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

I'm not Dygz (who is well versed in EQNext information by the way), but I think the game is much farther along design wise than people believe. They seem to have a vision of what they want to make as well after scrapping the game twice. It also explain why the forums don't have a more "general" feel here, they are not that much interested in our divergent opinions.

For EvE, it's more like 20-23 years of constant skill learning, but not all of EvE skills are useful, most players says it takes more like 4-5 years to get what you want.

As for the multi-classing, we already know there will be limitations. Some classes depends on other classes to gain them (example was Rogue tier X will be required to get Assassin), others are faction/alignment dependent because of trainer access (example was Shadowknight vs Paladin, you can't train both at the same time). The real question is how hard finding trainer will be (seems like you will have to explore going by their example) and how long it takes to max the class tiers by doing stuff.

Fast Travel via Main Cities
Fast Travel via Player-made cities who provide the high-tax cost.
Horses or other animals who need to be armored. These can die and if they do die you will have to get another one. You will also have to feed and take care of them by bringing them to stable houses (located in cities, it basicly repairs there health.)

Cities should be -hours- away from each other though.

Everyone at the start should get "one" free instant travel ticket to go where their friends are starting, however they are stuck their unless they set there home there.

You should also have to travel to the closest city to see another.

I wouldn't dare calling him well versed in EQN information. He tends to interpreted the information in the way he sees fit and he also tends to have a little bit too much faith in completely meaningless points, ie the Holy Grails.

And yes, they seem to have a vision which is fine and all but at the same time they shouldn't be asking our input on issues they have already decided on. The polls probably exist so they can say they listened to the community even if they haven't. It is clear from their responses to the Round Table polls and based on them scrapping the game twice they are still sticking to plans made prior to the last big reboot of EQN. In my opinion their old plans seem to conflict with why the reboot was necessary. You can't revolutionize the genre if you don't question a lot of the current gen mechanics. There was a time when combining all the current mechanics and polishing it up was revolutionizing, this was in 2004 and the game was called WoW.

It seems like fast travel won't be in cities; just near cities.
As though we will still have to slow travel from the closest fast travel station to a city.
Cities should be reachable within 30 minutes via a combo of mounts, fast travel and instant travel.
Hours away from each other via running only is fine.

Well, what your saying is the world will be very small if thats the case. I want the world to be HUGE!!! I remember them saying that commonlands "alone" will be bigger then all of EQ2 combined.

That is one of the reasons I got to thinking that there should be fast travel between main cities/player cities.

The world won't be small since there are at least 2 layers of depth beneath the surface as well as floating islands above the surface.
Plus the depths below the surface are procedurally generated, so they will be different when we revisit them.
Even on the surface, emergent AI, Storybricks and heroic movement are compelling reasons to slow travel - when there is no time pressure.

Yes, but for all we know some cities (even player cities!) could be completely underground. Lol.

Permanent cities? Not according to what the devs have said so far.

The underworld layers are great and all but the overworld should still be very massive on it's own. Too many games tell you that the world is an entire continent filled with large countries but you can travel across them in a half hour without fast travel, a few seconds with it. Hardly makes you feel like you're in some huge fantasy world.

Who said Permanent cities?

Not even cities in SWG were Perma, if you didn't take care of them they decayed.

Permanent - as in not procedurally generated.
A city that will still be around if you return the next day - rather than one that disappears once you've completed the procedurally generated quest.

it is better to travel well than to arrive fast

Depends on the specific circumstances and why you're traveling in the first place.

You might as well ask why we play mmo's in the fist place
Because if only 1 mmo would be more like travel they would finally make us richer than when we buy into them.
Travel creates much needed circumstances mmo's lack.
If nothing turns out the way we planned or expected them,mmo's would finally learn us to enjoy the moment
It teaches us to be adaptable,to remain open to new things and letting the new experiences in.
We learn to be adaptable in any situation,no matter what..
Cultivating an open mind and heart,being aware of our assumptions,environment;working compassionately towards honesty and openness,being non-judgmental towards different friendly encounters
Understanding the world,the players in it and lore based cultures,the weather,day/night and how to adapt to circumstances..
An mmo that cultivates a deep acceptance and curiosity about where we are and who we'll meet.
Goals are ok,but presence is just as important
People do not enjoy most mmo's because they do not enjoy the moment

If you want to create an MMO like all ones out there where the entire population of the server is sitting in "hub" city, waiting for their queue timers to pop for dungeons, raids or anything else where no one is adventuring at all go ahead. If this is a a true sandbox fast travel is the same thing for a non instanced game and shouldn't be implemented until several expansions in and should be limited to player based transportation like druids / wiz

There’s something wonderful about having the experience of arriving somewhere understanding exactly what it took to get there; understanding the land, the players,monster and different cultures you encounter

Do you have a source for that?

I absolutely hope this game is huge but I have heard this all before from other developers and most of the time "huge" tends to mean small. I want EQN to be at minimum the size of Asheron's Call's world, which was about 500 square miles. I hope the world is not close to the size of EQ2 which I find disappointingly small, even in comparison with a game like WoW, which is also too small. I want true exploration to be viable again. Some areas should have lots of players whereas others are so far away from civilization you don't meet a soul. That would be my ideal world.

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” — Tim Cahill

edit:


“Long-term travel doesn’t require a massive bundle of cash; it requires only that we walk through the world in a more deliberate way.” — Rolf Potts

“Travel is like love, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.” — Pico Iyer

“If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears.” — Glenn Clark

Easy response: make it like EQ1 for the first explorations (long and hard... oups), and like eQ2 when you had already explored a zone.

Druids can port to ruins and Mages can port to spires..

Seriously, don't reinvent the wheel the first way it was done WAS the best, that isn't nostalgia talking either. That interaction is what made EQ1 amazing.