The Trade Caravan

[Teh_Az]

This is an Idea I have for helping to revitalize trade. Consider the cart and its limited space, and then consider something like a cart, but is run by horses, could be ridden by people like boats, could be slept in like a leanto, and has enough space for double what a cart could carry. This way, these caravans could be grouped together by enterprising drifters who travel from city to city to trade and deliver goods or letters. They could also be used as protection, makeshift palisades, by simply driving the caravans into a circle formation like in those old west movies. This is to better protect the traders from unscrupulous bandits and brigands who wish to raid their riches.

This provides us with ample opportunities with the professions of mercenary, body guard, merchants, traveling carpenters, traveling cooks, and so on and so forth. I've been thinking on a way to develop this further, and I've touched some ideas which could be down with just a cart and not the caravan. The idea is called Trade Guild and I'll post it up some time.

[lithos]

Would need something starting at 20 storage spots(for containers) and the ability to go over both land and river to make up for the convenience of teleportation.

[sabinati]

there have been a few discussions of stuff like this in the past. i might merge this thread at some point but i think it's a topic worth discussing.

the general idea is a good one. i don't really think it's necessary to have a single cart able to carry 20 slots or cross water and land for this to be worth doing. bridges, canals, or a more realistic (i.e. interconnected) river system would be nice i suppose, in the future. the way the map is now, you can travel overland just fine near the edges of the supergrids, since rivers don't cross over. we currently don't have roads there, but they could be built. we currently don't have much of a signpost network up right now either.

as for making up for the convenience of teleportation, meh. i spent several hours last night boating and carrying a boat over my head on the way to the center grid. the main problem is the lack of a temporary, mobile claim spot. lean-to offers some protection from theft, which is nice. if there was a road, and a large cart with a claim mechanic i would have taken the road.

teleportation is nice though, for jumping around to spots you visit often and being able to take a couple chests worth of stuff with you is nice too. but some people find it interesting to travel, or lead a nomadic lifestyle, and i think that's great. trade caravans are cool.

[Teh_Az]

Oh! I didn't mean that the caravan could behave like a boat. I only said that it could act somewhat like a boat because it could be ridden by more than two people with still some space leftover for the goods. I think it should have the properties of aleanto also just to make sure theft scents are left on the cart. And the only way to get it to move would be if it was pulled by either five people or two horses.

As for travelling on water, I'd expect the enterprising to construct rafts large enough to fit a cart. Hey, why not add in an entirely new feature: the ability to construct small barges or ships?

Also, the Travelling Claim idea is excellent, we should have that. A moving leanto shouldn't be so hard to do I'm sure.

[Riou1231]

This seems like a great idea, right now trading with people far away is extremely difficult so this would speed up the process and defend you from wild animals like boars and bears all at the same time.

[Avu]

Just wait until you meat the worst animals out there other players.

[Thijssnl]

Just wait until you meEt* the worst animals out there other players.

Already said something about your writing, not a native English speaker?

Yeh, troll at me and I troll back.

[Teh_Az]

^It should be a semi-colon, not a comma.

[Avu]

It could be a typo it could be intentional you'll never know!