Vipernz wrote: » Ok so I've been following Ashes for some time now and this is more of a random thought that I felt could be valuable to share, I completely understand if what I'm proposing/suggesting here is something that is already on the radar/map for development however I still felt it worth sharing as discussion is healthy and anything that might help create value is a win even if it creates a discussion to validate why an idea may not be great so I welcome all opinions and feedback. Recently I watched a reaction video about the caravan process and what that journey/experience/game loop is shaping up to look like and I couldn't help but form some opinions about how this might: 1. Be amazing fantastic re-playable content offering a wealth of in game interactions 2. Become a predictable gank-fest with caravans being wrecked the minute they step out of town and onto their trade route So I would love to drop something here that came to mind around how intrepid could look to balance this and drive an absolute immersive experience, I would love to know if this is something that is already being discussed but just in-case its not (Knowing the depth of thought that has gone into this game I feel like it probably has) so here goes: Firstly I want to say that the construction process and re-deployment stages of the caravan into different terrain types (Land, water etc...) looks absolutely amazing and cannot wait to play this game mechanic, However the reaction video and opinions that were talked through during that video really got me thinking about how this gameloop could be angled to really and truly create a dynamic and immersive experience forcing players to constantly think ahead and engage with the environment, For ease of read I will bullet point some suggestions then try to talk to them: 1. Dynamic trade routes: By this I do not mean that there would be more than one route, I mean potentially allowing players to plan a trade route on a map before engaging in the caravan escort, giving the opportunity to plan the journey before deployment including choosing ahead of time the points at which the caravan will need to convert for various terrain changes as well as allowing the escort group to strategically use the world to their advantage like intentionally avoiding choke points or canyons where an ambush would be likely by a raiding party 2. Rewards/Profit based on journey length & difficulty: Having the chance to increase the payout for completing a caravan escort based on the travel distance and the difficulty of the part of the world the caravan is traveling through could be such an engaging part of this process where certain trade routes may include world events and bosses where not only would players need to fend off potential raiding parties but having PVE content to contend with at varying difficulty levels depending on a variety of factors would add an amazing layer of content which would feed off/be influenced by the dynamic trade routes and pre-planning where say route A may have a higher reward but may be a less direct route and travel through some higher risk areas or require more stops/transitions as well as being a higher chance for PVE events and travel through tighter corridors or more terrain transitions giving raiding parties more opportunities for ambush and route B may be far easier to complete, stick to larger more open areas, be less profitable but also be less desirable for a raiding party to engage, obviously there would be a balance required and this would all be around risk vs reward. 3. Raiding rewards vary based on the stage of the caravan journey: This one I felt would really encourage not only the escorts but the raiding parties to think deeply about how and when the decide to engage a caravan, If the amount of contents dropped by a caravan increased as the caravan travels further into the designated trade route as well as having this dynamically set by the escort party planning the route where there would be an overall value that would peak and trough at various points of the journey based on the routing chosen and various environmental factors it would keep this game loop incredibly dynamic where a raiding party may need to follow a caravan and observe from a distance until an indicator gets to a certain 'sweet spot' to engage for the highest raiding rewards, This could also potentially tie into the PVE content where the raiding party may have to also contend with PVE content as well as the escorting players to get the maximum rewards from the caravan raid, this would also aim to avoid having raiding parties sitting and waiting outside high volume trade cities to just jump on a caravan as it sets out which I feel if allowed would be such a shame and essentially collapse this mechanic, I acknowledge the will be a pvp system to punish 'ganking' behaviour which is great and would actually also play well into this as another layer of consideration. 4. Dynamically available routing options based on node stages: finally all of this would tie so well into the changing world with node progression influencing the most desirable routes, village to village would be less profitable than city to city and certain types of nodes may offer higher rewards for trade routes to other certain node types which means players then would have a layer of planning node progression to align with the types of trade routes they want to establish or make available by progressing one node over another, also where these nodes are in the world and the routes between them could be influenced by a massive variety of factors keeping the caravan game loop an integral, dynamic, changing and immersive one where raiding parties would plan their ambush locations based on the terrain between high value nodes however the escorts would be able to constantly plan new routes if they found they were getting ambushed at a certain point they would be able to define the next route to avoid those danger zones which then would again feed into re-deploying the rest zones/transition points and sweet spots for highest loot for raiders keeping it truly dynamic and never feeling like a static game loop. 5. Trading caravans supplying adjacent nodes with required materials to progress: Another thought that just popped into my head is tying the caravan gameloop into the progression of nodes, where to speed up node progression a certain node may required specific materials from other biomes or racially aligned nodes/cities giving players a massive incentive to engage in caravans to achieve wider goals aligned with a specific node being able to progress sooner if say enough stone was brought in from a mining zone to enable the construction of larger buildings etc.. this would also push players to consider which other adjacent or even wider nodes were being progressed in parallel to enable the availability of the resources they need to progress their own node in a desired direction the required resources potentially would vary depending on the racial weighting of a node meaning players would need to identify and work with other cities/citizens to secure trade routes and resource types that are relevant. Long time follower first time poster so please excuse the brain dump, I hope that some cool discussions can follow ^_^
