Caravans!

Hi folks!

The secret, and not so secret, machinations of the Wayward Heir have yielded far more than even She anticipated, and certainly more than She has the patience to manage!

In typical fashion, rather than concern Herself with the considerable surplus, Pandora has taken to scattering it across Sapience with characteristic abandon, giving precious little thought to where it lands or what becomes of it…

And thus it falls to Prospero to see that what His niece gives away so recklessly keeps the balance of the world’s economy.

To that end, the villages of Sapience may have found themselves in sudden possession of riches they did nothing to earn, but it is by His design, not Pandora’s whim, that they have a plan for what to do with them:

Villages will begin trading away these commodities for gold, sent forth by caravan toward civilisation to be haggled away at a marketplace for what is likely to be a pittance. Amidst the conquest spread across Sapience, they will not simply hand their goods to any passing stranger. To see their wares reach a marketplace safely, they will hand their caravan of goods to the city that holds dominion over them.

Some villages may trade eagerly, others only grudgingly, knowing their reimbursement is limited by what they sacrifice to have it transported. And only once their controlling city has built a marketplace of its own will they begin loading up caravans periodically. By Prospero’s design, no two places will carry quite the same bounty, and each caravan may be a little different from the last.

When a village sends forth its caravan, word will reach the ears of its city’s army, who may move to see it safely home. But the roads are not so easily controlled, and nothing stops a caravan from being fair game to any who would claim it along the way. Push it from its course to take it outright or fall upon it to pillage what you can carry away, discarding what you can’t.

Escorting and attacking caravans are both open conflict activities, and no city’s claim is secure until the goods are safely within its walls or spirited away within a stronghold.

In other words: caravans are a new commodity-conflict system designed to both alleviate commodity access while also providing an additional axis for pvp.

Be sure to read HELP CARAVANS and HELP IMPROVEMENTS, the latter of which has been updated with relevant information.

Enjoy!