Geological features?

[meador]

you somehow have to time it up ... like 3...2...1 both letting down there stuff at the same time xD
yeah but that way, I think it's even more realistic trading, somehow... in the real world you can't be safe of someone stealing your hours of work...

[theTrav]

well there's a whole bunch of skills around those interactions.

Yeomanship for locking out the really new griefer players.
Buildable fences (currently we use things like baskets and drying racks) to physically channel griefer players into the common entry
Combat skills and the murder skill for our guards to stop the bad guys from entering our encampment and stealing our stuff.

So the sort of trading I'm thinking of is where you get two of these well set up, high level, moderate to large population centers, each with different useful goods that need regular top ups, and a meeting point some where in the middle where both groups send trading parties to conduct the exchange. Obviously the trading parties should also be well armed.