It took me 41 battles to deliver a caravan!!!!

[thorins]

Hi all.

Ive been playing for a while and ive noticed that the "merchant-caravan" is just too slow for the game. I was thinking that when a merchant gives you a quest to "escort a caravan" that the caravan might be atatched to your group. for instance right now my army can travle at a speed of 9.1 but the caravan only travels at 6.4 or so. If the caravan was attached to my army then they would move faster and i would move slower thus making us a real caravan.
secondly if another enemy gets to close the caravan will run. this is not surprising but they never run to me they always run another direction and it seem always away from our destination. lol so once again if we were one caravan then if one was caught then we all would be caught and would have to fight of course.

the fact that it took me 41 battles to make the delivery is not the problem. the problem was the caravan ran away from me and into the enemy plus in the wrong direction.

 

[compfreak]

I don't think the game can handle what you're saying without fireing most of your troops. It could still be done by storing some of your troops in the same way as wandering heros, but probably isn't worth the effort.

 

[DaLagga]

I kind of like it the way it is now. The idea is that you're fighting off bandits and whatnot before they can even get to the caravan. Now, maybe it would be nice if you could optionally transfer some of the caravan guards to your party for the duration of the trip...thus leaving the caravan less guarded and keeping things balanced. But, what i would like to see is a "match speed" button. So that you can click on a party to follow, and you will automatically match their speed so you don't have to run in circles while they catch up.

 

[Lhorkan]

I kind of like it the way it is now. The idea is that you're fighting off bandits and whatnot before they can even get to the caravan. Now, maybe it would be nice if you could optionally transfer some of the caravan guards to your party for the duration of the trip...thus leaving the caravan less guarded and keeping things balanced. But, what i would like to see is a "match speed" button. So that you can click on a party to follow, and you will automatically match their speed so you don't have to run in circles while they catch up.

Just use the space bar.

 

[GonZ]

For merchant escorts it would make more sense to me if your own party merged with the caravan and travelled as one unit across the map.

You would all travel at the caravans speed but when you were caught by enemies you would have your own troops AND the caravan guards at your disposal to defend the merchant and goods.

What I would really like to see are the wagons, carriages & mule trains that make up the caravan on the battle map too.

 

[Slyloki]

The current system is good, because it allows you to scout on ahead, (and to the sides) If you do this right then no enemy ever gets close to the caravan.. As it should be...
It's a simple matter of killing the smaller groups and steering the caravan clear of the big ones you don't want to take on...

 

[JohnathanStrange]

Your suggestion is intriguing and I've thought about it myself when my caravan goes running off into the wastelands, however generally I've been able to shepherd my caravans with fairly little trouble.

If I have to go through a dangerous area - generally near the center of the continent - I try to time my passage there so that we're moving at night and my enemies' spotting ranges are smaller. Like everyone else, I use my superior speed to scout ahead and then I'll let the caravan catch up, in a sort of leap-frog advance.

Your suggestion is interesting but I think the current system is challenging but not impossible. I'd be interested in other people's thoughts on how the change would affect the caravan system and the way they play.

 

[RJK]

How about if we have the option.


caravan master:

"Greetings, you must be our escort, right? Oh who cares, you all have big swords and stuff, that's close enough! Tell us what you want us to do"

1. "Stay right here. We'll come back in a few months and see how you are doing."
2. "Follow us."
3. "Merge your caravan with us, and we shall travel together, as per the suggestion in http://taleworlds.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=3180"


I think that would be the best way for it.


RJK.

 

[kroc]

or you could just choose how fast you travel.. for example, you travel at 7.5 now.. carovan at 6.4
you can use speed indicator and travel at 6.5 instead, or at 8.1 but for just a few hours, with a message that says "Your horses/men are tiered, they need rest" and then if you dont slow down, you can run your horses dead...

that stuff has been proposed but i propose it again

 

[BobG]

I would prefer to keep things as they are as far as escorting caravans is concerned. Don't forget, you can tell the caravan to stop and wait if you see there is trouble ahead. If you see something that may spook the caravan, just tell them to stop, ride ahead and deal with it, then go back and tell the caravan to resume following. Either that, or lead them on a different path to keep them away from the danger.

 

[powerg8]

41 battles! I find that that hard to belive.

 

[thorins]

hi powerg8,

well i would have too.... but i had to travle from wercheg to veluca. and to add to the mix i had not done any map battles except for the river pirate quest. mostly only caravan escort ransom delivery and the occasional delivery. so to say the least my map was loaded with bandits of all kinds. i did this on porpose to see the results i had 1 mountain bandit gang with 80 troops at one time. so on the particular caravan run every few miles there was another gang wandering past. so 41 is low compaired to how many gangs were on my map. this was part of what i was trying to do, i was tring to see how the caravans would react. now i only have 38 troops total and all but mabey 2 are at the top level of advancement so the battles were still in my favor plus i have a 2 point tactical advantage for my troops.

i do like the possable option of choosing your speed but that still leaves the caravan to wander off in the wrong direction of worse yet just stop to get caught by the raiders or bandits.

 

[Sir Saladin]

I like it the way it is, you can tell them to wait and you can pay off the mountain bandits but sometimes you need to fight and the chicken caravan runs away, it is hard to get the caravan guards to fight with you, I think that could be changed. But otherwise I don't think that the caravan should be able to move as fast as me and my maniac mercs. One thing that made me laugh, I lost a caravan so long ago I forgot about them, weeks later I guided them to safety.

 

[charizma]

41 battles! I find that that hard to belive.

Me too. How could he keep count of THAT many? Hell i think kehrgit raiders and mountain bandits are hard coded to ascend on a players' caravan when you do jobs because i never got to my destination without having to take on at least 4 groups of either raiders or bandits.

"Stay right here. We'll come back in a few months and see how you are