Caravan types

Tier 5 personal caravan on route from Winstead to Miraleth in Alpha-2. 3D model by Hal Anderson.

There are different types of Caravans in Ashes of Creation.

• Personal caravans.
• Mayorale karavaans.
• System driven caravans.

Caravans

Alpha-2 caravan being escorted to the Miraleth node.

The Caravan System is a major aspect of the economy in Ashes of Creation. While the rewards can be great for moving massive amounts of Commodities and other materials across the world of Verra, players can choose to be Caravan attackers or defenders, making these hotspots for PvP battles.

Caravan PvP in Alpha-2.

Caravans are vehicles that facilitate the transfer of cargo across Verra.

Caravans are the induction of emergent gameplay, which means you cannot predict the situation you're going to be in when you use a caravan. That's part of the risk: The risk is the unknown. If you could predict it then your ability to mitigate that risk would unfortunately remove that dynamic- that ratio of risk versus reward. – Steven Sharif

• Personal caravans are used to transport cargo for one or more players.

• Mayorale karavaans are used by Burgemeesters to transfer cargo between nodes with established trade agreements or alliances.

• Caravans are initiated from and arrive at caravansary node buildings within Dorp (fase 3) nodes and above.

• Caravans create an objective-based PvP event in the open-world that players can choose to attack, defend, or opt-out of.

• PvE caravan events can cause roadways to be blocked off or hostile mobs to spawn to attack the caravan.

• It is possible to launch decoy caravans and merchant ships, but there are visual hints of what is contained in a caravan. Decoy crates may be available via social organization progression.

Mayorale karavaans

Deze vertaling is mogelijk verouderd

Een quest om een mayoraal karavaan op pad te sturen.

Mayorale karavaans worden op pad gestuurd door burgemeesters.

• Het opzetten van handelsroutes met andere nodes.
• Het vergaren van grondstoffen door het doen van karavaanquests.

System driven caravans

System driven caravans (also referred to as Quest driven caravans) are system spawned caravans that are used for trade routes between nodes.

Sommige van de volgende informatie is niet recentelijk bevestigd door de ontwikkelaars en staat mogelijk niet op de huidige ontwikkelingsroutekaart.

• These are initiated by players with a diverse choice of routes and launch windows, making them difficult to zerg.
• Initiating a caravan from one node to another will create a PvP objective that players will need to defend while it moves along its chosen route to the selected destination.
• Roads will upgrade as nodes advance. Different roads will dictate the speed and type of caravan required (off road vs on road).

The caravan system is designed to be initiated by the player. Which means, information of the caravans launch time and route, should be a closely guarded secret. Routes will also be diverse, and the world is large, so it might behoove you to scout the route ahead before a launch. Fast travel in our game is also limited, which means unless the guild had knowledge of your plans before hand, it is likely that they will be unable to organize and travel to a location. As far as mass guilds securing trade routes, there is always a bigger fish in the pond. Also caravans will have limitations on carrying capacity and launch windows that will segment mulitiple caravans by several minutes, which would space out the caravans, making it difficult to "zerg" a defense. – Steven Sharif

Personal caravans

Caravan speed is affected by caravan components and the type of roading.

There'll be different variants of each of the components, with the wheels for example, would have variants that will excel perhaps at off-road over on-road and vice versa. So right now we have caravans that are set up more for the on-road portion, but you will travel faster over roads, but that obviously comes with the increased risk of running into other players or monsters that are blocking the road. – Chris Justo

Personal caravans of different tiers deployed outside the Winstead node in Alpha-2. 3D models by Hal Anderson.

Personal caravans (also referred to as Self-directed/player-driven caravans) are utilized by players to transport cargo across Verra. These are land-based and water-based (raft caravans) that a single player drives and directs.

• Personal caravans are prepared and launched from caravansary buildings at Dorp (fase 3) or higher nodes.

• Personal caravans can also be summoned in the open-world from caravansaries in nearby nodes.

• Personal caravans are capable of transitioning to/from raft caravans.

• Caravan components modify caravan stats and grant passive and active abilities to the caravan. Components can be upgraded to increase a caravan's power.

• By default, personal caravans have a racial appearance that influences the types of animals that are moving the caravan.
  • Players will be able to apply caravan skins to change the default appearance.

• Caravan drivers receive a significant defensive buff while they are driving a caravan. This reduces CC effects and increases damage mitigation significantly.

• The caravan owner is able to grant permissions to allow other players to drive their caravans. If these permissions are not activated by the owner then anyone can drive their caravans. If the caravan driver is killed or otherwise removed from the caravan then any player will be able to drive the caravan for a period of 15 to 20 minutes before the caravan despawns and becomes a wreckage.
  • A caravan will persist in the world for a period of 5 to 10 minutes from the time its owner logs out or is disconnected from the server.

• Caravans have collision, so other players could jump on the caravan while it is being driven.
  • Players or mounts trying to block caravans will be pushed out of the way.

Caravan inventory

Commodities crates found in caravan wreckages are marked with a green symbol.

Materials crates found in caravan wreckages are marked with a black symbol.

• Cargo transported by caravan and merchant ships must be stored in crates.

• There are small, medium, and large crates. The higher quality the crate, the greater its capacity.

• Commodities are transported by caravans and merchant ships in sealed crates.
  • Player commodities are "pre-crated" when they are purchased from commodities vendor NPCs.
  • Player commodities present in caravan wreckages have a portion of their value sunk (lost).
  • These commodities cannot be stored in a player's inventory. Looting them will convert them into stolen commodities which yield a lesser value when exchanged at black market locations in nodes.
  • To retain the value of the commodities, players must summon an empty caravan from a nearby node to collect and transport them.

Commodities can go into Crates to move them. If someone loses a Caravan, in the wreckage there are Crates. If you get a Crate to a Caravansary you can unpack it. – Ry Schueller

• Commodities crates found in caravan wreckages are marked with a green symbol.
• Materials crates found in caravan wreckages are marked with a black symbol.

• Unsealing crates (by breaking open sealed crates) yields less value than transporting the sealed crates for unloading. This is in addition to the value already lost when the caravan (or merchant ship) was destroyed.

• Glint must be transported via crate when in large quantities.

• Crates will undergo testing and iteration during Alpha-2.

Zie ook

• Caravans
• Mules
• Economy
• PvP
• Inventory