Merchant Trade "Quests"

I already know I'll catch a lot of flak from the anti-"fluff" crowd, which is fine. i've just thinking about this for a while as an alternative to farming all day, with a positive goal of teamwork for reward.

Trade "Quests":

Between various towns would be "trade routes," For example a trade route running from Ascalon City to Borlass Pass. Or one from Lion's Arch to Sactum Cay. You get the idea.

Concept:

The idea would be that you and your allies would grab the quest from the appropriate NPC. This would reset the mobs along the route to special ones for the quest, usually higher level or more strategically placed.

When you start the quest you would begin with 3-8 "pack animals" which you must protect while moving along the route. They would move at set intervals so you can't just stop them and clear the road ahead.

You cannot "map" your way to victory you must follow the route.

Through good teamwork, and a little luck you will reach the opposite end of the trade route. Reward time.

Reward Type:

Under perfect circumstances you will make it with all the pack animals alive. Which would grant you the maximum reward.

Each route will have different difficulties and amount of rewards but there are a few types to choose from.

-Exp & Gold
(moderate amounts of each, mainly for beginners or skill point people.)

-Gold & Credits
(a moderate amount of gold, and credits for basic merchant items. I.e. 1 credit for Expert Salvage Kit gets you an Expert Salvage Kit free of charge.)

-Advanced Credits:
(Grants you a random credit for amounts of common/rare materials, dyes, or runes. The quality/amount is dependent on the difficulty of the route, you're not getting Silver/Black dye for doing a newbie run. Get over it. ^_^)

-Trade Goods:
(Alots you a small amount of the goods you were carrying, ranging from Ale, salvage or collectors goods for the area. In a very rare occasion you might get a weapon, and since merchants rarely trade with substandard gear it would probably be gold.)

Other rules:
-You MUST start a quest with a full party.
-Reward limited per party member, you won't get more by dropping a few people in the middle.
-1 pack animal must survive to complete the quest.
-Pack animals will stop moving if all players are currently dead and wait until at least two are back on the same radar radius to continue moving.

The idea of these are to add one more end game option of play if you prefer to hang out with friends and don't like farming. Farmers will farm for the sake of farming, other people can do this.

Oh you mean like the quest similar to that just outside of House zu Heltzer?

sure... that could be good.

This doesn't sound like the chest carrying quest from HzH, though that would be good. This sounds more like the quest A New Escort except accross multiple zones. This also sounds good.

/signed

like the idea

/signed

good idea, we need more content.

/signed

/signed

Maybe you could add levels of awards. Like, if 3 pack animals survive you get les stuff than in 7 pack animals survive.

/signed

sounds like gyala hatchery tho..

I was thinking along the same lines the other day. love the idea. Its very similar to a MUD I used to play called Medievia (not advertising) where one of the ways to REALLY get rich would be run ridiculously difficult trade runs.

However, I don't think it necessary to be limited to a 'full party'. I might want to do a quick run between ToA and Beetleton to earn maybe a plat or whatever (to kill time iow). Having said this, the 'good runs' would require a good team of players to do it.

Players could also be allowed to choose WHAT goods they wish to transport - thereby making the higher paying runs accessible to players who have the funds to run them, while making lower reward runs easier, but accessible to lower level players.

Furthermore, perhaps make the 'reward' purely gold, since thats what trading is for, and maybe introduce a new title for players who trade a lot. This could have some interesting side effects to the overall game, since a new dimension has been introduced that guilds can concentrate on.

Just my 2c

A new title too. Merchant's Apprentice

/signed

O.o People like the base concept. That's a shocker for sure.

Anyway, indeed the idea was if you arrive with less then the starting amount of pack animals you get less reward, just to clarify.

Trade routes would have different lvls of difficulty depending where they are.

Titles are a good tack on idea, everyone likes new titles. (well most do.)

I put in the full party requirement because the idea is to increase positive community interation. But I suppose in some cases you could have non-full party starting.

/signed. Cool idea.

/signed

would make a nice change of things to do, although im surprised that the people that hate (probably with good reason) the fedex style quests of factions havent madea mention, although this would be alot more interesting