This was a fun idea I had for the wandering trader. There might already be set plans in place but imma still throw this out there.
This idea is heavily inspired by Baro Ki'Teer from Warframe. Every 2 weeks he'll return to one of the space stations in the solar system showing up with rare items at an incredibly high price. The catalogue of items he brings is completely random and something he brings one week might never be up for sale again for another 6months+
Now translating that idea into Loka with the wandering trader. Every <insert time frame here> the trader returns from distant lands with rare commodities. He could return with random biome controlled items or difficult items to gather (gunpowder, nether mats etc). He'd be there for a limited time and would only sell things while stocks last. To combat timezones hogging all the resources he could refresh his trades at multiple points in the day giving all timezones a chance to pop in.
The big issue with this is it means no longer would towns owning certain biomes have 100% control over that resource, biome control on Loka has been a huge feature that controls a lot of what happens from the server. It's probably the biggest change made on the server when comparing Loka to vanilla (don't quote me on that). Biome control gives meaning to controlling biomes and the problem with this feature would be taking away that meaning. The wandering trader would have to be implemented in such a way that it doesn't devalue the worth of owning biomes and this is where I have a few suggestions on how to do that:
1) Limiting how many items a player/town/everyone can buy. When the wandering trader arrives it'd have limited stock. It'd be an amount that can definitely be helpful and actually worth going out of your way to buy but if you needed more than the bare minimum you'd still have to go through the people who own biomes with these items.
2) Giving a cut off the money to the towns that own said resources. As the people who own the resource, it's only right, you get a cut of the money back for allowing the wandering trader here to sell. This means towns can get an extra bit of money out of owning a biome and don't miss out having their biome controlled items sold with no profits. This would also help prompt more war between local towns for biomes as you can get yourself a bit of a passive income without any extra work.
3) Making the price to buy these rare commodities above the average market price. The wandering trader worked hard to get these items here and it reflects in the price. The best place to buy these items will still be from the towns that can farm it as they'll be able to give you a way better price. You shouldn't rely on the wandering trader unless you want empty pockets. It's also worth mentioning you could be forced to spend resources rather than shards to get items, trying to avoid the rich just getting stuff off their shard richness
(I'm sure there are multiple more ways the trader could be regulated and restricted to make sure biome control still keeps its value)
I feel the biggest problem with biome control is the fact some almost necessary items are just never found or super hard to get a hold of. The wandering trader helps regulate that and gives a way to get money out of the economy while providing alternate routes to gather items, you don't have to be the level 25 town with loads of influence to trade for stuff you need. The wandering trader could be more likely to sell items not sold in the market for a long time encouraging towns to make use of the biome controlled items they have. Alternatively, towns who don't want to farm items can still get a passive income without working. The number of items being handed out by the wandering trader wouldn't be substantial enough to allow that item to suddenly circulate throughout the market and the item is still a rare commodity, the aim is to just keep the balance between making the wandering trader actually worthwhile to use but not ruining biome control which I feel is definitely achievable.
Would like to see opinions and the inevitable points I hadn't thought of below. I'll probably make a second message once I've thought through this idea a bit more in combination with the feedback I get.
This idea is heavily inspired by Baro Ki'Teer from Warframe. Every 2 weeks he'll return to one of the space stations in the solar system showing up with rare items at an incredibly high price. The catalogue of items he brings is completely random and something he brings one week might never be up for sale again for another 6months+
Now translating that idea into Loka with the wandering trader. Every <insert time frame here> the trader returns from distant lands with rare commodities. He could return with random biome controlled items or difficult items to gather (gunpowder, nether mats etc). He'd be there for a limited time and would only sell things while stocks last. To combat timezones hogging all the resources he could refresh his trades at multiple points in the day giving all timezones a chance to pop in.
The big issue with this is it means no longer would towns owning certain biomes have 100% control over that resource, biome control on Loka has been a huge feature that controls a lot of what happens from the server. It's probably the biggest change made on the server when comparing Loka to vanilla (don't quote me on that). Biome control gives meaning to controlling biomes and the problem with this feature would be taking away that meaning. The wandering trader would have to be implemented in such a way that it doesn't devalue the worth of owning biomes and this is where I have a few suggestions on how to do that:
1) Limiting how many items a player/town/everyone can buy. When the wandering trader arrives it'd have limited stock. It'd be an amount that can definitely be helpful and actually worth going out of your way to buy but if you needed more than the bare minimum you'd still have to go through the people who own biomes with these items.
2) Giving a cut off the money to the towns that own said resources. As the people who own the resource, it's only right, you get a cut of the money back for allowing the wandering trader here to sell. This means towns can get an extra bit of money out of owning a biome and don't miss out having their biome controlled items sold with no profits. This would also help prompt more war between local towns for biomes as you can get yourself a bit of a passive income without any extra work.
3) Making the price to buy these rare commodities above the average market price. The wandering trader worked hard to get these items here and it reflects in the price. The best place to buy these items will still be from the towns that can farm it as they'll be able to give you a way better price. You shouldn't rely on the wandering trader unless you want empty pockets. It's also worth mentioning you could be forced to spend resources rather than shards to get items, trying to avoid the rich just getting stuff off their shard richness
(I'm sure there are multiple more ways the trader could be regulated and restricted to make sure biome control still keeps its value)
I feel the biggest problem with biome control is the fact some almost necessary items are just never found or super hard to get a hold of. The wandering trader helps regulate that and gives a way to get money out of the economy while providing alternate routes to gather items, you don't have to be the level 25 town with loads of influence to trade for stuff you need. The wandering trader could be more likely to sell items not sold in the market for a long time encouraging towns to make use of the biome controlled items they have. Alternatively, towns who don't want to farm items can still get a passive income without working. The number of items being handed out by the wandering trader wouldn't be substantial enough to allow that item to suddenly circulate throughout the market and the item is still a rare commodity, the aim is to just keep the balance between making the wandering trader actually worthwhile to use but not ruining biome control which I feel is definitely achievable.
Would like to see opinions and the inevitable points I hadn't thought of below. I'll probably make a second message once I've thought through this idea a bit more in combination with the feedback I get.
