Trade routes

Mayoral caravan launched by a mayor to establish a trade route with another node.

For example: this node over here might have access to cotton as a resource and when that node processes that cotton it might be some very nice type of linen that only that node, or very rarely nodes would have access to. So when you initiate a trade route, you're bringing its supplies that the mayor has requested because they're trying to build, let's say a specific type of service building, or they're trying to unlock a blueprint that they have access to now to build up their node. – Steven Sharif

Trade routes in Ashes of Creation refer to.

• Roads for the transit goods via the caravan system.

  You might have a mountain pass and during winter that mountain pass is always closed and so the trade routes on land change with caravans and that's something that can not only exist on a cyclical level but also dynamically based on player activity.

• Economic relationships between nodes established by Mayors or node citizens.
  • Agreements are established to trade commodities that are unique to particular nodes or node types via NPC-driven caravans.

From a diplomatic standpoint the ability for the mayor or citizens to set up NPC routed trade routes between nodes as a trade agreement or as a diplomatic process. – Steven Sharif

• An aspect of naval content.

Trade agreements

Mayors can enter into trade agreements with other nodes to facilitate trade between the nodes.

• There are a limited number of trade agreements that a node can have.

• Mayoral caravans may only be initiated between nodes with trade agreements or alliances.

• Trade agreements affect reputation between the nodes.

Some of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

Mercenary guilds will be a viable way forward for different organizations. I think there will be a lot of business to be had with that; and one of the systems in our trade agreements is creating an escrow for those particular type of arrangements that we're looking into. – Steven Sharif

Mayoral caravans

Quest to launch a mayoral caravan.

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

• Nodes answering these resource requests must have a trade agreement or alliance with the requesting node.

• Once the requesting mayor accepts a fill order from another node, a system driven caravan is spawned to transit the goods.

• Players can participate in helping to defend the caravan if they wish.

• Trade caravans can initiate world events.

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. – Steven Sharif

Trade ships

Alpha-2 raft caravan in the Riverlands biome.

Caravans are capable of transitioning from land to raft 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 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 a minute to two minutes. There's a little bit of vulnerability in that regard. – Steven Sharif

Raft caravans (also referred to as Naval caravans) allow the transportation of cargo over the water.

• Unlike merchant ships, raft caravans are capable of transitioning to and from land caravans at the point of intersection of land and water.
  • Raft caravans may only be used in rivers.
• Currently the stats of the raft are informed by the components of the caravan. This may be changed based on testing.
• By default, raft caravans have a racial appearance. Players will be able to apply caravan skins to change this appearance.

Hijacking ships

Certain ships can be hijacked, destroyed and looted, but the ships themselves cannot be permanently captured.

• The cargo on a merchant ship will be similar to caravans in that the ship must be destroyed in order to capture the loot from its wreckage.

Naval content

Alpha-1 naval concept art.

Snapchat Sneakpeak, 2017-11-9.

Naval content refers to content above and below the sea.

• Aquatic mounts.
• Coastal nodes.
• Fortresses.
• Harbors.
• Island chains.
• Raft caravans.
• Naval NPCs.
• Naval PvP.
• Quests.
• Raids.
• Ships.
• Trade routes.
• Treasure hunting.
• Underwater dungeons.

Enhanced naval content was unlocked as part of the $1,500,000 Kickstarter stretch goal.

There will not initially be naval content (such as a Dark Lake) in the Underrealm, but this may be something that gets added in future expansions.

There won't be class abilities that are specific to naval content, but some utility skills (such as underwater breathing) may be of some benefit.

See also

• Economy
• Caravans
• Naval