With the recent demise of the caravan system, I got to thinking about the general idea and what I really didn't like about it, and what I think might be a good replacement for it.
I liked the idea behind the system, but I think it's real downfall was that you had to wait, seemingly, forever to hop onto it, and then you had to wait longer for it to reach where you wanted to go. It always seemed like it was far more of a hassle, and not to mention confusing, for most people (especially new players) to mess with.
Perhaps what might be a better system is to simply have a stagecoach type system where you can purchase direct passage to some destinations? Possibly have each one only link to the closest towns near it, so you have to take the next coach in the next town if you want to get to somewhere distant (mostly to prevent people from just using the system for a easy/fastish transit system to replace running, but still keep it useful for low lvl chars and newbies).
Hell, maybe even just make it a mage portal system. There's obviously a lot of work going on with lube, so making a whole new system (the stagecoach notion) with all the extra description work and such might be asking too much. But I imagine a simple portal room (that charges) in certain spots in the major towns would be a lot easier and quicker to implement. Could add in a level restriction and/or restrict it from clan use to facilitate the notion that it's there to help players/characters who are not already well established and not in real need of such a system.
Maybe it's all a terrible idea, but having just made a new lowbie it kind of became a real issue and something that I think would probably help newer players just get around better.
