Pirate Commodity Trader

Pirate Commodity Trader is a Java application for collecting, sharing, and analyzing data on commodity prices around the oceans. It can be used to find profitable trading voyages, help set dockside buy and sell prices for a shoppe or stall, and plan gem runs. It is maintained by Bemis.

Pirate Commodity Trader currently fails to recognize several islands. Pirate Commodity Trader with Bleach, a similar tool, has been released, and is intended to replace the older tool.

The Commodity Trader is launched from Java Web Start, from http://vanelsen.com/ctrader/ctrader.jnlp

=Differences from previous such tools= This tool maintains a single database for all users to share. This allows many people to keep the information up-to-date, reducing the maintenance required by any one user. Conversely, this means that the database could be corrupted by a malevolent user. This tool is able to track market bids as well as dockside trade prices.

The tool is able to analyze on either a per-arch, or ocean wide basis, all possible trade runs. It knows the size of each commodity, as well as the size of the different ships.

= Updating the Database =

Requirements for uploading new data

 * You must be running in windowed mode.
 * The entire window must be on the screen.
 * Your screen must be set to 800x600.
 * You need to collect commodity data from the market, or if you are not the governor, from the palace. In particular, the "amount in hold" will ruin the data collection.
 * You must be using regular fonts, not large fonts.

Uploading method
It is recommended that you have mouse keys (windows) or the equivalent enabled on your system; in particular, a way to scroll down through the list of stalls without having to hold a mouse button the entire time.


 * 1) First Time Setup: Choose "Options" from the "File" menu. Select your ocean. (Ice is not supported at this time)
 * 2) In Puzzle Pirates, go to the market of your target island and bring up the commodity trade screen.
 * 3) Switch to the Commodity Trader window and select the Upload (OCR) tab.
 * 4) Press the "Collect market data" button.
 * 5) The Puzzle Pirates window will be brought to the front automatically. Click on the down arrow button with the mouse, and hold it until the trade list scrolls all the way to the bottom. If you have a button lock or keyboard mouse control, this is the place to use it.
 * 6) When the scroll reaches the end, release the mouse, and switch back to the Commodity Trader window
 * 7) When the Trader window is back in focus (in front), the data will be collected automatically.
 * 8) The island is automatically determined from the building names.
 * 9) When collection is complete, press the Upload button to send the data to the server. New data must be uploaded before it can be used to analyze trade routes.

WARNING: 1. Do not upload an incomplete data collection. Doing so will hurt everyone that uses the tool. 2. Do not wait several hours before uploading the data. Trade routes come and go quickly, and uploading old data may falsely increase a user's confidence in a route that appears to be recent.

= External Links =
 * http://forums.puzzlepirates.com/community/mvnforum/viewthread?thread=24603
 * http://vanelsen.com/ctrader