One's role in the game world

[oddoddessey]

Hello, I'm fairly new to H&H but so far I'm addicted. After some trial and error sessions, I feel like I've got a pretty decent handle on the game.

Now, I understand that you're mostly left to your own devices here. Like, to chose a life of nomad, or a farming hermit or simply join a village. But I've noticed a few things on the forums here that pique my interest. I noticed someone mentioned Ferrymen, and then another mentioned Haulers (I assume they're like Hearthling truckers).

Maybe this is a dumb question but are these viable... Careers? Could I get an Oxcart and haul goods from one village to the next for some kind of compensation? Could I stake a claim on a river and ferry passengers across?

I would love to hear about anyone's experiences with this type of thing or any ideas you might have or have heard of.

Thanks in advance for the input.

[Darkren]

Those are mostly things people can do on their own... If an entire river is claimed, people will just leave a theft scent on their boat to get across. Crossroads are the main means of teleportation, making mass-transport effortless (this may be subject to change). Quite amusing ideas though.

Anybody living alone HAS to farm to make progress; if you want end-game content (mining, high-quality crafting, PvP) or multiplayer gameplay, that's when you should join a village, to share the load and allow for more of a variety of gameplay.

[Coriander]

Hmm, I do not think a fairy man (pun intended) will work. It is too easy to build a boat and/or navigate around a river.
A traveling tinker is an intriguing idea that might work, though you will be a natural target for griefer attacks. Since large villages often teleport between allied villages for trade and such, you would mostly be serving the "hermit" community as your customer base.
If you try this I would love to hear how it worked for you.
Good luck, and good gaming to you!

[oddoddessey]

Hmm, I do not think a fairy man (pun intended) will work. It is too easy to build a boat and/or navigate around a river.
A traveling tinker is an intriguing idea that might work, though you will be a natural target for griefer attacks. Since large villages often teleport between allied villages for trade and such, you would mostly be serving the "hermit" community as your customer base.
If you try this I would love to hear how it worked for you.
Good luck, and good gaming to you!

Well that still seems pretty interesting to me. I like the idea of being the lunch truck or the traveling salesman and I really wouldn't mind exploring the wilderness to get to my customers. But I'm wondering if it makes sense to do it. Would I actually be helpful, and my visits looked forward to or considered a pleasant surprise? Or would I be the guy who shows up and tries to peddle stuff you already have for your surplus Rats on a Stick?

I'm only asking because I know I'm inexperienced and I'm not really certain on things like trade.

[burgingham]

I wrote some stuff on the role of a travelling salesman in h&h some time ago. The problem why this is not really a viable career right now is on the one hand the teleportation system (which I love otherwise) and on the other hand the insufficient surplus. Travelling just doesn't give you any lp so you cannot improve your skills and you also will have to have a supplier to actually have goods people would want to buy. I would love to try this career path myself, preferably in a group. A caravan of traders sure is a nice thought and I would love them to visit my town on a regular basis, or be a part of them myself.

[Coriander]

Burgingham is correct. No LP and It would probably not be "profitable" but it could be fun. Some things are always in demand. Good clay, repair metal, (silk moth eggs?), seeds, milk, general blacksmith services, good herb tables (the supplies and equipment and carpentry skill to craft them), maps and information.
But then again, getting around in a wagon is a real PITA.

[burgingham]

Getting around in a wagon would probably be easier if there was a ferryman at each river

[Pansy]

Would there be any market for providing overland transportation of bulk goods or passengers?

With the world incompletely mapped and no crossroads to many smaller locations it might be possible to provide services to mid or lower range players. For example if there is a settlement on a meadow in Grid G8 that would like to sell 8 barrels of milk to a town in G7. They may not know the way to get there, nor have the cattle for an ox cart. You might be able to provide this service. You could also escort newer players, for example if regions don't have any maps and the overland portions are seriously hazardous to them because of bears. Or you could make blazes to show the route that they need to travel by ground so they can take a reasonably direct route. If you build a road they would just use it instead of paying tolls on it to you, or paying you to do the freight. So this is an alternative to building a road, but it is possible you would be paid for that. You could also make a business of selling maps to people and combine that business with any and all of the possibilities above.

The difficulty is marketing the transportation business. If you advertise your long haul freight ability on the forum, you might get a few nibbles in a wide range of grids, and find they are all impractical because they are areas you have not yet learned, and would take so long to get to, especially with an ox cart, that the trade deal would fall through. Moreover with time zones and languages and the prevalence of theft connecting to pick up goods and not getting mugged could both become problems.

Have you considered being a merchant on commission? That is, if I advertise that I am looking for cave bulbs, you might make a deal with me to buy them from you in lots of 25 and then advertise that you were looking for small quantities of cave bulbs in F1, F2, G2, and G1, for which you would pay in chest nuggets. You would then go around and collect the cave bulbs from newer players who don't have access to metal and transport them to me for payment in metal bars. Ideally you would make a profit of several nuggets or a bar or two. This particular example might not work, but milk, silk filaments and other possibilities might work if the cave bulbs didn't, and if you made several deals you could go around collecting all three at once.

[Novamber]

[oddoddessey]

Thank you all for your input. So far it's been very interesting. I will definitely be giving more thought to the topic.