Time for fast travel?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by E n v y, Jun 17, 2018.

?

Should SotA have fast travel with runebooks and the ability to mark locations.

Poll closed Jul 5, 2018.
  1. Yes.....It's supposed to be a spiritual successor so why go backwards.

    61.9%
  2. No.....I prefer walking.

    38.1%
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  1. E n v y

    E n v y Avatar

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    How many players can actually name all of their "friends" in-game?.....A bit like Facebook, I know for a fact I can't, in fact most of them I have never even seen or heard of before.

    I, along with dare I say the majority, just add "friends" in order to fast travel. I know that someone will probably respond stating they don't do this and where is my proof that the majority do.........well firstly you are special and good for you; secondly, prove that they don't because any sane player would.

    I remember my days back in UO when I would go exploring. If I found an interesting location or an amazing vendor in the middle of nowhere, I would mark a rune. There were player houses dedicated to providing rune libraries to all far reaching places. It was fun, and it was interesting.

    As things stand you can either walk to the destination via the world map, going though several loading screens and maybe control points.........really sorry, but this is really boring and not fun (hence why people add as people as possible to a friends list). Alternatively you zone to a somebody who you deem a "friend".....neither mechanism promotes exploration and as an unintended consequence every "friend" knowing where you are can actually discourage a player from exploring in the more dangerous scenes such as shardfalls.

    • Remove the location of friends from the friends list
    • Bring in Runebooks and the ability to mark locations
    • Make the encounters on the world map more interesting, bring in world bosses and scheduled encounters with mini bosses.
    Promote exploration and make it fun!
     
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  2. Gridseed

    Gridseed Avatar

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    I second these ideas :)
    • Remove the location of friends from the friends list
    • Bring in Runebooks and the ability to mark locations
    • Make the encounters on the world map more interesting, bring in world bosses and scheduled encounters with mini bosses.
     
  3. Lord Andernut

    Lord Andernut Avatar

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    Alternate suggestions:
    1) Bind to more than one home.
    2) Change Lunar Rift mechanics. Maybe change the destination every 30 seconds.
    3) Add fast-travel between the major in-game towns.
     
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  4. E n v y

    E n v y Avatar

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    Not quite the same and as fun as being able to explore properly and mark and then create libraries.
     
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  5. kaeshiva

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    The rune libraries were great - as was walking around and seeing a runestone on a ground as an advertisement to a shop or event - I feel that aspect of UO really let people know where stuff was happening and I have always felt the lack here.

    I understand why the initial design did not have this - "regional economies" - but with the game we currently have, there's simply no way to create regional economies without completely rethinking the market system and the housing system. People are not going to sell things regionally, they are going to recall home and list it on their personal vendor, probably in a purpose-built market town for maximum exposure. You don't see more silver for sale near the silver mine, because only a handful of people live down there, due to land rush limits - and there's far too many POTs to check to see if someone happens to live down there because they are a miner who sells a lot of ore. It just doesn't work. There are no 'trade goods' or regional price differences on NPC commodities. Early on we saw reagents/fuels got expensive in Owl's head but there were 20 player towns nearby all of whom had the magic merchant whose prices were static. And once the price goes up a little bit, well, you don't buy there anymore, you go elsewhere. That's not a regional economy, its unnecessary price bloat when a player can simply take 3 steps outside of town and enter another town negating the effect.

    In the absence of a regional economy I see no reason to further hamper/frustrate/limit travel. The teleport-to-friend mechanic I think is useful for getting parties together quickly, but it gets used as a dynamic runebook more than anything else. Makes sense to me to just dispense with it and let us make rune libraries, let us mark locations, etc. Spiritual successor or not spiritual successor, runebooks and dye tubs are the biggest things I miss =/
     
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  6. Lord Andernut

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    True but perhaps more obtainable? It relates to the topic of the thread if not the binary options of the poll :)
     
  7. that_shawn_guy

    that_shawn_guy Bug Hunter

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    Had to vote no. But, only because I don't want the same thing that we had in UO. I got to the point that i hardly had to move at all to get around. There are already so many ways to speed up movement rate that I don't see a huge need for a different system here. I'm not a big fan of the "friend stones" system either.

    But, if a fast travel system would make game play much better, then I'd prefer a system that did more to prevent over use.

    I'd be all for a system that had the following:
    1) craftable
    2) rare
    maybe the lunar stone itself comes from a monthly box
    3) exspensive
    maybe they take 100 of each reagent (chips too) to charge and take any coto to use
    4) tradable before marking
    could sell charged stones
    5) the mark would only work for the one marking it
    would make it useless to trade without making it untradeable
    6) single use
    breaks when used
    7) heavy and must be used from inventory
    weight of 10 or more
    8) inaccurate
    can get you to the scene or within 100 meters of the exact mark
    9) use comes with a debuff
    maybe just carry limit or random debuff
    10) use comes with cooldown
    15 minutes before next use
     
  8. Brian4

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    I love this idea i had already in less then 3 months had run into a problem where someone we did not know kept messaging my wife we had to defriend and block this person because they would not stop. I have been slowly deleting people off my friends list and have made a couple trial accts to use to just a couple places to teleport too
     
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  9. Chatele

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    I prefer fast travel to be on Horse back...… I want to ride my Horse FAST across scenes …… That way, i'd still see people around...… makes the world seem more alive ….. JM2C So, I voted NO ….
     
    Last edited: Jun 18, 2018
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  10. Steevodeevo

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    I'm not a fan of teleporting, but as it's there I use it. Ideally I would like to see scrolls more expensive and people travelling more on the OW map, meeting up, saying hi, asking for help etc.

    The OW map is full of potential for instanced fun and in fact is already quite a lot of fun. Its wasted if no one uses it and zaps everywhere.

    Getting around isn't that time consuming. The slowest is of course where one is required to pass through a canyon or CP, but its still not too bad in my view. It tends to take me longer than it might as I get sidetracked on the journey when I see something interesting.
     
  11. DeadnGone

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    Yeah but understand that most people still want that and it's definitely a "most" for players. I can understand all the people who may not want to use it, but, if you don't like it. Don't use it. I just don't understand the mentality of punishing everyone else simply because some people don't like something.

    You can even toggle it on the account if you don't want to use it and for those that say, "well it's there so I can't help myself from using it", maybe an option on the account to lock those settings for a week at a time so once you decide to play more "hardcore", you have to stick with it.

    As for me, I'm all about convenience. If you play a game for years, you're gonna want convenience. It was nice back when old Elder Scrolls Arena had it where you could walk across the world in real time.... Nice because it was something new to the genre. But eventually, you used fast travel. You could still go out and explore... but the fast travel options were there for convenience. Just need to add more random spawn/generating Points of Interests/Quests on the fly, etc to have more reasons to explore on foot than taking teleports all the time.
     
  12. that_shawn_guy

    that_shawn_guy Bug Hunter

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    For me, it's not about punishment. It's about balance.

    A system like UO had makes running bots and farmer accounts much easier. A fast travel system should protect against that use. I don't think a "bind to all your lots" system is good because it provides a large imbalance in favor of the rich.

    I think a system with at least some of the points I suggested provides for a more balanced solution that make it cheap enough for everyone to use. But, also expensive enough to incentives "manual" exploration.
     
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  13. Oakenhammer

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    While runes and runebooks were very convenient, they also destroyed exploration and knowledge of the landscape. Many players became dependent upon those rune libraries. I would rather see the following:
    • Add boat connections between the regions through the major coastal cities, like a boat from Aerie to Ardoris
      • It makes sense from an immersion perspective that coastal cities are focus areas for travelers and movement of goods.
    • Replace the current teleport system:
      • The primary issue I see with the current teleport system is that it's one-sided and requires no interaction between the players other than the initial "friend" request. This behavior is counter to the intended design of both the friend and teleporting systems.
      • Instead, a teleport crystal beacon should be placed at each of the entrances/exits to every zone. Your friend would be required to click the teleport crystal to gain a temporary (30 second?) buff that would allow them to be the target of a teleportation scroll.
      • A system such as this would still allow friends to connect quickly and easily for adventuring
    • While it would be nice to have a faster cycle with the Lunar rifts, I'm not certain how that could be accomplished given it is tied to the in-game moon cycle timing
     
  14. Woodchuck

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    What?? People just "zap" around everywhere?? -_-
    No wonder I hardly see anyone on the overworld...
    Despite not yet knowing how to teleport or even have bound to anything, I have to say that I don't mind running around in the overworld. Granted, it may be because I'm new to the game and it is my only means of travel right now, but I do find this to be a charming part of the game and adds to the nostalgia/genre from a game immersion point-of-view.
    I would love to see the overworld hustling and bustling like a crowded highway (minus any blocking mechanics).

    As a new player evaluating this game, I almost judged this game to be a failure based on the fact that it seemed dead from hardly seeing anybody around anywhere (overworld, scenes).

    I guess what I'm saying is, I think if we start implementing game conveniences, it's going to be at the cost of genre immersion. Zapping everywhere instantly all the time doesn't belong in this genre -- that's Star Trek Online (TM)! And furthermore, where do we draw the line on game conveniences? I view this as a potential game killing mechanic, as a player who is currently enjoying the immersion.

    I mean, c'mon! This genre is all about inconveniences!!! Living in the olden times!!! :)

    P.S. I think the friend list zapping around nonsense should be stopped too!!! ;)
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2018
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  15. Rufus D`Asperdi

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    I will oppose any increase in fast travel options in Shroud of the Avatar with every resource I have available.
    Second only to Forced PvP, Runebooks or their equivalent are a line in the sand that if crossed would quite probably move me to liquidate my holdings and move on.

    Runebooks in Ultima Online were never an intended feature... They were born of a bug to the Mark/Recall spell that allowed you to Mark a Single Location and then Recall to it. The bug that was introduced allowed people to exploit the intent of the spell and create multiple runes.

    In the early days of Ultima Online, the patching process was slow, and bugs often lingered for far longer than was healthy... This was true of This bug, much to the detriment of the game... By the time the bug could be fixed, it was already ingrained and adopted by the player base as the status quo... Runebooks were then created to save the database from the crushing weight of the number of recall runes that had been created.

    So, it you're talking about Spiritual Successors, Runebooks are Right Out as they only existed in One of the dozen or so titles that made up the Ultima Series, and the feature was Never part of the Vision of Any of them.

    Your argument is specious.
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2018
  16. Fungus

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    Runes and runebooks were part of the reason UO had a healthy population, I used to have multiple types for everything from mage shops to treasure map loc's. Are they for the purist? nope but again you have a choice to use them or not. Will I visit your store in game in a PoT? absolutely not, I buy everything from guildies or the main town I live near, I don't care if it costs me a few gold more I am not wasting my precious game time on trawling towns to save myself a few coins I'd rather go without or get someone i know who loves crafting make it me at a later point.

    Sure some will walk away from the game if it's added in but tbh there's more walking away because it isn't in, dev's even had to split the telethon into two nights to hit 90k raised this release, writing is on the wall 'save our game'!

    Big fat YES with all the trimmings, bells n whistles on to recalling off a runebook from me!
     
  17. licemeat

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    Runes are the best way to travel in any game ever. Known fact. The creators have turned on their own baby! Down with regional economy theories and up with awesomeness!
     
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  18. Woodchuck

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    Why is everyone in such a hurry?

    Why are inefficiencies and inconveniences bad?

    Why stop at runes and insta-zapping? Just make everyone the maximum level with maximum skills and be done with it -- problem solved! Insta-satisfaction!
     
  19. Oakenhammer

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    That's ridiculous and false on so many levels. The reason the livestream was split was because a very large portion of the population didn't realize the livestream was on Monday. The schedule that everyone had gotten used to was livestreams occurring on the Friday the week following the Release. Enough people wrote into support that it justified part 2 being added.
     
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  20. mccpz

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    I would rather have a set of doors or wagons in scenes that stitch the world together so that you don't need to enter the overworld.

    A network so dense that if you knew what you were doing you could go from ardoris to skrek in 5 scenes.

    It feels like that sewers/cryps were an attempt at this but it's not a full network and not dense enough for that speed of travel.
     
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