Expanding separately in response to the addition of this question:
Do you have thoughts or feelings regarding some of the aspects of Caravans, such as Caravan components, Glint, Commodities, Exchange Rates, etc?
Glint
I do not like Glint. It is something that I understand a certain type of player to need, to keep the game simple enough to play. To fulfill the 'can I just play the game?' without needing to do economy things. But why? They'll just be crushed out soon enough anyway. I've previously suggested making the 'low level, I just want money' stuff be related to potions. I'll stand by that over this, definitely.
I hope it does not dilute the economic focuses. I prefer when one goes all the way to one side or the other, but my belief that the middle ground is impossible isn't provable. I don't see the point, though, of making something like this in a game like Ashes, it just adds complexity in balance and even a form of misery, to avoid what... needing to do more itemization? If there's a reason for the existence of Glint beyond 'but we need non-Economic players to want to play', fine. If that's the only reason... well, you're trading me for them, which is fine with me, as long as it's fine with you. That was a likely outcome from the first time I heard of the Certificates system.
Commodities
I do not like Commodities. They're slightly good for lore, but it's back to the same thing. It's saving you itemization at the cost of immersion and identity within nodes, offerable to players. 'Don't start down the BDO path of this' would be my advice here. Hal and the others are probably already doing hard enough work as is. I don't want their work reduced to 'just another random item I threw on top of a box'. Of course, I can always transport player made goods, but that's the point. Commodities are just an abstraction provided so that players can engage with the caravan system without caring about or knowing a single gatherer or Processor. If that's what you wish, then so be it, not my thing, but it's moreso just 'a bit below neutral'.
The reason this works in Elite Dangerous is entirely because that's the whole gameplay. And technically, it can and does get to the point where you have specific resources that you
must
go collect yourself. But even there, I find myself 'imagining' the farm and brewery that make the beer for the 'Node' are special, that there are people I care about involved. I can do the same here. Just make sure I need to, I guess? Somehow? BDO manages, a little, so it's not impossible. Aged Velian Wine go!
Exchange Rates
I don't like the current 'finger in the wind' balance, but I somewhat understand it. The problem here is moreso in the Glint itself. I take Glint to a person, who sells me something I could move... but to make the system usable (in what I assume is the goal of Glint) you then need to be able to sell those same commodities back, if I understood this? In the same node? Why does that guy even
care
about Glint? Maybe a magic component...
Anyway, so I can then sell these back for Gold, or I can risk traveling with them somewhere else... I'll obviously assume that you will just balance this such that 'the amount of time one would spend farming more Glint' (I feel slightly miserable just saying this) must be exceeded in value by the risk of carrying it.
This isn't an economic incentive, though, this is closer to... actually there isn't a real world analogue to this, exactly. The whole thing rubs me the wrong way, because I know that in the end, that number depends on the 'glint farming rate' gR and the 'travel duration' tD, with some adjustments for innate risk, and caravan costs. The exchange rates therefore don't mean anything to me. The numbers 'decide themselves'. If 8x to one node over is correct, I'll just derive the 'expect glim farming rate' from that.
I'd rather farm something I like, but if caravans are balanced to be profitable without any 'True Player Demand', all control of the flows around non-Commodity caravans would probably be lost. There's always a way to get the numbers right, but do they spark joy?
Caravans
This is about the Caravans themselves and the feelings they trigger.
I feel like this disconnects some things, but I can't put my finger on how. On the one hand we have a player Goods caravan type, which probably holds (based on the original points) like 100x of a player's inventory... That's a big time investment, I think.
And we have another type that holds Commodities that you derived from Glint... But we expect players to run the Caravans for Goods... and therefore I can derive gR?
If I can't derive gR, then does that mean we expect this free open player Marketplace to have anything comparable in profit terms, for caravans? Basically, why am I moving my fish instead of something else? Is this another situation where we're going to get 'fighters' and 'life skillers' and the game is constantly swinging back and forth between which of these is useful?
With the amount of effort being put into the Caravans themselves, their design and abilities and crazy things like Repulsor Fields, I don't want this to all fall back into another 'the Devs fighting with their own numbers in the econ sphere to get players to use a system, but not to abuse or always use the system'.
Caravans have been doubted many times on this forum over many many threads. This stream has not allieviated any doubts for me other than the 'will they look dynamically super cool though?' (once again kudos to Hal and all involved on that front). To put it in perspective, I don't actually own a wagon in BDO. It has either always been 'not even remotely worth my time or effort', or 'definitely worth it' (for a small period) but also presented in such a detached way that I couldn't see myself enjoying it, especially knowing it was about to go back to being not worth it in whatever the next patch was because their economic system is broken at the foundational level.
Overall
Ye who build your house atop the glint should beware that your guests do not stay outside to stare at it instead.