River Kingdom Pony Express: could this work?


Pathfinder Online

Goblin Squad Member

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So I was playing with the idea of putting up a network of couriers across the River Kingdoms that would make use of single characters, built for carrying and travel, using fast travel. We do not really know how Fast travel will look like, but I think there was talk about a scripted horse-ride following main roads, which would suit this idea fine. I would just have to set the courier off and only check on him when he arrives at a "hop"(if at all, off course).

The idea is to haul crafing ingredients and items where speed and number of rides should bring the profit: the hope is that most of these couriers will manage to avoid Bluddwolf and his cronies, working with the motto: "you lose some, you win a lot".

I assume bulk goods will rather need the caravan system, or dedicated, slow packmules so this will be more about smaller hauls that a single, dedicated character can carry.

These couriers would off course be respected citizens of the Settlement that they are part off.

I would need a load of Alts (and/or accounts) to make this worthwhile, but I am hoping that these courier characters may already become viable transporters with 3-6 months of game time. They will need dedicated skills. This will also depend on if GW will allow us to log in characters that are not currently on the XP-faucet. If not then this may become too expensive quickly.

The idea is to be able to field several Couriers at the same time, and from locations that I can control. I can adjust my runs if there is a lot of hostile activity, or I can for instance send 3 couriers down the same route with short intervals to throw off bandits (one courier may even be empty) in order to expend their Binds, that sort of thing. The coordination needs to be perfect, therefore a single player controlling these courier-alts will work well.

And this is how the monitor on my left should look like when I am ready to slap my ponies into motion: metagaming is fun

Goblin Squad Member

If your service becomes known for reliability and utility, you can also begin refusing carriage to any Settlement (or Kingdom) whose members assault or kill your riders. Established--and enforced--neutrality in this transport niche could be a boon to all parties.

Goblin Squad Member

I like the idea of having a messenger service if you are really willing to do this for the long haul. I agree with Jazzlvraz that neutrality will be pretty important.

If this does come to fruition and works pretty well you should also expect posers pretending to be your couriers to gain access to places they would not normally be allowed in.

Goblin Squad Member

You could even guarantee delivery of a select few items, by threading them. For a nominal fee, of course. Or offer insurance...if you get robbed they get refunded and you take a loss, but the money you make off insurance for the times you don't get robbed makes up for it.
I dunno just spitballin here!

Goblin Squad Member

<Magistry> Toombstone wrote:

You could even guarantee delivery of a select few items, by threading them. For a nominal fee, of course. Or offer insurance...if you get robbed they get refunded and you take a loss, but the money you make off insurance for the times you don't get robbed makes up for it.

I dunno just spitballin here!

That is what spreadsheets and actuaries are for.

Silver Crusade Goblin Squad Member

What reason would I have to pay you rather than run it myself? Why would you need so many accounts?

It seems like you're trying to graft an idea to a game system, and I'm not quite sure they fit.

Goblin Squad Member

See the Aeternum Parcel Service... Its currently being revised, but I thought it was worth reminding folks about our initative as it is similar to this one =)

Goblin Squad Member

It sounds as if Tyncale's thinking of running all the Riders himself, which I'd not noticed before.

Tyncale, recruit Riders! I predict you'll be turning away applicants.

Goblin Squad Member

Players in EVE have implemented similar idea. I mean Red Frog - Black Frog - Blue Frog transport corporations. They are neutral, they have plenty of counter-scam measures, they are not cheap. But they deliver to and from nullsec and lowsec (and hisec of course). These guys are actively using alts visibly unrelated to Frogs. And cargoes are handled through these alts for the most part. Most important Frogs earned trust of so much EVE pilots. This is ramarkable achievement.
I can recommend OP to look into Black Frog/Red Frog history - you can learn from their failures and successes.

Goblin Squad Member

Alexander_Damocles wrote:

What reason would I have to pay you rather than run it myself? Why would you need so many accounts?

It seems like you're trying to graft an idea to a game system, and I'm not quite sure they fit.

Good question and I should have explained better. No, it is more that I am trying to get some fun and coin out of a gamesystem for myself. I was not really planning to provide a service for others to be honest, but I certainly would use the pony express if it could help my settlement with something.

I am not a hardcore PvP-er and expect to do very little PvP that I seek out myself. I can see myself help out on a well planned Raid though: I can follow orders and certainly would want to help protect my settlement.

But trading, working the auctionhouse(in this case connecting them), getting a good hang of resourceflows and item-demand, is where I expect my fun to be in PFO. I am not even saying that I am exceptionally good at it: it just gives me the most fun. Just like making a set of boxes in Everquest work together. I love to play with those systems, mix and match, that sort of stuff. I loved the Henchmen feature in GW1, kept me busy for days to find a great mix. I have spent hundreds of hours browsing the EQ bazaar. I spend hours upon hours in Everquest browsing NPC merchants just to see if they have interesting stuff on them from players. I know I could make more money grinding mobs for 5 hours in the same spot but that just kills me. I also loved to "work" the faction system in Everquest, see how you could get most of them raised without ruining others. That sort of thing. I am also a 7x300 crafter in EQ, having mastered all 7 main tradeskills. Gathering all the ingredients for that was half the fun!

So browsing one settlements auctionhouse, finding some nice weapon or a batch of gems that I know would sell for more in another settlement, and then try to get it there without too much losses and put it on the auctionhouse there: that sounds huge fun to me. And in PFO I do not get to brows just one auctionhouse, I can browse the markets of any settlements that I have an Alt in! I just get giddy thinking about it. And the exitement of sending out 3 runners and find out they all made it. Or none.....

I guess this sounds like I am playing with myself, but I most certainly would try to benefit the settlement I am in too. I am not completely antisocial. :) But I am not really trying to corner the market on Courier-services or some.

I hope this explains it a bit.

This probably may explain it even better: this is my favorite dev-quote, it is from Stephen: Players that never leave town

See me as the third type of player that Stephen describes in that post.
Also note that there seems to be a very large percentage of players in Eve that are playing the high-sec game and are perfectly happy with it. In fact those subs seem an important part of what makes Eve profitable.


zzzzzZNKKXXwha? Huh? Oh, right, yeah.

*Clears throat*

Twiligh' Sperklez. or somtihn.

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