Item Transport System

Since banks are localized, it would seem like a good idea to have some system in place by which a player could pay a fee in gold and have a set of items shipped from one bank to another.

That is, a player would talk to a banker, ask to ship items, select the items to be shipped, and then pay a fee in gold based on how much is being shipped how far. There would then be a delay time while those items are shipped to the other location, where the player cannot access them in either location, before they arrive at the destination bank and become accessible again.

I imagine there would be some items that could not be shipped this way for various in game or out of game reasons, but for bulk items (especially crafting items) this would be hugely useful.

 

On the "to do list" apparently.

 

I was literally just thinking this exact same thing and came here to post it!

 

It would be nice if there'd be a system to commission those orders to other players without actually giving your items to another player.

Example: Player A wants to move stuff from one bank to another. He places an order. Player B can now go to the banker and ask for orders. If he accepts he gets a quest item like the Mail Package. He can now transport that item to the target destination and gets some gold for it.
The order expires after a certain amount of time (like 12-24 hours, dunno) and is then fulfilled by the game. Player A would pay less if another player takes the order and the delivery would take less time (i.e. he receives a percentage of his initial payment if another player fulfills the order).
If Player B loses the quest item or doesn't fulfill the order on time his quest is aborted and Player A gets his stuff transported after the normal timer.

 

Now you know what you are (or will be) transporting when doing that mail-man-quests for towncriers... wouldn't that be fun? You "order" some kind of transport from A to B at the local towncrier and then this delivery (masked as a mail-package of course) will be availiable at the towncrier until some player completes it? Too bad when that player takes like forever to complete it, of course... but aren't many people always crying for more risk in this game?

 

They could just put a set time limit on it. That way if a player completes it within the time frame they are rewarded, if they take too long the package is transferred automatically and they do not receive rewards.

 

Yes, that could work.

 

You can pay other players to do this work for you - the thing is you have to trust them. There's been a lot of sentiment (from LB mostly) throughout development, that these sort of things should be adjudicated as in RL, meaning no system to control it, leaving players in charge. You can see the same thinking when it comes to renting rooms in your house, or playing chess.

However, secure trade is a must and has been implemented very well. If there is a system for player-created quests at some point where you can allocate rewards via a vendor or other mechanic, then I could see this incorporated. The thing is, wouldn't it be so much more interesting if theft was an option? I mean, they don't get the money until they make the delivery, but maybe they walk off with it. Reputation then comes into play.

We have the mail quests via town cryer - item delivery would basically work the same way. One problem I see - this would require you to set up a 'give item for delivery' on one vendor, and a 'receive item' for another vendor. However, you have to be at the vendor to adjust the settings, and if you can do that you can take the item yourself.

Good ideas though, I'd like to see more player created/run quests, and item delivery is a good place to start. Would love to hear some dev thoughts on this.

Two notes

• It is important not to remove the difficulties of distance travel. This is why we don't have multiple bind spots and lunar rifts everywhere. Make payment for convenience an option, but limit it.
• One advantage to an in-game system would be the gold sink aspect. If the gold goes to players it's redistribution, if it goes to a vendor it is taken out. Still, one can imagine that the players taking item delivery tasks would be at the lower end of the economic scale.

 

In Eve Online it's just like that, there is a system to place those orders, but it is completely in player control what happens to the stuff. The problem is: Eve Online is a completely different game in so many aspects that it's hard to compare.
In SotA what would the consequences be? Either you have to establish a reputation first, which is bad for new players, or nobody uses the system, because it's too unreliable. At least that's what I'd expect. You can't really actively punish anyone ingame since PvP is (luckily) optional.

I hope they'll have a look at this when player-driven quests are implemented.

 

For those who haven't played it, the idea I suggested is nearly verbatim how Black Desert Online handles their between bank system. You pay a fee on the items being transported based on weight, number, and distance that the object is being sent. So, for example, were I to send several hundred maple logs from Ardoris to Owl's Head, it would cost me probably many times the actual value of those logs and it might take upwards of several IRL hours to get there. However, if I were sending them from Ardoris to Solania, the fee would be significantly less, and the time span would be within an IRL hour. And, if I were sending a single piece of armor instead of all those logs, the price would be fairly cheap (usually about a few percent of the item value).

For those who say hire a player to do this, that is an option, yes, but for a player such as myself that doesn't like the risk/reward ratio for doing that, I'd like some other option. Especially since I am a non pvper at heart, and know that nearly anyone who would try to abuse player trust would probably be able to wipe the floor with me in a pvp encounter.

 

Even if it were in the hands of players, it wouldn't have to be loosey-goosey; you could have some type of game system behind it that would ensure the security of the goods.

For example, just talking about something similar, it would be nice to have a repair order system, where you could leave some gear on a vendor for another player to repair, but then could either retrieve those items at any time or get some security payment for them. The same type of game mechanics could extend to a player transport order.

An NPC-driven system sounds fine to me too; it would just cost more than could be done through paying players.

 

Lets install a fugitive-system. Hand items to a players in trade-window with an option to sign a contract. The "runner" pays a security-fee. If the items are given to a banker in time the player will get his fee back and the reward. If not he is fugitive and in permanent pvp. After the player is killed by another player, the wares are returned to the original player. The fee goes to the player-killer. The pvp-mode is removed after the death. Period. Can't be that problem to install a system like that.

 

Only issues there are what happens if the person either a) didn't make it due to a failure of their internet, b) what happens if the person never logs back on again. or c) is picked up by someone who has a huge guild to protect them against pvp?