Guess there's different approaches to this game. When I played this regularly I started to optimize heavily which eventually killed the fun and became much more of a chore. If I will remember I will try to post some info about game mechanic (depending on how deep you dived into it you may already know this), later I will maybe go on a rant and tell you what the only correct way to play the game is and why all the people posting online is approaching it wrong. Just kidding (except I'm not, just wanted to know that I'm not actually seething at those alleged Patrician "pros", however I stopped enjoying that playstyle a long time ago because everything became extremely repetitive).

>>2409959
Since meds aren't helping you go with the 1300s theme and try applying tallow and leeches.

Does anyone here apply turkish building?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsNJ4ibrGNg [Embed]

I was wondering if a pirate pays for himself. So I started a new game, set home town to Luebeck and build ships and handed them to pirates. Then I calculated the total loot of each individual pirate and one of the upper average ones yielded roghly 120K. Usually the number was around 100K with individual pirate yields being usually somewhere between 80K and 120K. There were few pirates with even higher numbers. One in particular returned over 50K in less than a week (highest isolated look roughly 28K followed by 23K a few days later. And I think that yields of 200K are in reach.

Regarding the pirate to hire, I cannot tell I observed a distinct difference. At least when it comes to the look. Some forum posts suggested that a pirate who demands a higher share does a better job and with that I agree. Although I can say that this is marginal at best. Way more depends on the pirate's location and you cannot control which pirate spawns in which tavern. Best towns to loot are Aalborg, Malmo, Visby, Bremen (in that order). When hiring a pirate don't pick the option to sailing the entire Hanse. It has no benefits and the pirate is harder to find later.

Best ship to pass to the pirate is actually a Level 2 Snaikka. And it's not even a matter of cost income ration. Actually Snaikkas and Crayers are the only ships that work at all. Cogs and Hulks are too slow to intercept the AI trader ships and often don't generate any loot at all. Crayers should be in theory better but that somehow doesn't reflect on the result. Level 3 Snaikkas generate less loot, probably due to lower cargo capacity. If you have a spare Level 3 though, I recommend not arming it to the max. Cutlesses don't matter, apparently the pirates bring their own. Contrary to some post in forums, Level 1 (unarmed) Snaikkas and Crayers do generate loot. In fact, if you pass a level 1 ship to the pirates it ends up armed (seen by the icon but also they fire if you attack them). In theory pirates could be abused to do a free ship upgrade by passing a level 1 and immediately recapture it. However, there's a strange interaction - or maybe it was just coincidence - but those pirates who started with a level 1 didn't bring any loot for a very long time in the beginning (up to 3 months whereas regular pirates around Aalborg and Malmo plundered in the first 2 days, sometimes even twice in the first week). If I were paranoid, I'd say they keep your share during the time because they had to do the upgrade at their own expense.

Anyways, there's up to 5 active pirates at a time. Means you can hire them on your own so you won't be bothered by those sent by your rivals. Plus, it's a good thing to have some around known location if you want to cheese your way to Alderman.
I'd say pirates can make you easily 1,000,000 over five years, without grinding. So you can either pass them ships you wouldn't use otherwise or constantly build snaikkas to upgrade your shipyards.

Do you still only find the first captain in Novgorod or Cologne?

>>2410799
you play with low pirate activity?

>>2410799
meme answer: yes

real answer: if you play on harder difficulty they're all over the place

>>2409931 (OP)
Home town power ranking:

Elite:
Reval, Luebeck
Excellent:
Visby, Bremen, Rostock(, Novgorod)
Pretty good:
Stettin, Riga, Hamburg(, Brugge)
Good:
Danzig, Thorn, Stockholm
Garbage:
Cologne(, London)