Chapter 9.3 Transport and Trading Routes

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 take as much or as little time as they want with no penalty to legend. Other players will not be blocked out taking of transporting quests, even if other transports are on the way.

Trading Hub Storage
Trading hubs needs large storages, to unload goods. Players can drop off containers like creates, barrels, and chests constructed drop off zones, and items within can be put into linked storages automatically, leaving an empty container to be reused for more transport. Aged transportation items add boosts to transport legend, and adds spirit value to the containers themselves.

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 should also set up drop-off points to avoid needing to manually take each item. Trading hubs can also create transport route quests for traveling merchants.

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 connections remain active. Roads can be paved, and route markers can be placed, such as street lamps, buoys, and other construction that need to remain linked together in a chained radius to stay active. Players will gain some speed due to the road clearance, and will some of their transport legend in a % by passing these route markers. (Will need to follow spacing rules to apply.) This allows 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. Roads are only valid, and perform these actions, when it is fully linked to touch the radius of the target outpost.

Route Protection
Unlike properties and settlements that get notified of threats via a hub, routes only notify marker and road damage at the 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, even if on an unmarked route. Marked routes too close to each other will exponentially attract monsters, instead of splitting their attention.

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.