How important could Caravans possibly be, for Nodes/Node-Politics ?

Aszkalon

While i think i completely get the Risk versus Reward-thingy,


for what aside from making some Coin for the Players - what other Influence could Caravan's possibly hold ?

How important could Caravan's might be - concerning the Speed in how much and/or well we could expand our own Node ?
Could Caravan's hold Importance and influence, if we are even able to expand/growth our Node, at all ?

Be it in Times of War,
be it in terms of how well we could as a bigger Node, support and help out our "Vassal-Nodes",


could Caravans play a very significant Role of Importance ? Or are they simply and only there, so that the Players themself can have a bit more Money or the likes ?


I personally think Caravan's should play a much, much bigger Role than just being a means to make more Money more quickly. What are your Thoughts ?

oOHadesOo

I agree with you, and I think that's what they intended. For example, in a war, your gear will get damaged more than in peace, so you will need more materials. Depending on what gear you have, you might need materials that are currently not available in your node, so you will need caravans. If you can't protect these caravans, then your main army will be at a disadvantage because eventually, their gear will have to be repaired. I think stuff like that will be interesting to see in-game.

tautau

Sure, we will need caravans to make the economy thrive, or to allow nodes to grow to the next level, or for each of us to get rich enough to buy housing and gear and cool crapola...but why do we need caravans, really?

My theory...Quests.

Quests to progress in our professions (ex: To advance to the next level crafter, take a caravan from X to Y containing this many waffles)
Quests to advance our character (ex: To earn your 2nd profession, take a caravan of '###' gold value a distance of '##' kilometers)
Quests to get materials (ex: NPC says "If you take this caravan to AszakalonVille, I will give you 25 pieces of high grade oOLu_BuOoanite iron ore which can be crafter into a TauShield")
Quests to advance our guilds to the next level and/or get guild abilities.

And so forth...... These quests will be highly motivating since we each really want the rewards. With that kind of motivation, a casual group of attackers is going to get stomped by all the friends and guildies you bring along. Are you paying attention Arye WhatsYourName?

Garrtok

Keep in mind that there is no server wide auction house like in wow and area / season / biome unique items you need for crafting, also potentially for building something inside your node. You have to use caravans, otherwise you won't be able to make materials accessible in your node.

Aszkalon

I shall count these Comments as a Yes.

oOLu_BuOo wrote: »

For example, in a war, your gear will get damaged more than in peace, so you will need more materials. Depending on what gear you have, you might need materials that are currently not available in your node, so you will need caravans. If you can't protect these caravans, then your main army will be at a disadvantage because eventually, their gear will have to be repaired. I think stuff like that will be interesting to see in-game.

While i know Caravan's will be around all the time and not just during War - i am curious how much Caravan Ressources could affect War Efforts and Supply and Demand for example repairing Armors and Weaponry.

NiKr

Mayor, system and castle tax caravans - all important caravans that don't really have anything to do with directly making money.
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Caravans#Mayoral_caravans
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Caravans#System_driven_caravans
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Castle_taxes

Nerror

I certainly hope the mayoral caravans are crucial to the health and growth of nodes. Both on the sending and on the receiving end of the caravan, making it in the interest of both nodes, and possibly their entire vassal chains, to protect them. And on the flip-side of the coin, vital to disrupt by enemy nodes.

Cadac

Imagine two lvl 5 nodes that wish to be the metro in the region, I believe they will strongly defend their caravans, and suppress their rivals, for the Node progression they represent. Only if this commerce is a big piece of Node XP.
If it is, then Caravans are a big deal for ambitious Nodes from lvl 3 on.

CROW3

Keep in mind that resources are not going to be plentiful in Verra. Establishing dependable supply chains between allied nodes will be necessary to advance nodes to greater stages. So, caravans are THE way to transport resources most efficiently. At the same time, caravans concentrate a large amount of resources in one spot. So competing nodes (not just pvpers) will NEED to hit competitors’ supply lines to advance or become subjects.

It’s not going to be like WoW where you just get a ton of resource whenever you want and can AH more instead of gathering them when you’re lazy.

HughJardon

He who controls the caravans and the seaways controls the world.

McShave

I remember hearing the people on the dev stream say mayor caravans will have a political aspect to them. I think they said that the more a mayor sends a caravan to a specific node, the more that road will develop (my guess, that road has higher priority to level up over other roads). I don't think we know if nodes will have a political score with other nodes that determine standing with each other, but caravans could influence that heavily.

Aszkalon

HughJardon wrote: »

He who controls the caravans and the seaways controls the world.

Damn. I can sign this is a solid 100%.


What brings me back to that we know absolutely nothing about how Seaways will function and PvP on the Oceans ... ...

Dripyula

I find it a bit stupid that PvP for PvP's sake can give you corruption but for some unexplained reason when people attack a caravan, suddenly murder seems okay.
Even though it is nothing different. You go in to steal and or ruin other peoples days.

akabear

Aren`t some resources region specific and certain higher level crafting resource dependent? Meaning no node is self sufficent.

If so, then without the transferral of resources between nodes, there will be no higher-level gear.
So there will likely be some prevailing desire to move resources.

Aszkalon

akabear wrote: »

Aren`t some resources region specific and certain higher level crafting resource dependent? Meaning no node is self sufficent.

If so, then without the transferral of resources between nodes, there will be no higher-level gear.
So there will likely be some prevailing desire to move resources.

Sounds awesome !! So Caravan's are here to stay and keep being relevant.


I can already People see love AND hate that fact. 😁

daveywavey

Dripyula wrote: »

I find it a bit stupid that PvP for PvP's sake can give you corruption but for some unexplained reason when people attack a caravan, suddenly murder seems okay.
Even though it is nothing different. You go in to steal and or ruin other peoples days.

It's very different.

Running a caravan, you accept that you are going to be attacked, and that you are going to defend yourself. The defence is implied in the caravan system cos you won't want to lose the massive investment you've put in to making it.

Attacking some rando who might even just be afk at the time or simply isn't fighting back, isn't "PvP for PvP's sake". If anything, it's just "P".

Jhoren

Yeah caravans are going to be vital because all materials are local only. No world wide auction house or anything like that. Or even a local auction house in some cases.

It's not just raw materials either. All the processing is done on freeholds. Those 2000 ingots you spent a week smelting need to be moved to market.

Enigmatic Sage

The economy wont be fragile. It's not a hardcore game. It's a "fun" for everyone game. The care-bear supporters would lose their shit. The design encourages players to grind for node development to gain access to processing freeholds, crafting stations, dungeons and raids across the vassal networks. It's like any other mainstream MMORPG, the easiest way to defend or attack anything is to be max level and geared well. The rest is up to "skill" and numbers. Sieges are expensive and gated. There is ample time for nodes and players to acquire resources and currency.

Aszkalon

Enigmatic Sage wrote: »

The economy wont be fragile. It's not a hardcore game. It's a "fun" for everyone game.

A Fun for Everyone Game that needs much more Information more frequently from this Point. Even if that may just be my own Opinion.

Technically you could double the Information shown once every Month - and there would still be many Questions unanswered every single time.



I personally welcome any kind of Certainty with open Arms, that the Economy of the Game will be more or less easily manageable without a felt Two-Thirds of all Players needing to become absolute Hardcore Grinders.


Technically Alpha Two should already be here. More Information, more Footage - and the glorious Task of testing and helping Sir Steven to finish the Game by participating in the Test, should also be here.

But we have no Choice but to pray and trust that everything will go just fine, while sending positivie Vibes of Success and Goodwill our way. 😅

Enigmatic Sage

@Aszkalon yup, they will publicly update each month and many can see for themselves during alpha 2 streams.

Aszkalon

I am aware, Enigmatic.