Heerobya's Random Thoughts

My random thoughts about MMORPGs. A bit of critique, suggestion, debate, and insanity. Enjoy.

Author: heerobya

Thanks for reading!

This post will cover the specifics of crafting, give a little more detail on the resource gathering as discussed before, and introduce the Trade Routes system.

So a little more on resource gathering first. You'll be able to hold as much of a resource as your inventory space allows you when you are at a resource gathering site. I haven't gotten any specifics on inventory size yet, but I think it's sufficient to say that you will have bags of varying sizes that you get through questing, item drops, crafting them, etc. just like in any other MMORPG.

That being said, you'll also be able to purchase carts, pack mules, and other beasts of burden. These creatures/carts can hold nothing but crafting resources, and will come with varying inventory space. When you go to a resource gathering site, you can bring your pack mule, fill it up with resources, and go about your business. 

You'll then have to escort/push your mule/cart from the resource gathering site to whatever town/city to refine/enhance and/or use in crafting/sale. I'm thinking that all the resource sites will have facilities there to refine/etc the raw materials into the usable units for crafting if you wish. For example mining sites will have an area with forges for smelting the ores into bars and such. 

More "basic" and "common" resource sites will be close to the towns/cities and heavily patrolled by NPC guards, making the risk of bandits/raiders very, very low. This will also make transportation much quicker. More rare and valuable resources will be farther away from civilization and in more treacherous areas. This is a difficult compromise, because I don't want to "force" crafters to fight in combat if they don't want to. So I've brainstormed a bit, and this is what I've come up with. 

From these more rare and uncommon resource sites, the trip back to town will be more treacherous and difficult. So, every hour on the hour, NPC caravans of traders and NPC guards will leave and make for the nearest city/town. Players can join these caravans for the protection they offer, so crafters don't have to fight if they have no interest in combat. (dunno about hour time rule, it's debatable.)   

Also, players will be able to "sign up" to work as combat escorts to these caravans, providing further security in case of a pirate/raider/bandit attack, and be paid for their services.

And this, my friends, brings us into the Trade Routes system. These runs from resource sites to civilization will be the first type of Trade Route. The crafters will get experience for doing the resource gathering, refinement, and then either get money for the sale of the goods or use them to craft and gain experience. The combat players will get experience and skill gains in battle and get money and experience for escorting the caravan safely.

The next part of the Trade Routes system involves trade between towns/cities. There will be trade vendors in every town/city that will sell specialty goods. These goods will sell for varying amounts of profit at other cities/towns around the game world. Just like in Earth and Beyond and Fable, you buy goods in one location, bring them to another location and sell them, and gain profit. How much profit is gained is based upon the danger involved in the route, the distance, and supply/demand factors. If tons of players are doing the same Trade Routes, the profit from those routes will fall as more and more goods are delivered. So what routes make the most profit will be constantly shifting and changing, required the smart business player to seek out the best deals and best profits.

NPC caravans will leave these locations and certain intervals of times, and players can purchase the specialty goods and join these caravans for the added protection from bandits/raiders that the NPC guards provide. Also, players will be able to sign up as hired mercs to escort and provide protection like before, but these players won't be able to gain profit for goods sold, they are just there for protection, but are getting paid for it, so the profit made by the caravan effects their own pay.

Pack mules/carts and such can be used to transport more goods, of course, but will slow down the travel speed of the caravan.

Also, players will be able to form their own trade caravans. They will be responsible for their own protection, but won't have to stick to the "common path" that the NPC caravans take. They are free to find there own way to the destination, which can bring a faster trip, but also more danger. All trade caravan trips (*not the trips from the resource gathering sites*) will be timed. The faster the trip, the more profit. So you have to find a balance between the amount of goods carried (pack mules or not?) and the speed in which you get there. Protection of NPC routes or your own path? More goods = more profit, faster time = more profit. The trade off is up to you.

If you are attacked by bandits/raiders, they will not only try to kill the players/NPCs but will attack the transport animals (if any are there), which will destroy some of the goods. It won't be possible to lose everything, so you lose money, but you will definitely be able to lose enough to make zero profit.

You'll gain XP for these trade routes, again based off of how fast you complete the route and the quantity of goods sold. If an escort, you'll gain your XP and money based off the time of the trip and what quantity of goods was lost to bandits/raiders.

It's very important to know, that you will NOT be able to use any fast travel options during a Trade Route. No hearthstones or recall scrolls or whatever, no flight points or teleporters (more to come on travel options later.) You'll be able to ride your mount, which can make things much faster, but if you have carts/pack mules you'll have to go slow enough for them to keep up.

So are all the roads going to be filled with caravans? Both NPC and player? Maybe. What prevents hundreds of players from joining the NPC caravans? What prevents entire Guilds from running their own huge Trade Routes? Nothing. It's just another option for players. More content. Much more interesting then grinding mobs for money right? I plan to have a very large world, with many, many high profit and dangerous Trade Routes. The larger the caravan, the more likely to be attacked by pirates/raiders/bandits. A few, players on mounts moving quickly over the roads will have a good chance of making the run without conflict, but the profit won't be as high as if they had brought pack mules. But it was faster and safer. Again, it's all about making choices.

So yeah, this is way too long and I haven't gotten into actual crafting at all yet hahah. Next blog post, part 3: CRAFTING! I promise!