Cromulent said:Bazgrim said:Cromulent said:Bazgrim said:Evoras said:Bazgrim said:
I do expect players to be able to mail items though. That's pretty standard for every game and I don't see a good reason why not to.Unless constraints are put in place, mailing items acts to nullify all 'local' aspects of banking and trading.
Imagine 3 continental 'local' banks separated by vast distance and commensurate travel time:
1. email items from local #1 to banker alt in local #3. Now my banks are no longer local.
2. email items from local #1 to trader alt in local #2. Now my trading system is no longer local.
3. email items from local #1 to new alt in local #3. Now 'travel time' is removed.I could go on ... but ALL of these act to shrink the world and remove social interaction.
To summarize:
The current plan, as far as we can tell from the hints and nuggets we get from Brad etc, is for a system of 'local' banks for item storage - with each 'local area' likely being an entire continent. From what little has been said about currency, it seems a single 'universal' money system is the current thinking - so no money changing required. No mention of 'shared bank' spaces yet, nor of 'mail' for items.
However, for these last two, I would suggest extreme caution - giving these very close inspection before approval - as they are likely to create loopholes which will damage the size of the world and player interactions.Evoras, wonders who feeds all the pets left in bank storage... or cleans up the poop!
Yes, but I think the key would be to make it so that mailing is not entirely convenient. As you said, there would have to be constraints. It should take time to deliver a letter or package (i.e. pony express system) and it should also be fairly expensive, depending on the weight of the item you're mailing. Of course instantaneous global mailing would not be in line with more realistic localized banking and such. But mailing doesn't have to be instant. In fact, I don't think it should be.
It would be even better if you actually saw the pony move around the world that was delivering player gear to other mailboxes and for bonus points it would be even cooler still if the pony could be killed and players who sent mail on that pony would lose the items that they sent. That would mean using the mailbox system would be a real risk and that players may decide it would be safer to deliver the item themselves if it is was worth a lot of plat.
Oh man, that's a tough one. I do like the idea, but I also know that people would totally camp out the mail routes and rob the carts all the time. Permanent item loss is such a significant penalty, there's almost no point in offering the service at all because no one would use it, even for small items. Paying plat and having to wait is probably enough of a price.
There would have to be a very in-depth crime system to make people think twice about taking the easy loot from the wagon. Or the wagons would have to be very heavily defended. If this were a PvP game, players would/should have an opportunity to defend the carts. But at that point, we're not even really talking about Pantheon anymore. I like the idea of seeing the wagon move throughout the world, but being able to actually attack it and take other's peoples items without them even being able to do anything about it does not really seem to fit in Pantheon imo. That gets complicated real fast with bordering on PvP and/or crime. A good idea, but not in this game haha.
Oh I wasn't thinking of allowing players to attack the caravan. I was more thinking of roaming mobs that had a small percentage chance of coming in contact with the caravan. The caravan could have its own NPC guards and it would be random as to whether the mobs would destroy the caravan or the caravan guards would kill the mobs.
I was thinking of say a 5% to 10% chance that you lost the items you sent through the mail. Small enough so it was still worth using but the chance of losing your gear is big enough that you think twice before sending really expensive stuff through the mail system.
If your gear is lost you'd receive a letter from the post office saying that your gear had been lost so you knew what had happened.
Although given there are going to be PvP servers in this game it would be cool to have players defend the caravan and have opposing players trying to attack it. And because it would be defended by lots of players all trying to send their loot using it there would be an advantage to using it rather than trying to move the gear yourself on your own which would be more risky.
Oh that makes more sense. Bandit mobs would definitely be all over that. Even on non-PvP servers, nearby players could have a chance to help defend the cart if they see it being attacked by bandits. Perhaps the "pony express" is a faction and if you help protect them, you gain faction with them. Additionally, increased faction with them means they'll transport your items at discounted rates. But also, you'd get a sense of satisfaction as a hero for protecting the wagon. It makes sense to have one or two guards with the wagon, but it would still be susceptible to big rare mobs and/or large groups of mobs. I can imagine there would be some emergent behavior or even whole player-made guilds dedicated to ensuring the safe passage of mail.
PvP is still kinda tricky. I kinda doubt VR would allow looting of players you kill, so putting your items on a wagon would just be opening yourself to the risk of permanently losing your stuff. Then there's even less reason to send stuff through the mail if you're just gonna escort it the whole way anyway. You'd be better off just running on your own.
I'm kinda digging the idea of it being attacked by bandits though lol