Chapter 9.3 Transport and Trading Routes
(This section was updated on 5/17/26 v1.1)
Trading Routes - Land, Sea, and Air
Trading routes can be informal, where players ride around in a wagon or ship with supplies, or they can be outpost based.
Creating Outpost Transport Routes
Players can craft a trading hub. At a trading hub, players can see a list of all items needed by quests, listed by actively connected outposts. Players then can fill their inventory, cart, or wagon with goods, and report which of these items they plan to drop off, and at which outposts, or at just one outpost. Transport legend will increase per sequential transport committed to. Players can quest as much or as little time as they want. If requests time out before completion, if the outpost still accepts delivery, the transporter will still gain transport legend. Players can set auto turn on and offs for transport quests if a quantity is already at the drop-off zone, and can set limits to how many players have accepted a transport quest, and when transport quests time out.
Trading Hub Storage
Trading hubs need large storages, to unload goods. Players can drop off containers like creates, barrels, and chests, as well as constructed drop off zones. Items placed in drop off zones can be put into linked storages automatically. The transporter can choose to reuse their own storage container, or drop it off with the storage container. Aged transportation items such as crates, barrels, chests and etc, add boosts to transport legend, and adds spirit value to the containers themselves. So typically, transporters would want to keep theirs.
Courier Quests
At a trading hub, players and NPC can drop off quest items to locations that need them, which adds transport legend. Couriers can also put many items in a container to fulfill a repeatable quest more than once. Useful for restaurants, breweries, inns, barracks, and other utility buildings. These locations require a valid drop-off point to create the quest. These drop-off points can be linked to a transport hub, so that they can see if there is a transport need.
Canceling Transport Routes
Players can cancel transport routes at any time at their core menu, or at a trading hub.
Route Options
Players will have their destination marked on their minimap, as long as the outposts roads, rails, or other connections remain active. Connections are roads, or rails, or flight or water buoys linked. Constructions can buff vehicle speed due to the road clearance. Additional details such as street lamps, and fences strengthen the road's durability, and with spacing rules, are considered checkpoints. Checkpoints allow players to gain some transport legend, along the way, in the case that they do lose their transport to monsters, or to PVPers in PVP worlds. Or players can take unmarked paths, since it is less visible. Sometimes it is safer to take unmarked paths.
Route Protection
Unlike properties and settlements that get notified of threats via a hub, routes only notify marker and road damage at the linked trading hub. Players are encouraged to have combat based wagons, or combat players/NPC to ride along for defense, or scout paths to ensure monsters stay cleared from it, and to repair broken markers and destroyed paths. However, be wary that large and expensive loads will attract stronger monsters. Unmarked routes slow down the monster attraction, but doesn't nullify it. Use items like camouflage on unmarked roads to increase invisibility to monsters. Nature naturally creates unmarked roads where trees don't grow, to make vehicle usage easier, but you might hit roadblocks along the way, like places where the roads fully meet.
Lessening Route Maintenance
Players can burn tinder to help strengthen roads, same a lessening any building maintenance. However, without an extended trading route controllers, the range of this affect will have limits, and longer routes may benefit from having an outpost, or scout tower, or inn, midway through a route. They could be tasked with maintenance assistance, and an area for rest for long distance traders. Often times, players with vehicle claims, automatically maintain the road just by driving on it.
Sacrifices keep the monsters at bay, and the deities happy. Or... the other way around. What say you?
Created by Jimmy Slaughter