Caravan types

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Tier 5 personal caravan on route from Winstead to Miraleth in Alpha-2. 3D model by Hal Anderson.[1]

There are different types of Caravans in Ashes of Creation.[2][3]

Caravans

Alpha-2 caravan being escorted to the Miraleth node.[10]

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.[11]

Caravans are vehicles that facilitate the transfer of cargo across Verra.[13][14][9][2][15][16][17][18][19]

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.[20]Steven Sharif

Mayoral caravans

Mayoral caravans (also referred to as Trade caravans) are launched by Mayors to obtain needed resources from other nodes.[8][9][2]

  • Players can participate in helping to defend the caravan if they wish.[9]
Mayors who need certain resources that either they don't have enough of, or that they're prospectively investing in: they will initiate a mayor request, and any node that sees that request on the mayoral caravan drop-down menu will have an opportunity to attempt to fulfill the trade request. In order to fulfill a trade request, a node must have a certain level of relationship with that requesting node. At a minimum it has to be a trade agreement relationship; and then there's a limited number of those trade relationships that you can have; and that scales up to eventually alliance perspective. And then, once the node requesting mayor accepts a potential fill order, then a system spawned caravan is generated and the transit is completed. Players can participate in helping to defend that or not.[9]Steven Sharif

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.[9][2][3]

info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.
  • These are initiated by players with a diverse choice of routes and launch windows, making them difficult to zerg.[33]
  • 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.[19]
  • Roads will upgrade as nodes advance. Different roads will dictate the speed and type of caravan required (off road vs on road).[34]
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.[33]Steven Sharif

Personal caravans

Caravan speed is affected by caravan components and the type of roading.[35]

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.[35]Chris Justo

Personal caravans of different tiers deployed outside the Winstead node in Alpha-2. 3D models by Hal Anderson.[36]

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.[4][5][37][6][7][3]

  • Caravan drivers receive a significant defensive buff while they are driving a caravan. This reduces CC effects and increases damage mitigation significantly.[40]
  • 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.[40]
    • 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.[41]
  • Caravans have collision, so other players could jump on the caravan while it is being driven.[40]
    • Players or mounts trying to block caravans will be pushed out of the way.[13][42]

Caravan inventory

Commodities crates found in caravan wreckages are marked with a green symbol.[43]
Materials crates found in caravan wreckages are marked with a black symbol.[43]
  • There are small, medium, and large crates.[45] The higher quality the crate, the greater its capacity.[44]
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.[51]Ry Schueller
  • Glint must be transported via crate when in large quantities.[56][44]
  • Crates will undergo testing and iteration during Alpha-2.[44]

See also

References

  1. Video, October 31, 2023 (27:40).
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Video, July 15, 2019 (2:12).
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Livestream, July 28, 2017 (19:43).
  4. 4.0 4.1 Video, October 31, 2023 (13:32).
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Video, October 31, 2023 (10:13).
  6. 6.0 6.1 caravan-driver.png
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Livestream, April 30, 2020 (58:05).
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Video, September 29, 2023 (2:59).
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 Livestream, August 31, 2023 (2:10:23).
  10. Video, January 31, 2024 (29:15).
  11. Newsletter - January 2024.
  12. Video, January 31, 2024 (5:22).
  13. 13.0 13.1 Livestream, October 31, 2023 (1:30:52).
  14. Livestream, October 31, 2023 (1:06:32).
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Livestream, August 26, 2022 (1:20:17).
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 Livestream, July 29, 2022 (3:21).
  17. 17.0 17.1 Interview, May 11, 2018 (28:21).
  18. Livestream, May 15, 2017 (45:20).
  19. 19.0 19.1 About Ashes of Creation.
  20. Livestream, January 31, 2024 (57:26).
  21. Livestream, May 29, 2020 (46:36).
  22. Livestream, July 28, 2017 (20:56).
  23. Interview, March 27, 2020 (16:19).
  24. caravan UI.png
  25. Livestream, May 22, 2017 (40:40).
  26. caravan zone.png
  27. Video, October 31, 2023 (34:12).
  28. Podcast, April 11, 2021 (23:36).
  29. 29.0 29.1 Livestream, January 31, 2024 (1:15:05).
  30. Video, October 31, 2023 (29:36).
  31. Livestream, January 29, 2021 (1:25:14).
  32. City hall.
  33. 33.0 33.1 caravan zerg.png
  34. Livestream, February 9, 2018 (45:48).
  35. 35.0 35.1 Video, October 31, 2023 (20:17).
  36. Video, October 31, 2023 (17:20).
  37. Video, October 31, 2023 (1:52).
  38. Video, October 31, 2023 (16:25).
  39. Livestream, 2018-04-8 (AM) (15:46).
  40. 40.0 40.1 40.2 Livestream, October 31, 2023 (1:27:50).
  41. Livestream, July 25, 2020 (55:32).
  42. Livestream, April 28, 2023 (1:21:29).
  43. 43.0 43.1 43.2 43.3 Video, January 31, 2024 (6:47).
  44. 44.0 44.1 44.2 44.3 44.4 Livestream, February 25, 2022 (1:10:00).
  45. Livestream, October 28, 2022 (1:36:10).
  46. 46.0 46.1 Video, October 31, 2023 (3:34).
  47. 47.0 47.1 47.2 Interview, September 10, 2023 (53:47).
  48. roshen-crates2.png
  49. Video, August 31, 2023 (33:07).
  50. 50.0 50.1 roshen-crates.png
  51. 51.0 51.1 51.2 51.3 roshen-stolen-resources.png
  52. 52.0 52.1 52.2 Livestream, October 31, 2023 (1:18:33).
  53. Video, January 31, 2024 (12:49).
  54. 54.0 54.1 Video, January 31, 2024 (12:21).
  55. 55.0 55.1 steven-stolen-glint.png
  56. steven-glint.png