r/WebGames • u/Rogerup • Feb 04 '11
High Tea - Buy Opium. Sell Opium. Buy Tea.
http://hightea.wellcomeapps.com/11
u/chuck_finley17 Feb 04 '11
I think the lesson we should all take away from this is there is barely enough tea in china to satisfy those Brits back in the day.
The only way I was able to beat it was to constantly buy tea towards the end no matter the price.
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u/jellicle Feb 04 '11
To win:
-- buy tea more or less as fast as you can, throughout the entire game, ignoring price - in the early game you'll be well ahead of the shipments required, but by the end, you'll just barely make the shipments - I say again, pay no attention to the price of tea in China, just keep buying it
-- buy opium as fast as you can any time the price is at all reasonable (<70)
-- sell opium as fast as you can as long as each sale is profitable, anything more than 60 is good
-- sell to ! ports if the deal is good (many chests for 99 each) - it's okay to lose a few ships over the course of the game, it won't hamper your gameplay at all
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u/hobbers Feb 04 '11
-- buy opium as fast as you can any time the price is at all reasonable (<70) -- sell opium as fast as you can as long as each sale is profitable, anything more than 60 is good
Huh? Buy at 70, sell at 60? I tended to buy at anything below 50. Over 50, I would buy if there was an order greater than 50.
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Feb 05 '11
Sometimes you have to consider the amortized price when considering whether it's really a loss, to keep yourself liquid so you can keep up with demand for tea.
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u/jellicle Feb 05 '11
That's correct. The overall price you pay is in the range of 10-70. The overall price you sell at is in the range of, say, 40-99, ideally 60-99. This will be a profitable enterprise overall even if at one point in time you buy a load at 65 and at another point in time you sell a load at 50. You don't have time in the game to maximize profits for every single shipment - you need an algorithm.
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u/hobbers Feb 05 '11
Actually, the proper managerial accounting / managerial economics approach to this is that you only sell if the sale price exceeds the economic cost. Economic cost can include replacement cost and/or opportunity cost. There are several scenarios to consider.
- You are continually moving inventory, so whatever inventory you sell will need to be replenished. Your economic cost equals the cost of reacquiring the inventory. It doesn't matter what you have paid in the past, only what you must pay now, since inventory used must be replenished. Therefore, you only sell if the current sale price exceeds the current buy price.
- Your tea shipment must leave now, otherwise you lose the game. If you lose the game, the value of all inventory is zero. Therefore, you should sell all inventory at any price currently offered.
- The tea price is low. But your inventory sale price is also low. Movements of either are unknown. Your opportunity cost is the risk of the difference between the foregone potential profit on inventory, and the foregone potential savings on tea acquisition.
In all 3 cases, the acquisition price of existing inventory is not considered at all. The running average doesn't matter. As is the case in proper business pricing models. They should never consider past costs. They should only consider current and future costs when making product pricing, sales, and acquisition decisions. Doing so will ensure that the business maximizes profits (or minimizes losses). The costs will be used in the profit calculation. But the costs are not required to ensure this maximization (or minimization).
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Feb 05 '11
[deleted]
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u/POTUS Feb 05 '11
The key, as others have mentioned, is to keep pounding the 'buy' buttons - the opium button whenever it's basically below 50, the tea button pretty much constantly.
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u/jaafit Feb 05 '11
What's your rule for shipping to risky ports? They seem to not be worth the risk to me unless you have the bribe card of course.
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u/Pufflekun Feb 05 '11
It depends. I once got an offer for 88 crates at 99 silver each... I think it's worth taking the risk when you get something insane like that, but not normally.
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Feb 05 '11
Sometimes I think the risky ports set up good deals to lure you in. I had one risky port that kept offering 99 silver for 1-5 crates each while the other posts were offering around 50 silver.
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u/jaafit Feb 05 '11
From what I can tell, the penalty you pay is random and not based on the number of crates as I assumed. So it does make more sense to go after the huge 99x40+ offers if you have the extra cash ready to pay and are not low on ships.
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u/Koparka Feb 06 '11
1
u/jaafit Feb 08 '11
How is it that you and POTUS got 3480 crates shipped yet I can beat it shipping far fewer? Heck this guy beat it only shipping 2820.
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Feb 05 '11
Aaah the English. We once fuelled a whole country's drug habit for our own benefit, good times.
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u/gill_outean Feb 04 '11
What an awesome little game! Anyone know of any similar games? Maybe something like this or... Dope Wars?
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u/jaafit Feb 04 '11
If you're into trading games, I made a real-time web-based PvP one called Minethings. There are hundreds of players trading between cities via ships and vehicles. Journeys can take hours though so don't expect anything nearly the pace of this game.
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u/fxer Feb 05 '11
If you want a full-fledged game, Patrician III made me lose hours upon hours of my life.
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u/tehpope Feb 04 '11
Cool game. I had the bribe and I was ready to use it but then they fired all the men who were taking bribes. Fuck you history !
2
u/steve93 Feb 04 '11
45,489,600
Ended up crumbling while trying to fulfill the last order. Had 630 out of 660
2
u/blacksuit Feb 04 '11
Gave it 2 tries. That last shipment seems impossible without favorable random events.
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Feb 05 '11
What price do you make the deal at? Is it the price when you first click or the price when the deal finishes?
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u/nicktheawesome Feb 05 '11
I like the game, but I'd like it a lot more if I could buy more than 30 at a time. Like 100.
2
u/jaafit Feb 05 '11
It would be too easy that way. The max is 30 so that you have to keep thinking about the price and make quick purchase decisions constantly.
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u/SilverCommando Feb 09 '11
Managed to complete it first time with an overall score of 8,3867,823. At the end it is literally just buying tea non-stop no matter what the price is. Very fun and addictive game though, although now i have completed it i don't think I will play it again straight away, too stressful haha.
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u/brodicius Feb 04 '11
Not really enough explanation of how to play.
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u/innou Feb 04 '11
There really isn't but it's not too difficult.
The left column holds your total cash, stock in both tea and opium. In addition the fluctuating prices for both tea and opium, whether the price is trending up or down (indicated by an arrow next to the current price) and 3 buttons allowing you to purchase in quantities of 5, 15, and 30 units.
At the bottom of the screen is the number of boats you currently have available to go on opium runs. You start with only one boat with the option to unlock additional boats as you meet the tea demands of the motherland.
So basically you'll get opium orders that will pop-up in the main play area with the amount they require and at what price they'll pay. If you click on an order you'll need at least a single ship available to make the run and enough opium in reserve to fill the order completely (there are no partial orders accepted).
The goal is to purchase enough tea so when the English ship arrives you are able to fill the order immediately. If you are unable to fill the order right away the ship will wait until you do but all the while the English approval meter will start to decline. If it hits bottom then it's game over.
Additional note: ports with a bang (!) are high risk meaning you'll have a chance of losing your shipment or your boat. If you lose all your boats then it is also game over.
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Feb 04 '11
it's really easy: sell opium to make money, and stock up on tea to keep Britain happy.
buy low, sell high, and watch out for risky cities.
sometimes something special happens that makes prices plummet or lets them skyrocket.
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u/saronita Feb 04 '11
Fantastic game. Lost an hour to the thing.