Should Wayshrine Costs Be Removed?

phermitgb

No, they should have costs.

I'm also in the "no" category. The free version of wayshrines requires you to do at least a little travel...namely, to a nearby wayshrine - I like games that make you traverse the terrain, although I will admit that being *forced* to traverse the terrain is nicer when the terrain varies more widely and has more things to see/do as you travel across it

but regardless of that, my general feeling is that it should be necessary to travel terrain to reach your destination as the "default" - things like wayshrines are more convenient, and that convenience is "paid" for, either by the nominal (and slightly escalating) fee that currently exists, and/or by a "tax" in the form of having to travel at least a little bit

which I find perfectly reasonable

the fact that you can bypass the wayshrine requirements *almost* entirely using friends lists and/or contacting people in-game to give you a *lift* seems perfectly reasonable as well, making sure that the social-side of an MMO also has a minor benefit in effectively allowing free fast-travel

I find removing the fee entirely from wayshrines would belittle even further the effort of actually spending at least a little time "travelling" from one place to another, experiencing the terrain, distance, and potential distractions that are a hallmark of the elder scrolls universe

Turelus

Yes, remove the costs.

idk wrote: »

Turelus I was not suggesting the poll was biased. Merely a significant portion of the population would want things free or lower cost.

Just recall the threads before the game launched wanting the game to be F2P and a significant number of the crown store complaints that things cost more than some want to pay for them.

@idk oh sorry I didn't mean to make it sound like I thought that. Just me going on my usual musings/ramblings. I fully understood what you were saying and agree with you.

Linaleah

Yes, remove the costs.

I voted yes, because like most others I just bypass the costs anyway, whether its by traveling to guild member or traveling to one of my houses.

so for me at least, that cost is pointless as I never acrue it anyways. even porting out of a delve or a dungeon, i just travel to someone. all this cost does is make it harder on people who need every extra scrap of gold the most. newer people.

P.S. on people talking about bypassing the terrain. wayshrines have to be unlocked first, before you can travel to them without porting to friend. so there is no skipping traveling over the terrain for people who actualy would use the paid shrine option. traveling to friend/guildie (or discovering a shrine on an alt, that is outside of the house your main bought) is the only way to bypass that first time shrine travel, which makes the whole point moot. as those of us that don't pay - won't be paying anyways, and those who do pay... cannot just quick travel there, they have to traverse the terrain at least once regardless

pzschrek

No, they should have costs.

Hell, no, @kynseon!

Think of all those dirty Orcs teleporting in and stealing all our jobs whenever they feel like it.

I think we should build a wall...and make the Covenant pay for it.

kynseon

Yes, remove the costs.

@pzschrek Argonians can build it lol.

ADarklore

Other, my thoughts are...

I believe the reason ZOS implemented this is so the system cannot be abused. Let's not forget that wayshrining involves LOADING, especially when traveling between zones, and this taxes the system. The costs makes some players hesitant about jumping around because of the costs, so they will travel to a wayshrine to avoid the costs, which helps on server load. People already complain about long load screens and delays, and the current wayshrine method at least makes many players think twice about hopping around without using the wayshrine directly.

I don't have a problem with the current method, I use an addon that allows me to jump to the nearest wayshrine of any friend or guild member, from there I will use the wayshrine to go where I want to go. It's a pain, but not the end of the world.

DosPanchos

No, they should have costs.

Increasing the difficulty to travel throughout the map makes each new zone feel unique. On the balance of difficulty, ESO is extremely easy so each new zone is relatively meaningless bc we've seen everything at the click of a button...

Turelus

Yes, remove the costs.

ADarklore wrote: »

I believe the reason ZOS implemented this is so the system cannot be abused. Let's not forget that wayshrining involves LOADING, especially when traveling between zones, and this taxes the system. The costs makes some players hesitant about jumping around because of the costs, so they will travel to a wayshrine to avoid the costs, which helps on server load. People already complain about long load screens and delays, and the current wayshrine method at least makes many players think twice about hopping around without using the wayshrine directly.

I don't have a problem with the current method, I use an addon that allows me to jump to the nearest wayshrine of any friend or guild member, from there I will use the wayshrine to go where I want to go. It's a pain, but not the end of the world.

But so many of us in this thread have already said we don't slow our moving around, and in fact use shrines more.

Open guilds > Sort by Zone > Travel to player (load screen) > Interact with shrine to move to correct location.
So we're still using the server load just as much as you say, maybe more because we have to move around more times.

Turelus

Yes, remove the costs.

DosPanchos wrote: »

Increasing the difficulty to travel throughout the map makes each new zone feel unique. On the balance of difficulty, ESO is extremely easy so each new zone is relatively meaningless bc we've seen everything at the click of a button...

You still have to explore and travel to new zones and unlock shrines, you will just be able to move from zone to zone or around a zone faster. People are already doing this just via a work around.

ADarklore

Other, my thoughts are...

Turelus wrote: »

ADarklore wrote: »

I believe the reason ZOS implemented this is so the system cannot be abused. Let's not forget that wayshrining involves LOADING, especially when traveling between zones, and this taxes the system. The costs makes some players hesitant about jumping around because of the costs, so they will travel to a wayshrine to avoid the costs, which helps on server load. People already complain about long load screens and delays, and the current wayshrine method at least makes many players think twice about hopping around without using the wayshrine directly.

I don't have a problem with the current method, I use an addon that allows me to jump to the nearest wayshrine of any friend or guild member, from there I will use the wayshrine to go where I want to go. It's a pain, but not the end of the world.

But so many of us in this thread have already said we don't slow our moving around, and in fact use shrines more.

Open guilds > Sort by Zone > Travel to player (load screen) > Interact with shrine to move to correct location.
So we're still using the server load just as much as you say, maybe more because we have to move around more times.

But I don't believe, correct me if I'm wrong, that consoles have the option to 'travel to player' unless they're already on their friend/guild list. I thought it was the PC addon, which not everyone uses, that offers the option. So if that is the case, that it's addon specific, then there are a large number of players who don't have this option and are therefore forced to use the traditional wayshrine method or pay the fee.

Turelus

Yes, remove the costs.

ADarklore wrote: »

Turelus wrote: »

ADarklore wrote: »

I believe the reason ZOS implemented this is so the system cannot be abused. Let's not forget that wayshrining involves LOADING, especially when traveling between zones, and this taxes the system. The costs makes some players hesitant about jumping around because of the costs, so they will travel to a wayshrine to avoid the costs, which helps on server load. People already complain about long load screens and delays, and the current wayshrine method at least makes many players think twice about hopping around without using the wayshrine directly.

I don't have a problem with the current method, I use an addon that allows me to jump to the nearest wayshrine of any friend or guild member, from there I will use the wayshrine to go where I want to go. It's a pain, but not the end of the world.

But so many of us in this thread have already said we don't slow our moving around, and in fact use shrines more.

Open guilds > Sort by Zone > Travel to player (load screen) > Interact with shrine to move to correct location.
So we're still using the server load just as much as you say, maybe more because we have to move around more times.

But I don't believe, correct me if I'm wrong, that consoles have the option to 'travel to player' unless they're already on their friend/guild list. I thought it was the PC addon, which not everyone uses, that offers the option. So if that is the case, that it's addon specific, then there are a large number of players who don't have this option and are therefore forced to use the traditional wayshrine method or pay the fee.

From my understanding you can travel to anyone in a guild/friends list regardless of system. Just right click (equivalent on PC) travel to player. This is designed for people to get to group members or friends faster. Add-ons just use this method but with less input from the player (going to a list and finding a person).

With 5 guild slots available most people I know are in at least on trade/social guild with 400+ members making your options of where to go very broad.
It's very rare I don't have someone in a zone I wish to travel to and I am only in one 300+ player guild, I have spare slots as well.

jssriot

No, they should have costs.

It's another one of those "Please stop being so lazy" things for me. Sorry. What next? No travel to quest givers/hubs--just a means to let you port to them immediately?

Fast-travel is one of those things in game design that can really kill a player's engagement with the game because people are lazy and end up relying on it all the time. In MMOs that's a problem because how other people are playing the game does impact your game experience. And I really don't want to listen to incurious, lazy people whine about how bored they are with the zones because being able to FF anywhere allowed to them to avoid exploring the zones and engaging the game environment and so their sense of the game is pitifully narrow. We already have enough of that from people who power--grind with just dolmens and skyreach and then say the game is boring.

Immersion in the game environment is part of this kind of game. If you don't like traveling over large game zones, if you don't like that kind of immersion, play something else.

Skinzz

Yes, remove the costs.

Yes.. because where does that gold go? Who collects the 146 gold when you fast travel? Is there some invisible wayshrine operator? Lol

WrathOfInnos

At a minimum they should fix the bug that makes traveling to player housing activate the wayshrine cooldown for a massive price increase.

The ability to place wayshrines in player housing would be nice as well, as it stands you can port in free but porting out costs around 1k if you haven't been there long.

Kiralyn2000

ereboz wrote: »

The cost should stay. The fast travel system in this game already completely eliminates exploration which is something elder scrolls is supposed to be known for. Mounts aren't even relevant when you can just travel to a shrine a few feet from your destination

You have to "explore" to unlock the wayshrines. And you still have to walk/ride from a wayshrine out into the world to get to the things you're doing (delves, resources, questing, dungeons, whatever).

How, then, do wayshrines "completely eliminate" exploration?

And anyway, the TES games I've played (MW, OB, SK) have had oodles of Fast Travel in them. Yeah, Morrowind you had to do a bit of work to unlock it, but once you did, it was even more powerful than in Oblivion or Skyrim (since their fast travel didn't work inside instances, and you couldn't Mark/Recall to go right back to wherever you were).



(Personally, I've always loved Fast Travel in OB/SK/FO3/FO4.... it enables me to do so much more Exploring, since I'm not spending 50%+ of my playtime running back and forth to my House - through already explored terrain - to empty my pack. Since I'm not blowing lots of my free time on makework, I can take my time and explore behind every hill & under every rock. No need to pad my already large playtimes of those games out.)


---
re: "remove the cost/no need to remove the cost, since everyone already just Travels To their huge list of guildmembers/friends" Yeah, that works for the folks who have huge lists of guildmembers & friends to travel to. Remember that that's not 'everyone'.

Ashtaris

Yes, remove the costs.

Tai-Chi wrote: »

Deducing from what I have seen and read, there appear to be far too many players who just want to reach endgame without putting in any effort or time. In some cases, these are the same people who need to be spoon-fed on everything and ask for everything to be made simpler and easier.

Sounds more like you are making an assumption rather than a deduction. I have several characters that have reached end-game and I can assure you I wasn't spoon-fed anything, and if you would like to compare time put into the game, I would be happy to. The wayshrine system was put into the game as a early gold sink before anything else was available. As @Turelus mentioned, there are a lot more gold sinks available and the wayshrine toll is obsolete. Get rid of it.

Slick_007

No, they should have costs.

Turelus wrote: »

Slick_007 wrote: »

what, you cant afford the measly fee?

I can afford it, but why pay when there is a system that mean I don't have to? As Tesco would say, every little helps!

so you already have a free alternative. why should this be free?

DMuehlhausen

No, they should have costs.

Slick_007 wrote: »

what, you cant afford the measly fee?

Well to be fair it does go up if you use them over and over. That being said they shouldn't be removed

Feanor

Other, my thoughts are...

I’d rather have the cost of reassigning CP and morphs removes. Also I’d love a 2nd preset of point assignments to save and load without reassigning every point.

KeiruNicrom

No, they should have costs.

It is our one constant gold sink. ZO$ would never, could never. Even with the many work-arounds we are able to use

CavalryPK

Other, my thoughts are...

There should be no wayshrines. going from one city to another needs to be a very important decision !

Acrolas

No, they should have costs.

There should be a cost, but it never really made sense to use gold as the currency.

Now that we have one level of soul gem, that should be the currency for travel. And if you don't have the required quantity of soul gems on you, then you'll be charged you a fee to provide them to you. Or you can go to the crown store and buy some crown soul gems.

This helps rework /stuck as well, which isn't really needed in PVE now that we have easy access to houses, and probably gets most of its travel abuse in PVP. /stuck should just port you, for free, to your faction's Harborage. It's a location inconvenient enough to not abuse, but something you'll gladly accept if you really are stuck.

DRXHarbinger

Yes, remove the costs.

Just get it done. They stated back in the day the cost was put there to discourage it and lower server stress. Think we are long past it these days..

..

The servers are near rekd. Not point prolonging their suffering.

Tai-Chi

No, they should have costs.

monktoasty wrote: »

Tai-Chi wrote: »

There are legitimate ways to get to every Wayshrine in Tamriel - be it travelling on foot, by horse & cart, on a boat or by another means. It does not take that long to do it just the once on a Char and for those who take the time, it will give a better insight and understanding of how Tamriel's transport system works.

Deducing from what I have seen and read, there appear to be far too many players who just want to reach endgame without putting in any effort or time. In some cases, these are the same people who need to be spoon-fed on everything and ask for everything to be made simpler and easier.

I used to taxi people to Wayshrines, but generally speaking, I do not any more and I have never asked for anyone to teleport me to one either.

As for the increased cost for subsequent Wayshrine use? Keep it in place, if it acts as a small deterrent.

For those who complain about the cost of travelling from one's home - that might be located in a remote place - I would say, get the Mara's Kiss Inn (free) room and port from any location to there. Vulkhel Guard Wayshrine is just opposite, when you step out through the door.

Contributing to @Turelus comments; here are two more for your repertoire.

"You may think that I sound harsh but I could not possibly comment" (House of Cards) but actually "We are here to help" (ASDA) to "make this Christmas special" (Marks & Spencer).

You are misunderstanding..you would still need to unlock the way shrines.

The fee deters nothing in regards to people traveling to friends to unlock shrines

With all due respect, I am not misunderstanding anything. If you read what I said, the deterrent refers to subsequent travel to another Wayshrine (from a non-wayshrine location) soon after a similar teleportation.

Iccotak

No, they should have costs.

I prefer thinking about travel and taking into consideration how I travel before I do.
For the most part I travel between Wayshrines (as in from one shrine to the other) It does not take long to travel to a wayshrine and there are vaarious methods to get to other places.

Its an Elder Scrolls game, having constant automatic fast travel can ruin exploration and the sense of life from the world.
That's one of the things that I like about WoW; traveling and seeing people travel travel from one place to the other in real time.

Tai-Chi

No, they should have costs.

Ashtaris wrote: »

Tai-Chi wrote: »

Deducing from what I have seen and read, there appear to be far too many players who just want to reach endgame without putting in any effort or time. In some cases, these are the same people who need to be spoon-fed on everything and ask for everything to be made simpler and easier.

Sounds more like you are making an assumption rather than a deduction. I have several characters that have reached end-game and I can assure you I wasn't spoon-fed anything, and if you would like to compare time put into the game, I would be happy to. The wayshrine system was put into the game as a early gold sink before anything else was available. As @Turelus mentioned, there are a lot more gold sinks available and the wayshrine toll is obsolete. Get rid of it.

No, I do not mean "assumption".

Please look up the dictionary meanings for the word deduce and the present participle of its verb - deducing.

JasonSilverSpring

No, they should have costs.

I think many users that don't frequent the forums might not know about the work arounds. The cost is there to encourage us to explore.

For the savvy their are work arounds. For the others the cost helps encourage players to explore more.

Before I knew about travel to player and before housing that cost pushed me to explore a lot more and I am glad for that.

I like it this way.

Turelus

Yes, remove the costs.

Slick_007 wrote: »

Turelus wrote: »

Slick_007 wrote: »

what, you cant afford the measly fee?

I can afford it, but why pay when there is a system that mean I don't have to? As Tesco would say, every little helps!

so you already have a free alternative. why should this be free?

So everyone gets it at more convenience than the clunky work around we use right now.

DRXHarbinger wrote: »

Just get it done. They stated back in the day the cost was put there to discourage it and lower server stress. Think we are long past it these days.

Is this the actual reason behind it? If you have a source I would be interested.
Although if this was indeed the intent then wouldn't it have failed because so many do use the work around to move around faster.

Iccotak

No, they should have costs.

DRXHarbinger wrote: »

Just get it done. They stated back in the day the cost was put there to discourage it and lower server stress. Think we are long past it these days..

..

The servers are near rekd. Not point prolonging their suffering.

I remember them saying it was to discourage constant fast travel and Encourage exploration.
Having everyone fast travel constantly would remove the life from the world.

code65536

Yes, remove the costs.

Tai-Chi wrote: »

There are legitimate ways to get to every Wayshrine in Tamriel - be it travelling on foot, by horse & cart, on a boat or by another means. It does not take that long to do it just the once on a Char and for those who take the time, it will give a better insight and understanding of how Tamriel's transport system works.

Deducing from what I have seen and read, there appear to be far too many players who just want to reach endgame without putting in any effort or time. In some cases, these are the same people who need to be spoon-fed on everything and ask for everything to be made simpler and easier.

I used to taxi people to Wayshrines, but generally speaking, I do not any more and I have never asked for anyone to teleport me to one either.

As for the increased cost for subsequent Wayshrine use? Keep it in place, if it acts as a small deterrent.

For those who complain about the cost of travelling from one's home - that might be located in a remote place - I would say, get the Mara's Kiss Inn (free) room and port from any location to there. Vulkhel Guard Wayshrine is just opposite, when you step out through the door.

Contributing to @Turelus comments; here are two more for your repertoire.

"You may think that I sound harsh but I could not possibly comment" (House of Cards) but actually "We are here to help" (ASDA) to "make this Christmas special" (Marks & Spencer).

WTF does this have to do with reaching endgame? You can't direct-port to a wayshrine with or without gold if you've never discovered it.