Merchent Gates

[CyAdora]

I'm still not sure what the purpose behind this suggestion even is beyond finding a use for the sacred space gates...

They would make lovely fruit tree planters.  Or, a quest/ homage:

Move the totems from sacred space to be placed with the 'relic archs' and keep the chanting and associated skill alive. One totem at each archway would make a lovely 'Faith' Quest. (and maybe the roaming trader may appear... from time to time.)

[Johan Crichton]

Hm.  I think that's the best idea I've heard for the old gates.  Make them totems, and allow new characters to get the faith skill.   Having the roaming trader move from settlement to settlement every week or so and hovering around the gate at a settlement sounds good too.

[Etherdrifter]

Actually it was an idea to act as a gold sink, a slow constant drain for a reasonable service.

Also in response to simon's worries simply lower the trading exp cap after a gate is used.  Paying 50 gold for 10 exp?  Not many people are going to do that.  But people who trade with players might find it helpful.

Still, just an idea, one of many random ones.

[Ahnaom]

Maybe the fact that Simon has already said:
As a living person, that would make it too easy to get the trading XP bonuses and so on. Also, where would be the challenge in getting goods from one town to another?

I was thinking along the same lines as Ether. High travelling costs would prevent this from being an easy teleportation. Also, there was another discussion about "nowhere to spend gold" problem.

However, this would be very hard to balance out. Low level characters benefit a lot from that 100 xp bonus and they have to pay less. High levels don't really get that much and they pay a lot. Besides, there will be less incentives to buy all the skills. So yes, this suggestion has many holes in it but maybe something better can arise from all the ideas we were throwing in here.

And I am all for bringing the pillars back.

[FirstAmongstDaves]

The arches would make good Faith pillar substitutes...

[Bobby the Hatchet]

As far as locating settlements and villages on the map, I prefer the hard way. I completed a huge trade circuit with Bango when I first started recently and marked the Trading Posts and it was pretty cool. Much better way to get acquainted with everything than just void walking through.

I'd really like to see Faith Pillars or Totems activated as part of some pilgrimage so that us new players could get the Faith skill.

Maybe once the Totem pilgrimage was completed and Faith obtained, prayer at the pillars could offer a daily buff/debuff based on random chance. Nothing major, just something cool to look forward to whenever you happen to be near one. Maybe regulated offerings could be made once daily; charms, snakes, crabs, skulls, gold, gems, something not entirely plentiful, but a way to alleviate bloated inventory and take a chance at gaining a useful buff for the day. Maybe the odds of gaining certain buffs/debuffs could increase/decrease depending on what was offered. Might be a little too much, not even sure if that's probable to implement, but it sounded cool so I figured I'd throw it out there in case some variation of that spawns something that works.

I push for Faith and the return of the pilgrimage.