sprite wrote:When a guild has no outpost, then needless to say there are very few things short of q250 mats that are anywhere near as valuable as crystals, so in my experience the crystals are given "free" (though of course this is only done for guilds who have already shown themselves devoted to assisting others, so you could see this as a trade of selflessness in return for crystals, but thats not how it is intended). When both guilds have outposts, I have often heard of trades of q50s for q250s.
ooc
Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly ok with that. To me, that fits into the category of trading: "you defend my OP, you get crystals in return", even with two different models: the 'professional army' model, where you get your 'pay' even in times of peace or the 'merc/consultant' one, with your pay per job done.
My point, badly stated, one may say, it's that I think there is no "Karavan are selflessly giving away crystals while Kami/Neutrals aren't, Karavan generousity.", mixed with my personal preference of trade, as loose as it can be. To me, both factions are basically moving around the crystals equally, and both sides are playing equally.