Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
[Feedback Request] Alpha Two Caravan System Preview Shown in October Livestream
Hello glorious community,
We’d like your feedback on the Alpha Two Caravan System Preview shown during the October 2023 Development Update Livestream.
To help guide this conversation, here are a few thought starters you can choose from:
We’ll be compiling a report for the design team on Friday, November 17, 2023, so please try to get your feedback into this thread by then!
Everyone here at Intrepid Studios looks forward to reading all the feedback you have to share!
--
@Roshen EDIT (Nov 9): We announced Office Hours for Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 11AM PST (convert to your local time). Changing the date for when we'll start the report to Friday, November 17 (after Office Hours).
Here are the discussion prompts for Office Hours, and timestamps to specific moments in the livestream if you missed them. Feel free to respond to any of these discussion prompts if it helps you share feedback on the Caravan System.
We’d like your feedback on the Alpha Two Caravan System Preview shown during the October 2023 Development Update Livestream.
To help guide this conversation, here are a few thought starters you can choose from:
- How do you feel about the Caravan System Preview so far?
- What excites you about playing and interacting with the Caravan system?
- Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the Caravan System Preview?
- Do you have thoughts or feelings regarding some of the aspects of Caravans, such as Caravan components, Glint, Commodities, Exchange Rates, etc?
- Are there similar systems you’ve seen in other games that you like or dislike? If so, please explain!
We’ll be compiling a report for the design team on Friday, November 17, 2023, so please try to get your feedback into this thread by then!
Everyone here at Intrepid Studios looks forward to reading all the feedback you have to share!
--
@Roshen EDIT (Nov 9): We announced Office Hours for Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 11AM PST (convert to your local time). Changing the date for when we'll start the report to Friday, November 17 (after Office Hours).
Here are the discussion prompts for Office Hours, and timestamps to specific moments in the livestream if you missed them. Feel free to respond to any of these discussion prompts if it helps you share feedback on the Caravan System.
- Glint and Commodities - What are your thoughts on Glint and Commodities, and how they interact with the Caravan System as a way for players to make gold? For more information on what Glint is, see here (timestamp to conversation in livestream).
- Caravan Components - What do you think about the Caravan component system modifying stats and granting passive and active abilities to Caravans? For more information about Caravan Components, see here (timestamp to conversation in livestream).
- Caravan Risk vs Reward - How do you feel about how PvP factors into the risk vs reward of running Caravans? What feedback do you have about the current plans for how caravans will be looted? Learn more about looting caravans here (timestamp to conversation in livestream).
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Comments
This looks really good. (At least what we was shown... pvp missing)
Whereas previous system showcases still felt barebones , this felt like a well crafted experiences from the start to the beginning.
Im looking forward the future showcases, as it seems intrepid is now in the stage of developing experiences, instead of just a "system + 3D art assets."
This system is definitely is A2 ready!
edit: Oh, another small point that was just made on the stream. I understand that you want the risk in creating the caravan at a location rather than through a UI, but the entire point of the previously planned UI system was to avoid camping caravan creations.
I would really prefer if weaker players had at least A SINGLE point of benefit to them. Large groups can easily camp the entire surroundings of a node and camp any caravan that's gonna be created, especially considering the announcement.
So please go back the previous system, cause this is too much.
And no insurance... why did I think there was...?
What was shown was self-contained, a valid proof that a Caravan can be loaded, deployed, travel, and arrive.
I wasn't 'repulsed' by anything about the caravan function itself, at least not as much as those archers!
Since this system is just basically a prerequisite to all the 'interesting parts', there's nothing else to note from me, have fun with your balance sheets!
Music in events out in the world are very important to enjoy the experience for me. Aside from that looks good but also would have been nice to see players attacking the caravan.
• What excites you about playing and interacting with the Caravan system?
PVP for sure and also see people become experts in this specific area of the game.
• Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the Caravan System Preview?
Probably visual bugs if too many people summon caravan, so I would like to have some limitations.
• Are there similar systems you’ve seen in other games that you like or dislike? If so, please explain!
Not really, Not yet.
The visuals and vehicle physics looked really great.
I do think you should be able to chop up and move a fallen tree trunk, it seemed odd that you would be forced to take a detour and chop other trees on the way. It could take a minute to remove, similar to a naval caravan conversion period.
Also, the Repulsor device seemed pretty insane, knocking mobs and players high up and over the ridge is brutal (one of the skeletons in the first knockback went FAR). This has the potential to be very overpowered with knocking players off cliffs or into mob camps. I honestly thought it looked out of place and more like a mechanic you might see in a game like Fortnite.
Apparently, the components were mislabeled, and it was clarified later that we were looking at Tier 2 components, not Tier 5? That makes more sense now in understanding the potential capacity of a caravan.
Again, the visuals and caravan movement were really excellent. That was the highlight for me. All of the other issues are just a question of balance. I can't wait to see the next caravan stream!
First, it misses the chance for monsters to have specific loot that's more or less relevant. With the system as it stands, it doesn't matter where you go to hunt - they will all drop the same glint (granted at different rarities), and with that glint you can buy any of the trade goods that exist in whatever area you purchase it. But if monsters dropped an item that could be traded for a specific caravan good, you could have some areas become more / less contested and more interesting tradeoffs for players to make.
Second, by making glint untradeable, it takes away the ability for players to function specifically as traders / merchants. Some players don't want to grind mobs, but they still want to make money trading. If it's tradeable, they can buy it locally and create their own caravans without needing to farm.
The system looks pretty good so far as is, excited to see how it'll come out during full release.
What excites you about playing and interacting with the Caravan system?
I'm excited about the PvP aspect of the Caravan system, as well as getting a group of friends together to do these.
Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the Caravan System Preview?
The question I would have, is the upgrades for the Caravan, will those be player made from crafting, or can they be bought? Will there be a limit to how many you can carry of each rarity? If upgrading to a "Raft" and you get attacked and defeated, what happens to those materials, will they just drop? Also, if a group of attackers manage to take down a caravan, how will the "loot" be split amongst, say 10-20 people that can successfully take down a caravan and it's defenders?
I think this can be addressed through monetary or other types of rewards like reputation. Personally, I am a fan of partially self-fulfilling systems - (ie. opportunity to loot critical caravan upgrades from defending or attacking).
Let's go back to raw/processed materials, and when a caravan dies people can loot them from its corpse. Let the raiders spread them between themselves and carry them back to their nodes with mules.
Is there a technical problem that lead to this change? Glint cargo and gold from interactions with an npc removes player agency. It's less fun.
I dont know how many people will choose to defend or attack a caravan if a big part of its profit aspect is NPC gameplay.
Do you have thoughts or feelings regarding some of the aspects of Caravans, such as Caravan components, Glint, Commodities, Exchange Rates, etc?
Glint
I do not like Glint. It is something that I understand a certain type of player to need, to keep the game simple enough to play. To fulfill the 'can I just play the game?' without needing to do economy things. But why? They'll just be crushed out soon enough anyway. I've previously suggested making the 'low level, I just want money' stuff be related to potions. I'll stand by that over this, definitely.
I hope it does not dilute the economic focuses. I prefer when one goes all the way to one side or the other, but my belief that the middle ground is impossible isn't provable. I don't see the point, though, of making something like this in a game like Ashes, it just adds complexity in balance and even a form of misery, to avoid what... needing to do more itemization? If there's a reason for the existence of Glint beyond 'but we need non-Economic players to want to play', fine. If that's the only reason... well, you're trading me for them, which is fine with me, as long as it's fine with you. That was a likely outcome from the first time I heard of the Certificates system.
Commodities
I do not like Commodities. They're slightly good for lore, but it's back to the same thing. It's saving you itemization at the cost of immersion and identity within nodes, offerable to players. 'Don't start down the BDO path of this' would be my advice here. Hal and the others are probably already doing hard enough work as is. I don't want their work reduced to 'just another random item I threw on top of a box'. Of course, I can always transport player made goods, but that's the point. Commodities are just an abstraction provided so that players can engage with the caravan system without caring about or knowing a single gatherer or Processor. If that's what you wish, then so be it, not my thing, but it's moreso just 'a bit below neutral'.
The reason this works in Elite Dangerous is entirely because that's the whole gameplay. And technically, it can and does get to the point where you have specific resources that you must go collect yourself. But even there, I find myself 'imagining' the farm and brewery that make the beer for the 'Node' are special, that there are people I care about involved. I can do the same here. Just make sure I need to, I guess? Somehow? BDO manages, a little, so it's not impossible. Aged Velian Wine go!
Exchange Rates
I don't like the current 'finger in the wind' balance, but I somewhat understand it. The problem here is moreso in the Glint itself. I take Glint to a person, who sells me something I could move... but to make the system usable (in what I assume is the goal of Glint) you then need to be able to sell those same commodities back, if I understood this? In the same node? Why does that guy even care about Glint? Maybe a magic component...
Anyway, so I can then sell these back for Gold, or I can risk traveling with them somewhere else... I'll obviously assume that you will just balance this such that 'the amount of time one would spend farming more Glint' (I feel slightly miserable just saying this) must be exceeded in value by the risk of carrying it.
This isn't an economic incentive, though, this is closer to... actually there isn't a real world analogue to this, exactly. The whole thing rubs me the wrong way, because I know that in the end, that number depends on the 'glint farming rate' gR and the 'travel duration' tD, with some adjustments for innate risk, and caravan costs. The exchange rates therefore don't mean anything to me. The numbers 'decide themselves'. If 8x to one node over is correct, I'll just derive the 'expect glim farming rate' from that.
I'd rather farm something I like, but if caravans are balanced to be profitable without any 'True Player Demand', all control of the flows around non-Commodity caravans would probably be lost. There's always a way to get the numbers right, but do they spark joy?
Caravans
This is about the Caravans themselves and the feelings they trigger.
I feel like this disconnects some things, but I can't put my finger on how. On the one hand we have a player Goods caravan type, which probably holds (based on the original points) like 100x of a player's inventory... That's a big time investment, I think.
And we have another type that holds Commodities that you derived from Glint... But we expect players to run the Caravans for Goods... and therefore I can derive gR?
If I can't derive gR, then does that mean we expect this free open player Marketplace to have anything comparable in profit terms, for caravans? Basically, why am I moving my fish instead of something else? Is this another situation where we're going to get 'fighters' and 'life skillers' and the game is constantly swinging back and forth between which of these is useful?
With the amount of effort being put into the Caravans themselves, their design and abilities and crazy things like Repulsor Fields, I don't want this to all fall back into another 'the Devs fighting with their own numbers in the econ sphere to get players to use a system, but not to abuse or always use the system'.
Caravans have been doubted many times on this forum over many many threads. This stream has not allieviated any doubts for me other than the 'will they look dynamically super cool though?' (once again kudos to Hal and all involved on that front). To put it in perspective, I don't actually own a wagon in BDO. It has either always been 'not even remotely worth my time or effort', or 'definitely worth it' (for a small period) but also presented in such a detached way that I couldn't see myself enjoying it, especially knowing it was about to go back to being not worth it in whatever the next patch was because their economic system is broken at the foundational level.
Overall
Ye who build your house atop the glint should beware that your guests do not stay outside to stare at it instead.
New World had a system where storage was localized to the city you put the items in and you couldn't retrieve those items from your storage in another city unless you paid a fee. The storages were all separated from town to town and limited by weight. When a storage in one city would fill up, I would have to start dropping things off in another town, even if I rarely frequented it just to have space to store things.
This system led me to spending an ungodly amount of hours transporting goods back and forth depending on what crafting services the city provided, chosen by the leader of the town. The towns would change ownership on a regular basis and made all my work of transporting certain materials pointless when the new management changed the crafting stations. I had all these frustrations under a system where it was safe to transport goods from town to town, so I can't imagine the stress under the caravan system.
Having unlimited storage in each city would alleviate most of these problems. Having a very large player inventory would also help with this if you are just looking to have a few raw materials processed or sold in another city.
Making sure towns aren't susceptible to a high amount of volatility would help with this a lot. If a town can change hands 2+ times in a month, that's way too much volatility and makes it near impossible to decide on a good spot to have a majority of your items stored. Each time there is a new mayor, odds are it will lead to crafting station changes, which changes where player decide to keep particular materials. How frequently the mayors change will have a very direct impact on how enjoyable the caravan system is to play with. Once every 3 months seems reasonable to me.
I'm excited for the caravan system since I loved it in Archeage, but I do NOT want to be playing a game where 30% of my time is spent on inventory/storage management like New World was for me.
No. Glint/certificates is an amazing solution that helps in so many different ways, being a character bound resource it helps with zergs/boosts, RMT, botting, and so much more, this is actually brilliant and I'm glad intrepid is thinking outside the box
As AoC has been a game about player interaction, I have not seen much from AoC devs on the topics of market pvp and MMO economic philosophy, like supply/demand and currency faucets and sinks. I know the development is early, but most of the time the tools of trade in AoC has mostly been seen as buying and selling with NPCs. Even though player created goods have been discussed. I can see commodity a way to add money initially into the economy to begin with.
I like the way EVE Online breaks down their game into different types of player interests. Trader, Miner (harvester/procurer), Combat, Manufacturer. Commodity is traditionally a way for trader play styles to generate income, without requiring a questing system (it can be combined with questing system). But having commodities and player crafted/harvested economy could split the man power in the economy between moving crafting related items and commodities. The fix is just about balancing supply and demand and price. I think my biggest concern at the moment is the plan/focus for this balance.
Second concern to that, preventing players who solely want to trade must do glint generating activities before they can buy commodities, seems too restrictive. At the same time glint seems to solves the problem of people focusing to much time on commodity trading rather than doing node progressing or crafting related activities.
I am focus on the commodities since it's purpose within the macro-economy was not explained, leaving me to speculate how important commodities are suppose to be in this game. It also seem that items spaces where limited by commodity rather than gatherables used for crafting.
Solid livestream, but felt like a missed opportunity not showing PvP and having people signing up to deffend/attack, but overall was a good stream,
What excites you about playing and interacting with the Caravan system?
PvP and risk is what excites me the most. I like what you are doing with gold sinks and loss, I just hope theres a good balance between sink and other players acquiring/stealing cargo, making things more exciting and making players more emotionally invested.
Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the Caravan System Preview?
Not much before can actually test the system, just hope you think about all the scenarios where players might use caravans for unintended purpose, like using them to block roads/caves/doors or use their skills during other content, I feel like there should be some sort of pre-planed path that should be set and a timer or zone that you should stay inside based on the path you selected, something like that
something I really hated was the yellow zone markings around nodes when you place caravans/arrive at a node, its very bad and out of place, I'd much rather to just have the circle indication on the mini-map we are not stupid and dont need a huge ass yellow line and caravan glowing mark to show use the zone limit, but if you want to do it, make it a very soft white/yellowish something like this but soft
Do you have thoughts or feelings regarding some of the aspects of Caravans, such as Caravan components, Glint, Commodities, Exchange Rates, etc?
I'm very happy with the idea around Glint being character-bound, this is brilliant, will help combat RMT, Botting and make players have to work for their gold, I am also very happy with commodities and how Ashes is taking inspiration from Archeage, this system is great, even the buff that you need to have on so poeple don't steal your vehicle I think you are doing great taking Ideas that worked and making it better
as with most things shown, I believe the most valuable feedback will come from testing, especially because there are many players that never played games like archeage/silkroad or others with similar systems.
Are there similar systems you’ve seen in other games that you like or dislike? If so, please explain!
Archeage, and you guys are doing a great job taking from that game and making it better, happy that other players could potentially drive away with your vehicle if you don't actively use the buff, the commodities is also great, Glint is something I enjoyed as well, caravan customization is awesome, all the different parts and specialization is great! not much more to say feel like its time to get to testing
Things are moving in the right direction as far as I'm concerned. With a year* of further development and pre-Alpha 2 polish I am feeling very good about this system.
What excites you about playing and interacting with the Caravan system?
I love the idea of traversing a large fantasy world (Verra) with a horse and cart. It seems rudimentary but I'm just taken by the "feel" of it. I like gathering things, inventory management and logistics in MMORPG so this looks like it is ticking many of those boxes.
Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the Caravan System Preview?
Camping and griefing, I think the spawning and launching of the Caravan might have to be tinkered with, but I feel problems with the current system (if there are any) will very quickly show themselves during Alpha 2 testing.
It would be disappointing and frustrating to do all of the leg work to launch your caravan only to be attacked and destroyed 2 minutes after leaving a Node. Perhaps some kind of invulnerability or invisibility abilities could be employed for a while allowing you to get on your way with your party.
Do you have thoughts or feelings regarding some of the aspects of Caravans, such as Caravan components, Glint, Commodities, Exchange Rates, etc?
I like Glint. The name is cool and is pretty clean. (Just please do not get carried away with having a lot of different currencies.) Having - Glint - Tiers 1,2,3,4,5,6. Gold, Silver, and Copper is already enough for currency. I really don't like it when games have a billion different currencies and resources to manage. KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) when it comes to currency.
Commodities seem fine, although I would like to see their icons given a bit more pizazz. I also think it would be a good idea to be able to "Stack" the same item up to say 5 or 10, rather than each icon only being a single item. So the Salt Cured meat would take up 4x4 Inventory slots but could be stacked up to 5 or 10 times.
A few other thoughts.
The caravan models are beautiful and the animations with the horses and rocking lanterns were great. Would like to see a bit more colour. They are Kaelar caravans, a few of the crates and barrels draped in rich red tarps, a glow emitting from the lanterns. Some Lion gargoyles and iconography.
The mobs out in the open world seemed to be moving a lot more smoothly. Kudos there. Was nice to see a little more variety but I always would like to see more. Seeing Tumok walking by was cool, keep pumping creatures like that out. More, more MORE!!!
The environment was looking solid once again and seeing those weird glowing green things piqued my curiosity. I want my curiosity peaked continuously. This was good, again, more, more, MORE! Don't be afraid of colour. Especially when it comes to foliage.
The hunter's lodge was a bit underwhelming. It lacked legibility. It should be instantly recognisable as a hunter's lodge. Animal skins, weapons, stacks of weird and wonderful taxidermy. I'm seriously starting to consider putting in a job application for an Environmental Interior designer.
The NPC's at the buildings should be recognizable and characterful with idle animations, Not just standing posts. The caravan master should look like a caravan master. (Think Warhammer Fantasy-style Empire Caption, all feathers and plumes)
Other players in your party should be able to hang onto, sit on or ride in the caravan!
When you came across the fallen tree blocking the road, damned that was a missed opportunity for Margaret's voice to come on stream, Roleplaying as a bandit and launching a full ambush, destroying Bucky's Caravan, PvPing but you guys successfully defended Stevens caravan and it making it to the other Node damaged but successful.
Would have been amazing if the other Node was another racial style.
Again, a good stream that just missed out on being f'ing great. Keep at it Intrepid!
That repulsor thing looked fun, and while it might not survive testing as it currently is, I think it'll be fun to exploit it to yeet players into places they shouldn't be able to otherwise reach, and to grief by yeeting innocent bystanders off cliffs and bridges and such.
I also like the overall design goal of the commodity system, where you can substantially increase your profits if you take the time and cost to use a caravan to transfer your "glint in commodity form" somewhere far away for huge profit.
If the commodities are nothing but "glint in cargo form" and it serves no other purpose, it's ok, I suppose, as a way to incentivise more player-run caravans. More caravans means more caravan pvp and a more lively world.
What I really hope they do with commodities is to make them into goods necessary to build up certain aspects of nodes. For example, you can get basic ballistae for siege defenses just from regular wood and iron and leather and such, but to get the fancy Ballistae Of Doom for your node or castle, you need certain commodities from certain areas. Even if just for cool visuals in the node. You can get basic flags and banners, but if you get fancy cloth from other nodes, you can upgrade them to look all snazzy.
And then we have the new info on glint, which basically boils down to this: Gold doesn't pay your bills. You can only pay your bills by killing monsters.
We've known for a while that glint/certificates is the primary way to generate new gold in the game. That's not new. What's new - while it's been hinted at before - is that I think we just got confirmation that all players need to regularly go out and actively kill monsters for glint if they ever want to be citizens and/or own any properties.
Crafters, farmers, traders cannot make a living solely by doing those things. They all need to do pve combat.
The costs and droprates and general amount of time it takes to get enough glint to pay your bills is obviously fluid and down to testing and balancing. For the sake of the game, I just hope the time-casuals can afford being citizens and even have a small home without having to spend all their very limited time killing monsters to pay their bills.
So bottom line: Thumbs up to the caravan part of the showcase. I think it's going in the right direction.
I also really want to know a lot more about glint and how it ties into the proposed economy system. So for some stream in the future, please get your game economist to prepare a 1 hour powerpoint presentation where they get real nerdy about it and provide an indepth look at how it all ties together, what the design goals and philosophies are, and so on.
There wont be pvp unless materials are the focus.
I say let's go back to caravans being used to transport materials and players looting them from the corpse of the caravan.
I remember an answer Steven gave to "what's stopping players from carrying the mats on their inventories from one region to another" and he said that there will be other profits to running a caravan".
What we saw today is just that. The added profit of gold to intice people to this gameplay.
If AoC allows players to carry mats with ease from one region to another, I can see caravans being an RP activity. There wont be much pvp around them.
Todays update was the proof.
The Devs need to come out and say what the technical issue is and then perhals we can find new ways for the caravans to be impactful.
Imagination is limitless. There will be solutions
The caravans here also feel more ethereal - not like something you actually have, but a thing that gets spawned in only in a certain place and then gets consumed (I assume the resources used to make the caravan are consumed). I'd rather have a physical item in my inventory that I can upgrade - and maybe to spawn it you have to spend materials (which change depending on what parts you have added onto it) so it still functions as a sink, but that way it can still function as another form of progression and a tangible object.
Sounds like a Daughters of Khaine Blood Cauldron.
So if you and a few buddies want to go out in a gathering party to harvest a lot of lumber, for example, one of you takes a caravan that can be used as a mobile storage unit for you and your party?
I think its for decoy caravans but in theory the devs might let you use it like a mule too.
Looks good, I am glad you removed the teleporting system because I always thought that did not fit the world you were making. As long as placing a flag does not have a time limit people will be able to do it in secret.
What excites you about playing and interacting with the Caravan system?
Big fan of how many stats and upgrades there potentially is. Makes me hopeful for other systems as well. I like things that do not have an obvious best solution.
Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the Caravan System Preview?
Mostly concerned about the raid system overshadowing small groups. Is it ever going to be worth it to launch a caravan without a huge group of people to reduce your chance of being targeted. I was picturing caravans being able to hold so much that multiple people would struggle to fill one and they would defend it together.
Do you have thoughts or feelings regarding some of the aspects of Caravans, such as Caravan components, Glint, Commodities, Exchange Rates, etc?
I hope there is a bit more variety in Glints. I do not want to see players just farming the best mobs for glint drops with no thought put into a variety of content. More specific glint like Beast glint or Aquatic glint might add some spice. It is logical that you would trade an aquatic glint for fish ect.
On the exchange rate note I want gold values to remain fairly low. 1 gold should not be insignificant.
In my opinion, the preview was overall quite interesting and fun. I liked it a lot.
What excites you about playing and interacting with the Caravan system?
I look forward to traveling all over Verra while making big bank and hopefully supporting the economy.
While humming and singing song parodies with whoever is accompanying me.
Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the Caravan System Preview?
I have some curious concerns about how exploitable Caravans and their Abilities might be.
I like that there is a progression system.
I look forward to trying out all my Caravan Skins. I hope I get to view them on the Caravan before I summon it, to be able to pick the right one for the occasion.
Do you have thoughts or feelings regarding some of the aspects of Caravans, such as Caravan components, Glint, Commodities, Exchange Rates, etc?
Depending on how difficult it is to obtain the components for a Caravan, I could see players easily getting frustrated when their Caravan gets destroyed and they lose their components. This frustration could lead to them either stopping their interaction with the system altogether or creating a disproportionately large disparity between players driving Caravans and those wanting to raid them.
Additional Thoughts and Feedback:
I personally would appreciate the option to remove fallen trees from Caravan Events from the road, either by chopping them up or dragging them out of the way. If the players have the right equipment for it.
Clearing the road for myself and other Caravans feels like the right thing for me to do. However, choosing to go around the fallen tree should still be an option, for those that prefer to do so.
It already looks great. I would love to see other caravans and animals as caravans same as in silkroad online!
Is there anything in particular you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the Caravan System Preview?
Since you didn’t showed pvp yet I’m concerned that anybody could attack the caravan? What was the reward for the other players who protected your caravan? There should be also a level system. With each successful trade you gain exp and later higher level that leads to a higher profit, better caravan items and so on (for the trader who drives the caravan(. As I mentioned in another post: all players should have a „job cape“, trader, hunter and thief. Only players that wear thiefcape can attack caravan, thief cape have to be put on in safezone. All this 3 capes put players in special pvp mode. Hunter who protect trades also gain ecp and higher lvl for successful trades. With higher lvl also higher profit. And another idea: let hunter gain famepoints and with high famepoints they can get a famerank and an emblem beside their name. Same for thief’s, that would be a long term motivation to become one of the best thief or hunter, or trader and everybody could see it because of the rank emblem beside their name.
If anybody can attack the caravan then we might not see many successful trades? So job capes might be the solution.
Do you have thoughts or feelings regarding some of the aspects of Caravans, such as Caravan components, Glint, Commodities, Exchange Rates, etc?
Are there similar systems you’ve seen in other games that you like or dislike? If so, please explain!
Please have a look at caravans in BDO where you can upgrade the wagon parts for higher stats. That’s a great way, also they have cosmetic wagons that give little bit better stats in their shop. Would love to see many different appearances of the wagons.