Trading (&) Caravans
Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 1:57 pmCame up with that idea with a few others in #salem
I know, this will be very complex and a lot of work for the devs, but I still really hope, they'll have a look at it, because if its possible to do and the devs like it, it could make salem very entertaining for a much longer period.
This is connected to the meta-biomes idea, because it'd make much more sense if not everything would be available everywhere.
The core Idea
The idea is, that you need to come out of your walls, if you want to do significant trading. So teleport-trade needs to be nerfed to make this more interesting (maybe with travel-weariness or something like that). And/or you can't teleport with region-only crops and other rare stuff.
In the end, there should be trading-caravans with wagons and ferries travelling with a bunch of people for protection a long distance and make the whole world more lively.
So this is some stuff we came up with in #salem
Trade road
Apart from using ferries, you'll need to go by land.
To improve wagon-speed, you'll need roads. Those could be marked as trading-road through milestones with the side-effect, that these prevent the roads from rotting away. If you don't use roads, its much slower and there is a chance to get a broken axle, repairable, but annoying and leaving the caravan longer open for ambush (Ambushers could also put trunks in the way like in the stories). For a better wagon, you'll need steel or something, the axle will then be less likely to break on bumpy ground, too.
I think this will soon result in a network of roads with 2 or 3 main roads.
Also, the roads don't need to be completely paved. Maybe the main roads will be later on, but I think it'll suffice for the smaller ones if the ground is even and the roads are nothing else than hard packed dirt like back then. Downside is, in case they add rain, they'll be muddy and slowing if they aren't paved.
Making Caravans Interesting
As I said, this would only make sense, if you couldn't simply teleport-trade everything. Also, you could introduce an open-end village-prosperity-level which can be increased by trading. So if your trade caravan completed a trade, the village will get prosperity-points depending on the linear distance of the two villages. This means, the trade gets initiated over a menu between the village leaders(or a certain village-trading-official) before the wagons roll out. As soon as the wagons are filled up, each of them will get some sort of trading certificate applied which is only possible inside the own village. At this point it'll track the distance the wagons made until the certificate is redeemed by the other village official. The village getting visited by the caravan should get 20% of the trade-points or something. Maybe after reaching the wagons destination, it could be converted to a stall by simply removing the cloth cover from the one side and put it on sticks. Also, the trade points should be related to the value of the cargo and the items actually sold/exchanged, so the trader needs to finish up the trade, when both sides are satisfied and then they'll get their points.
Not quite sure yet how the trading/exchange system should work, maybe someone has an Idea.
Futher anti-abuse measures
A second measure to prevent abuse of the system could be, that the trade-goods are marked by the villages trading-official, giving them a locked status until undone. This status will prevent the players from using the goods and, more importantly, teleporting with them, even if you are in Boston. This status can only be undone by a trade-official in his own village. After that, they're regular items again and free to use. Same rules for robbing a caravan. Not quite sure about robbing yet though. Maybe you could get a prosperity of half the stolen-item-value.
(hmm this could result in mercenaries with high fightig-skill selling their service to traders, who want their cargo better protected)
Trading Reward Between Village <-> Boston and Village <-> Village
If a village is trading to another village, the visitor-village(the one which travelled) gets 100%, the home-village gets 20% of the amount the visitor got.
Similar rules should apply for trading in Boston, except the exchange of items in the market-district of Boston between traders results in 100%-100% trade points, because the buyer also needs to drive the load home.
In detail it could look like this:
If the selling village in Boston finishes the trade, it gets the prosperity-reward for wagon-travel-distance(way to boston)+item-value. The buyer gets his prosperity reward, when he reaches his village with the goods and unlocks them. The reward will then be the bought item-value+distance from boston to his way home.
If the buyer just bought a small amount and can carry it in his inventory to his village, he only gets 20%.
Prosperity Reward
There should be a minimum-travel distance to reward any prosperity at all, also, the multiplier for more distance should be much more rewarding.
Like, for example something like
sqrt(10km*400itemvalue)*(10km²:3²)
Village Prosperity
There should be no prosperity-maximum, so the devs could always add new rewards to it, when they come up with them.
The villages trade-official has a menu with an important NPC in boston, where he can exchange the Village-Prosperty-points for building blueprints, invitations for contests, recipes, titles and maybe even the right to convert a village to a city.
Of couse, most to all of this needs much reviewing and rethinking but thats the general idea.
I know, this will be very complex and a lot of work for the devs, but I still really hope, they'll have a look at it, because if its possible to do and the devs like it, it could make salem very entertaining for a much longer period.
This is connected to the meta-biomes idea, because it'd make much more sense if not everything would be available everywhere.
The core Idea
The idea is, that you need to come out of your walls, if you want to do significant trading. So teleport-trade needs to be nerfed to make this more interesting (maybe with travel-weariness or something like that). And/or you can't teleport with region-only crops and other rare stuff.
In the end, there should be trading-caravans with wagons and ferries travelling with a bunch of people for protection a long distance and make the whole world more lively.
So this is some stuff we came up with in #salem
Trade road
Apart from using ferries, you'll need to go by land.
To improve wagon-speed, you'll need roads. Those could be marked as trading-road through milestones with the side-effect, that these prevent the roads from rotting away. If you don't use roads, its much slower and there is a chance to get a broken axle, repairable, but annoying and leaving the caravan longer open for ambush (Ambushers could also put trunks in the way like in the stories). For a better wagon, you'll need steel or something, the axle will then be less likely to break on bumpy ground, too.
I think this will soon result in a network of roads with 2 or 3 main roads.
Also, the roads don't need to be completely paved. Maybe the main roads will be later on, but I think it'll suffice for the smaller ones if the ground is even and the roads are nothing else than hard packed dirt like back then. Downside is, in case they add rain, they'll be muddy and slowing if they aren't paved.
Making Caravans Interesting
As I said, this would only make sense, if you couldn't simply teleport-trade everything. Also, you could introduce an open-end village-prosperity-level which can be increased by trading. So if your trade caravan completed a trade, the village will get prosperity-points depending on the linear distance of the two villages. This means, the trade gets initiated over a menu between the village leaders(or a certain village-trading-official) before the wagons roll out. As soon as the wagons are filled up, each of them will get some sort of trading certificate applied which is only possible inside the own village. At this point it'll track the distance the wagons made until the certificate is redeemed by the other village official. The village getting visited by the caravan should get 20% of the trade-points or something. Maybe after reaching the wagons destination, it could be converted to a stall by simply removing the cloth cover from the one side and put it on sticks. Also, the trade points should be related to the value of the cargo and the items actually sold/exchanged, so the trader needs to finish up the trade, when both sides are satisfied and then they'll get their points.
Not quite sure yet how the trading/exchange system should work, maybe someone has an Idea.
Futher anti-abuse measures
A second measure to prevent abuse of the system could be, that the trade-goods are marked by the villages trading-official, giving them a locked status until undone. This status will prevent the players from using the goods and, more importantly, teleporting with them, even if you are in Boston. This status can only be undone by a trade-official in his own village. After that, they're regular items again and free to use. Same rules for robbing a caravan. Not quite sure about robbing yet though. Maybe you could get a prosperity of half the stolen-item-value.
(hmm this could result in mercenaries with high fightig-skill selling their service to traders, who want their cargo better protected)
Trading Reward Between Village <-> Boston and Village <-> Village
If a village is trading to another village, the visitor-village(the one which travelled) gets 100%, the home-village gets 20% of the amount the visitor got.
Similar rules should apply for trading in Boston, except the exchange of items in the market-district of Boston between traders results in 100%-100% trade points, because the buyer also needs to drive the load home.
In detail it could look like this:
If the selling village in Boston finishes the trade, it gets the prosperity-reward for wagon-travel-distance(way to boston)+item-value. The buyer gets his prosperity reward, when he reaches his village with the goods and unlocks them. The reward will then be the bought item-value+distance from boston to his way home.
If the buyer just bought a small amount and can carry it in his inventory to his village, he only gets 20%.
Prosperity Reward
There should be a minimum-travel distance to reward any prosperity at all, also, the multiplier for more distance should be much more rewarding.
Like, for example something like
sqrt(10km*400itemvalue)*(10km²:3²)
Village Prosperity
There should be no prosperity-maximum, so the devs could always add new rewards to it, when they come up with them.
The villages trade-official has a menu with an important NPC in boston, where he can exchange the Village-Prosperty-points for building blueprints, invitations for contests, recipes, titles and maybe even the right to convert a village to a city.
Of couse, most to all of this needs much reviewing and rethinking but thats the general idea.
