Dev Blog - Tradepacks
It is with great pleasure we get to talk to you today about the Tradepack System!
The tradepack system is the primary economy system of Ravendawn, it is how majority of the silver is generated in the world. Tradepacks are simply a package of products put together by a player, and by transporting them to a tradepost, the player will obtain silver and at times other rare resources in exchange for the package.
A tradepack can be created with dozens of different materials or combinations of materials, eggs, milk, wheat, ore, lumber just to name a few. Almost any gathered material in the game can be used to create different trade packs.
How much is a tradepack worth?
This is where the system on the surface can be confusing, but is actually quite simple. Around the map are places called Tradeposts. These Tradeposts are where packs can be created, and also turned in for silver. These Tradeposts simulate a real world market, with supply and demand.
Without getting too complex into the system, when a certain type of Tradepack (for this example, ore) is traded more between posts, the demand for this resource goes down, and so the amount of Silver earned for trading these packs goes down. As well, when a Tradepost is traded with more players, their demand for products goes down, and they will pay less Silver as well.. However, when one product or tradepost has lower demand, the value and demand of all other products/tradeposts goes up!
This creates a real world self-balancing economy system for virtually all the resources in the world of Ravendawn. You will be able to check the demand/supply of all resources in every Tradepost in the game at any time, allowing you to decide if you wish to take the safe travel through the fields carrying the iron ore from your latest mining trip, or taking the dangerous voyage across the ocean for a higher demand trip to enjoy extra profits.
Now, you may ask, how does one transport Tradepacks? Tradepacks can be transported in two different ways in Ravendawn. By Land or by Sea
Trading on Land
On Land tradepacks can be transported using Tradecarts or Wagons. There are dozens of different Wagons in Ravendawn, some are larger or smaller, allowing carrying more tradepacks than another. One may allow for slightly faster travel, another may allow you to sneak past possible enemies. How you build tradecarts will be explained in an upcoming Carpentry Dev Blog!
However Tradecarts are not the only thing that affect your trading on land, mounts do as well! We will explain far more in the Mount Dev Blog, but mounts will have a strength stat to them, mounts with higher strength stats will be able to move at a higher speed when pulling a tradecart.
Trading by Sea
Land is not the only way you can transport Tradepacks, you are also able to transport Tradepacks with Ships. Much like Wagons, different ships are better at transporting Tradepacks. Merchant Ships, while less armed than Galleons, are able to carry extra Tradepacks and earn the trader extra profit from his trips. Ships have dozens of different attachments as you all have seen in our past Ship Dev Blog (If you haven't, take a look!). These attachments will also allow for carrying additional Tradepacks on your ship.
Fish Transportation
Now Fish, like Tradepacks, require being transported by a Wagon or Ship. Just like a tradepack, a Fish will take up 1 slot in a Wagon or Ship. As well, like Tradepacks, Fish will have an increased or decreased value based on the demand of that fish, and demand of the habor you bring them to. There are over 20 different fish that can be found in fresh water, ocean shore and deep oceans. We will have a fishing dev blog coming out in the near future which will teach more about the fishing system though ;)
But be careful, dying when carrying Tradepacks or Fish will result in you dropping them in place free for the the killer or others to take for themselves.