Company Colony/Tips


 * A building cycle is 5 hours. Thus, a building that takes one cycle takes five hours to build. A building that takes 5 cycles takes 25 hours to build.
 * You can register to visit up to 3 other company's colonies by clicking on the "Register Town" button in another players' character information screen in any port. This allows you to access the other colony for trade, bank and shipyard. It is a useful feature because it can give you access to a bank, shipyard and tavern until your colony has one.
 * Once a colony shipyard reaches Rank 2 then the Special Shipbuilding features begin to appear in the company colony but not all ships appear until the population reaches 3000.
 * Any member of a company may start a building. Any member may then add investment bundles to the building to complete it.
 * Only the company Director and Deputy Directors may dismantle a building.
 * Houses cannot be upgraded. Because there is a limit on the number of buildings (50 buildings), a completed colony will have to have only Rank 3 (MAX) houses. You will need 25 Rank 3 (MAX) houses to reach max population of 5000. Therefore as soon as a colony can build Rank 2 houses they should be built exclusively otherwise you will not be able to reach the next population level. The same is true of the Rank 3 (MAX) houses. Once you can build those then then they should built to the exclusion of other types.
 * Your company may want to make an alt Director or Deputy Director to stay in the colony to be able to dismantle Rank 1 and Rank 2 housing. It saves time and lets a real player be somewhere else.
 * The only buildings that add population are houses and the Square. The Rank 1 add 50 the Rank 2 add 100, the Rank 3 (MAX) add 200, and the Square adds 100.  The Square also unlocks the 5000 population cap. 
 * The colony is population driven - Watch your population and do not build markets or commercial buildings too fast. It is very easy to reach a point where you cannot build enough housing to reach the next population level for more buildings. Having to dismantle a market or shipyard to make more housing is an expensive mistake. So watch the population and the number of slots left. Generally you have 1 commercial slot per level.
 * Look at colonies that are more complete than yours. Develop a company plan on where you want things to go. In other words, do some zoning.
 * Players do not need a port permit to enter the colony. Any company member, even one with levels 0-0-0 can enter the colony if they are able to sail to it. It is a good way to level merchant and sailing skills. Carrying 400 units - 8 stacks of specialty cargo from Europe to the colony will net about 1500 to 2000 XP and turn a good profit.
 * Buildings can be rotated when constructed to have their entrance face a certain direction. Left click multiple times when placing a building on the layout to rotate. An orange arrow indicates the entrance facing.