Cargo events: their purpose?

[jammi]

Alright, so I've been thinking about trade events lately and their intended purpose. The original stated purpose was to encourage activity hotspots for a limited time that could then be swapped around as desired, usually on a 2 week rotation. This was first pioneered by Dusty Lens and cannon back in the day, but was only executed regularly in event format some time later.

What I'm thinking about - and I want your opinions on - is what the intention behind these events should be, and how they should be executed. Obviously I'm in no position to actually do anything with these results, but I suppose the current admin team can use them or not for additional insight.

Now, there have been a few different types of events so far:

1) Original sort, which each fortnight buffed two items: one randomised ore and contraband item. These would be fairly limited in scope, no return item. Focusing on ore doubled the activity seeing as both miners and haulers were generally involved. The limited scope of the events also condensed activity very specifically into one region for the duration. The downside of this was that the region outside the mining and sell locations got nothing, and would have to wait for their own event however many weeks later. The buff would generally be around 50%.

2) The most recent revival of cargo events: these have entirely avoided ore commodities, instead utilising regular and entirely custom event-specific commodities. They've also had a tendency to form looped or extended circular trade routes. The longer circular routes that Garret introduced have the advantage of involving a wide range of factions and areas, at the cost of diluting 'hotspots'. The custom commodities also tend to be more funny than anything, so some people find them jarring.

3) Spontaneous and massive temporary buffs. These are the newest form of event that Garret has introduced, and shouldn't really be compared to the other two. A commodity or ore tends to be buffed for around 2 hours while the server flocks to the area as a sort of goldrush. Usually devolves into a giant furball with very few traders surviving to sell their buffed goods. All fun and games. Great stuff.

Now, obviously, both 1 and 2 have their pros and cons. What I'd be interested in seeing is which people prefer?

Custom commodities, or existing integrated ones?
Ore commodities, standard or combination?
One way trips (A->B), loops (A->B->A) or circular runs (A->B->C->D->A)?
Compact runs (Kusari->Liberty) or sprawling runs (Kusari->Liberty->Bretonia->Kusari)?

Would've been nice to ask this via poll, but it seems you can't ask multiple separate questions at the moment without it becoming a giant mess.

---

News article library, feedback and content requests.