The Trade Guild Idea

[Teh_Az]

This isn't really a programming idea, but its more of an idea concerning the attitudes and organization of the players themselves. It brings several concepts with it, chief of which is;

The Traveling Village

I'm envisioning the trade guild to be a collection of people or kin who set up temporary claims wherever they plan to rest for the night or just stop travelling. Their homes would be their carts, the make-shift fences they make, and the goods they take with them. One group would be assigned to keep watch over all the goods as body guards on rotating shifts, another group would be in charge of logistics and rations, another groups would be in charge of spontaneous food procurement, and another group would be in charge of cooking the rations while people wait for the hunter-gatherers to come back with produce. Other groups would be in charge of setting up make shift homes for the others, leantos and such.

There is also the alternate idea, Traveling Village, but with waystations in between trade spots.

The Trade Guild would be a collection of people of two kinds, those who travel and those who manage inns. Imagine having a world where there'd be actual towns that serve as inns. There's be body guards, and stone mansions that provide rent. There would be purchaseable beer and provisions, even the like of company. Other players will be encouraged to start viable settlements outside the Inn-Town, but the inn would primarily serve as resting place for the Trade Caravan.

Another idea would be, The Trade Embassies;

The Trade Guild would purchase one 20*20 plot of land from every major trade spot and set up shop as a trade embassy. Like the medieval faire of the past, this is where the trade caravan shall immediately find placements of its goods. The plot must be shared among a number of people equal to the amount of shop stands they could possibly manage. They would also be in charge of the security of tehir goods and the transport of the goods brought by the caravan to their shops. While the caravan has yet to arrive, they will be required to fend for themselves through various enterprises, so shop owners should be players of considerable crafting skill so as to keep themselves economically advantageous to the village they embassy in.

already, the image of the trade caravan would be much, much more like DHL or FedEx.

A complementary idea would be, The Road Construction Service;

This is basically a group of players who offer to connect major trade spots with roads, along with clear cutting the pathways for safety.

[Onionfighter]

There really isn't much advantage to being a nomad. Your idea of temporary settling, you won't find anyone willing to actively guard the base, and if any organized city decides to raid you, they could easily wipe the group out.

[Teh_Az]

That is sad. But hey, the reality of it is spot on. When the silk traders were traveling from china to the middle east, it was a big risk to the investors. Most caravans wouldn't even last a trip.

[sabinati]

i'd imagine many of the organized settlements might have a vested interest in trade caravans and would possibly provide guards or something

[Humbaz]

Having a decent infrastructure has many benefits, like speeding up trade (and rade ), helping to orientate oneself, expanding ones hegemony (see Roman Empire here ) and others iam to lazy to mention right now.

Id like to reanimate this thread because i think the OP had a splendid idea. Since we have waggons and rafts now i suggest we connect every bigger settlement with each other to boost trade and interaction.
This might be to big for a single person or smaler group so id like to encourage you to dispatch road-building crews to speed up the proccess.

http://havenmap.tk/ here is providing a usefull tool to plan and execute this task.

A road-building crew could contain 5 "gypsies" sharing one oxen-cart, taking turns in building roads, road-houses/taverns and raft-stations. The "shift" which has to logout will be doing this on the waggon and thus will apear right on the spot the road continues, after loging in again!

Also if someone is willing to form a "gypsie-tribe" of road-builders and traders let me know, iam in.

[Flame]

i'm building marks and roads for help claims and trade.

So, if you wanna help me, your welkome. I'm not building any guild or trade town, anyway. Just doing what i think this map actually miss, waiting for bridges too.

[Teh_Az]

I is back.

[Truth0]

The Silk Road was effective because the Chinese had something the rest of the world did not. Furthermore, despite the world wanting it so bad, it was just so far away that only certain groups were willing to travel so far to get it and bring it back. This is not at all the case in H&H.