I would like to experience the dynamic where, say, my character starts in one city/area gets to know the area, explores a bit learns the class and then when I get to a strange city I would want to stay there for a bit " take in the air, there" sort of thing where I set up a new "home base". I have to learn the customs, language, factions, make friends or befirend other travelers, and explore those environs.
AgentGenX said:Raidan said:@AgentGenX,
I had brought up the 3 cities with teleports a long time ago and how it was a terrible idea, but that thread has been archived. However, I was able to search for another thread, which I think was the latest discussion on the topic, or at least the latest I could find - and it was discussed that each race would have their own unique starting cities/villages with only perhaps the 3 major hub cities having limited teleportation (which I'd still be aganist). I'm not sure if the discussion is still relevant or not.
Here's a link to the thread:
Ah, I think the old thread might have been where I heard of it, but didn't know where it went - thank you for the link to the more recent thread, Raidan! I was pleased to find an explanation of what the 'sanctums' are on the map of Terminus (I admit I have not read all the lore yet). So the third santum not listed on the map must be on the continent(s) where the dwarves, gnomes, and archai are. I'm still with you in that I'd prefer to not have these ports, but I guess there are worse things that could be in the game, like multiple places you could port to in each continent, greatly reducing any travel time. Also, I hope these sanctums don't take away the use of each race's home cities.
I agree that fast travel takes away from exploring and truly experiencing the game. Now, I would not be opposed to the 3 sanctums port idea, if and only if one had to visit the other end of the portal first. Thereby making the home cities still viable for young characters, until a time they were old enough to travel to the other cities or acquire some other form of travel via friends, payment, etc.
People making alts could then make arrangments to get their alt to another starting location.
Pantheon is supposed to be different than WoW, ffx, etc... in an opposite fashion as WoW and ffx were different than Everquest. This is my opinion and I'm certainly not attempting to belittle any other opinions, but as Raidan and many others have already posted, and as has been discussed here in the past, there are already games with these fast travel mechanics. Pantheon is supposed to be more old-school. Community is supposed to be important to VR. Social interaction is supposed to be important to VR.
When you add it all up, old-school + community + interaction with other players, fast travel is in direct opposition, or at the very least a strong hindrance, to 3 areas which VR has deemed as vital.
I'm with Raidan and disagree with any portals at all. I believe it was Brad who spoke about having these temporary portals only up to maybe level 5 or something, at which time they would become unusable.
So glad to see many people want to travel :) In EQ I used to enjoy just wandering around and see what I could find.
I've been doing some thoughts on mmo articles on my blog, I did one on travel before finding this thread: Travel (hope links are allowed!)
Basically if they want to encourage old school travel they have to make it interesting and engaging. Give me a reason to explore and make things happen when I do. If they can make the world interesting and sometimes dangerous the "oh we have to run so far" becomes "let's see what happens". It no longer becomes a chore but and opportunity for adventure.
-Canno
When it comes to fast travel I am all for boats, but I dislike the idea of wagons or something taking you around the world. I think for pantheon it just dosen't fit. I also do not want mounts right away, for me there is something special about running into someone/a group on foot and talking to them. With that being said I think they should be released later in the game and for higher levels only.(6 months after release 30/40+ level and hard to get). Let's face it we will get tired of running to the same old places over and over especially if travel time is 1-2 hours to reach a destination on foot. I'm also all for teleports being to specific landmarks in the game and not major cities.
So having watched the new stream, toward the end they were talking about world size, travel, and the desire to keep groups together and it got me thinking. I know we don't know anything about ports or how they will work but if it is not an option to teleport someone elses group, perhaps there could be some form of limited/temporary group slot so that you could invite a wizard to your full group soley to port your group as a whole and keep everyone together. The wizard being the taxi that your group hops into.
/shrug
Translocate was mentioned at the end of the stream. That was the name of a single target port to specific zones or to the target’s bind spot so the wizard could stay behind.
I get what you mean Iksar for a group to stay together when sent into a zone like EQ1 Cazic-thule maze. Seperated members could be attacked by the roamer or if invis faded early in the maze that was bad.
Maybe an out of group and not in combat translocate confirmation before a wizard can cast the spell on a group leader and a “do you wish to accept the translocate?” for all members after it is casted.
Your notion makes me wonder if there will be a drop-down list for teleport and translocate locations instead of 1 spell icon for every teleport in the spell book. Who knows.
I hope that travel time will be meaningful. I don't want to be able to get everywhere in a couple of minutes because that just makes the world feel small. I remember when the Plane of Knowledge was released in EQ and after 6 months or so I had completely forgotten how to navigate the world without PoK books and it made the world feel much smaller. I know PoK was a good place to meet people but I'm sure we can come up with another zone in Pantheon that doesn't require fast travel that players can meet up in.
i would love an EQ reboot when it comes to travel system IF you think about how it was before the Planes of power expansion totaly ruined the traveling and half the fun of the game.
Waiting in Oasis for the boat to get to Overthere was a nice experience.
I'll never forget the time i bought myself a fishing pole and some bait just because i knew there would be some waiting for the boat, got to the spot threw the line and the pole broke on first throw............ :)
And its memories like this i want to get in these kind of games.
I am hopefull for meaningful and fairly time consuming travel. I agree with some of the other comments about how memorable some of the travel we had to do in EQ was. It often presented challenges for me. Which way should I traverse an unfamiliar zone in order not to aggro mobs I couldn't handle? What was my escape plan if I did? Weighing which was the most time efficient path to get to my friends versus the less risky path? These were fun questions to answer that added a game within the game. I want to feel that again. I'm ok with limited, meaningful ports here and there but I want it to be the exception than the rule. Mounts? Guess I'm kind of ok with them but I think I would enjoy the game more without them - at least basing that off of how they are in other games that have them.
urgatorbait said:I am hopefull for meaningful and fairly time consuming travel. I agree with some of the other comments about how memorable some of the travel we had to do in EQ was. It often presented challenges for me. Which way should I traverse an unfamiliar zone in order not to aggro mobs I couldn't handle? What was my escape plan if I did? Weighing which was the most time efficient path to get to my friends versus the less risky path? These were fun questions to answer that added a game within the game. I want to feel that again. I'm ok with limited, meaningful ports here and there but I want it to be the exception than the rule. Mounts? Guess I'm kind of ok with them but I think I would enjoy the game more without them - at least basing that off of how they are in other games that have them.
Well said!