Idea for a caravan clan (make lots of money)

[Slamz]

I don't have the manpower or inclination to do this, but I think it's a neato idea that a lot of other groups may support, if someone wants to try it.

1) Get together around 10 players and a decent amount of starting capital.  15k gold would get you a decent start or 30k would be great.

2) Go around the map with your whole clan as a group.  Each of you should have 49 troops and gear for the troops.  Initially it will be junk gear but you should be able to upgrade to the richest army in the game soon enough...

3) Talk to clans in the areas you are entering.  Tell them you will pay them 35g per good for any goods they want to sell you (minimum 100 goods).

4) Buy their goods and proceed to the next area and repeat.

5) As you go along, note which fiefs have expensive goods so you can go there to sell the goods you got from another area.  Don't just travel A --> B, buying from A and selling in B, travel from A ---> B ---> C ---> D ---> E ---> F ---> G --->...?  Buy from A and sell in E.  Buy from B and sell in F.  Buy from C and sell in G.  Etc.


I think a lot of clans would sell you goods because 35 is more than they'd get selling locally.  To beat 35g you'll have to travel a reasonable distance and most people aren't doing that.  But YOU will.  So you can buy their goods for 35g each and then travel far enough that you are selling them for perhaps even 100g each.  Once you have the capital to really get the ball rolling, you'll be making tremendous bank.

And note the key here is that you aren't buying in A, traveling to G and selling.  You are buying up all the goods along the way and selling them as you travel a big path around the map, buying and selling with every step.

You need multiple people for this because every village has different goods, and you can only carry 1 type, so if you roam around as a pack of 10 people, that's 10 different goods you can haul around.  Also, with 10 people your caravan can consist of 490 troops without paying any upkeep -- just stick fairly close on the map and if anyone attacks you, you can all pile on with reinforcements.

There is a fair amount of risk here but it wouldn't be too long before you have money to buy significant upgrades for your army (which you could likely buy from the clans for less than market cost as you go around the map).


It would be a lot better of an idea if 1 person could carry more than 1 type of good but it's still workable as long as you have a few people willing to do this with you.

[Tomas]

I think this is a great idea in principle but keeping together on the map would prove very difficult.  People with different amounts of goods will move at different speeds and all of the clan members would have to be very active to get round this.

[Slamz]

Really you only need to be within, what, 19 hours of each other?  I think that's how long a defender has to reinforce.  So you can be pretty far spread out.

But you would definitely need active members -- at least people you can reach regularly through Steam.  Because if it takes you 6 hours to notice you got attacked, then 6 hours to contact the rest of the people in your guild, then 6 hours for them to join you... well actually you'd still have an hour to spare but more than that and you'd be in trouble.

[Tennenoth]

Leave it to the Caravan Guild.   

In honesty, you'd want to have already talked to the clans areas you want to run through because not a lot of them actually like people just running through their areas unannounced, especially in a large Caravan.

Also, what is proving to be more profitable at the moment is crafting and selling heirloomed gear in the local area, we've thought about the trading routes, we've thought about how to get the most money and we've been heavily testing the whole trading thing this time round with little want to attack our claimed lands.

I can't disclose much but the mechanics work quite well until you get stuck like me with crates of goods that you can't transfer, sell and I don't know about dropping quite yet, but I hope to god that will work otherwise i'm a broken caravan!

With regards to organisation, it's rather easy to organise people who're sitting in towns, villages and castles crafting goods with a few people picking up the spoils and transporting them to their destination with their protection following close behind than to co-ordinate long drives across the entire map. Most people are at work and especially for the Caravan Guild ourselves, most of us are either in full time work or univeristy and therefore can't afford to spend 24 hours a day watching a little dot running across a map.

Good idea in theory but with the mechanics and the actual effort this would take, there are much more efficient ways of making money in my opinion and in practice.

[Slamz]

Also, what is proving to be more profitable at the moment is crafting and selling heirloomed gear in the local area

I agree that has a ton of potential.... IF people will buy it.  I still bet the goods caravan makes more money over the course of 1 month.  The crafting business will quickly be undermined by alliances and internal production.  What can you make that's worth buying that absolutely nobody in my entire alliance can make and will sell to me for little or no profit?

I do hope there's a market in crafting goods but I can easily see it being something every alliance does for themselves, instead of buying.



Crafting was a valid way to make money in EVE because it was such a huge pain that most people wouldn't do it.  They would rather just farm up cash and pay someone else to craft.  And EVE fostered a lot of independent players who simply wouldn't have the resources to run their own crafting operation.  The crafting in this game is so easy that everyone can do it, and there's no reason to even be in Strategus without a clan.

There may be some market in being able to craft things that most people can't make, though... like "Round Shields".  Who has points in that?  Better yet, who has a +3 "Round Shield"?

But I think whatever you craft and sell is going to be some niche market stuff.

[Thucydides]

if there was a "follow person" button this would work marvelously

[Tennenoth]

I agree that has a ton of potential.... IF people will buy it.  I still bet the goods caravan makes more money over the course of 1 month.  The crafting business will quickly be undermined by alliances and internal production.  What can you make that's worth buying that absolutely nobody in my entire alliance can make and will sell to me for little or no profit?

I do hope there's a market in crafting goods but I can easily see it being something every alliance does for themselves, instead of buying.



Crafting was a valid way to make money in EVE because it was such a huge pain that most people wouldn't do it.  They would rather just farm up cash and pay someone else to craft.  And EVE fostered a lot of independent players who simply wouldn't have the resources to run their own crafting operation.  The crafting in this game is so easy that everyone can do it, and there's no reason to even be in Strategus without a clan.

There may be some market in being able to craft things that most people can't make, though... like "Round Shields".  Who has points in that?  Better yet, who has a +3 "Round Shield"?

But I think whatever you craft and sell is going to be some niche market stuff.

As much as people can craft the goods themselves, there will always be a market because people can't produce them as quickly as they would like. Whether or not you can create hierloomed longbows for 130 gold per at 100% efficiency that's only 24 bows a day with an expenditure of 3,120. Now, along comes the Caravan Guild having heard of your attacks or defence of a location, and you need equipment and you don't have time to craft 100 more bows etc, alright well, we can give you those 100 bows at 180 per in 5 hours, that's 5,000 more for a massive decrease of 95 hours providing you even have 100% efficiency.

With good infrastructure, negotiated trade routes & stockpiling you're going to be able to happily get the goods in time and make sure that it's given to the right people for a reasonable price.

The price margins don't seem great but depending on how much you can actually create the items for, the money will come roling in. They spend a bit more money for an increased efficiency while you gain more money. I'm sure everyone can understand the basic maths behind it and have enough business skills to see how this can be profitable while negotiating, the figures above are completely made up and of course and not like to be real. (Other than the efficiency and the number than can be created)

With bulk orders of equipment, for items that are in high demand because of their stats, use and general availability within cRPG, therefore more people are familiar with using them, you're going to have a decent increase in the number of people wanting these goods within a given time limit. As long as you've got your infrastructure in place, you're able to make the money much quicker.

The risk is much lower since you don't have to run across the map and the fact that you don't have to keep changing things around and being active nearly 24/7 warrants for much more money for much less effort.

With the "niche market stuff" this won't be so good, I mean, everyone is going to need decent weapons at some stage but there is no point having people craft long daggers because there is practically no use for them.
Probably the most niche thing that we have is heirloomed hammers, much cheaper and more effective to just buy these from the basic town markets as base level than to commission someone else to create them at an heirloomed value unless you're making ridiculous amounts of money.

P.S. Thucydides - There is a follow button!

[Dehitay]

As much as people can craft the goods themselves, there will always be a market because people can't produce them as quickly as they would like. Whether or not you can create hierloomed longbows for 130 gold per at 100% efficiency that's only 24 bows a day with an expenditure of 3,120. Now, along comes the Caravan Guild having heard of your attacks or defence of a location, and you need equipment and you don't have time to craft 100 more bows etc, alright well, we can give you those 100 bows at 180 per in 5 hours, that's 5,000 more for a massive decrease of 95 hours providing you even have 100% efficiency.

This implies that people can only craft 1 item an hour. Even with the old system, it was pretty easy to craft more than 1 item an hour. With the new system, it's near impossible to craft at that speed. Last I heard, for every smithing skill you have, you have a X% chance to craft the item where X is the crafting proficiency of the village. For example, if Fallen needs MW Horn Bows, we have somebody with 9 skill in them. We can just send him to a 100% crafting proficiency village, and he could produce 216 in a single day. Chances are that would cause us to go broke.

[Keshian]

Actually you can produce many everys ingle hour with medium to good crafting skill as each skill point allows a 15% chance of crafting each hour, so you could POTENTIALLY make 30 an hour.  Really not a time sink to make our own stuff.  Unless you craft cheap gear that we need, no real reason to buy crafted items outside the clan.  There are a few long distance traders we work with thata re making really good money, if a whole clan worked together, long-distance trading is the quickest way to make large amounts of gold.  Unlesss of course you have a lot of enemies that will attack your clan members on sight.

[Dach]

Actually you can produce many everys ingle hour with medium to good crafting skill as each skill point allows a 15% chance of crafting each hour, so you could POTENTIALLY make 30 an hour.

Where did you get that number? I thought crafting skill were always at 100% efficacity right now. I crafted some item with 6 skill, I made 6 in the hour, same with skill of 9, made 9, etc.

[Keshian]

Where did you get that number? I thought crafting skill were always at 100% efficacity right now. I crafted some item with 6 skill, I made 6 in the hour, same with skill of 9, made 9, etc.

You are right, thats what it used to be, its 100% now.  Sorry.

[Tomas_of_Miles]

there is no point having people craft long daggers because there is practically no use for them.

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[Plaksteris]

Then Im forever alone of traveling great distances for SUPERIOR PROFIT!