Fast travel in EverQuest Next: love it or leave it?

Unfortunately, they haven't defined "limited". Is it limited because of cooldown, monetary cost, access, availability, faction rep?

i want a huge world to explore. fast travel kills that it makes the world small and players lazy. look at wow players just sit in SW or org and wait to be ported to there dungeon or raid. and they die they wont even run back to the group.

K, almost 300 pages here so I'm just chiming in long after it's probably relevant:

I want NO game-provided fast travel whatsoever.

I want all fast travel provided by players, a la pre-Luclin EQ. I thought it was the bomb that druids and mages could run taxi services and port people about. Made that fast travel something you had to plan around, and had to interact with other people for. And gave those guys a nice way to make a little side cash.

I want to see ships like the original EQ ships were SUPPOSED to work...preferably with npc crews we can interact with and maybe even on-board services...the occasional NPC trainer, or a merchant or something. And I want to be in a position where the ship could be attacked at any moment by sea monsters.

We already know there is a fast travel ley line network provided by the game.
We can multi-class, so a class teleport ability would mean everyone will have that ability.

Portals that druid and wizards had in Everquest were great. Putting something like that in the druid and wizard style classes arsenal in the upper tiers (5 or 6) would be awesome and a decent way to keep everyone from having that access. My thoughts pertain mostly to "fast travel" or lack there of.

3. Fast travel with limitations, such as only via player abilities or requiring you to visit "the long way" first.
4. I would like a fast travel network between major cities/hubs only, not outside.
A good meld between these two answers would work best. I honestly feel the Plane of Knowledge books ruined travel in Everquest. The wizard spires were fine. They were just a variation to boats and still took some time to allow you to travel from place to place. Not the instatravel garbage that has been adopted by some other games. The concept I have for travel for Everquest : Next would be a nice combination between the boats and the idea of flight paths in other MMOs. Basically you would travel to a port/dock and a harbormaster npc would be present at this location and you select what port you'd like to sail to. (The harbormaster knows of these locations already it's not determined by you knowing where they are. Special docks could be added along the shores that are from player based exploration like say the dock in Oasis) You pay your fee to go to said location and you spawn into the corresponding ocean zone. There is room for alteration here. The boats could be treated like a flight path and be for your character only, they could be spawned for a group of folks going to the same location and they disappear once they arrive at their port (to keep the oceans from being over populated), or they could even be on a timer and free for newer characters they don't have money to pay for a faster travel.

Example being if you were traveling from Butcherblock Mountains to Freeport in Everquest. You paid 30 silver for a ride on the boat. The boat has a preset path for each travel path. However, maybe it stops at some islands along the way. Much like Sister Island in OOT. You can get off (to explore since we all have A.D.D. from time to time) or keep on the original path you paid for. (Harbormaster doesn't know you got off. You could have been killed and thrown overboard for all he cares. You already paid what's the concern to him.) You could even take a boat from Freeport to Qeynos if these cities are developed on your server. This would greatly cut down on foot travel times running from one side of the world to the other. This would also limit fast travel to a point where getting places still takes 5 - 10 minutes or so and not being instant from city to city. You'd still get the sense of exploration once you set out on foot without cutting into the world to much. It also allows for a developing travel system simply based on server progression without much developer interaction.

In regards to the additional docks like Oasis. You could find a quest or something there where the harbormaster has a list of favors for you to do to gain access to use his dock or something like that. So you can't simply run to all the locations and pick them up to make this easier.



PS. As far as we know the ley line network is in Everquest Next : Landmark. They haven't said it's for sure in Everquest Next yet. Landmark almost requires fast travel for the nature of the beast. Next needs to be throttled way back to keep the world feeling big.

Everyone would have the ability within a few weeks.
2 months - tops. Wizard and druid.

The fast travel network the devs describe in the RTR is not instant travel.
Instant travel is a different system.
There will be plenty of room for slow travel when we reach the end point of the fast travel network.

RE: Ley lines. Great prompt to review the Fast Travel RTR.
Some of the details of what was said where gets muddled as folks drop info in these debates.

Dygz is right on this. Everyone will simply have the ability and everyone will have fast travel. It would be pointless. It would have to be something unique and different.

Druids and Wizards should instead craft special buffs that can buff other players. You can stack these effects and they should add up.
- Bark Skin (Reduces damage taken by % + Each time your attacked, your attacker takes nature damage. This spell makes you look like a plant-person, barked skin and leafy looking hair and even blackened eyes! Of course you can turn this off.)
- Spirit of the Wolf (Increases Movement Speed by X% + Each time you attack, your attacker takes nature damage. This spell gives you the features of a werewolf with long claws/sharp teeth! Of course you can turn this off.)
These buffs are made with resources from the bones and hides of animals. They are also randomly stated and you can also "experiment" with the craft to make it either more damaging or more damage reduction or more movement speed! However you can only have one of these buffs. The duration is also effected from the craft, you can have really powerful buffs that last 10 minutes, or semi-powerful ones that last 2 hours. You must experiment to find the best possible combinations.

Wizards should also get some buffs as well.
- Arcane Shield (Wards against X Magical damage, refreshes every 0.5-5 seconds.)
- Arcane Blade (Your attacks deal X Arcane damage, refreshes every 0.5-5 seconds.)
These buffs are made with resources from elemental creatures, connectivity rods and other things allow you to gather power from these creatures and use it to craft these buffs, they are randomly stated. Some Ward more but refresh less, some deal damage really quickly, but low damage. You have to work on the refresh rate, the ward rate, and the damage rate. The duration is also effected from the craft, you can have really powerful buffs that last 10 minutes, or semi-powerful ones that last 2 hours. You must experiment to find the best possible combinations.

These buffs are really good for soloing, and powerful. However they require you to find the classes that can do it, and these arn't the only parts of the class. Some druids would not specialize in buffing at all!

All games need fast travel. I should be allowed to get where I want in a few mins. Don't see why something should take longer then that. WoW flight paths took way to long and they should have made it just instant between them.

Same when joining a auto-group. Everyone should be instant ported to wherever they desire to play. Not spend time talking. I talk to friends in RL, I shouldn't be required to talk to people in a game.

If I had it my way, I would:

• Remove fast travel
• Remove minimaps in favor of a simple compass
• Make maps almost completely useless (unless you fill it in yourself)

Why?

Because they distract the player from actually looking at the world and exploring it. I mean one of the reasons why humans have become so smart is because of our advanced spatial memory capabilities. In other words, we relied heavily on our spatial awareness to spread across the globe which in turn made us into the dominant species.

People who complain that it's too difficult to read road signs or visual landmarks are flat out not trying since it comes natural to all of us. lol

Ya know, Dygz, unless you work for SoE I find it odd that you keep talking about what we "already know." The game is still in a very early stage of development. Games much further along than this have been completely scrapped and started over. So....seeing is believing. Until I see, I'm assuming all topics are still malleable, or at least worthy of discussion.

And your second sentence is gibberish. "We can multi-class" doesn't mean everyone has every ability. If they do it right, no one will be able to get every ability in a reasonable time frame. (See EVE....their skill set is such that a person would have to play, I think, 14 or 16 years continuously to learn every skill in the game. And those skills are trained for in real time.) You're sounding very much like a min/maxer, which is right above puppy skinner in my lexicon.

The fact that you can multiclass does not, and should not, mean you shouldn't come up with SOME kind of focus and direction. I strongly suspect it will be an impossibility for a character to learn every skill they come across.

I was going to respond to this but discovered I couldn't find a way to conceal my utter horror and contempt and keep things civil. So never mind.

Ok honestly....I have to know....

Why are several of you equating "You can multi-class, and you CAN learn any skill" with "Everyone will have every skill"???

Do you honestly think they're going to make learning new skills and classes completely without cost? They've already suggested that things like faction and reputation could affect whether you will have certain abilities available to you. It's also extremely likely that you will be limited in how many skills you can learn at a time and how often. And if they've got the brains given a lump of sod, they'll make learning the skills a time-consuming process, so that it has some VALUE.

Personally, I'm not even interested in having one character with all the skills. I just want to become very very good within limited areas of expertise.

It's not in a very early stage of development. If the game is completely scrapped and started over, we can discuss that new game design - when it is revealed. Until then, we have to discuss the game design that has been revealed.

Don't have to learn every skill in the game - finish your first class in a month and acquire the porting class the next month.
Everyone who wants the instant port character ability will grab it quickly.

I agree that players will have a focus. Players will pick up an instant port character ability quickly. And then return to their focus.

Who said everyone WILL have every skill?? ??

I honestly think a highly valued character ability like long distance instant port will be picked up by the vast majority of players. Yes.

I expect that to be true for most players, too.
Doesn't mean they won't pick up something as highly beneficial as long distance instant teleport.

@ game developers
Sorry but if you just take the opinion of the majority the game will be bad an it will just fail, like other MMO failed.
Since WoW follow the majority the player base dropped from 13 million to 7,5, and it will keep drop more and more
Majority opinion is not quality.
Go for the quality and the game will rule.
That means no fast travel and no weird things like female dwarf with beard at player chioce.

@ revan040789
You are the kind of casual player who play this game for a few months, then a new game come out and you leave. Still you ruined the quality of the game for everyone want keep to play a quality game.

.

Fast travel.... Leave it.

I'm not a fan of instant teleports and fast travel. At the very least, if you include it, make someone go the long way first before allowing them to get there quickly. Of course, as I've said in a different thread, I take my merry time these days. I like to stop and smell the roses and see everything the devs have put in for us to enjoy. *shrugs* That's just me though. Far be it from me to tell someone else how they should play.

My opinion... take it or leave it.

That could be really fun tbh.


Also in the limited fast travel group. Instant teleports after 1 visit just cheapens the scale of the world. What's the point of making a sandbox with emergent AI that will change over time (if they deliver) if the game just becomes like all the rest in the end. Traveling from one country to another shouldn't take 5 minutes, one thing I like about EVE is how the world feels large since there isn't fast traveling. If you want to pack up and head to a different region you better have a good reason as it could take some time. Having a large world that takes time to travel also allows for a regional trading system if they wanted to implement that rather than the generic server auction house. This game seems to be trying to do a lot of awesome things to make the game world very immersive in ways no one has done before so adding features that make it less immersive such as this is rather counter productive. So yeah, boats and hard to obtain spells, etc are good ideas. Make it all make sense for the world. There should be ways to get around but making this another instant gratification game will just mean a lot of players will be gone after the first month, including me.

Oh, also the destructible environments could potentially allow for some player created shortcuts and such really giving the sense that players are shaping the world. Imagine two popular towns separated by a mountain so they take a good amount of time to get from one another so some guild decides to create a tunnel going through it for the good of the server. Which could also tie into the ai system making a good location for Orc ambushes. Not sure how persistent destruction will be but perhaps there are some thing like this that the devs would stop from regenerating and could in turn become an official road for that server.