Winds Of Trade

[h1] Great Potential but it's abandoned[/h1] Honestly, the game had tremendous potential. It is essentially similar to Patrician, Rise of Venice, or Port Royale, but it lacks many of the features and developments that those games have incorporated over time, such as managing your own production buildings. Therefore, once you establish a few profitable trade routes and manage to avoid significant losses from pirates early on, you essentially dominate the game. In just about 5-6 hours, I feel like I've exhausted all there is to do: I've purchased competitors, established and maximized the level of a colony, and engaged in buying and selling stocks in private companies. However, in terms of quality of life (QoL), the game is lacking. For some reason, whenever you need to scroll, whether it's for zooming the map or scrolling through lists, you have to scroll excessively. Additionally, the auto route creation screen is not very efficient; you have to place orders in a sequential manner. Patrician 4, for instance, handles this much better. Combat is actually something I enjoy in this game. Unlike in the aforementioned games, here it's turn-based, and if you upgrade your ships properly, you don't need exceptional skills or reaction times to defeat your opponents. The combat duration is reasonable; it won't take 10 minutes to sink a ship, but it will require a few shots. My only complaint is that escaping combat is extremely difficult. So, if you're caught with a slow cargo ship, you either have to surrender your goods or fight. Furthermore, if you fight and lose, you lose the entire ship. I believe this punishment is excessively harsh. You should either be able to surrender mid-battle or only lose the ship on certain occasions. All of these issues would be completely acceptable if the game were not abandoned. There have been no updates since 2018, so we have every reason to believe that this is the final state of the game. I would recommend it because of its potential and for those who like to support indie developers and enjoy this niche genre. However, since the game is no longer being actively developed, I suggest buying Patrician 4, Rise of Venice, or Port Royale instead.

This game is annoying. It is not a friendly game at all. As a starting player in easy mode you will have to find a way of scrimping and scraping for money which at best is very harsh to come by at times. It gets worse as you progress and reputation point scoring to get them friendly ports does nothing at all! The worst I have seen so far is Trade Office Costings and I am glad I took screen grabs. 18000 for a Trade Office is way over the top and yes that is 3 zeros; not a typo. The best of Ports for trading at will punish you by OP costings. The game is competitive but heavily stacked against you. I do not find these OP game mechanics enjoyable and I am glad that I got this game at a very low price. I find myself getting annoyed at the game, wanting to play as hard as I can just because I refuse to get beat, which, comes with the added verbal abuse that anyone in earshot will receive along with the game.

It's just not a fun game to play. The gameplay is not rounded out. Simply not enough going on to keep you interested. Seems like a rip off of Port Royal that fell a long way short. Ok so it is very cheap at present, but after a few hours its just boring. You cannot even board other ships in combat, dull, dull, dull.

For 4 €, the price I paid, its a good game. Has its limitations and UI problems, but it is by all means a cool trade game. Especially because of the generated worlds. Something that Patrician or Port Royale do not have.

不错的游戏，内容不少，值得一玩，优化略差，希望开发组持续更新！好评鼓励！

[h1]Verdict[/h1] At its heart, Winds of Trade is just an abandoned trading sim, but with its, rough edges, and frustrating mechanics, it feels barely worth it's $12 price. [h3]Pros[/h3] [b]Trade Automation[/b] - You can set up automatic trade routes, which is convenient once you get going. [b]Stock Market[/b] - You’re able to buy stock in a company and then profit from trading their goods, which adds some strategic depth. [h3]Cons[/h3] [b]Hotkeys[/b] - The game only has a single hotkey; nearly every function requires clicking through menus. [b]Unbalanced Production & Consumption[/b] - Because the world is randomly generated, most ports don’t produce or consume enough resources to even fill your ship holds. [b]Nation Mechanics[/b] - After more than 24 hours of play, I still can’t tell what prosperity or recession actually do. Wars between nations don’t change the map and the only effect for the player is access to low-paying wartime missions. [b]Border Gore Islands[/b] - Random generation often creates awkwardly divided islands. In about ten playthroughs, I only saw one without messy three-way splits. [b]Few Sliders[/b] - Want to sell more than 500 shares of stock? Get ready to click through confirmation prompts for each batch of 100.

It's nothing crazy, but I enjoyed it. I like the trading aspect of the game and while it's not super depthy, it was enough to keep me interested. Combat isn't good. Worth it if you want an inexpensive trading game.