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.

Caravans

Alpha-2 caravan being escorted to the Miraleth node.

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.

Caravan PvP in Alpha-2.

Caravans are vehicles that facilitate the transfer of cargo across Verra.

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. – Steven Sharif

• Personal caravans are used to transport cargo for one or more players.

• Mayoral caravans are used by Mayors to transfer cargo between nodes with established trade agreements or alliances.

• Caravans are initiated from and arrive at caravansary node buildings within Village (stage 3) nodes and above.

• Caravans create an objective-based PvP event in the open-world that players can choose to attack, defend, or opt-out of.

• PvE caravan events can cause roadways to be blocked off or hostile mobs to spawn to attack the caravan.

• It is possible to launch decoy caravans and merchant ships, but there are visual hints of what is contained in a caravan. Decoy crates may be available via social organization progression.

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

• Ships
• Caravans
• Naval
• Economy