No messages or banks?

[EmptyPepsiCans]

So Urkel the Swift ran afoul of some bandits again. I didn't notice for a while, so there's some money lost, plus I now have to drop everything and travel halfway across the continent to get him set back up. It got me thinking about what I might do if I was running a caravan in Calradia and it got torched by bandits. Now I have a few questions:

1) Why doesn't my companion contact me when my caravan gets destroyed by bandits? Seems like they'd want me to know what happened and where they were so I could give them some instructions and funds, no?

2) Why can't I simply send a message to the bank asking for the release of funds and to the companion asking them to start a new caravan? Sure, it would be slower than doing it myself, and maybe it would cost more, but it'd be a damn sight more convenient for me as a player.

3) I assume that the reasons that caravans go down is attrition - they get hit by bandits over and over until eventually they don't have enough guards to resist. Seems like the obvious solution is to hire more guards. Why can't I order them to do that, or better yet, set a security budget so they'll do it on their own?

In short, why cant I do any of the things that a real merchant would do to ensure that his cash flow didn't get borked every other month?

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

I really hope we start getting more stuff to do to manage our clan mates, combat parties, caravans, I'd like more for governors and emissaries too.
The caravans issue start to effect food supplies all over too as the bandits parties start to increase in size.

 

[iRkshz]

So Urkel the Swift ran afoul of some bandits again..........

just stop making caravans - they still don't pay for themselves - because this mechanic is stupid
the right workshops will bring you 400+ gold each, it's easy, just find where and which ones to buy

 

[cadadr]

i have suggested messengers many times. as it is now it takes a LOT of useless wandering around the map just to communicate with people. what kind of lord or king goes on a pilgrimage just to speak to some dude so he can give money to him?

it could just be take these companion with 10-20 troops, and have them talk to whomever. it could take 20 days, 30 days. i don't mind.

 

[Bannerman Man]

3) I assume that the reasons that caravans go down is attrition - they get hit by bandits over and over until eventually they don't have enough guards to resist. Seems like the obvious solution is to hire more guards. Why can't I order them to do that, or better yet, set a security budget so they'll do it on their own?

Caravans actually do hire more guards when they visit towns. They can hire any of the troops that appear as tavern mercenaries, which means both armed traders and the watchman line. However, caravans usually start off with a moderate amount of higher tier cavalry troops called Caravan Guards. These troops are irreplaceable, and once lost, the only way for caravans to get more cavalry is by hiring mercenary cavalry, which tend to be scarce and expensive. So in that respect, they do take some attrition over time, since cavalry troops are better for both party speed and autoresolve strength than foot soldiers.

But, I think the bigger reason caravans die is more to do with their "threat assessment" of hostile parties than it is with attrition. If you have ever watched caravans carefully, you will see that they will often ignore bandit parties and run directly past them. Many times the bandit parties ignore the caravans too if they are significantly weaker than them. Sometimes though, bandit parties will try to engage caravans, but the caravans won't see them as a threat because they are stronger than them, and the caravans end up running head first into them. Once they are in battle, other bandit parties are able to pile on into the fight, since the caravan is immobile for awhile. Here's that exact situation as told in 5 pictures:

Spoiler