Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

Fast Travel Spells

    • 3016 posts
    January 8, 2018 2:43 PM PST

    Anistosoles said:

    I would have to agree with what you are saying. Wizards blow stuff up...summoners summon things. So why not have them summon portals and such? Good idea.

     

    Aren't summoners the old style Magician class,  they summoned mana rods, had pets, summoned food, water,  weapons,  all kinds of tricks up their sleeves.   Why would you take away one of the wizards utility abilities and give the summoner even more?  Hopefully VR balances the classes better than that. :P

     

    Cana

    • 2752 posts
    January 8, 2018 3:32 PM PST

    CanadinaXegony said:

    Anistosoles said:

    I would have to agree with what you are saying. Wizards blow stuff up...summoners summon things. So why not have them summon portals and such? Good idea.

     

    Aren't summoners the old style Magician class,  they summoned mana rods, had pets, summoned food, water,  weapons,  all kinds of tricks up their sleeves.   Why would you take away one of the wizards utility abilities and give the summoner even more?  Hopefully VR balances the classes better than that. :P

     

    Cana

    I imagine they are more conjurors than summoners anyway, though the words are often used interchangeably. So that is to say I imagine summoners mostly create/conjure things out of magical essence that after some time dissolve back into the same magical essence as opposed to them mostly summoning things from other locations/dimensions/planes that return to their original location when the spell or summoned thing expires. I imagine it's entirely possible the creatures they conjure up are created entirely by magic instead of summoned from other places as well...but that would mean their only "summoning" ability would be to summon players across the world.

     

    In any case, I'd bet Summoner will already have plenty enough utility without having portals. 

     

     

    • 3016 posts
    January 8, 2018 3:37 PM PST

    When people say "give summoners the ability to summon portals"  that sounds like Wow..Druids and Wizards in EQ style game play were the ones that had the special ports to the different planes, required a special reagent to cast (usually pricey) ..and so on. 

     I have NO idea how VR is going to do this..or if it will even resemble the original setup that EQ had.  Just keeping my fingers crossed that Wizards don't lose this utility  in favour of other classes.   Hoping all the classes are viable and wanted in groups and raids, but particularly concerned about Wizards.

    • 2752 posts
    January 8, 2018 3:50 PM PST

    It's odd because I don't imagine portals as something one could summon as I don't imagine that portal exists somewhere else and is waiting to be called. Creating a wormhole out of arcane energies seems like a massive undertaking that would require the vast arcane knowledge and power of a wizard. 

    • 411 posts
    January 9, 2018 5:38 AM PST

    I would love to see fast travel included in the game sparingly. Also, I would like to see something unique done with it to have it stand out from what was done in EQ and then copied in every game I've played since.

    Some random ideas off the cuff:

    Portals are costly summoned objects (only castable at specified locations) that get weaker with time and anyone nearby can use them. Refreshing a weak portal is less costly than casting one anew. Wizards can channel to help sustain a portal, reducing the rate at which it weakens.

    The quality of the portal cast impacts the accuracy of the spell. If you are a low level caster or have bad luck with a spell failure, then teleported players might get sent to different parts of the target zone. The devs would probably have to select areas of the zone that aren't possible targets. You wouldn't want to let people get ported to the bottom of a cave to die, but on a relatively safe hilltop that happened to have a hill giant there would be fair game.

    Teleportation sickness. This would be similar to rez sickness. The debuff wears off with time, but for a half hour after you teleport somewhere your combat effectiveness is reduced. The goal would be to discourage zipping around to nab rare or raid targets around the world.

    Teleportation costs experience. 3% of a level if you accept someone else's port and 0.5% if you are the caster.

    • 2752 posts
    January 9, 2018 10:28 AM PST

    I guess I don't understand the desire to make teleportation highly costly or otherwise burdensome. Guilds/groups rushing across the world for raid targets is going to happen regardless and with or without teleports they will be on equal footing...except if you have teleportation and make it costly then it makes it far worse for the lesser/smaller or otherwise more poor groups/guilds. If you add teleport sickness for 30 minutes you highly punish players who often have limited play time of an hour or two, and the idea of a teleport is to save time. Is it envy that drives such desire to push down those with teleport? 

     

     

    • 411 posts
    January 9, 2018 11:25 AM PST

    Iksar said:

    I guess I don't understand the desire to make teleportation highly costly or otherwise burdensome. 

    It is useful to make teleportion highly costly if you wish to impart an appreciation for the size of the game world and to make sure people pick where they are going carefully (and probably other reasons too). If you can teleport places easily, then you are necessarily bypassing the areas between your current and desired locations and the developers may not want those areas to be constantly bypassed and forgotten. If you imagine how inconvenient it would be to never have teleport, then you realize how powerful it is.

    Iksar said:

    Guilds/groups rushing across the world for raid targets is going to happen regardless and with or without teleports they will be on equal footing...except if you have teleportation and make it costly then it makes it far worse for the lesser/smaller or otherwise more poor groups/guilds. 

    Saying that guilds/groups are on equal footing regardless of changes to teleportation assumes that they are starting at the same point. If it takes 30 minutes to port somewhere, then you probably can't all hang out in the main city of the game, gather a raid force, and swarm a raid target on the outskirts of the world. A small guild who happens to be hunting in the frigid north when a rare raid spawn appears there will have significantly longer to attempt to kill said spawn than a guild that has to travel there from afar.

    Iksar said:

    If you add teleport sickness for 30 minutes you highly punish players who often have limited play time of an hour or two, and the idea of a teleport is to save time. Is it envy that drives such desire to push down those with teleport?

    This assumes that teleportation is the start of a short play session. I would argue that those with small play sessions (having been one and planning to be one in Pantheon) know that they need to spend an entire session grouping, which means a prior game session should be reserved for getting to their hunting grounds. It would hurt a gaming style that centers around teleportation, but I don't know if that's such a bad thing.


    This post was edited by Ainadak at January 9, 2018 11:28 AM PST
    • 2752 posts
    January 9, 2018 11:55 AM PST

    You don't have to be forced to always re-run the breadth of the world to appreciate the size of the game world, and again I don't understand the desire to force everyone to always (or almost always) make that travel. Does it really add that much to have zones people just pass through on their way somewhere else? Did Kithicor or East Karana in EQ become enriched by people passing through? If an area is bypassed and forgotten because of teleports then I'd argue the issue with those locations isn't the existence of teleport. It's not like having TP means everyone uses it always or always has access, even in EQ there were plenty of times a port couldn't be found until you'd already traveled half the zones to your end destination anyway or other times you'd make it to your end destination before someone who decided to just sit and wait for a port. Not to mention how incredibly harsh it is to travel half the world or more only to die to some random thing and then have to do the whole journey again but now without equipment, all while having next to no way for anyone to really help you other than run along side you. 

     

    Does that small guild really need multiple attempts to kill the spawn? Should everyone be put on hold just because they happened to be there? That also assumes there is a teleport location anywhere near the target in question and that the guild has members all near one another ready for TP, it still would take time to get everyone ported over and travel through a couple zones to get to the target. We don't even know how raids/raid targets will work nor what the spawn times will be like anyway. They might be so quick & with lockout timers that this is a non-issue. 

     

    That's assuming the player knows where they are going to be the next play session. You run to a spot before you log out so you can group your next session but log in the next day to lo and behold the zone is fully camped but this other dungeon of equal level across the world has some openings for you... oh well, **** outta luck for today as you can't make it there. 

    • 945 posts
    January 9, 2018 12:42 PM PST

    TP is incredibly valuable, and although I understand the need to avoid a "Plane of Knowledge" situation that trivializes instant world travel, there absolutely needs to be a means of instant travel with some limitations like a limited number of classes with limited teleportation abilities.  I think its safe to assume that the wizard and druid will have teleportation similar to EQ, but I don't think it would be too terrible to allow a couple other classes some transport skills;  Like maybe giving the summoner the ability to summon a No Rent Rod of Translocation allowing the user to return to their bind location, or perhaps a major city, and/or maybe having a cleric remote ressurection ability where they can target the player (instead of the corpse) and spiritually take their group to a nearby safe (area succor/levant) location to make corpse runs a "bit less make-you-want-to-kill-yourself" when you can't get a teleport or die at the end of a game session and all of the players in the area aren't back online when you are the next day.  Maybe allowing corpse summons from any distance (with a steep cost) with the necro would be super beneficial. 

    #realtalk - Although there are some fond "memories" of corpse runs for a lot of us old school players, a concern of mine as an adult now is that there may likely come a time where I just don't have time to get my corpse back in one day's play session if I only have a couple of hours.  Not to mention that we forget how awful it felt when you were actually performing the CR... its the memory of the people we played with that we find comforting, not the actual CR (which happened in a gaming community that I'm affraid may not exist any longer with some of the newer generation players and where MMOs have steered most gaming "personalities").  I awlays helped people with CRs whenever I could as a SHD, (as I felt it was my duty to my server-community as the ultimate dungeon navigator having IVU, Invis, Feign Death, and summon corpse) but I also had much more time to play nearly 20 years ago.  I've become a bit of a pessamist since then though. :p 

    • 123 posts
    January 9, 2018 2:05 PM PST

    Iksar, if it is possible for a raid to get a druid/wiz in each group and chain porting to chain-kill bosses all around the world, what is the use of outposts/caravans ? What is the use of offline travel via caravans ? What is the use for a guild to install an outpost in a hunting zone ? No use I fear so, or nearly. Many people say on this forum that players have to respect the world, respect the environment, I don't think that being able to zap wholes zones with a single spell is respecting the environment, nor jump-killing bosses at high speed. TP should at least be highly limitated, more than in EQ in which it was too easy, players should accept that it may not be possible to go everywhere at any time, or it would make Terminus be like Azeroth / Eorzea or any recent game's world. Choices should have consequences, selecting a hunting ground is a choice, so it should have consequences.

     

    • 1860 posts
    January 9, 2018 3:58 PM PST

    Khendall said:

     what is the use of outposts ?

    To provide your members a place to resupply/bank etc in the middle of a popular exp zone where you will be spending a lot of time anyway.  That might be a ways away from teleport locations. 

     

    Khendall said:

    What is the use of offline travel via caravans ?

    So that your group doesn't have to wait for you, or go back and get you if you go link dead.  You catch up to where they are automatically.

    Khendall said:

    players should accept that it may not be possible to go everywhere at any time

    I think that ^ was your point.  Some of your reasoning you listed as to why porting should be limited didn't really relate...or are separate systems that aren't directly connected to porting.

     

    • 2752 posts
    January 9, 2018 4:22 PM PST

    A great many things are possible but I don't imagine it is likely that multiple raid targets are going to be up at the same time waiting for a single guild to clean them up. 

     

    My understanding of caravans for groups is they are more a means of keeping people who disconnect or have to log for a short while with the group they were with when they left the game so they can pick up where they left off. I also think caravans might also be an NPC thing that travel between cities, in which case they would still be important and used as I would I'd hazard a guess that they will be used to relocate player "homes" by moving the contents of someones bank and whatever else they have in one city to a different one (assuming they stick with regional banks/AHs/economies). Outposts will likely have their own benefits when they are implemented after launch, not sure how TP relates to that especially since those raiders will end up back in those areas when the raid(s) are done. 

     

    You still have to respect the world and the environment even if you use teleports, it's not like those TPs are taking people directly to any given mob's doorstep (that would more be the purview of Call of the Hero, which will be in the game, but I don't see much uproar about that ability). VR has listed under Game Features: "Learn that limited and class based teleportation may get you close, but in order to reach many destinations you will have to traverse the realm-scarred lands of Terminus through the use of your own two feet, on the back of your mighty steed or even across the seas themselves."

     

    Choices do have consequences: you make the choice to get yourself across the world spending an hour or so and set up for grouping in a dungeon next play session not knowing that zone is going to be packed the next day and the consequence is you either wait it out and struggle to find a group wasting who knows how long or you find a means to make it to another zone with groups your level, whether running or finding a port to get you closer for a shorter run. No need to make it crushing for the players and make finding appropriate level groups even harder. Sometimes they will still have to make the full run regardless. Another situation is you head out with your group but forget your key in the bank or grabbed a few wrong pieces of climate gear and don't notice until you guys make a 45 minute trek and get to the destination zone; would taking another 45+ minutes (with gate) to an hour and a half (for round trip on foot) honestly sound like fitting punishment for an honest and simple human error?

     

    Finally from FAQ 19.0: 

    "Pantheon will have meaningful travel -- players will need to travel to new areas and face the dangers that come with such a journey. That said, there will be spells like 'Call of the Hero', which summons an ally to your side if they are grouped with you. There will also be a caravan-like system, where a player can log out whilst in a group and then log back in and still be with the group, even if that group has moved. There will also be additional ways to help groups come together and stay together. But it's also important to note that this doesn't mean people will be able to travel as they please, to anywhere in the world, at a whim; especially if they haven't travelled there by foot or horse at least once (e.g. players will need to unlock certain regions by travelling there first). More details to come as we get closer to beta and launch."

    • 123 posts
    January 10, 2018 10:17 AM PST

    philo said:

    Khendall said:

    players should accept that it may not be possible to go everywhere at any time

    I think that ^ was your point.  Some of your reasoning you listed as to why porting should be limited didn't really relate...or are separate systems that aren't directly connected to porting.

     

    That's right, it is my main point ^^

    Though I think the caravans/outpost gameplay is connected to porting. It may also depend on everyone's vision of caravans/outpost and I sense some differences between ours when I also read Iksar's vision. My vision of outposts is about a community building a temporary HQ for some days/weeks to make the few zones around it's hunting ground. Moving an outpost on the ground turns the outpost into a caravan that should be escorted, moving an outpost on water turn it into a boat, moving an outpost is an event that should last hours if needed, depending on how far the next spot is. Thats my overall vision.

    I think that if it is possible to travel instantly too easily, in 20/30 minutes maximum it is possible to grab everyone dispatched around the world and be at the same spot (it was in EQ), it significantly lowers the interest of offline travel, especially if community members can also easily dispatch themselves all around the world. About outpost, let's imagine they offer services like bank access, mini housing, refill consumables, etc ... what would be the interest if it is possible to TP to a city too easily ? Choices made about TP are very important for the design of outposts and caravans, it could literaly kill the concept.

    Iksar made a point by quoting the game features, 'meaningfull travel' is an expression I like; I just want to insist on the need to highly limit the power of TP, more than in EQ in which it is far too powerful. When I read some posts (not yours guys, I'm sorry if I gave you wrong feeling about it, both your visions are far more reasonable), I'm scared about some players wanting to make Terminus crossable in less than one hour, and that would be catastrophic.

    I do believe that choosing a hunting ground should be a choice with consequences.

    • 1479 posts
    January 10, 2018 11:12 AM PST

    Khendall said:

    philo said:

    Khendall said:

    players should accept that it may not be possible to go everywhere at any time

    I think that ^ was your point.  Some of your reasoning you listed as to why porting should be limited didn't really relate...or are separate systems that aren't directly connected to porting.

     

    That's right, it is my main point ^^

    Though I think the caravans/outpost gameplay is connected to porting. It may also depend on everyone's vision of caravans/outpost and I sense some differences between ours when I also read Iksar's vision. My vision of outposts is about a community building a temporary HQ for some days/weeks to make the few zones around it's hunting ground. Moving an outpost on the ground turns the outpost into a caravan that should be escorted, moving an outpost on water turn it into a boat, moving an outpost is an event that should last hours if needed, depending on how far the next spot is. Thats my overall vision.

    I think that if it is possible to travel instantly too easily, in 20/30 minutes maximum it is possible to grab everyone dispatched around the world and be at the same spot (it was in EQ), it significantly lowers the interest of offline travel, especially if community members can also easily dispatch themselves all around the world. About outpost, let's imagine they offer services like bank access, mini housing, refill consumables, etc ... what would be the interest if it is possible to TP to a city too easily ? Choices made about TP are very important for the design of outposts and caravans, it could literaly kill the concept.

    Iksar made a point by quoting the game features, 'meaningfull travel' is an expression I like; I just want to insist on the need to highly limit the power of TP, more than in EQ in which it is far too powerful. When I read some posts (not yours guys, I'm sorry if I gave you wrong feeling about it, both your visions are far more reasonable), I'm scared about some players wanting to make Terminus crossable in less than one hour, and that would be catastrophic.

    I do believe that choosing a hunting ground should be a choice with consequences.

     

    Frankly I'm more about "beeing able to play with my friends withouth spending my playtime moving onto them".

    I know the caravan system will aim to correct this, but until more details, it's hard to imagine it will "work" in most situations.

    • 945 posts
    January 11, 2018 9:11 AM PST

    I know VR has stated that they are designing something similar to (if not exactly the same as) Call of the Hero spell that summoners could summon a group member to the rest of the party.  A fairly simple solution to allowing for people to use their time playing with their friends instead using that time traveling (only to get to your destination to find the group has disbanded) would be to allow an expensive, consumable item to allow the use of the spell Call of the Hero.  Just have it be expensive and require coordination like an Enchanter has to enchant an expensive gem (like a Blue Diamond) to allow a summoner to infuse the gem with Call of the Hero spell, you can only carry one at a time and it is consumed when used.  This would still keep TP a highly valued (cost free) ability while not having to have a summoner or teleporter in your group while giving multiple classes a way work together to help others... maybe necros could infuse an enchanted gem for corpse summon, or a cleric could infuse a resurrection spell.

    • 4 posts
    March 13, 2018 10:48 PM PDT

    I think instant travel shouldn't exist at all under any circumstances. If you want to play with your friend, travel to him. It'll be fun along the way. There are lots of other game mechanics that prevent two real life friends from playing with each other that don't seem to bother people so much, such as level differences. Why is "he's too far away in space" fundamentally different from, "he's too far away in levels"?

    If fast travel does exist, at least keep it expensive and rare, even for end game players. The reason is that local economies are impossible if there is not a high enough transaction cost to relocating goods and services to another place, or not enough local demand in an area because everybody's hanging out at the game's single trade hub.

    Something like "Call of the Hero" is still a bad idea in my opinion. It's really no better than any other kind of fast travel, and it will have all of the bad effects that fast travel has: kill local economies by creating a single trade hub where everyone hangs out while LFG, and it shrinks the world, which should feel vast. There's nothing meaningful in getting zapped from the trade hub to the dungen entrance by setting up a group in a chat channel.


    This post was edited by kazyovka at March 13, 2018 10:53 PM PDT
    • 2756 posts
    March 14, 2018 4:15 AM PDT

    I don't agree that fast travel should be 'expensive'. I always hated it that unless you were in a big, powerful guild activity or very high level you were stuck with the grind that others were not (yes, travelling the same route you've done 100 times before is a grind). Of course you should have to travel manually *at least* once (if not multiple times until some familiarisation, atunement or even faction is built), but then it should be a minimal cash cost if any.

    I don't agree that fast travel 'kills zones', at least it doesn't have to. In fact you can use it to ensure areas don't suffer. If it's via a static hub, then put the start and end in the places you want populated. Make the journey broken up by short 'manual' travel through areas you want visited. Make it so you have to collect a time-sensitive 'ticket' from somewhere else you want populated (fresh mistletoe for a druid ring, charged crystal chips for a wizard spire, a live chicken for a shrine sacrifice, whatever).

    I don't agree that only certain classes should have this fundamental travel ability. Being able to simply get places is such a core need for everyone. It can still be a 'social interaction' if you make it so you need a 'ticket' but you can take others along if you get one.
    /shout "I'm collecting mistletoe to activate the druid ring to OrcTown! Anyone who wants to come (even help me fight there?) meet me at the ring in 5 minutes (or less if you bring some mistletoe?) Cheers!".
    It can even still be a money-maker, but for everyone: /shout "Anyone want to travel? I'll get your mistletoe! Meet me in 10 minutes at the ring. 2pp per person!"

    Fast travel doesn't have to mean teleporting. I liked the hired horses in LoTRO: You paid a reasonable sum to hire one, it ran along its known path at a good rate, you could go make a coffee or watch the scenery and, importantly, jump off mid-route if you wanted to. When adventuring, you would see horses go flying by and wonder "Oh, is there a town up ahead?". Some routes required a visit, some were standard, some were faction based, etc.
    I also liked the gryphons in WoW. The routes were often intentionally giving you a teaser view of areas you might not have seen from the ground (encouraging manual exploration). At certain points, if you could take the fall, you could also 'jump' mid-route if you saw something interesting. When adventuring you would see gryphons fly overhead and wonder "Oh, where are they all going?". You could even shout and ask the rider.

    Ideally for me: -

    A small amount of static, lore/race-themed instant travel hubs: The halflings, for example, being all wildling-type in Pantheon, might have mystical spirit-trees in their main town and in their outpost village in the mountains two zones over. If you collect the fresh guano of their totem animals and smear it on yourselves, you can climb up the trees to mystically descend at the others.

    Some gryphons, horses, wolves, carriages (whatever makes lore sense) for hire that offer non-instant, but faster than normal mounted travel. It auto-routes (and cannot be steered), but you can 'jump off' at any point.

    Mounts: Not as fast as the auto-routing, but under player control. For temporary hire (as well as permanent ownership), maybe? Restricted from some terrains and areas. Prone to attack and not able to 'avoid' encounters.

    Trails and paths that make running easier. Slightly faster travel, but obviously prone to banditry!

    Caravan routes: Not fast at all, but regular. Hire a spot and log out at the 'depot' and when you log in hours later you will be at the destination. Making them prone to attack when players might be logged out would be harsh...

    There are so many options that I really think are game enhancements, not to its detriment at all.  Travel options don't have to make things 'worse' at all.  It's down to the design.


    This post was edited by disposalist at March 14, 2018 4:20 AM PDT
    • 1315 posts
    March 14, 2018 5:22 AM PDT

    I favor something akin to “The Ways” from the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series.  Rather than being able to instantly transport from one place to another certain classes can open gateways to a “short cut zone” and back out again.  Within the shortcut zone there are points that link to the outside world and vice versa.  The arcane fast travelers can sense bridges of an arcane nature, the nature lovers can sense passages of a more fundamental nature.  In a few places permanent gates have been created that anyone can access but there are only a handful of them.  Due to their usefulness many of these permanent gates have become the center of trading cities.

    The “short cut” zone would be quite large and covered by a fog of war.  There are known paths of relative safety bridging the permanent gates with ever burning lamps, guide lines and sign posts.  Over time foot paths and markers have been worn to and from the most useful wizard/druid portals back to the main travel trunk but are not guarded.   If one is brave they can strike out at random and make for one of the closest two portals they can sense in the mist but you never know what you will find in the mists.

    No one really knows how big the zone is as the mists are confusing and points of reference are few and far between.  Few who strike out without a point of reference are ever found again as there are creatures who have also lost themselves in the mist, and are hungry.  (Mechanically the zone is a circle that swaps you to the opposite side of the zone when you go too far.)  There are also portals used and defended by other creatures.  To access their portal one must defeat them on both sides of the portal making it a very daunting task only possible for the strongest forces working in concert.

    Long story short some low level major city to major city fastish travel exists.  More off the beaten path portals exists but the further from those prime city portals you get the more dangerous it is to use them.

    Just an idea I ripped off,

    Trasak

    • 3852 posts
    March 14, 2018 8:30 AM PDT

    Jordan also ripped off the idea, of course, so don't feel too bad. Most good ideas go back many years.

    Having different means of avoiding the tedium of taking the same route over and over and over is good. Between major destinations - ships or griffons or boats or .... it doesn't matter what it is as long as it is fast. Taking two hours of real time to go from a major city where you may have crafting amenities or shopping amenities to another major civilized area where you also need to do things makes very little sense. If you have been that route before, I mean. Maybe it should take 10 trips to unlock a quicker way to go. Maybe there should be some risk of pirates or bandits. But two hours of tedium - no thanks.

    The Ways or similar idea may work better going to an out-of-the-way adventuring location. At the risk of having anathma called down on my head it could even be instanced so that enemies would be around your level. A landscaped "Ways" that is level 20 would be impossible for level 10s and trivial for level 30s so unless you know what level characters would almost always be taking that trip I'm not sure what it would accomplish. Jordan, of course, instanced his Ways so that the enemies ALWAYS matched the levels of his characters as of when they entered.

    • 690 posts
    March 14, 2018 2:07 PM PDT

    I see a lot of people here saying that if wizards don't get ports, they won't have any utility. They talk like taking ports from wizards will literally cripple them in all aspects of the game compared to other classes.

    Where is this coming from? Sure it might be true with EQ wizards, but we hardly even know what Pantheon wizards do besides the loose term "arcane glass cannon". 

    I'm sure that if wizards in Pantheon need more utility, VR can find plenty of lore friendly ways to give it to them. Perhaps wizards will use their arcane prowess to make unique regents. Perhaps they will get several arcane+nature themed buffs/debuffs like Fire Shield/Polymorph/Frost CC. Wizards might even get a ride-along version of the "blink" (teleport a short distance forward) spell! I just don't feel like we know for sure at this point that wizards will have absolutely no utility besides dps and ports. 

     

    Now that that's out of the way...

    If wizards do get portals, I could see them using arcane magic to rip a hole in existence, or force 2 ends of space temporarily one step away from each other. However, several other classes, especially shaman and druid imo, can have good explanations for portals too. I'd like to see the nature healers get love when it comes to transport, it would set them apart from clerics better. 


    This post was edited by BeaverBiscuit at March 14, 2018 2:19 PM PDT
    • 696 posts
    March 14, 2018 2:21 PM PDT

    I am cool with teleportation. That is one of the things I loved in EQ. The portals were always in areas where you had to make a decent run anyways, but they saved you time. I am also for out of combat utility, like ports, that are unique and allow a dependency on that certain class from other classes.

     

    My two copper.

    • 115 posts
    March 15, 2018 8:04 AM PDT

    As a long time Necromancer, I thought I would weigh in on this topic.

     

    Wizards and Mages make the best wake-the-dead pets.

    • 168 posts
    March 15, 2018 9:10 AM PDT

    In regards to instant travel via a spell; yes, I feel that certain classes should have that ability. I also don't feel the need to limit it with excessive costs. It is a staple of the mmorpg landscape and should stay as such.

    Various other games had scrolls or gems that transported a character to a bindstone or bind point of that characters choice but it had a cooldown; I am perfectly fine with that as well.

    There are large numbers of threads that I have read over the last year all claiming that modern mmos have become anti-community and soloable to a large part and that each poster desired the return of the community and guild and group mechanics. How does forcing someone to jog through the world for hours a day, most likely solo, accomplish this? It doesn't. I would rather be in town reading trade chat or in the guild hall crafting until a time came to form up a group or raid occured. Ideally, 10-15 minutes max travel time to get to somewhere I have been before.

    Now for an idea that can merge a few opposing fast travel thoughts. If I have traveled through a zone to get from one town to another, I should be able to fast travel on a public transportation system such as WoWs blimp or DAoCs horse routes between them at about 120% character speed. The longer I do activities in that zone; exploration, questing, farming, etc the more acclimated I become to that zone which results in a faster horseride, say up to 150% of character run speed, when it is time to just pass through it to get elsewhere. This should appease the "walk everywhere and be exposed to everything in the zone" crowd as well as the "get there fast because I only have an hour to play" crowd.

    Getting from point A to point B does nothing for social interaction in my opinion. If there are hazards on the road, you most likely won't even be typing in guild chat. If there are not hazards on the route, you are most likely AFK. Been there, done that, in both regards. Am a fan of bind points, instant travel spells/abilities, and faster than run speed public transportation routes. If we have personal mounts in the game, then I would not apply this idea to them.

    • 411 posts
    March 15, 2018 10:15 AM PDT

    I would hope that they make ports regional, rather than global. What I don't like about ports is that as the game grows, then so does the relative value of a port. Traveling from one edge of the world to the other is generally about as easy as traveling from the center to the edge, because there is no additional cost associated with porting farther, which always felt wrong to me. Instead of having all fast travel origin/endpoints be connected in a giant web, I would like to see only regional fast travel. To roughly explain...

    Zones A, B, C, D, and E are all near the elven lands and have druidic spires. You can port freely between those spires (druids innately, wizards need to learn via questing).

    Zones D, E, F, G, and H are all near the human lands and have arcane pools. You can port freely between those pools (wizards innately, druids need to learn via questing).

    If you want to go from A-H, then you could "spire port" from A-D, walk from spire to pool in D, then "pool port" from D-H.

    As the world grows, each new region would have its own new approach to traveling around, which would overlap somewhat with adjacent regions. I feel like this would help add to the regionality that VR has said they want in the game economy, scale well into the future, and help each region feel distinct and connected. Ports would still be a significant value added though.