Bulldoze - a way to launch fleets (cheat?)

[Severous]

Waiting for a few last pirates to finish drinking can be frustrating when setting out on a cruise – more so when a trying to launch a fleet.

Sound the boarding call then go bulldozing:
-   Identify those pirates that look like they will be the last to board
-   Bulldoze the building your straggler is going to. It will cancel their path and they will head for ship
-   Bulldoze the building they are in - will cut short their entertainment and head for ship
-   Let the game run a short while. Pause.
-   Revised ETAs of these pirates now mean someone else maybe last. Repeat the process on who looks like last now.
-   You don’t complete any bulldoze – cancel the condemned status as soon as the pirates have left the building.

In this way you can create a quite pleasing crush of pirates converging on ship at much the same time.  Not 100% - there’s nearly always some you choose to leave behind in the interest of a fleet action.  And you need to watch the happiness scores – cut short leave means less wenching etc.

You could also use this bulldoze as a cheat to empty busy Inns of wealthy captives.  Empties rooms for other guests and also forces current occupants to find alternative entertainment. Builds ransoms fast or makes room for pirates returning from cruises.

[baccus17]

WELLLLLL!!!!!!  This is most interesting!  

This is a new trick, AFAIK!  Way to go!

-baccus

[Hayreddin Barbarossa]

 
Cheat? No. Spoiler? Yes.

Win - win. Great discoveries all the time!
 

[Severous]

My first cruise in nearly 6 weeks of real time is getting underway.  My testing is going onto the high seas.

A small fleet action to start with.  Two snows departed 5th Feb and 6 Feb and my schooner will depart on the 8th. The last three crew members are nearly onboard in this shot - you can see the white arrows pointing down to them.

The crewing commenced 9 December and the boarding calls sounded on 24th Jan.  The demolish/cancel demolish process was used to create the synchronised departures.  

Edit: This image is also used in my AAR - Fleet Action http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~tropico/cafe/index.php?board=20;action=display;threadid=8398&start=0

[Coffeebean]

Hmmmm.... very interesting.

[Sea Scourge]

It turns out there is a bit of a downside to this technique. In addition to kicking out the pirates the staff is also fired. In the scenario I just finished (Shipwrecked) the English could not attend church so I had all Spanish and French workers in the entertainment district. After razing my brothel and then revoking the command it took a while to get things back to normal. Also, if your workers have gained skill levels they'll likely be replaced with unskilled workers so unless you keep shuffling workers around until you get the original crew back there'll be a drop in customer satisfaction until the new workers are trained. Still, there still have been a lot of times I wanted to kick a captain out of a wench house to get the show on the road and I still use the idea to get pirates to leave their houses but there's probably a drawback to this too.

[Severous]

Most definately there are downsides.

- Worker rotation and skill/satisfaction drops as you say SeaScourge.

- Goods in transit to the building are lost and any haulers on paths to make pick ups will stop that pick up

- Overseers who are not going to become crew will now work out new paths - to entertainment or back to the job. If they dont have affordable entertainment elsewhere they will turn tale and trudge back to the job.  Could be a long walk and satisfaction, already low, gets lower.

- Forget to undemolish    Builders with time on their hands do come and demolish it..wasting their time and denying you the use of the building.

Use wisely  

PS. use the trick on pirate housing to really change the game.
http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~tropico/cafe/index.php?board=19;action=display;threadid=8158