How I'd like to have seen travel handled.

FracturedVessel

Travel methods are something that crosses my mind now and then. Usually resulting in me thinking "it's a real shame they didn't do that." I'll elaborate...
Fast travel sucks. It hurts the experience of the game world. Now if it was restricted to the mages guild like it was in Morrowind, where only the mages guilds provided teleportation between their guilds, that wouldn't be so bad. But even then I'd rather it wasn't a thing. I loved the way archeage did travel. Actual carriages, ships, and airships that traveled certain routes. When games have persistent real time travel mechanics like that, it gives you a sense of and appreciation for how big the world actually is. On top of that, it opens the door for an extra mechanic. Transporting/delivering goods, acting as a paid courier. Sometimes I want to play eso, but Im feeling that casual vibe. And everytime I think to myself, "it'd be nice if there were some more mundane, casual activities I could engage in. Like traveling the trade routes via public transport, making money for delivering goods. I could load up, wait at a carriage stop and just chill, maybe read a book I've discovered in game if they add that feature. Or just kick back waiting for my carriage/ship/silt strider.
You could even incorporate more dangerous transport quests for higher pay. For example... Your carriage gets ambushed, or your ship is attacked by a pirate ship and you have to fend them off.
I dunno, again, it's just one of those things that crosses my mind now and then making me think "that's a shame."
I mean, maybe it's just me, but the world kind of feels a bit lifeless. It's a place where you do quests, or any of the other activities. Whereas if there was transport to wait for, maybe it'd feel a bit more immersive. And maybe it'd encourage communication between players waiting at the stops for their ride.
Just my thoughts.

Danikat

You do already have the option to walk or ride across maps instead of using fast travel. A lot of the maps join together, and for others there are ships and caravans which will take you between major cities. You don't get to see the ship sailing, just a loading screen, but it increases the distance you can go without using wayshrines.

You can't trade goods along the way (or at least there's no extra profit from doing so) but you could collect crafting materials as you're travelling and then sell them at your destination.

(There are also books you can read. You can't take the books with you but if you've completed the mages guild quest you get access to the text of every book your character has read through the journal, so you can re-read them later on if you wish.)

I don't always use fast travel because sometimes I like taking a longer route or re-visiting an area I've explored before on my way to somewhere else, but I really like having the option to use fast travel for times when it's useful. If someone in my guild asks for help or is putting a group together for an activity it's nice to not have to say "I can be there in 20 minutes" and instead be able to join in right away.

FracturedVessel

Aye, I know you do have the option, but you kind of miss the point. Having mechanics that encourage it and make it a fun thing to do in its own right are what I'm getting at. I know it sounds contradictory to what I already said, but riding on horseback isn't much fun at all. If the mounted movement didn't feel so janky it wouldn't be so bad. But that kind of reinforces my point. If there were connected waggon routes, you could just hop on a waggon and jump out as it passes close to your desired destination. If that was the case, I'd probably go the rest of the way on foot if it wasn't too far.
As for what you said about the benefits of fast travel, I can understand that. But there are ways to maintain that functionality without just being lazy and solving travel with a fast travel system. A couple of ideas ia can think of is the mages guild teleport network. That would get you close enough so it wouldn't take forever to get to a friend. And I'd have it so the mages guild set up "receivers" at dungeons so you can still travel directly to and from those, just to maintain the ease of access so parties are easy to find.
Another option would be to make it so you can summon a party member/friend/guildy to your location by creating a portal via a scroll.
Obviously if a courier/trade system was a thing you'd have to exclude people carrying goods from such means of transport. Maybe giving them a giant pack of goods or waggon which "is too big to transport via those methods".
Like I say, adding that kind of transport network would only add more to the game. Cause you can have the best of both worlds with some creative thinking.
On top of what it would add, I have to admit, a simple fast travel system just feels like a cop out. Feels like they didn't spend more than two minutes thinking about how to approach travel. "fast travel and mounts. Done. Let's go to the pub." lol

hafgood

Whilst I appreciate where you are coming from and have in fact walked / rode every road in the game I would hate to lose wayshrines. When I'm playing I have limited time, I don't want to be spending that time travelling from place to place, I want to be there doing what I need to do.

When I started there was no free horse st level 10, we had to save 10k for a horse and that took time amd effort, now its a reward at level 10.

We had to level out assault skills to get Rapid Manoeuvers, now Major Gallop is a passive.

I have no issues with these changes, people were up in arms when Rapids got swapped with Vigor because they want to get from A to B as fast as they can. I think I can honestly say that without fast travel this game would not exist.

Years ago I played Runescape, if you had the runes and the level you could teleport some places, then other fast travel routes were introduced. Why? Because they realised that players do not want to spend their time running from A to B.

Like it or hate it Fast Travel is essential as players have limited time, they don't want to spend five minutes in a never ending loading screen as they watch the world flow by while in a carriage. They want to be at their destination doing what they want to be doing.

So no, leave Fast Travel alone please, I don't have e time to play Ship simulator

Anonx31st

FracturedVessel wrote: »

Travel methods are something that crosses my mind now and then. Usually resulting in me thinking "it's a real shame they didn't do that." I'll elaborate...
Fast travel sucks. It hurts the experience of the game world. Now if it was restricted to the mages guild like it was in Morrowind, where only the mages guilds provided teleportation between their guilds, that wouldn't be so bad. But even then I'd rather it wasn't a thing. I loved the way archeage did travel. Actual carriages, ships, and airships that traveled certain routes. When games have persistent real time travel mechanics like that, it gives you a sense of and appreciation for how big the world actually is. On top of that, it opens the door for an extra mechanic. Transporting/delivering goods, acting as a paid courier. Sometimes I want to play eso, but Im feeling that casual vibe. And everytime I think to myself, "it'd be nice if there were some more mundane, casual activities I could engage in. Like traveling the trade routes via public transport, making money for delivering goods. I could load up, wait at a carriage stop and just chill, maybe read a book I've discovered in game if they add that feature. Or just kick back waiting for my carriage/ship/silt strider.
You could even incorporate more dangerous transport quests for higher pay. For example... Your carriage gets ambushed, or your ship is attacked by a pirate ship and you have to fend them off.
I dunno, again, it's just one of those things that crosses my mind now and then making me think "that's a shame."
I mean, maybe it's just me, but the world kind of feels a bit lifeless. It's a place where you do quests, or any of the other activities. Whereas if there was transport to wait for, maybe it'd feel a bit more immersive. And maybe it'd encourage communication between players waiting at the stops for their ride.
Just my thoughts.

Traveling is a sensitive subject for many players. DLC's like Shadowlands for WOW has had the majority of players complaining that flying is disabled. Maybe make your traveling scenarios a daily would be cool for both parties?

bmnoble

The problem with that kinda travel system at least in this game in which its not made for it, is you would spend more time traveling than at your actual destination.

What I mean to say is you don't really have that much reason to spend very long in the individual zones at all, once you reach a zone.

Traveling between towns and points of interest does not take too long mounted it does not take a massive amount of time to clear out a zones quests and points of interests.

Once that is done for the base game zones there is very little reason to ever re visit them aside from guild traders/some daily quests/mat gathering/helping out friends and guild mates.

The DLC zones tend to have more dailies but even those gradually get deserted as newer zones release or people just go there once a day at most after clearing the zones.


My main point is this there is rarely ever a reason to spend enough time in one area or location to make that kinda travel system useful in this game, players are constantly moving from zone to zone to get on with what they are doing because most of use have little time to sit down in one go and play the game.

That and the 2 person mount they are planning to add, they ran into an issue where it would trigger the games anti cheat system, because a player was moving without any input, could see something like that happening in long carriage rides if they tried to implement something at this point.


Not opposed to the concept but I think a games map system needs to be made with it in mind from the beginning, trying to add it at this point, is not going to happen, aside from when your first starting out most players don't even use the existing alternate transport, carriages/boats/stilt riders etc.. except on their first character and even that is a rarity now with people just teleporting to people have unlocked the desired way shrine they want to use.

Anonx31st

bmnoble wrote: »

The problem with that kinda travel system at least in this game in which its not made for it, is you would spend more time traveling than at your actual destination.

What I mean to say is you don't really have that much reason to spend very long in the individual zones at all, once you reach a zone.

Traveling between towns and points of interest does not take too long mounted it does not take a massive amount of time to clear out a zones quests and points of interests.

Once that is done for the base game zones there is very little reason to ever re visit them aside from guild traders/some daily quests/mat gathering/helping out friends and guild mates.

The DLC zones tend to have more dailies but even those gradually get deserted as newer zones release or people just go there once a day at most after clearing the zones.


My main point is this there is rarely ever a reason to spend enough time in one area or location to make that kinda travel system useful in this game, players are constantly moving from zone to zone to get on with what they are doing because most of use have little time to sit down in one go and play the game.

That and the 2 person mount they are planning to add, they ran into an issue where it would trigger the games anti cheat system, because a player was moving without any input, could see something like that happening in long carriage rides if they tried to implement something at this point.


Not opposed to the concept but I think a games map system needs to be made with it in mind from the beginning, trying to add it at this point, is not going to happen, aside from when your first starting out most players don't even use the existing alternate transport, carriages/boats/stilt riders etc.. except on their first character and even that is a rarity now with people just teleporting to people have unlocked the desired way shrine they want to use.

Many players don't even go to town for the majority of their daily needs, they just teleport to a guild hall.

whitecrow

I remember how in Everquest you had to actually board a ship and ride it to another area. You even had to wait for the ship to come in! As primitive as it was, it did give that feeling you are talking about, and sometimes I miss it myself.

Anonx31st

whitecrow wrote: »

I remember how in Everquest you had to actually board a ship and ride it to another area. You even had to wait for the ship to come in! As primitive as it was, it did give that feeling you are talking about, and sometimes I miss it myself.

This is actually one of my favorite travel based memories from an MMO, or how you had to board a ship in vanilla WOW.

Kiralyn2000

FracturedVessel wrote: »

Now if it was restricted to the mages guild like it was in Morrowind, where only the mages guilds provided teleportation between their guilds, that wouldn't be so bad.

Morrowind?

The game where I can Mark my spot in a dungeon, teleport to a temple, bounce to a new town via silt-strider or boat, buy/sell/etc, and then Recall back into that dungeon? (and nearly every one of those abilities can be a scroll, potion, amulet, personally-cast spell...)

That Morrowind?



Just checking.



(I love Fast Travel in MW/OB/SK/FO3/FO4. I put hundreds of hours into those games, spending most of it exploring every square foot to find all the neat details/dungeons/etc. I used plenty of "Moar Interiors To Explore!" mods for FO3 & 4, to have more places to find. If I had to run back & forth to town after exiting every single location, in order to deal with all the loot I find, I'd likely have given up on those games and/or explored less. Because I'd be inundated with tedious repetition - running back & forth down the same already-cleared-the-monsters path over and over and over and over and... and the game would be a boring slog.)

Katahdin

FracturedVessel wrote: »

Travel methods are something that crosses my mind now and then. Usually resulting in me thinking "it's a real shame they didn't do that." I'll elaborate...
Fast travel sucks. It hurts the experience of the game world. Now if it was restricted to the mages guild like it was in Morrowind, where only the mages guilds provided teleportation between their guilds, that wouldn't be so bad. But even then I'd rather it wasn't a thing. I loved the way archeage did travel. Actual carriages, ships, and airships that traveled certain routes. When games have persistent real time travel mechanics like that, it gives you a sense of and appreciation for how big the world actually is. On top of that, it opens the door for an extra mechanic. Transporting/delivering goods, acting as a paid courier. Sometimes I want to play eso, but Im feeling that casual vibe. And everytime I think to myself, "it'd be nice if there were some more mundane, casual activities I could engage in. Like traveling the trade routes via public transport, making money for delivering goods. I could load up, wait at a carriage stop and just chill, maybe read a book I've discovered in game if they add that feature. Or just kick back waiting for my carriage/ship/silt strider.
You could even incorporate more dangerous transport quests for higher pay. For example... Your carriage gets ambushed, or your ship is attacked by a pirate ship and you have to fend them off.
I dunno, again, it's just one of those things that crosses my mind now and then making me think "that's a shame."
I mean, maybe it's just me, but the world kind of feels a bit lifeless. It's a place where you do quests, or any of the other activities. Whereas if there was transport to wait for, maybe it'd feel a bit more immersive. And maybe it'd encourage communication between players waiting at the stops for their ride.
Just my thoughts.

I totally disagree with this

Standing around waiting 10 minutes for a ship, carriage or whatever would be boring to the point of falling asleep.
I only have a couple hours a night to play, I dont want to spend half of it waiting around for transport or running across maps.
I also dont want to play delivery boy or have to pay and wait for an item to be transported across the map.
I already do that in real life when I order things online, why would I want that in a game?
I like wayshrines and fast travel. They allow me to save time in the game for the things I really want to do like play the game.

If you want to role play waiting around at the bus stop, or playing delivery service you are fully free to do that.
Please dont turn the game into a chore and force your role play preferences on everyone else, thanks

If you want mundane, casual activities, there are already some. Fishing and farming mats comes to mind.
You can actually make gold from selling materials you farmed.

Bradyfjord

If ESO included a city to city trading system, it would be nothing more than a glorified fetch quest. But it might be interesting to do on the level of a daily writ. I doubt I would do it, but having options is something I'm not against.

Nestor

When I want to take in the game world and enjoy the scenery, I travel on foot or horse, always running. I do that quite often. It is a beautiful game world.

I was out collecting surveys this weekend and saw a player walking across the beach and up to the nodes. I said, "hello Walker, it is good to someone enjoying a slower pace". They responded with a "yo". Person of few words and many steps.

Then I teleported to one of my houses in another zone that is right next to a survey location. I had almost 20 surveys to complete and dinnertime was getting close.

ThorianB

Fast travel exists in games because people have lives. Sure, it's nice to wander the countryside. I do it sometimes. But fast travel is needed in games. Even people who like to stop and smell the roses and go on a Sunday stroll often just need to get from point A to point B. If you only have 2 hours a night to play, why would you want to spend an hour or more of it just getting from one place to another. That might be fun at first but after a while it gets really old and tedious.

A system that allows both options is the best system.

Supreme_Atromancer

I agree with you, but the wayshrine system is there to facilitate grind, which is simply the way a lot of people are going to engage an MMO; removing or replacing that system is going to just cause frustration for a lot of people, and I can't support that.

As an alternative, absolutely. They have this huge world, gorgeously crafted, each region with its own character. Give us reasons to travel it, and to rather be in it, than a loading screen. I think your ideas could form the bases for some interesting mechanics and systems. Travelling the world gives those of us who care about more than just grind that any particular place isn't some isolated island.

More organic connections between zones, too. They've made a big effort to do so with the upcoming chapter, and that needs to be appreciated. I can't see any good reason Murkmire wasn't also connected also - is there any real need to limit zone crossings? - but they've made it clear they're taking our feedback onboard, that's really heartening.

I also still hold out hope that they look at connecting The Reach with Bangkorai and Craglorn, because it makes sense for those connections to exist. Because carts, where a gate should exist, is unsatisfying!