Possible Caravan Attack Workaround?

I mean, if you have the means to have several players pick up your stuff (cause one player cannot carry even 1/10 of a full caravan) and have a BH (or several) on top of that - why wouldn't you just spend those resources on protecting the caravan and getting it safely to the destination?

But even if we disregard that, I'd be happy if this was the case, cause right now I don't see any real disadvantages to raiding caravans. Yes, Steven told us about the raider ladder and there's the gear decay (which is just yet another question too) and the potential loss of reputation in the node - but if the caravan has a ton of valuable resources - none of that really matters. So I'd rather have some ways to put as much pressure on the attackers as possible, cause so far the only real pressure is on the sender/owner of the good being transferred.

It's rather unlikely that you can pick up the entire dropped contents of the caravan instantly at once. Your allied player would get some, but certainly not all. I also find it unlikely, personally, that the caravan open PvP zone will end instantly when a caravan is destroyed, vs remaining for a bit while loot is divvied up. It would seem to go against the risk vs reward design Steven intends for looting the caravan afterward to just be entirely safe and free.

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I mean, if they lost - they're dead. If they're dead - they can't pick up shit. And if they weren't in the caravan pvp zone - they weren't defending. These are somewhat mutually exclusive.

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You misunderstood me a bit. He's agreeing with me exactly. I believe that looting the caravan will not be safe and free, and keeping the PvP zone active during that phase would cause exactly that. It would require safe and free looting for your workaround to function.

No-one is going to go loot a caravan alone. If your allies had enough power to defend the caravan, you'd do far better to have them do that. If they can't stand up to the attackers, the attacking party or guild will probably just kill their own competition as well.

This sort of "steal the boss" style "PvP between two sets of attackers" is specifically intended in raids. There's no reason it wouldn't also be intended here. Attackers are going to be coordinated. A party or guild can take down a caravan and walk away with 8 full inventories worth of materials. A single player wasn't going to walk away with many of your resources in the first place, with only one inventory to fill. But if you can stop the party... you should have just done that in the first place. If you can't, they'll kill you before you can take their hard-earned loot. Just like in an open-world PvE raid.

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Only if their friends on standby can kill the attackers and take their loot before the attackers (who are now the defenders of the looting area) can haul it off themselves. If they can? That's exactly the kind of conflict Ashes intends to promote, and it's a risk the attackers will consider when planning their assault.

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Yep! And that's probably completely intentional. Such is the risk/reward. If you can take the caravan, but can't get away with the loot you earned, you should think twice about attacking with "followers" nearby.

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Probably not. There might be an incentive to spend more resources to defend your caravan, the more valuable it is. If attackers think they're just going to be taking death penalties, they probably won't attack. If they think that the odds are 50/50, but there's not much loot to gain... they probably won't attack.

I won't argue that the incentives are perfectly balanced right away. But they probably can be. We'll have plenty of time to test.

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If they were attacking a caravan that they could only barely take over, when people were following to gank them after? They probably should be punished for it. Otherwise, they get away with one full inventory of loot per person. Plus however many lower-level guildmembers were waiting in the trees to help them carry it away. Or if they have people who can secure the location while they make a few more trips. Their reward is based on their planning and investment.

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This seems likely enough. Except that... personal caravans probably have less loot on them and are therefore less valuable. People who can afford to send high-value personal caravans can afford to pay a lot of mercenaries to defend them. Same risk/reward. Same planning/investment. The core intent of the game.

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We're... back to "the attackers waited until the worst possible time to start their assault". Poor planning, poor outcomes. Why'd they wait that long? If they were forced to by good planning from the defenders? They probably should have trouble. If they just were lazy about it? Honestly? Same.

A lot of this balances itself in certain ways. All that you need to do is balance the incentives and close any broken loopholes. And that's what testing is for. The core design suits the intent, and the adjustments required will mainly just be tuning. And that's always the space you want a design to be in.

Sure. I'm sure there will be plenty of posts about people's Alpha 2 experiences, and a lot on the Caravan and PvP systems as well. Unfortunately, as far as anyone can guess, Alpha 2 is still pretty far away.

I'll be Empyrean. Py'rai was high in the running before we saw the designs, but I'm not the sort for antlers, so alas. I'll manage with Empyrean architectural influences, and the "high elf" aesthetic suits me fine as well.

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Well, do be sure to give your feedback in the appropriate thread. There should be one of those (former) sticky "[Player Feedback Request]" threads for Py'rai.

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I'd absolutely take it. I want a subtle, not a "beaming" effect though. Same with luminous hair.