ = 5.500.000
Profit:
Tokyo: 0.03$ *500000 = 15000$ per day
Days required for return of investment: 5.5m/15.000: 367

As you can see on previous examples, the warehouses gives you about 99.5%
Return of Investment per year. Its much more comparing to the investing money in bank (usually about 5% per year). And what is most important: you are earning money EVERY day - theofore you can earn for fuel/port charges while you sailing to your destination. It really help you with cashflow.

Remember to insure the warehouse! Cost of insuring warehouse is ALWAYS 6250$ per 500.000 tons per month.

Example:
Cost of insurance as percent of monthly profit from lending of warehouse:

Tokyo: 6250$/(75000$*30days) = 0.27%
Dar-es-Salam: 6250$/(15000$*30days) = 1.38%

While im still converting my data for Excel spreadsheet, here is the quick hint about few most profitable ports (cost/profit ratio) in the world:

Asia: Tokyo: 55$ / 0.15$ = 366
Australia: Fremanntle: 37$ / 0.1$ = 370
Middle East: Abadan: 15$ / 0.04$ = 370
Africa: Dar-es-Salam: 11$ / 0.03$ = 366
Europe: London: 44$ / 0.12$ = 366
North America: Houston: 52$ / 0.14$ = 371
Central America: Puerto Barrios: 15$ / 0.04$ = 375
South America: Salvador: 26$/ 0.07$ = 371

Enjoy! :) Hans

What is the function of the "Forward business" option of the "Goods transfer" screen?

arete

06-03-2010, 05:24 PM

Please don't double post, use the edit button instead. And there's really no need to quote the entire post in your reply, now is there? :)

Paco

06-03-2010, 05:53 PM

Please don't double post, use the edit button instead.

Do you need a Glass? Check the Time of the first and second Post. The First was 1 Month ago! So it dont count as Doublepost, only it was a very short time apart like 5 min or 1 Hour but not 1 Month or 1 Year.

fleabag

07-03-2010, 04:45 PM

Sorry about that! But what is the purpose of the "Forward business" option of the "Goods transfer" screen?

SirAddiMan

28-06-2010, 11:09 PM

this system dose not support fullscreen mode. dose this game not work for windows vista ?

_r.u.s.s.

29-06-2010, 12:17 AM

you must run it via dosbox

lavrix

14-08-2010, 01:31 PM

Can somebody give me the game Ocean Trader?? Thanks

DarthHelmet86

14-08-2010, 01:35 PM

Ocean Trader Game page (http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/553)

Click on the get it button, then the download button and its all yours. You will need dosbox to make it work more then likely.

Dosbox tutorial (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=14406)

lavrix

14-08-2010, 01:38 PM

Where I can download free Ocean Trader?

DarthHelmet86

14-08-2010, 01:47 PM

I already gave you the link to the game page where you can download it. Did you click it?

lavrix

14-08-2010, 01:51 PM

I already gave you the link to the game page where you can download it. Did you click it?
Yes I did,but I cant find it.

DarthHelmet86

14-08-2010, 01:58 PM

Did you press the Get It button.

http://i312.photobucket.com/albums/ll326/Darthhelmet86/pagelink.png

Once you have clicked the two Get It! buttons the game will start downloading.
But you are going to need to use Dosbox to get it to work, read the tutorial page I already linked to learn how to use it if you need to.

lavrix

14-08-2010, 02:26 PM

[QUOTE=DarthHelmet86;411767]Did you press the Get It button.

http://i312.photobucket.com/albums/ll326/Darthhelmet86/pagelink.png

Once you have clicked the two Get It! buttons the game will start downloading.
But you are going to need to use Dosbox to get it to work, read the tutorial page I already linked to learn how to use it if you need to.[/QUO

I clicked on ''Get it'' button but nothing happen. Is anybody who can send me that game?

DarthHelmet86

14-08-2010, 02:28 PM

If clicking on that link did not work then you must have a script blocker active. No one is going to send you the game.

Clicking on the Get It! button will open another page with a Get It! button on it too, clicking that one will download the game. If you have a script blocker active allow Abandonia's scripts.

lavrix

14-08-2010, 02:35 PM

DarthHelmet86

14-08-2010, 02:37 PM

Dosbox tutorial READ THIS. (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=14406)

You are going to need to use Dosbox. Unzip the folder into its own folder, and use Dosbox to play the game. You must read the tutorial.

lavrix

14-08-2010, 02:40 PM

DarthHelmet86

14-08-2010, 02:42 PM

No worries, feel free to ask any more questions you need to. :smile2:

robbo316

02-05-2011, 12:33 PM

Been redoing some sheets for OT. It includes the original Ship Loading sheets, but I have included a manifest, Ship Order sheet, Loans, Money Investments, and begun work on the exports/imports. I have only done Europe, mainly because I have run out of patience. If anyone wants to finish them up, feel free to do so and repost. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=84X29BB8 There are two versions included: .xls and .xlsx

Barsuk (unreg yet)

19-07-2011, 02:50 AM

Hi, a newcomer here...
Does anyone know plz how difficulty settins for your competitors work? I mean, if I put Rokfeller to "Professional" - will he be much smarter than normal, or, to the contrary, he'll get more troubles making money?

mayti

19-09-2011, 05:56 PM

Lostness

08-10-2011, 08:19 PM

Hi,

I am a big fan of ports of call and i now start learning O.T

I have a few questions, if you help me there, I would be glad.

1- when the goods replenish after running out?

2- ships collide too often. are there safer routes?

3. What are the advantages or disadvantages of planning a new ship or buying a new one?

thx

Goods replenish at the end of each month. The amount it replenishes depends on the importance of the harbor. More important harbors replenish faster.

There do not seem to be any routes safer then others in regards to collisions. Storms, however, are more likely to happen in the Gulf of Mexico, north of Australia / south of Japan.

Used ships do not follow any set pattern, in that their size, speed and range vary, as well as their age. Older ships require more maintenance and do not survive storms as well, and are more likely to break down. As well, make sure to pay attention to the range and speed of a used ship. In designing your own ships, you can set the speed and fuel to the max, allowing you the ability to quickly move priority cargo anywhere.

For Barsuk: the difficulty level for your competitors determines what ship (or ships) they start with. It seems to follow the same pattern you do, in that on easy mode they start with two ships (a container ship and a general cargo ship I believe) and $10mil and on professional they start with a costal cargo ship and $3mil. Besides that, I do not see any difference.

mortenesser

08-03-2012, 09:44 PM

Hi guys

I just stumbled across this game again, after some years, and have had great fun playing it again. I also read through this thread with interest and have written a little game guide, to all first timers of this game.

I have found some posts in this forum so great, that I have included them more or less as is in the relevant sections of the guide, and credited the author were appropriate.

I hope you can use it :)

(I am no expert playing this game, so let me know about any comments you might have. )

another_guest

03-04-2012, 07:16 PM

I think that's a great idea!
It could be useful to expand the very last part that discusses the various ship types and maybe indicate the best use of each ship (e.g. typical profitable goods that can be transported by that ship)

P.S. very nice of you to refer to us in the credits, much appreciated :OK:

Yet another guest

15-05-2012, 08:01 PM

another_guest

05-06-2012, 08:56 AM

Hi Everyone,

Classic game.

Once there was a manual with an overview of the ships and ports and everything.

I rememebr locating it online some years ago but now I'm unable to.

Is it my searching that 's getting worse of is it just not there anymore?

Don't get me wrong I live what Morten has created based on all the valuable input from you all. Just remember the manual as being handy because it basically said which ports imported and exported the various goods.

There must have been some manual that helped you to figure out which ships can carry which goods.
However when it comes to ports and the goods they carry, someone on the forum uploaded an excel overview of that in early January 2009.

Smashgorand

17-03-2013, 08:17 PM

March 2013 ...

I'm wondering if anyone is still playing Ocean Trader?

I've seen some old posts here asking for game manuals and what not. I own an set of original CD's for this game (yes, I purchased it way back-when) and I'm pretty sure I still have the CD's somewhere.
One CD was of course the game itself, the other CD contained a digital version of the game manual stored in a PDF file. I could upload the PDF somewhere and drop a link for it, if anyone is interested.

This game is definately among my favorites. A while a go I started researching the data files for the game and I have managed to figure out most of the game contents. So far I have decoded all the graphics in the game, i.e.: still images, buttons, icons, the books, ships ect. and also the 3 different fonts used. I have also decoded a lot of other data from the game itself - wont bore you all with the details.

I'm falling a bit short on figuring out some of the math formulas - does anyone know how OT calculates fuel consumption / distance based on the ship itself?
I know there are some engine size factors inthere somewhere but it just eludes me how the game actually determines the amount of fuel and distance the ship can travel. You can set the engine speed at a percentage and the game then calculates the fuel consumption and distance the ship can travel. But what's the formula for that calculation? Any help would be appreciated greatly.

Thanks.

//Smashgorand

Japo

17-03-2013, 09:04 PM

Hi Smashgorand, thanks for offering the manual. :) We have a FTP server for uploading, I'm sending you a PM with the login details in a minute. If you send me another PM when it's up, I'll put it on site immediately. How big is the PDF, that it comes in a separate CD (I'm guessing it's a post-release)?

Smashgorand

17-03-2013, 09:31 PM

Uhm, honestly I can't remember the size. I'm going through my box of old CD's now to find the original discs. As far as I can remember there was only the PDF and an old version of Adobe PDF Reader install package on the manual disc.

Smashgorand

17-03-2013, 10:01 PM

I have uploaded the game manual PDF to the FTP server now. Enjoy :)

mortenesser

19-03-2013, 06:51 AM

That's great! I'm really excited to have a look at it :)

Thanks for uploading!

Smashgorand

19-03-2013, 08:40 AM

My pleasure - enjoy the challenge :)

kjps86

20-03-2013, 03:10 AM

This is pretty awesome. Are the CD Audio tracks any good for this game, and if so would you be willing to upload a BIN/CUE pair to enable those of us here to utilize them?

Thanks!

Japo

20-03-2013, 09:21 AM

The manual and ISO can now be downloaded from the game page, from the extras section, above the review to the right.

I don't know if Smashgorand's CD has audio tracks. Does it? If so we'd prefer the bin/cue full format, as Kjps says; although if the total size were then above 300 MB, we wouldn't be able to host it directly, only in the ISO Cellar. We could also resample the tracks and add them to the music section.

Smashgorand

20-03-2013, 02:20 PM

Hey guys. I took another look at my disc and there's only a single data track on it. I didnt find any additional tracks on the disc.
I know that the setup program lists "CD music" but there's nothing on the disc for some reason. Sorry guys.
The ISO that I already uploaded contains the complete MIDI music library that also comes with the game.

I'll do some digging and see if I can find some more info about possible CD music for the game.

kjps86

20-03-2013, 09:19 PM

In my experience file managers often do not display CD audio tracks, particularly if they are encoded as redbook audio (for example I can't see the audio tracks when I use my Secret of Monkey Island 1+2 CD collection, but the music still plays in the game). Hence they might be there, even if they don't display.

Your best bet if you really want to check is to actually create a BIN/CUE pair; the resulting file size should make it pretty obvious what is available.

Just out of curiosity, when you play the game from the actual CD and select "CD Audio" in the setup, what do you end up with?

Thanks again for this upload, I've been hoping for a proper CD image for this game for a while :)

Smashgorand

20-03-2013, 10:29 PM

No. File managers almost never show audio tracks on hybrid discs which is why I ran the disc through several of my CD/DVD apps to make sure there wasnt a hidden track anywhere.
The physical disc image is only ~40Mb big so there couldnt be any audio tracks - which would also be the reason why there's no music on and the drive idles, when I use the setup app to use CD music.
This could also account for the discount price I payed for the game back then, though it still puzzles me why they'd put two CD's in the package: one for the game and one for the manual (manual disc image is only ~10Mb with a single data track on it).

Anyways - I'll do some more digging. It was so many years ago but I think I remember having a different game CD than this one, so I might have the audio tracks on that disc if I still have it. I need to go through all my boxes at my storage facility though so it might take some time before I have a definite result on the audio tracks. I can't make any promises but I'll definately look through the boxes next time I go digging at the storage.

In the meantime we can enjoy having the full game and manual - that's at least something :)

Unregistered_Rosty

09-09-2013, 11:40 AM

hi there,

my tip for beginners is: start in sydney, coal to tokyo and pc/chemical back. and do NOT TRUST the range if you make an experience with speed. the distance between sydney and tokyo is 4605 miles. and i set the speed of my large freighter that it shows me a range of 9238 miles. okay, it comes back to sydney (because the fuel is cheaper than in tokyo) and had over 100 tons of fuel?!? and i tried it, now it says my range is around 8300 miles but drives von sydney to tokyo and back and there are just 10 tons of fuel :D

and if you have a container ship: sheepwool from australia (and newzealand) to antwerp and machines back... its a long journey but the money is great!!!! and if you did it so often that australia is empty, than change to coffee from west africa to hamburg and machines back. and if coffe is empty change back to the australia route... nice and save money. im in the 6th year of gameplay, have 2 large freighters, the container ship, a maximum oil ship (380k tons ;) ) and i have a m,aximum passenger ship under construction and all the credits from the bank is paid!

and an easy way for good money is a large freighter from new york (steel and iron) to halifax (precious woods, copper and is it bauxite, that one over copper?) back. short ways and good money if you have the maximum freighter (20k tons). the credit payment for my passenger ship was around 19 mio/month and this route paid the debt :D

humbe

24-02-2014, 02:01 PM

Great work with the excel sheet on sales values ihotpockets.. Have been trying to record data into files myself to have it more handy.

I've started playing this game a little again too for fun.. Played lots of ports of call back in the day, but just a little ocean trader.

Some tips as far as I can figure:
- Buying warehouses to lease for income gives you very little income compared to the investment. Seems like a poor way to make money, especially early on.
- The additional fuel cost for running at full speed seems very small compared to the ability of being able to do more hauls with the same ship. Unless the engine gets damaged a lot faster at full speed, I see no reason to ever not run at full speed.
- Seems like you constantly need to change what you're hauling. Not only do wares replenish themselves a lot slower than you'd want to, but whenever you do a haul, demand for that ware goes down, so if you repeat it it will be less and less profitable.
- Sadly there seems to be little incentive for long hauls. You can find ports that are fairly close to each other that yield about the same profit per ton as ports far apart.
- Lending money from bank early on to be able to fill your ship with goods that gives you good profit pays back well.

The best hauls I've found to date for a heavy freighter at normal difficulty, have netted me around half a million per day (port charges and berthing deducted). However, they exhaust and worsen fairly quickly, so not sure what's a good deal in the long run..

Haven't played long yet, but so far, all the freight deals they've tried to give me have been poor compared to good hauls I can do myself.

Wonder how quick prices return to normal values after they worsen due to me buying/selling.. Not that much info on this game out there it seems, so a ton of theorycrafting and data mining to figure out what's optimal it seems..