Caravanes

Alpha-1 caravan 3D render by Adam Will.

Caravans facilitate the transfer of goods for players wishing to turn a profit.

Mayoral Caravan system - Work in Progress.

The caravan system is an open world PvP system that revolves around opportunity and risk. Caravans facilitate the transfer of goods for players wishing to turn a profit.

• Caravans are for transfer of personal goods and quests as well as supplies for castles and nodes.

• Caravans may only be sent from or arrive at village nodes or above.

• Caravans can transport goods for more than one player.

• The Pvp flagging system does not apply to caravans.

Caravan types

Ramstone Hauler pre-order pack cosmetic caravan skin.

There are different types of Caravans in Ashes of Creation.

• Mayoral caravans.
• Quest driven caravans.
• Personal caravans.

The caravan system is another very big part of the node system. They are the main driver of economic activity and there is a bunch of different types of caravan. – Jeffrey Bard

Mayoral caravans

Quest to launch a mayoral caravan.

Mayoral caravans are launched by Mayors.

• Establishing trade routes with another node.
• Obtain resources by doing a caravan quest.

Quest driven caravans

Quest driven caravans are used for trade routes between nodes. These caravans are system driven.

• 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.
• Node-based caravan stats and capabilities scale with their node's advancement.
• 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

Personal (Self-directed/player driven) caravans are initiated by the player, who essentially "becomes the caravan". These are land-based and water-based (naval caravans) that the player drives and directs.

• These are currently designed for a single driver.
• Personal caravans can be launched from any point of storage.
• Personal caravans are capable of transitioning to/from naval caravans.
• Personal caravans will come in varying sizes and capacities.
• By default player caravans will 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.

Naval caravans

Alpha-1 Niküa naval caravan 3D render.

Caravans are capable of transitioning from land to naval caravans. So if you start out as a land-based Caravan and you move to the coast and you want to move into the water there's gonna be a little transition period there; it's gonna be a little construction kind of site: You're not gonna have to do anything it's just gonna be a timer right so that you can't quickly move between land and water. It's gonna be probably in the matter of you know a minute to two minutes. There's a little bit of vulnerability in that regard. – Steven Sharif

Naval caravans (Trade ships) are part of Ashes of Creation naval content. Naval caravans allow the transportation of trading goods.

• Naval caravans are capable of transitioning to and from land caravans at the point of intersection of land and ocean.
• These caravans will come in varying sizes and capacities.
• By default naval caravans have a racial appearance. Players will be able to apply caravan skins to change this appearance.

 

Hijacking ships

Certain ships can be hijacked. Naval caravans can not be hijacked. The cargo on a trade ship will be similar to caravans in that the ship must be destroyed in order to capture the loot from its wreckage.

Caravan inventory

Alpha-1 inventory user interface.

Personal inventory limits are tied to a backpack. Material and gatherable items are subject to quantity rather than weight limits. Caravans and Mules are intended to be the primary mode of transportation of goods beyond these limits.

• Mules can carry roughly 10 times more than backpacks. Caravans can carry roughly 10 times more than mules.

• Caravans will have carrying capacity limits and customizable stats, such as defensive points, speed and number of hired NPC guards.

• Inventaire expansion and weight management training certificates are available in the Galleria at City stage economic nodes.

Item stacks will in general have quantity limits based on the type of item.

• The stacking limit of potions might be one hundred. The stacking limit of food items might be 999 or 1000.

Caravan components

Certificates to create a caravan are issued by certain NPCs within nodes or at certain points of interest in the world. These certificates are comprised of multiple components:

• Axles.
• Armor rating (damage mitigation).
• Capacity.
• Chasis.
• Hit points.
• Maneuverability.
• Number of hired NPC guards.
• Speed.
• Steeds.
• Wheels.

Caravan components obtained from crafters will have stats according to the skill of each artisan.

• Supports bred through the Animal husbandry profession can be applied as certificates toward the construction of caravans.

Initiating caravans

Players can initiate caravans (via a NPC) with the following parameters.

• The resources it will carry.
• If it is initiated for a specific quest in a nearby node.
• If the goods are intended for trade or warehousing in a regional market.
• The recipient of the caravan (e.g. a Temple within the nearby node).

When you initiate a caravan you're going to be able to determine the resources of the caravan is going to have in it. You're going to be able to determine whether or not this caravan has been initiated for a specific quest in a nearby node. You're going to be able to deliver goods for trade or to just warehouse in a new region, so that you have access to that local market. – Steven Sharif

When you're in a nearby node that you need to drive caravan to... you're going to have an option from the NPC within a nearby node to dictate the caravan launch as a recipient of the temple yeah. – Steven Sharif

Personal caravan initiation

Personal caravans can be launched from any point of storage.

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

Naval caravan initiation

Naval caravans are capable of transitioning to and from land caravans at the point of intersection of land and ocean.

• There will be a delay of one or two minutes while the caravan transitions while a conversion structure spawns. This introduces a small window of vulnerability.
• The conversion structure does not benefit from damage mitigation points of land or naval caravans, so it's a very weak position to be in.

At the point in which your character or model intersects with an ocean it will spawn a conversion mesh or a conversion structure; and there will be a period of time, up to several minutes depending on the capacity of the caravan with the resources and/or materials that is necessary for the conversion to take place; and then the naval caravan will be available; and you can intersect that line again with land to try to convert back to a land-based caravan – Steven Sharif

Mayors

Alpha-1 Empyrean city node information panel.

Mayors are leaders of a node's government who control the development of that node.

• Allocate resources, taxes, and quests to help develop node defenses.

• Coordinate the transfer of needed supplies with citizens operating caravans.
  • Mayors must communicate what resources are necessary for a particular node then motivate the citizens to fulfill those needs.

• Other leadership powers.

Only node citizens may be elected mayor.

• Only one citizenship may be declared per account, per server.
  • This may have changed to one citizenship per account.
• A king or queen can also become a mayor.

You may only ever be a citizen of a single node at a time. – Steven Sharif

Mayors gain new powers and responsibilities as their node advances.

Leadership powers

Government officials have wide-ranging leadership powers.

• Mark foreign citizens of other nodes as enemies of the state.

• Declare war on another node and rally citizens to the cause.

• Enter into trade agreements.

• Directing assets.

• Building projects.

• Tax allocation.

• Mayors are able to allocate treasury funding to hire mercenary NPCs to defend their node during sieges.

• Mayors are able to initiate quest-driven systems that non-citizens can participate in. The mayor can use a portion of the node's treasury or goods as rewards for quest completion. Players will be able to interface with the node to view the quests that are available to them.
  • These quests can be used to bring in material components to help combat node atrophy.

• Governments may be able to choose a node name from a predetermined list.

The government has a lot of say in the direction of the nodes development. Directing assets, building projects, tax allocation, defensive ability etc. Players have the ability to not only create these cities, but they have the right of self-governance.

There are levers and dials that are present to both the owners of Castles as well as the elected officials of Nodes that during their administration they have the ability to impact and influence the region around them. – Steven Sharif

Guildes do not control nodes. Guild leaders (kings and queens) can become mayors of nodes.

• Guilds hold separate roles in the direction of the node than the roles held by private citizens.
• Only a certain number of guilds may participate in these roles.
• Separate guild roles are reserved for small, medium and large guilds.

Guild’s also hold separate roles in the direction of the node, than the roles held by private citizens, and only a certain number of guilds may participate in these roles. Separate guild roles are reserved for Small size guilds, medium size guilds and large size guilds.

Caravan PvP

Caravan PvP in Alpha-1.

Caravans create an open PvP zone that flags players for combat (purple).

• Players will be able to state their intentions to attack, defend or ignore via a user interface.
• A group will be required to successfully attack a caravan.

Caravan destruction

If a caravan is destroyed (becomes a wreckage) it will drop a portion of the goods it was transporting.

• Caravan components may also drop when a caravan is destroyed. These components may be salvageable by the caravan owner or by other players, in the case of high grade components.
• Caravans drop certificates for heavy goods that are redeemable at the origin node for a portion of the goods.

The caravan becomes a wreckage upon destruction and that wreckage is an interfaceable item that players can come up to and they can receive certificates for a portion of the goods inside the caravan. Now the idea with that certificate is that it must be taken back to the point of origin, or at least a region within that point of origin. We'll see about that last part because there's a few things I want to test in the Alpha from a gameability standpoint. The reason why for this is because what might happen is you may have some type of collaboration within a guild to kind of game that system. Hey I'm gonna reach this caravan just to the border of the region and then we're all destroy it, collect the goods and take it to you know that region's warehouse; and have to skip out on the last half of the way. So it must successfully reach its destination before the goods can be considered a part of that region. – Steven Sharif

Artisan supply chain

Artisans within Ashes of Creation must choose a path in their artisan skill tree. This inter-dependency establishes a supply chain from raw materials to finished product. Each stage of the chain may require caravans to transport goods from one artisan to another.

1. Obtaining raw materials:
   • Using the Collecte profession.
   • By killing mobs and bosses.
   • From deconstructing weapons or armor.
   • By purchasing them from other players.
2. Refining the raw materials with the Traitement profession.
3. Artisanat the finished product using its crafting recipe.
   • Recipes are also obtainable from boss drops.

As a crafter you're going to want to know where certain recipes can be fulfilled; which nodes have the capability of creating what you've processed material that you've gathered for; and then you're going to want to plan out your route to either transit the goods there or make sure that you're situated in the area so that you can go out collect and build in that area as well. So there's a lot of planning that's going to be necessary. – Steven Sharif

Caravan skins

Caravan skins ("Pimp my caravan") are available in the cash shop (cosmetic store).

List of caravan skins

• 

  Caravan of the Radiant Kingdom

• 

  Crowned Coach

• 

  Drywind Company Caravan

• 

  Nomadic Reliquary

• 

  Ochre Ox Wagon

• 

  PAX 2017 Caravan

• 

  Ramstone Hauler

• 

  Roamer's Vardo

• 

  Talltuft Patriarch

• 

  The Crimson Carriage

• 

  Timely Deliverance

• 

  Urlor's Expedition

• 

  Verdant Voyager

• 

  Wings of Reverence

• 

  Woodland's Freighter

Zergs

For every play, there should be a counterplay. We often see Castle Sieges turn into zerg-fests, which really doesn’t capture the epic, back-and-forth battles we wish to see in Ashes of Creation. One of our key pillars is that Choice Matters, and that applies to tactics and strategy as well. A well-formulated battle plan should win out over stat sheets and bodies. Zergs will generally be difficult to pull off, and will be eminently counterable through siege weapons, traps, and other battlefield tricks.

Zergs are empowered by fast-travel. Meaningful travel times are intended to prevent zerg play from being so much of an influence.

Encounters are designed to have meaning in terms of how boss skills and abilities relate to group compositions, tactics and strategies. Zerging is not experiencing content.

• Raid and dungeon bosses have specific mechanics that players need to learn and react to. Zergs that are not aware of these mechanics or react to them appropriately will be wiped.
• There is a give-and-take for guilds that want to see a larger number of members as opposed to a more focused group that may be a part of an alliance.

We're very cognizant of the fact that we don't want to see zerging be a mechanic that's utilized by guilds to accomplish content or just to steamroll over sieges... There are specific mechanics that we are working on that will be seen through the testing phases that relate to a degree of understanding of certain systems that can't just be overrun with numbers. – Steven Sharif

Mechanics that encourage political intrigue will play a role in destabilizing zergs.

The best way that I found in games I played previously to take down a zerg is to cause drama from within... It's that conflict inside of the politicking that happens in that big organization. If we provide opportunities for division to occur then it also provides stability to keep a server healthy away from that zerg mentality also... If we approach the castle siege and we've destroyed the walls and we're in the throne room and we're about to cast on the penultimate thing and I at this time am just so excited from what's happening that I'm like "screw it I'm gonna go for it". It's gonna be mine. I'm gonna take the taxes for the next month. I'm gonna take all the gear from the castle. I'm gonna take everything... We kind of want that political intrigue to be present in the game. – Steven Sharif

Objective-based game play helps to balance the zerg mentality.

I always feel that if you balance based on groups that in your balance focus is to incorporate features that play well from a player versus player perspective as well as a player versus environment perspective: Having support classes, having DPS and tanks that can obstruct movement and/or create you know bottlenecks on the field and stuff like that. I think a well-rounded raid it will perform better against a non well-rounded raid, however then you incorporate the second aspect of numbers; and that's where again mobility, organization, leadership tactics. Having objectives in gameplay that make those important helps to balance the zerg mentality that a lot of guilds can tend to have. – Steven Sharif

Artwork

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Community guides

• Ashes101 - Caravans

See also

• World PvP
• Économie
• Mules
• Inventaire