Mercatorio Web game

Mercatorio season 3 kicks off tomorrow, Saturday February 1st. The medieval trade and economy simulator with true markets is getting more products to produce and trade, new places to produce them, more ways to upgrade buildings, more influential apprentices as well as new sources of product demand.

New buildings

• Gold and iron camps allowing for surface collection of resources, cheaper and quicker to set up than mines, but less efficient
• Weaponsmith taking over crafting and forging of arms and swords
• Nailworks for more efficient nail production
• Cooperage takes over cask production
• Pulleyworks produces tackles for heavy lifting
• Lime kiln takes over lime burning from the quarry

New products

• Gears — made in the machine workshop, used for power transmission, shaping presses, loom fabric traction and cord winding
• Tackles — block and tackles made in the new pulleyworks, used for heavy lifting and in the rigging of large ships
• Lathes — wood turning machines made in the machine workshop, used for making wheels and other round things from wood
• Hinges — made by smithy, predominantly used in building construction

More impactful household workers

• Each skill level gives an additional management point, both from the head of household and every apprentice (not incl. specialisation)
• More production methods available at novice level, threshold for worker level increased, specialisation threshold reduced
• Production bonuses from higher level skills (+2% at journeyman, +6% at master, +20% at specialist)
• Workers training for journeyman or master will lose some progress (10%) when changing assignments or production method

Buildings and upgrades updates

• Upgrades increase management cost of buildings, scaled by the size of the building
• Town center expansions take more management points (from 0.05 to 0.1 for most buildings)
• Upgrades now increase the management cost of the buildings (scaled by size)
• New class of upgrades increase the productivity of buildings (adding output bonus). These upgrades are gated on household skill level.
• Construction clock progress pauses if one or more materials are lacking
• Reduced management points from prestige (partially compensated by points from workers)

Production methods

• Advanced (master level) production methods no longer require workers guiding them, though assigning one gives bonus output. These production methods also get a ramp up period of 6 turns, during which they have slightly reduced output.
• Specialised production methods are removed and replaced with an increased production bonus when a specialist worker is assigned to a advanced (master level) production method
• Major updates to existing production methods:
  - Burn cookware changes class from crafting to forging
  - Make casks moved from carpentry to the new cooperage building
  - Crafting and forging of arms and swords changes class to weaponry and moves to the new weaponsmith building
  - Quarry loses lime kiln and stonecutter upgrades and becomes a pure limestone extraction building
• Lots of balancing changes

Commoners and town mayor

• New spending categories for both commoners and town mayor
• Increased demand for household goods (crafting) and construction materials, slightly reduced demand for nutrition and textile products
• Commoners population growth shifted towards fulfilment of needs, including some positive impact from satisfaction over 100%, reduced impact from salaries
• Tax on town centre plots increased from 5d to 6d per turn
• Fee for buying land with special resources increased to reduce early game hoarding

Transports

• Hulk operation cost reduced
• Tumbrel cargo capacity increased

How to start playing?

Go to Mercatorio.io to play and join the discord server to meet other players, plan strategies and strike deals.