Transportation

Personnel transport is a very important part of life on Calydon. In the future there is still no wondrous way to instantly teleport people over long distances. Goods on the other hand can follow conventional routes, or can be transmitted through over the Cavewall network with some overhead data expense from one user's Matrix into another's.

There are regular caravans that travel between the tolerant or friendly factions on Calydon. Generally these are very heavily guarded, so is strong disincentive for violent opportunists.

Movement along established routes and roads is dramatically faster for the player compared to undeveloped areas. Some places (like Sebastopol) even have advanced moving walkway systems that can shuttle characters very quickly from one place to another.

Things and people can travel by a variety of means. Hovered options are visualized in a triangle that summarizes cost, speed, and safety of transport.

Pre-set options exist across all transport for:

Cheapest available/affordable

Fastest available/affordable

Securest available/affordable

Moving Walkway

Some cities, like Sebastopol, are equipped with moving walkways, which make it fast and easy to get from one side of the city to the other. This is a mode sometimes accessible from the Map Tab when selecting a new destination.

Automated drone

Automated drones can be purchased through the Cavewall to pick up and deliver goods or people from or to any specific station coordinates, or more practically to other players' locations or secure holding sites. While this is the most reliable and fast method to transport, it is also the most expensive, using InCreds as the exchanged currency.

Automation can have its drawbacks however, especially when self-defense mechanisms are activated. The strictest-high security automated envoy can open fire upon any moving entity, and has the potential to harm innocents in the process.

Gravtrain

Between some locations, the gravtrain still runs. It is a very fast and reliable mode of transport, sometimes available when selecting a destination in the Map Tab.

Conscript aircraft

With this option, you can conscript an NPC or player with an aircraft to transport goods. Typically they are about as secure as automated drones, however sometimes they are not as reliable. All aircraft transporter pilots have two ratings. One is based on their success rate, and the other is a measure of their mean expediency (meters/second). Their fees are often highly fluctuating, based on their greed or willingness to take jobs.

In general, this method is slower than automated drones, because available pilots are less abundant, and manned aircraft generally fly more slowly. Additionally, they have to first arrive at your specified departure destination before beginning the trip.

Different aircraft will have different load limits, so take note!

Pre-set options in this category include:

Cheapest available/affordable

Fastest available/affordable

Most reliable available/affordable

Regular caravan

With this option, you can utilize the regularly traveling caravans that run across Calydon. (See Suicide Charters.) While they run rather infrequently and traverse rather slowly, many are generally considered very reliable and safe. However, the cheapest option is not always the best. Prices for regular caravans can be driven up by bidding wars for use of available cargo space. If this is the case, you might consider conscripting your own caravan (see below).

* Important note: Any caravan passing through Wild Areas have the potential to be raided by players or NPCs. The Reapers are notorious caravan raiders.

Conscript new caravan

With this option, you can pay to assemble a custom caravan to run a single trip or regular route.

Single trip caravans are not cheap, but they can be useful if the goods in question are especially valuable or voluminous.

A new regular caravan route was the burden of carrying a maintenance cost, but also promises the reward of usage by NPCs and other players.

When conscripting a new caravan, there several considerations:

Min/Max cargo

A larger max cargo will make a higher speed more expensive

Speed of travel/route (shortest vs safest vs walking/animals/vehicles)

Number of guards

Minimum/Maximum guard strength (level)

Guard compensation amount based on strength (level)

Minimum guard reliability

Other players may show up to a loading caravan and join it. You set the cost of a player traveling with your caravan, or they can take the specified compensation and serve as a guard given that their strength (level) is sufficient. They can either walk or ride along side with their own mount or vehicle, depending on your specifications, or offer a fee for them to ride on the caravan.

NPC and players will also have ratings based on their success rate as guards of caravan defense.

Minimum guard slots (and likely cargo space) not filled by players when it is time for the caravan to depart will be filled by NPCs meeting your minimum requirements.

Find next conscripted caravan

Like finding the next regular caravan, if players make their caravans open to your faction for use, then you can search for them using this interface on your Cavelink.

Interrupted Transport

If a caravan is attacked, most of the goods will be plundered, provided they can be found. If any of the caravan escorts survive, they may return to the caravan to attempt to reclaim any remaining goods. It is prudent for caravan raiders to move quickly, since their attack is frequently rapidly reported to surrounding vigilantes who have an equal interest in taking advantage of the freshly stolen goods.

If a player is in transit, they can leave the caravan at any time. If they were serving as a guard of the caravan, their rating as a guard will be dramatically reduced, and they will only receive partial pay for the current trip (the remainder being refunded to the caravan route owner).

Contemporary reference to dangers of automated vehicles.