In the sailing feedback thread (viewtopic.php?f=37&t=43226&start=25#p326562), I made the case for a sailing activity worth doing at lower sail score, where downgrading from a flagship to a 3-player rental is not the optimal choice. This suggestion proposes one such system I believe could significantly enhance the sailing experience, create for more at-sea RP interactions, and hopefully results in more varied and healthy sailing than we have currently.
===Introduction===
For a long time now settlement leaders have had access to Trade Writs. (These do not work for Cordor, but in Guldorand and Brogendenstein they provide for a way to give crews something to do other than prowling edge water to hunt for high tier ships). This idea is cool in theory but proves rather inefficient for settlements and generally is at best a side activity for sailors.
I propose a more expanded sea trade system that is not solely reliant on stockpile resources and settlement leaders.
===SEA TRADE===
The ports and islands of Arelith have discovered the benefits of sea trade. While for a long time this trade was largely held by Amn, the Lords’ Alliance, and more recently the Tri-Crown Conglomerate, the time has come for Arelithans to directly involve themselves in sea trade.
=The System in words=
The underlying idea of the system is that larger ships have larger holds and can thus transport more goods. This makes a 6-player flagship proportional or even slightly better *per crew member* than a 3-player rental for the purposes of trading, regardless of sailing score. This offsets the additional work and investment required to make 6-player ships go. While trade writs and cargo currently only deal with the five settlement resources and ‘treasure’, I believe this should be expanded to include useful trade goods typically harvested from the world such as lower tier raw ores, coal, unprocessed food items, marble, granite etc.
These items would be traded between the ports and islands of Arelith and to players via the ‘buy low, sell high’ principle. Port Azoun sells Kaeth beans for cheap, and we all know the high prevalence of Amnians and Thomas Castemonts in Cordor has put a strain on Kaeth supplies there. Running a ship from Port Azoun to Cordor to sell Kaeth beans and bring back the abundance of fine Cordorian cotton harvested in the Farmlands could earn a pretty penny.
But oh, no! The pirates of Sencliff have caugh wind of this trade flow and want a piece of the pie. Traditionally, ship to ship PvP offers no incentive for boarding. But of course, Kaeth beans and cotton don’t stand salty sea water particularly well. Thus, to acquire the booty undamaged, the pirates shall have to board the trading ship! (More RP interaction at sea).
=The System, specifics=
To make a system like this work the way cargo is treated must be changed slightly. I believe the easiest method to allow ships to move trade cargo proportional to their ship type is by turning the raw goods into tokens which can again be turned back into raw goods at the point of destination OR traded in for gold (profit). Moving the tokens directly into the ship’s hold prevents players from just loading up their inventories to bypass the ship cargo capacity.
With all this in mind, the system would consist of the following elements:
• Well though-out ship cargo holds (sizes proportional to crew requirement, or slightly skewed in favour of larger crew ships).
• Ports and islands offering to buy and sell trade good tokens for varying prices throughout the archipelago.
• NPC’s in these ports and islands to sell and buy trade good tokens.
• A smuggler / booty hoarder at Sencliff to buy stolen trade good tokens.
• Smugglers selling / buying trade good tokens in at least some of the ports and islands to give pirate PC’s some access to this system outside of PvP.
• These NPC’s should be able to turn raw resources into tokens (tokens placed directly into a ship’s cargo hold) and turn tokens from ship holds into raw resources.
• More islands akin to Port Azoun to encourage the use of the sea map.
• Ideally a trade island would be placed past Sencliff in edge water by the Athkatlan Easterlies to represent trade with Amn and allow Sencliff an easier opportunity at piracy.
• The value of trade goods should fluctuate based on time, supply and demand (doing kaeth-bean runs should actually have an impact on kaeth-bean pricing).
=Suitable Items=
I have included a rough list of items I believe would be suitable for trading.
• Marble
• Granite
• Tin ore
• Copper ore
• Coal
• Iron ore
• Softwood
• Hardwood
• Most of the base food materials (too many to list)
• Clay
• Hides
• Cotton
• Raw gems (only the basic ones)
=The Values / Earnings=
Important things to keep in mind when setting the value of trade goods:
• It must not be too disruptive to the economy.
• It must not upset settlement stockpiles.
I did some quick and dirty excel math to demonstrate how the rough numbers may look. If the team decides to pursue this suggestion further, I would be happy to create a larger model including the various trade values of items and locations, and reasonable fluctuations thereof.
=Preventing abuse=
This system could conceivably lead to a single person crewing a flagship to make a ton of gold. To avoid this, I propose that having cargo in the ship’s hold applies a speed penalty relative to how undercrewed the ship is.
Example: If a 6-player flagship is crewed by a single person it should take SIX times longer to complete the sailing trip, effectively offsetting any gains by having fewer people aboard.
To prevent lower level players from easily making a ton of gold, the investment (purchase cost) of goods can be made quite steep, to ensure risk is present and that people actually need some coin available to gain access to the system.
=The Benefits=
• More variety at sea.
• More boarding interactions.
• Something to do that does not rely on having very high sail score, but that does slightly benefit from a high sail score (fewer sail check failures, better odds in PvP).
• Incentive to use the flagships even when 6 high sail players aren’t available.
• Fewer ships just making loops around edge water: Having a destination is nice.
Thank you for considering my suggestion!