travel by ship is fairly useless, but what if...

CoronHR

...you had a good chance of receiving something during your journey, and a slight chance of finding something very valuable in your cabin

...the boat ride reduced your heat and bounties significantly (or somewhat, so it doesn't get abused)

...well, that's all i've thought of so far. the point is, why bother with ship travel if it's so much easier to use a shrine? why have ship travel at all? it's kind of useful if you haven't discovered an area and can take a boat there (but you could always port to a guild mate). i've noticed it's a bit useful if you have heat and can't get to a wayshrine easily. anyway, this will probably never change but these are just my thoughts, because i think everything in a game should be useful in some way, because otherwise what's the point in having it...

richo262

You answered your own question.

It is for new players (no guild) that want to go somewhere else and do not have shrines.

Donny_Vito

Docks were fun the first week or two when I started playing. It felt like I was exploring when I would use ships to travel to new zones. That quickly faded.

Turelus

Sadly the way wayshrines are implemented there is little need to ever use boats if you're following story progression.

I was chatting with someone at Gamescom about how much more interesting the game is when you don't use the shrines but walk and boat travel everywhere. It makes it feel big and immersive again.

Nermy

I had to use the boats the other day to get somewhere on a new toon. I also use them sometimes to go somewhere random and quest. Good fun, though I wish they did it like WoW and the boat sailed and not just a loading screen.

FierceSam

Travel by ship is super useful

Try being a new player (or even a new character) and doing

The crap Psijiic Order quest

Any of the event/festival quests which require travel to multiple new zones

Simply getting around when you’re not in a guild and your horse is on basic slowspeed

Typical bollocks from long term elitist who doesn’t think about how other people play. You don’t like it? Don’t use it.

Naftal

FierceSam wrote: »

Travel by ship is super useful

Try being a new player (or even a new character) and doing

The crap Psijiic Order quest

Any of the event/festival quests which require travel to multiple new zones

Simply getting around when you’re not in a guild and your horse is on basic slowspeed

Typical bollocks from long term elitist who doesn’t think about how other people play. You don’t like it? Don’t use it.

This thread has made you unreasonably angry.

Donny_Vito

FierceSam wrote: »

Travel by ship is super useful

Try being a new player (or even a new character) and doing

The crap Psijiic Order quest

Any of the event/festival quests which require travel to multiple new zones

Simply getting around when you’re not in a guild and your horse is on basic slowspeed

Typical bollocks from long term elitist who doesn’t think about how other people play. You don’t like it? Don’t use it.

I can see ships really only being useful for new players. If you're a new character, you most likely have guilds and you can easily travel to zones through the guild roster. But if you're new, and you're not familiar with asking in zone chat for a ride, then yes I can see these ships being useful. But once you learn about wayshrines and traveling to players, ships become useless pretty quickly.

SeaGtGruff

When you start a new character, you know only 6 wayshrines in the base game-- 1 on each alliance's starter island, and 1 in the main city of each alliance's 1st zone.

Depending on which DLC and chapters you have, you also know up to 8 more wayshrines-- 1 in each DLC/chapter zone (with the exception of Cyrodiil).

Unless you happen to own player housing in each of the other alliance zones, and unless you want to group with someone and port to them, the fastest way to travel to the other alliance zones is to take a boat.

Of course, reaching a specific alliance zone will usually require taking multiple boats, but that can be somewhat fun, like a mini-game-- try to figure out how to reach a specific alliance zone by taking the fewest number of boats possible, or maybe try to figure out a route that takes you to all of the zones in each of the alliances.

There's an achievement in the Morrowind DLC that involves taking each silt strider to each of its possible destinations, which is actually a good way to discover the main cities of Vvardenfell. It would be cool if there were a similar achievement in the base game, where you have to take each of the boats to each of its possible destinations within the alliance zones, because that would encourage players to use the boats more-- at least when just starting out on a character-- with the added benefit of discovering at least 1 city and wayshrine within each of the alliance zones.

RexyCat

Donny_Vito wrote: »

FierceSam wrote: »

Travel by ship is super useful

Try being a new player (or even a new character) and doing

The crap Psijiic Order quest

Any of the event/festival quests which require travel to multiple new zones

Simply getting around when you’re not in a guild and your horse is on basic slowspeed

Typical bollocks from long term elitist who doesn’t think about how other people play. You don’t like it? Don’t use it.

I can see ships really only being useful for new players. If you're a new character, you most likely have guilds and you can easily travel to zones through the guild roster. But if you're new, and you're not familiar with asking in zone chat for a ride, then yes I can see these ships being useful. But once you learn about wayshrines and traveling to players, ships become useless pretty quickly.

Even when you have been a long time player there is times there nobody is in that part map you want to go to, so it can be useful even for long time players to get around when there is no players around that are willing to group up, make the jump to wayshrine and let that other player unlock that wayshrine.

I honestly don't see a problem with having different way to travel as it doesn't impact anything in game. Adding reward just to use a boat is really not a good thing.


//RexyCat

Nestor

It is the only system outside of a guild where you can travel to a new zone in another Alliance. As opposed to being sent there by Caldwell. Having to rely on the chance a guild mate would be in the zone I want, much less the wayshrine I need is not reliable. It also puts you in the place you need to be to start the Zone Story.

And, it suits RP Purposes. Even today, having played since launch on my 17th and 18th Alts, I used the Ships and Wagons to get around.

kringled_1

If I'm leveling a new character and trying to get to a zone I don't have a wayshrine in, I use the navigator. It's less efficient but more fun for me. I really only use port to guild member when I'm leaving Maelstrom or the guild house after doing master writs.

Kiralyn2000

CoronHR wrote: »

it's kind of useful if you haven't discovered an area and can take a boat there (but you could always port to a guild mate).

Not everyone is in a guild.
Not everyone is in a huge guild that has people anywhere you might need to go.

I use the ships on my non-main characters all the time. (well, ok - all the time when they need to go somewhere new. )

Ermiq

Fast travel points everywhere and LFG tools with auto-teleport into a dungeon - these things kill the feeling of living in the huge world, they split the world into separate pieces (a city with vendors, a dungeon, a wood/ore farming spot) where there's nothing between these pieces.
If I would be a developer, I'd never use these 'features'. People should feel the world size, interact with the world, walk through its areas - that's how you make players 'believe' in the world and you get them 'immersed'.
Leave fast travel and auto-teleports to short session games, MMORPGs shouldn't use those tools. It doesn't mean I'm against LFG though. GW2 has an LFG but it still requires players to get to the dungeon entrance by their own.

Donny_Vito

Ermiq wrote: »

Fast travel points everywhere and LFG tools with auto-teleport into a dungeon - these things kill the feeling of living in the huge world, they split the world into separate pieces (a city with vendors, a dungeon, a wood/ore farming spot) where there's nothing between these pieces.
If I would be a developer, I'd never use these 'features'. People should feel the world size, interact with the world, walk through its areas - that's how you make players 'believe' in the world and you get them 'immersed'.
Leave fast travel and auto-teleports to short session games, MMORPGs shouldn't use those tools. It doesn't mean I'm against LFG though. GW2 has an LFG but it still requires players to get to the dungeon entrance by their own.

Very true. Especially with how easy gold is to get, I literally wayshrine every where no matter the cost. To me, it's just about efficiency. With how many wayshrines there are, you can access anywhere in the game within 1-5 minutes. I think I'd have preferred less wayshrines (one or two per zone), but at this point in the game it'd be more frustrating as I'm used to the convenience.

Major_Lag

Lol, I'm way too cheap to be paying for wayshrines (especially multiple times in a row), so instead I port to Cyro and use the wayshrine there, for free

This is especially useful when I'm (very randomly) afflicted by the "can't teleport to house from this location" bug

Odovacar

It's fun sometimes to just join a caravan ride to a far away land (even though your whole map is unlocked) Same with ships. Adding a little rng to this would be pretty cool I suppose.

CoronHR

Donny_Vito wrote: »

Ermiq wrote: »

Fast travel points everywhere and LFG tools with auto-teleport into a dungeon - these things kill the feeling of living in the huge world, they split the world into separate pieces (a city with vendors, a dungeon, a wood/ore farming spot) where there's nothing between these pieces.
If I would be a developer, I'd never use these 'features'. People should feel the world size, interact with the world, walk through its areas - that's how you make players 'believe' in the world and you get them 'immersed'.
Leave fast travel and auto-teleports to short session games, MMORPGs shouldn't use those tools. It doesn't mean I'm against LFG though. GW2 has an LFG but it still requires players to get to the dungeon entrance by their own.

Very true. Especially with how easy gold is to get, I literally wayshrine every where no matter the cost. To me, it's just about efficiency. With how many wayshrines there are, you can access anywhere in the game within 1-5 minutes. I think I'd have preferred less wayshrines (one or two per zone), but at this point in the game it'd be more frustrating as I'm used to the convenience.

this is what i mean. these other means of transport greatly diminish any usefulness of boats there might be. they are useful for new characters, but i think by and large most players use wayshrines because it's so much easier. my idea is to place more usefulness in boat travel, with my suggestions above.

what if...

...boat travel gave you a 20% increase to health recovery for 30 minutes, or something like that, from your 'relaxing sea journey'

...you could choose to wander around the boat while it traveled and do something interesting with npcs or just loot the place like crazy (and still have the option to just travel wherever immediately like you do now)

i mean this will probably never happen but it's fun to imagine how they could make boat travel more fun and usable

to be fair, i am using it a bit more often now because i find it handy for one of the thieves guild dailies, where you go from region to region within an alliance and pickpocket, because pickpocketing is easy to do in harbours

SeaGtGruff

Major_Lag wrote: »

Lol, I'm way too cheap to be paying for wayshrines (especially multiple times in a row), so instead I port to Cyro and use the wayshrine there, for free

This is especially useful when I'm (very randomly) afflicted by the "can't teleport to house from this location" bug

What a great idea! I'm stealing it.

I guess the only catch for new characters is that they need to reach L10 first, although that shouldn't take very long to do.

Holycannoli

Ahh the classic Everquest days, waiting for the boat to take you on a 15 minute ride to strange lands.

Don't exactly miss it now that I have a career and little time.

I do like the idea of gaining a buff after using one in ESO It just can't carry over to PvP.

StormeReigns

Holycannoli wrote: »

Ahh the classic Everquest days, waiting for the boat to take you on a 15 minute ride to strange lands.

Don't exactly miss it now that I have a career and little time.

I do like the idea of gaining a buff after using one in ESO It just can't carry over to PvP.

Was also part of FFXI as well. Depending on the day and time, could get raided by pirates, undead pirates, or a random World boss. Not including, that certain zones required you to cross at ;east two to three very large zones full of angry mobs then wait for boat to get raided by more angry mobs to get to key port town, and switch to another boat to get raided by more angry mobs, or if lucky / high enough level get onto an airship to get raided by angrier mobs, but with a twist - in the sky this time!

Eirinin

I'd take the ships more if there was a chance of shipwreck or pirate attack; swim to an unknown shore or fight off the hordes or pirates.

Hapexamendios

Great for new players or characters imo.

Jayman1000

It's true it is pointless. But new players can find them useful. If they have no friends. Or they dont want to ask in zone for a taxi, or maybe they cant spiel.

burglar

SkerKro wrote: »

Holycannoli wrote: »

Ahh the classic Everquest days, waiting for the boat to take you on a 15 minute ride to strange lands.

Don't exactly miss it now that I have a career and little time.

I do like the idea of gaining a buff after using one in ESO It just can't carry over to PvP.

Was also part of FFXI as well. Depending on the day and time, could get raided by pirates, undead pirates, or a random World boss. Not including, that certain zones required you to cross at ;east two to three very large zones full of angry mobs then wait for boat to get raided by more angry mobs to get to key port town, and switch to another boat to get raided by more angry mobs, or if lucky / high enough level get onto an airship to get raided by angrier mobs, but with a twist - in the sky this time!

YES! Running from windurst through tahrongi canyon to get to valkurm dunes... the boat ride made the game seem so hardcore because we saw that kraken thing the first time we rode the boat... we all died and it was hilarious, lol. The airship was super exciting too, but sadly I think I quit before they added them. My HNM/dynamis linkshell left the game for WoW. I was going to join a new linkshell but no one was making progress with absolute virtue, and HNMs/dynamis/sky/sea were so stale - especially after getting my mandau... holy shart that was not worth it, I was so done. Anyways, I later heard some people beat absolute virtue by taking an alliance of dark knights with kraken clubs?

Morgha_Kul

Honestly, I would LOVE to go ON the boat ride, and do things aboard ship.

Imagine this. You select your destination from the shipmaster, and the loading screen comes up. You load into the ship at sea. This would be a "scenario" during which you might be able to do something. The obvious one is to repel pirates (using siege weapons, and/or boarding action), but it could be other things. Perhaps there's a storm and you need to go around tending to sick crew and passengers. Perhaps there's a special school of fish and you can spend some time fishing. Perhaps there's a special passenger aboard who can give you a special temporary item, a potion or a book or some such. There's lots of possibilities.

I'd actually love to see ALL the fast travel actually happen, rather than just give us loading screens. Heck, I'd even settle for cutscenes of the stilt strider walking over the countryside, or the ship at sea sailing into the sun, or what have you (though I'd much rather actually go on the trip).

Eirinin

Seeing fellow players go by on a boat or silt strider would be amazing.

StormeReigns

ProbablePaul wrote: »

SkerKro wrote: »

Holycannoli wrote: »

Ahh the classic Everquest days, waiting for the boat to take you on a 15 minute ride to strange lands.

Don't exactly miss it now that I have a career and little time.

I do like the idea of gaining a buff after using one in ESO It just can't carry over to PvP.

Was also part of FFXI as well. Depending on the day and time, could get raided by pirates, undead pirates, or a random World boss. Not including, that certain zones required you to cross at ;east two to three very large zones full of angry mobs then wait for boat to get raided by more angry mobs to get to key port town, and switch to another boat to get raided by more angry mobs, or if lucky / high enough level get onto an airship to get raided by angrier mobs, but with a twist - in the sky this time!

YES! Running from windurst through tahrongi canyon to get to valkurm dunes... the boat ride made the game seem so hardcore because we saw that kraken thing the first time we rode the boat... we all died and it was hilarious, lol. The airship was super exciting too, but sadly I think I quit before they added them. My HNM/dynamis linkshell left the game for WoW. I was going to join a new linkshell but no one was making progress with absolute virtue, and HNMs/dynamis/sky/sea were so stale - especially after getting my mandau... holy shart that was not worth it, I was so done. Anyways, I later heard some people beat absolute virtue by taking an alliance of dark knights with kraken clubs?

I heard the same as well. Not really sure, since that happened years after I left as well. Was mainly Blm/Rdm for burn groups and Blu/Pup shortly there after for soloing a solo chain skilling.

As such back on topic Edit lol:
I did love the boat system of FFXI and portions of FFXIV - it isn't a unique idea, but ESO can easily place a unique twist to it.
Have the normal port version (fast travel that is already in game)
As well a quick 5-15min run to protect a merchant / supply ship from what ever mob in the region that likes to pillage.
Moamer, Argonians, certain Nords, Sloads, etc that drop cosmetic goodies.

TumlinTheJolly

I'd really enjoy taking ships, carts etc rather than just wayshrines. I think OP is onto something here.

rpa

Having non-wayshrine travel methods is already very useful for new characters. I'm not against adding fluff on it (except the effort IMO would be better used to bug swatting and oiling servers) but whatever you do please do not make it slower or more convoluted to use.

NeroBad

For roleplay porpuses/new players it is an essential feature. There could be some buffs (only overworld like in Grathwood) if you haven't used wayshrines for a certain amount of time. It wouldn't change for most players the gameplay but those who appreciate the world could have some little benefit.