Goblin Squad Member
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Nihimon, why can't you get what you ask for by simply running an empty caravan or one loaded with the lowest-value goods? (bulk wood), and having a stealthed party following close behind?
If bandits in the blind see just 'a caravan with X guards' or 'a caravan of Y carts and Z people run by [company]' without any details on goods, then illusory goods are not needed. (Invisible guards, though...)
If they have a good spy monitoring trade and logistics chat, then they would probably be aware of the ruse anyway.
Having a good stealth-detector ranger scouting the path ahead may be a simpler anti-bandit measure.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@ Randomwalker
Good point. But I think Nihimon wants it to be a more effective decoy. If the bandits can somehow see it us cheap bulk wood, they may pass it up. This idea of Nihimon's is to get the bandits to commit to a near worthless target for decoy or trap purposes.
Of course the other point not noted yet is, if the caravan / decoy is a sanctioned target, the bandits will likely attack it solely because they can anyway. The bandits won't mind killing the enemy and ending up with little loot to show for it, because PvP is more fun than sitting around twiddling your thumbs.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Nihimon, why can't you get what you ask for by simply running an empty caravan or one loaded with the lowest-value goods?
II answered a similar question from Darcnes upthread:
Part of what I am wondering is how would bandits even know what you have?Advancing a hideout can.. allow the hideout's occupants to determine the nature of passing characters and their gear before triggering an ambush.Inspecting a target for S&D generates a list of the target's carried and non-threaded items.It would seem that giving Bandits some idea of what their marks are carrying has been a consistent theme. I expect that whatever finally gets implemented will have this same general characteristic.
If the Bandits don't have some way of seeing what the cargo is before they flag themselves, then this is not needed.
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I feel that this question is kind of moot for one reason.
Bag of Holding can be threaded. I imagine certain low value/high weight valuables being transferred by wealthy guilds, and certainly any poor caravan wouldn't be able to afford it. Nonetheless, given the settlements first "X+1" wealth level, anyone with sense will make sure to buy a Bag of Holding, and the better connected the caravan is the better one you can buy, or you can purchase multiple. These folks would be riding wagons full of heavy junk, protect a craftsman, and break the wagon at the first sign of trouble. If the player dies, everything in the Bag of Holding (Type 1-4) should be safe. I suspect the bag will "cost" more Thread when it is full but I don't see why this would cause too much undue harm to a peaceful caravan. The Merchant respawns losing all the crap that might get looted, and then secures travel to his original destination after reequipping and regrouping.
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Goblin Squad Member
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You can equip a backpack instead of a cloak, pouches instead of a belt, and bags of holding instead of other wondrous items. The purpose of all of these is to increase your encumbrance limits for your general inventory. So:
•Yes, you can thread them.
•No, threading them doesn't protect what's in them (because they don't have individual contents, just a bonus to general inventory).
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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@ Randomwalker
Good point. But I think Nihimon wants it to be a more effective decoy. If the bandits can somehow see it us cheap bulk wood, they may pass it up. This idea of Nihimon's is to get the bandits to commit to a near worthless target for decoy or trap purposes.
Of course the other point not noted yet is, if the caravan / decoy is a sanctioned target, the bandits will likely attack it solely because they can anyway. The bandits won't mind killing the enemy and ending up with little loot to show for it, because PvP is more fun than sitting around twiddling your thumbs.
The point was to have a way to adjust the risk/reward of effective bandits. The cost could be as high as the exposure required to cause the bandits to expose themselves to the desired risk, and reducing their potential reward is the intent.
A bandit that will accept the full risk of attacking a low-value target would simply be given low-value targets to draw him out; this is a way of drawing out more discriminating predators who won't take the bait that vicious animals will.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@ Randomwalker
The point was to have a way to adjust the risk/reward of effective bandits. The cost could be as high as the exposure required to cause the bandits to expose themselves to the desired risk, and reducing their potential reward is the intent.
A bandit that will accept the full risk of attacking a low-value target would simply be given low-value targets to draw him out; this is a way of drawing out more discriminating predators who won't take the bait that vicious animals will.
This could also have the negative effect of bandits just saying, "well I can trust what is or what is not a valuable target, so we do like a shark does. Bite first, then return if it was tasty."
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Goblin Squad Member
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This could also have the negative effect of bandits just saying, "well I can trust what is or what is not a valuable target, so we do like a shark does. Bite first, then return if it was tasty."
You seem to have missed a tag in your post.
The point of making the cost significant was to ensure it doesn't become commonplace. Bandits should worry that their target might be a decoy, just like players in general should worry that they'll be killed for their valuable possessions, but if it's "too much" the game will suffer.
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Goblinworks Executive Founder
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Right- the point of the decoy is to make the bandit take a risk. If there is no cost to making a decoy, then the roads will be filled with decoys whenever banditry becomes common enough to be a nuisance.
I think it would be fair to be able to produce items that are in fact worthless, but appear as valuable items while in transit. Among other things, that creates an interesting market dynamic when the bandits who make off with these items end up fencing them back to the people who want to use the lures.