Being new to these games, can someone please share any basic tips or stragedies?

Do you have to purchase all the factories? I was doing OK, then after I filled some large orders and to gain more recipes, I wasn't paid, and my profits disappeared. Also, paying to increase more recipes took most of my money.

Do you have all the factories producing chocolates?

If you turn down an offer, will it reappear later on? Is any of the gambling worth it?


I read in a tips thread, it's best to buy the more expensive ingredients to get the higher profits, but running a few factories, takes up most of the money I do have left. The game is challenging, but also frustrating to be stuck, and not being able to continue. Maybe I should have started with the orginial game!

TIA!

I'm much better at making lists & remembering locations than actual strategy, but I'll do my best to answer you.
 
With Choc 3, you don't have to purchase the factories. They are automatically given, but you have the option of paying to reconfigure them to make different chocolate/coffee types. That way you aren't stuck making bars in Zurich for the whole game. You aren't required to have them all running, but leaving one unoccupied decreases your inventory, which decreases the amount of money you can make. If you have to do it short term, that's fine, but I wouldn't keep a factory stalled for too long, say, longer than 4 or 5 game weeks. Knowing where ingredients are sold helps, too. The faster you can load up on ingredients, the sooner you can have your factories running. You can find my ingredient list (searchable by ingredient OR port) at http://hobbithollow.blogspot.com or http://alevy1974.blogspot.com&nbs p;
 
In the previous Choc games you aren't required to purchase all factories (I don't think so, but not 100%), but having them all running makes the later quests much easier. You can always wait to purchase them until you have the money.
 
Any quest that is REQUIRED to complete the game will give you the option of passing & accepting later. So if you're short on cash & can't afford to give away 50 cases or pay $10,000 to learn a new recipe, just postpone the quest by clicking "Maybe Later." I ALWAYS accept a quest that offers to pay for an order no matter what else I'm doing. The amount the character is willing to pay is always much higher than any store will offer, even stores you own. Speaking of owning stores, once I start taking ownership of shops, I don't sell anywhere else.
 
Is gambling worth it? LOL You're asking the wrong girl. My guess is that the more you gamble, the better you get at it, but I don't have that kind of patience. I'm horrible at it & can only make modest gains at best. But if you ask cruzer, she'll probably say gambling is definately worth it since that's how she earned her high score of $682 MILLION (compared to my $131,000).
 
Be careful about purchasing expensive ingredients. High priced ingredients aren't always high PROFIT ingredients. For example, pecans are seasonal. Sometimes they are very expensive, and you can end up actually losing money on them. I haven't had much luck with wild limes, either.
 
Other tips:
Right after making my first creation, I spent a few weeks in Zurich. There were a number of orders to fill there, & I didn't have to spend money to travel. Also, I made my first creation using ingredients from the Zurich market so I wouldn't have to travel to get the ingredients, then back to configure the factory.
 
Make time pass in port by going to the market, buying 1 sack of sugar, then COMPLETELY exiting the market. Do this 4 or 5 times. A week will pass. (Or sell 1 chocoalte at a time to a hop. It's 4 or 5 seperate transactions that trigger the calendar).
 
Start slowly. Only buy what you need to complete an order instead of stocking up. Exceptions are for cacao & sugar. I found it harder to make money in the beginning of this game than either of the previous ones, but that soon changed & I was able to buy anything I needed without worrying about going broke.
 
That's all I can think of for now. I hope this helps, and I hope others will chime in with their tips, too.