A big wagon looks convincing until it’s time to pay for the trip. Mules carry less, but handle mountain roads differently. A light cart costs less to prepare. In Last Road, your transport sets limits on the expedition before the first deal.
The project has three transport options, each with a different capacity, preparation cost, and travel time on particular legs. We don’t arrange them into an obvious ladder from “bad” to “better” to “best.” Each combines its own capabilities and costs. The numbers are still prototype tuning; what matters here is the link between cargo and the road.
Goods aren’t the only thing taking up space
Guards travel with the caravan and use cargo capacity. Even a weakened group doesn’t vanish from the wagon: people, their belongings, and their equipment still need space. So improving your protection reduces how much you can trade. You can’t fill every open slot with profitable goods and add safety as a separate free extra.
A module takes up space too. A hidden coffer helps you keep some coins after an ordinary robbery; a mailbag provides more information about the market. Neither guarantees a profitable journey. Each gives you a specific benefit with specific limits.
You’ll need money after you buy
Cheap goods can make it easy to forget the cost of the journey. That’s why preparation needs to show the full budget: transport, guards, cargo, and reserves. By default, the buy-maximum command leaves money for the selected route. If you spend beyond the safe budget, a warning should appear before you try to depart.
Before the first departure, preparation works like an editor for your starting setup: you can change your choices and cancel a purchase at its original price. This isn’t a market where you can make money through endless exchanges. Once you leave, ordinary trade consequences begin.
Your setup shows what you have in mind
You can already picture the trip from the way you put the caravan together. Lots of goods and little protection mean one attitude toward risk. A smaller load with money set aside for the road means another. Market information might justify making room for a mailbag, or it might never prove useful.
Good preparation doesn’t have to answer every question in advance. Its job is to give you clear starting conditions for the decisions ahead. When a problem comes up on the road, you should recognize it as a consequence of your own choices, not discover a hidden cost that the departure screen failed to mention. The first interesting move in Last Road happens at the warehouse gates.
