Karl_Magnus
Sergeant
After reading some people having issues with the longevity of their caravans after the last patch, I felt like it was needed to tell TaleWorlds that this kind of change feels like a waste of efforts.
I do agree caravans needed to imply some risks, but this change just seems to have skipped many steps.
There are plenty of work to do on caravans, but I'll start with a couple of related things I feel could be made in parallel to those;
1. Workshops
- Scale the prices to buy a shop. It's not normal to be paying from 13k to 15k for every production type when their revenue won't and shouldn't be the same. Some time should be put on balancing the price of a shop with the base ressources and products prices.
2. Manhunters/Patrols
- Reintroduce manhunters and patrols parties (like there were in Warband) to chase bandits and looters (and reintroduce deserters for better loot and fights against higher tier units). If bandits and looters are going to attack caravans, there should at least be proper parties in charge of clearing routes from the presence of bandits to a certain degree (lords to it somewhat, but really it shouldn't even be a king/vassal's job to chase bands of looters), and AI clans shouldn't attack caravans if they're not at war with the player or other clans.
3. Caravans
Now for the caravans. I wouldn't have written this if it wasn't for the obvious issue the last implementation created for many players, but now I feel it deserved a(nother) thread. I cannot see anything of the sort mentioned in the known issues, so here I am.
The way it is right now is simplistic and unsatisfying in term of role-play, it feels like you have no real control over your affairs (same goes for workshops). You get no decision-making. ''Just hand over 15k and I'll provide you with a complete caravan''. There is no development, just the rush to get a companion and 15k to start a caravan and obtain a solid revenue (that is, up until the recently added assaults on caravans).
- Players should be able to form a caravan without a companion (although the addition of a companion with good trading/stewardship/tactics skills would benefit in profitability/amount of troops escorting the caravan/casualties in case of an attack on the caravan). In the case he doesn't send a companion, then the caravan gets a generic nameless merchant with very basic stats.
- The caravan could be formed for the price of a few pack animals and the amount of mercenaries the player would choose to escort the caravan with (the number of mercenaries/soldiers could be limited by the clan's renown and the party's leader stewardship), plus a certain amount of money for the actual trading, this way you can create caravans sooner, at a lesser price, but with smaller revenue, and eventually make it grow when you have more money to invest on them. It should be potentially a little more rewarding than workshops (maybe not in case of a very small caravan), since there's a higher risk from wandering around, but not so much that it kills any incentive to buy a workshop.
- Give more control to the player over what caravans do (and give skill points for being able to manage them). We need to be able to tell the caravan leader to trade specific products, to take specific routes and trade in specific towns. Maybe other things, too, but I'm simply giving a basic idea. There can be an option to let the caravan leader do his default choices, in which case the player wouldn't benefit in skill points from his caravan.
- Maybe make caravans send out a messenger to the town you created them when they've been attacked to give a complete report to the player, so you can make a decision and send back the messenger with an order to give your caravan's leader. Also, when the player passes by their caravans and want to interact with them, the caravans should move towards the player. It's not a huge deal, but having to chase your caravan can be a bit of a pain.
That's it. That's roughly my idea on caravans. I also wish there were more depth in workshops management, but that's secondary compared to this and it can wait. I'm aware the TaleWorlds team already has a lot on its hands, but please make some time for this in the coming weeks, don't do only minor changes that can't be implemented and work in the system the game currently has.
I do agree caravans needed to imply some risks, but this change just seems to have skipped many steps.
There are plenty of work to do on caravans, but I'll start with a couple of related things I feel could be made in parallel to those;
1. Workshops
- Scale the prices to buy a shop. It's not normal to be paying from 13k to 15k for every production type when their revenue won't and shouldn't be the same. Some time should be put on balancing the price of a shop with the base ressources and products prices.
2. Manhunters/Patrols
- Reintroduce manhunters and patrols parties (like there were in Warband) to chase bandits and looters (and reintroduce deserters for better loot and fights against higher tier units). If bandits and looters are going to attack caravans, there should at least be proper parties in charge of clearing routes from the presence of bandits to a certain degree (lords to it somewhat, but really it shouldn't even be a king/vassal's job to chase bands of looters), and AI clans shouldn't attack caravans if they're not at war with the player or other clans.
3. Caravans
Now for the caravans. I wouldn't have written this if it wasn't for the obvious issue the last implementation created for many players, but now I feel it deserved a(nother) thread. I cannot see anything of the sort mentioned in the known issues, so here I am.
The way it is right now is simplistic and unsatisfying in term of role-play, it feels like you have no real control over your affairs (same goes for workshops). You get no decision-making. ''Just hand over 15k and I'll provide you with a complete caravan''. There is no development, just the rush to get a companion and 15k to start a caravan and obtain a solid revenue (that is, up until the recently added assaults on caravans).
- Players should be able to form a caravan without a companion (although the addition of a companion with good trading/stewardship/tactics skills would benefit in profitability/amount of troops escorting the caravan/casualties in case of an attack on the caravan). In the case he doesn't send a companion, then the caravan gets a generic nameless merchant with very basic stats.
- The caravan could be formed for the price of a few pack animals and the amount of mercenaries the player would choose to escort the caravan with (the number of mercenaries/soldiers could be limited by the clan's renown and the party's leader stewardship), plus a certain amount of money for the actual trading, this way you can create caravans sooner, at a lesser price, but with smaller revenue, and eventually make it grow when you have more money to invest on them. It should be potentially a little more rewarding than workshops (maybe not in case of a very small caravan), since there's a higher risk from wandering around, but not so much that it kills any incentive to buy a workshop.
- Give more control to the player over what caravans do (and give skill points for being able to manage them). We need to be able to tell the caravan leader to trade specific products, to take specific routes and trade in specific towns. Maybe other things, too, but I'm simply giving a basic idea. There can be an option to let the caravan leader do his default choices, in which case the player wouldn't benefit in skill points from his caravan.
- Maybe make caravans send out a messenger to the town you created them when they've been attacked to give a complete report to the player, so you can make a decision and send back the messenger with an order to give your caravan's leader. Also, when the player passes by their caravans and want to interact with them, the caravans should move towards the player. It's not a huge deal, but having to chase your caravan can be a bit of a pain.
That's it. That's roughly my idea on caravans. I also wish there were more depth in workshops management, but that's secondary compared to this and it can wait. I'm aware the TaleWorlds team already has a lot on its hands, but please make some time for this in the coming weeks, don't do only minor changes that can't be implemented and work in the system the game currently has.
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