E... T... Zone... Home...

Fun is subjective to the user. I for one do not feel the need to be everywhere and do everything. I think with regional economies most people will be happy and provide for the community around them. YMMV

 

Agreed. Most likely I will sell my crafting products at home (in my POT), and at the nearest Story Town (in R20 that happens to be Ardoris), and not bother with anywhere else.

Now...

If someone wants to buy my products, make the trip to another Story Town, mark up the price, and sell it themselves at a profit. Hey, I'm not going to say boo to that.

 

I'm for well placed lunar rifts that depend on the astronomy/celestial mechanics system now in game. That is a cool system unique to this game (it is one of the things that makes SOTA special) and it should be maximized.

Porting to one's house once per day might be ok.

Other than that, personal teleporting any great distance would cheapen the meaning/power/significance of the lunar rift / celestial system IMHO and be a system just like any other system in any other MMO.

 

I would not mind recalling inside a scene. To bounce around town to the vendors in town. But I am against the zoning home or anything like that.

 

I am for a good almost instant mode of transportation from one zone to another, using gates, recall runes and moongates, with between 5-10 minute cooldown timer.

Slowing down getting around on the map, localized banking and gated checkpoints, just greatly slow down and waste time for folks being able to do what they have planned for the session, if this is all done to make regional economies work ... it just does not seem like its worth it.

I also think only towns should have recalling with in the zone itself, all other zones should be just to the entrance.

 

This continues to be thrashed in many threads -

One team is vehement that there be NO instant travel to increase "immersive ness" and promote a "regional economy"

The other team of more casual game players (mine) continue to support gating to home or friends to promote social activities, and enhance play time for those of us with shorter play times.

The "instant" travel from a few releases ago is gone, there is now a cool down timer, and a goodly cast time associated with this "spell".

As with many features of this game, an avatar is allowed to not use whatever they object to. Having game features that encourage the casual gamer to enjoy the game is a way to help this game endure. SOTA will wither if it is not "fun" to a wide variety of gamers. Before you get your indignation out, SOTA does not need to be over simplified (WoW).

Boats, and Lunar Rifts are planned, and they would subvert control points. control points are another challenge that some may choose to interact with.

I feel there should be some, limited, zoning to homes, and friends, for the reasons listed above. Cast times and cool downs would be used to prevent abuse. Longer cast times, or geographic restrictions for PvP, use of reagents to shorten cool downs, would be ways to adjust use.

It would be a cool to make it a real spell to learn, make it take up a card space on the non-combat bar. Out of combat to cast the spell would fix some of the PvP complaints.

 

Well I agree this has been debated so many times. Bottom line is oposing sides do not agree. My opinion is that this game is a MMO and it will need to have some type of fast travel implemented. Perhaps single plzyer offline will operate differently depending on feedback and story when that begins implementation. With story involved heavily in this game, true we will need map travel to experience all of the aspects of the game. I also believe the travel mode could be already planned, but perhaps it is secret to us due to story aspects. I of course could be wrong, but if the Dev team said hey what do you prefer, then they would be sorry because it is a split decision with both sides very strong on their opinion of it. If you asked me also I loved rune travel in UO, so I can see many cringe at that, but man I loved marking my favorite vendors and favorite hunting, and harvesting spots. *sighs*. In cases like this of course the Devs will know best for how this should be handled for the integrity of the game. Anyway just thoughts for this early morning without much sleep as usual.

 

I'm in favour of zoning. If you don't want to zone, then just walk and I'll see you there when you arrive.
It won't stop me checking out ALL the vendors in ALL the towns. It was one of my favourite pass-times in UO.
I'll just be able to do it quicker

 

The whole thing is that we probably will have some kind of fast travel. It will not be cheap or easy though. The game concept is built on regional economies and anyone that can fast travel and bypass the economy by carrying goods back and forth from different regions will break the economy. I would however allow gates and recalls if the people that used them could only have on them what they are wearing. No baggage. This would allow you to go to your events and functions, but would not exploit the regional economies.

 

I thought the game concept was also built around a strong story narrative with regional economies as a continuation feature of the game....if control points are so strict will it limit how a player can progress through said story....? As far as traveling runes I'm not against ones that have to be made, I am against instant zone commands you type in.

The story should operate no different online then it does off, if what they stated about how it would work is still true to this day.

 

the initial story line is around 40 hours long. what do you think people should do afterwards?

 

That was the point, the game is the storyline with those other features added to keep the game alive between episodes.

Though, I think I may have a different idea of what consists for a storyline then others and the devs think. Hence I made a couple threads about control points and story implementation since they don't really conform to this thread.

 

I believe I watched a video with Richard talking about this. Saying the online version will offer you 40+ hours of storyline content. After that we choose our own path.

 

A far cry from his older Ultimas huh....I knew that, but it isn't really relevant.

 

ya, we all need to get along. Sorry Rune, I know your heartbroken. With a community involved including UO people, we all have to sacrifice something. Lets concentrate on the game in its present state. Your input could be good if presented right.

 

I think I provide my input just fine, like others do as well.

 

I know you do, but you do seem like you are upset. I wish you could feel better about things. I know waiting for a couple yrs weighs on a guy.

 

Nah, I'm just not seeing it going in the way I had hoped....Hence I have to speak up on issues since we get closer to release(end of the year, which is doubtful...) so crunch time is coming.

 

Right, I understand, but you know that they cannot tell you about the storyline, or the implications of it, so then what is your point?

 

Regional economies may ultimately be best created with MORE freedom of travel. Ability to travel, transport raw materials and finished goods, and shop will enable players to shop for the best selection and prices. Thus in each region there will be a strong incentive, if it wants to survive as a commercial center, to be competitive on price, quality and selection. Thus global efficiencies will be created as the regional economies mature. With efficiency comes a disincentive to travel for shopping since goods are available in a region close to you.

Meanwhile if the vendors in a particular region can't get their act together on supplies, quality and pricing, and are thus unable to compete, too bad. They will die an early death. Why should we subsidize these inferior vendors just for the sake of creating inefficient local economies? If a region can't naturally retain our business, let it not be artificially prosperous at the expense of gameplay.

There will be plenty of trading centers all over the map if we are free to travel. But let's not have a lot of overpriced, low-quality mini-regional economies that exist only because travel is restricted. Because then we'll not only suffer from a general lack of convenience, a decided hampering of the ability to socialize, and a lack of ability to easily adventure ...... We'll also be forced to overpay in certain regions and have inferior shopping experiences.

Let's reward great regional economies early in the process by letting the player population find out where the best commercial centers exist.