Time for fast travel?

I don't have a machine as nice as yours as my daily driver that is for sure! I wish I could say that I haven't had the hitching an rubberbanding of Avatars. I just think I would be less likely to burn through my teleports. What does OBS give you? I know that it's one of the tools that they use for the Laz and Jack show but I don't know what it does.

 

1.) Control - By nay-saying and not even budging on the issue at all when people bring it up is a form of control. Shooting down ideas and clamoring for no change is a control issue as well. But I think you're missing the point of this and those it was directed towards in the community.

2.) Harms no one - Still does not harm you in any way, shape, or form. Still waiting for how it actually "harms" you or anyone else.

3.) Realism/simulation - No one said walking was unreasonable or unacceptable. The OP and a lot of us would like fast travel options, including the possibility of the rune system. Just because you enjoy walking around every time you do something, does not mean the rest of us do. It gets boring and people want to get places quickly, especially if they've been playing a long time. The minority should not hold back the majority. This is a prime example of where someone thinks that this is the way to play the game and never diverge from it, therefore, the rest of the player base must conform to how they like to play and any ideas changing it are shot down and deemed wrong in their eyes, without the slightest bit of compromise.

4.) As far as Mr. Garriot's ideas are concerned and whether they would have been in game from the start, well that is not simply true. There have been quite a lot of things implemented later on in develoment as this game was very primitive to what it is now when it was first available to play for backers. Then the devs have on numerous times changed there stance on issues they may have said, "No", for at one point and then changed their mind on it or implemented a compromise to it. So it's not a matter of just because it wasn't available at the start of the kickstarter process that it can't be implemented. That seems a bit ridiculous.

 

I haven't voted because it doesn't bother me either way. Right now, the game is still (relative to the final envisioned product) very small and travel is not all that difficult (honestly it's MUCH faster at times to walk/run to your destination than it is to wait out the cycle of the Rift). Once we get into Episodes 3 through 5, this may no longer be the case as the game expands.

Other things I keep as questions:

- How does Faster Travel and in what forms meet the Vision for the game? How much compromise in that vision is going to be had in regards to travel itself? We've already seen several compromises in the original vision of the game including the Overland map from the initial pre-Kickstarter promo videos to the semi-3d cloth map with hexes to the current full 3d map with hexes representing individual scenes removed and Points of Interest replacing them.

- In what way does Faster/Instant Travel affect the overall economy, specifically in regards to resource gathering ? With Solo/Party modes it is no longer a fight for resources against other players (and particularly bots), but the ability to insta-travel from your chosen bank or home to a favored resource gathering area could end up flooding the market prematurely. (Notes: 1. I know I mentioned pretty much this very idea with Recall earlier in the thread, but questioned if it goes too far because of this. 2. The Market just by the nature of MMORPGs/Persistent Worlds will likely become flooded in various resources anyway over time)

- How will Rifts be changed as the game grows? What happens with the upcoming continents?

 

Count me in for a "no" vote to marking locations. I'd be fine with removing friends locations etc and even removing the ability to teleport to friends entirely, with teleport scrolls being changed to a list of the major cities.

If they added the ability to mark locations then why would anyone ever use the world map? It would be little more than an extra loading screen most would opt to avoid entirely. I'd prefer any ideas to make the world map better, like random dungeon adventures and new types of town invasions etc. Just my two cents.

 

The overland map would still be used to find new towns and areas to explore, apart from that... it is actually just another unnessery loading screen that after your first 6months - 2 years of game play is dreaded...

 

I agree recall books and recall runes should exist. At first I was against this, but. If I were going to radically change the game to try to get more players the #1 thing I'd do is remove the overland map, remove it's existence period, making all travel from map to map via map to map, no overland map, at all. This would make it even more difficult to travel, but to balance it out adding runes and runebooks. The disappearance of the overland map would really change the dynamic of the entire game, I've played a game like this before, so I based it on experience, SotA already reminds me of this old game which I enjoyed thoroughly, minus the overland map. And runes and runebooks makes logical sense, the addition of runebooks to UO was one of the best things ever added to the game, the same can be with SotA.

 

1) To be clear, I'm not hell-bent on this issue. I'm open to a compromise where, if a rune system were to be implemented, it should be in good taste and judicial in it's design. What would disappoint me is if this game devolves into the buffet style all-you-can-teleport wild west use and proliferation of runes that was UO.

2) Harm in the sense that it would ruin the feel/enjoyment of the game for me. If the above happens. I'm not sure why this isn't evident to you by now as I've alluded to this many times already.

3) It's not that I enjoy walking everywhere or have time to burn. It's that I accept it.

4) Please do not put words in my mouth. You've made all these assumptions and accusations on me that I have never stated. I never once stated I'm against any and all teleportation use, nor did I say I'm against any of the ideas for compromise that have been presented (in fact, I find many of them reasonable and amenable). Did I say that if something wasn't available at the beginning then it can never be implemented?? Did I say that I'm against any and all changes to the game?? Can you just please stop at doing such a lousy job at interpreting my sentences and painting broad strokes with your brush?

Lastly, I'm sure everyone reading this thread understands our positions by now. There's no point to continue to belabor this any further. I expressed my opinions as did you. I don't understand why you feel so threatened by my 'non-compliance' to side with your views, like as if it was paramount to your cause. This OP was a vote, I voted, you voted, that's it. You don't have to agree with me, but don't put words in my mouth, and definitely stop the bad habit of painting people when you don't have all the facts.

 

I can only go by what you say in your posts...

 

Fine, new idea & proposal.

For all those that don't want change. Fine. Let them have their world with no changes. There have been plenty of servers that host the "classic vanilla" versions of MMO games. Why not here? Why not have a 4th option (I guess technically 5th if you include offline mode) when you click the multiplayer setting for going to the "Classic Vanilla" version of the game. Everyone that doesn't want changes can enjoy the game there. SotA will have to determing what all constitutes their game as the classic/vanilla version, like from Episode 1 launch to sometime prior I suppose. But this may help. People can roleplay to their heart's desire there and can wander along the roads with very few forms of fast travel. Up to SotA if they still want to have the friend's list teleportation there.

Then, the rest of the changes can go on without so much fuss. You can still hop on over to the other versions of the game, however, you cannot bring anything back with you that isn't from or part of the "Classic Vanilla" game. Perhaps let all the livestream/pledge stuff go through but limit the store items you can use/take to that version of the game.

It's not perfect but you'd have an area where those that want to keep changes to a minimum can go and enjoy with out prohibiting others from seeing additional quality of life changes and fun stuff added to the game, which apparently breaks their immersion and hurts them. Now you would have a safe zone.

 

Well just to say it I’m one of the few who do not use scrolls. I rarely use the moon gates and normally simply walk to get from A to B. If others do it different is generally not that important to me and they would be free to do whatever they would like to do if the travel mechanic would stand alone but mechanics are connected with each other and so it is not that simple.
For example I see there a problem with economy if resources are really meant to be rare in one region and in abundance in another region like it was said to be. If avatars should take the risk to travel and sometimes maybe even lose their goods if they travel an easy to use teleportation mechanic sounds strange to me in this context…even with the current overload block the avatars are still able to teleport with hundreds of items and thus regional difference sounds more or less meaningless.
Things like these are the concerns I think about if we are talking about teleportation and as far as I remember the current scroll system was already a compromise between the “I need rune teleportation” and the “everyone has to walk” factions.
But of course there are different possibilities to adjust the teleport mechanic. E.g.:

- One option would be that the usage of the scrolls change. Instead of teleporting to a chosen “friend” the scroll has to be first bound to a location before someone can use the scroll. E.g. you have to cast a spell with an emtpy scroll in your inventory and after that this scroll is teleporting everyone to the chosen coordinates/lot you are standing at while casting the spell.

- Another possibility could be permanent and fixed teleportation items (e.g. stones, totems or whatever) you have to unlock ingame. E.g. if you want the possibility to teleport to Brittany you need to solve a quest line to get the "Brittany Teleport Ankh"...maybe these items could even open a portal for some seconds everyone (non-overloaded) can use.

- Even some kind of rune book could be out of my perspective an option if the number of usable runes or the timeframe is limited to not make constant instant travel possible. E.g. after using a rune the mechanic has to collect power and that way you have to wait 30-60 minutes till you can teleport again.

Just if the general idea of game mechanics like economy has permanently changed and they will e.g. no longer try to create regional differences that matter I would say the devs should create a most easy usable teleport mechanic without any restrictions.

 

This is the one thing that stood out. Whatever the original idea was, we are nowhere near it now. What is considered rare? What would be in one area, that is not in the other region? Right now it's just some recipe differences and they are not rare. There is no unique materials at the moment that can't be found practically everywhere. So at the moment there seems no real reason to hold back due to this. The regional economy was a nice idea but implementing it so far has been a bit fruitless. Perhaps as the years go by and they add more continents and worlds, then possibly you'll see more variety in regional markets.

That being said, fast travel is just a matter of convenience. You'll still be walking around a lot when you get there. I think some people worry that it'll be exactly like UO where you could mark a rune to a spot in the dungeons without going through the dungeons. I don't think we're asking for that kind of extreme. Maybe to entrances or a nearby point of interest that is close to several things would be fine.

 

As far as I remember the general idea was like this: I think it was said that Ellyssium Mines should be the spot to collect silver ore and something similar was planned for most resources and animals. So to say you can harvest some small numbers here and there but large resource spots are just in specific regions.
Next the processing of these resources was meant to be most effective in regions were the resources are not harvestable in masses and so the avatars should act as some kind of pedlar and scatter the resources to other regions but carrying hundreds of goods to a faraway region can be dangerous…especially if you have to cross a checkpoint. So either the checkpoints has to be secured (e.g. by a guild) or the trader had to try to fight alone or in a small group his way through the checkpoint and if on their way would be PvP-zones even thievery would be a possible problem for the traveling merchants.
This was in short my understanding of the long time goal the devs wanted to achieve and so far my impression was that the devs simply need more time.

 

@Woodchuck fella, you won't see me 99.99% of the time on the overland map anyway as i play pretty much exclusively when leveling in party / private mode with guildies / friends and on the odd occasions I am on map (R52 I think was last time) i am in silent movement mode for stealthy PvP antics which isn't worth bothering with due to lack of people in game PvP'ing.

It's a vicious circle!

Alas its true I accept every invite purely as I'd like to play the game and not waste my time getting to what I personally perceive as the fun bits of SotA unlike trudging through control points etc.

One persons perceived approach can be grossly offensive to a n other who they may not know based on a multitude of circumstances in RL for both parties, throwing them together can and has lead to in game issues over the existence of the internet, my point is the current mechanics force this assumed friends approach upon those who are uncomfortable with random human contact, runes / runebooks provide a solution.

If runebooks came in, believe me like most others in game who are forced into this mechanic many of my 'friends' list would be purged big time as currently it's a necessary evil to play the game I want to play.

 

I just get used to clicking on the red X a lot. It's also one of the reasons I use Silent Movement on the overworld, not just to avoid encounters. Not everyone knows you can right click names from the nearby players list. I'm actually surprised when I go AFK on the overworld for a few minutes and don't get any invites.

And when I do get FL invites, I always take a moment to look for a reason to say yes, mostly guildies and people I have had actual communication with. Too many times I get an invite from someone who isn't even in view. Sometimes I'll say yes if they have a cool name.

I expect that each continent may get its own set of rifts or equivalent, but I have no idea what they will use between continents other than probably a few ferries. Maybe regional economies could finally work in Episode 2?

You realize that the main reason we don't have lots of players yet is because they haven't started any significant advertising, right? People still keep thinking that the lack of population must be from something wrong with the game, but it seems to me that what is wrong is hardly anybody knows it even exists yet. But I understand that they might feel it's just not quite ready enough yet and they don't want new players to have a bad first impression when they do start advertising.

It does concern me a bit that I rarely use scrolls, yet I feel like I can go anywhere in Novia easily, with some moderate bother to the NW NE and SE corners. About the only "control point" I go through these days is Nightshade Pass when the rift isn't going the right way. I went through Eastreach Gap a couple of times last week for the first time in months, and it was even a bit nostalgic. (I normally avoid it so I am not tempted to spend 15 minutes harvesting evertything.)

 

Again, I’m not against change. I appreciate the sentiment here, but I respectfully think it is overkill to spawn a separate version of this game based solely on this issue. It will further diverge an already low population base, plus it’s not trivial for Portalarium to maintain multiple versions of the game going forward. All the implications and complications involved does not, imho, justify going this route for this single reason.

@Steevodeevo mentioned that there may be lots of travel related improvements coming that may render all our discussions moot. Like a portal system and mounts. I think someone else mentioned ships that operating on a schedule is another feature that may be considered.

Also, the overworld holds much potential. Assuming it’s technically feasible, implementing any new features and content here would only enhance and entice players to use it again.

Maybe we should wait and see what will come? Maybe we are worrying for nothing!

 

Ah, the enthusiasm of youth.

 

There are already too many easy ways to travel.

 

This is a great idea that I can fully support! Take my money, Port!

 

After a long time of runnig through Novia up and down, I think:

- New Lands shouldn't be reached by teleportation, there would be no reason to take a ship So no teleportation "over sea" in general. May be only with special lunar rifts...

- To teleport should be a magic skill (air&sun), which costs a good! amount of Focus, depending on weight someone is carrying.

- There should be a radius depending on skills or rune power (to load/create a rune should cost a great amount of focus and a kind of scribe skill should be available to do this - so mages or alchemists could have a further specialization beside potions and enchanting... )

- Teleporting with a rune should also be restricted. Runes should have a max amount of uses.

- Weather and area should have influence on success.
Magic borders? Moon towers? Rain and snow...

- There should be a weight limit: the armor and weapon we wear and some stuff... to prevent flooding of goods by "teleport merchants"

- consider: when horses and wagons, may be other items and animals, come in, the travel speed should increase in a good Way. Then we can use animals and wagons as transport vehicles. This provides great possibilities for merchants and overland/sea encounters!

Just having an all time over the land teleport mechanism could take huge chances of game improvement away...

 

Oh it wasn't for just this issue. There have been many over the years and the same things I complain about as well keep popping up and the same people keep complaining for the same reasons not to change things. Thought this might help some, because, it would always give you another option and it probably wouldn't be too maintenance intensive as it just uses the old stuff and no fiddling around with more mechanics.