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

Well, I've given it a lot of thought. And it WAS shortly after you put in PoP everquest expantion with all the fast travel teleportation stones through out the entire world that eventually killed my experience and lead to me quitting EQ1.

World of warcraft however (which I jumped into beta shortly after leaving eq1). Started out with...travel that still let you view the large world but forced you to find a place while still putting in really cool forms of travel like the underground subway between ironforge and stormwind and the boats/zeppelin you had to wait on to get between continents like originally in everquest 1. This was a good compromise, I like waiting for taxi services occasionally....when I know they're taking me great distances (its also fun to be piled up with other people waiting to ride the boat/etc like in eq1/wow). But if you are going to put in fast travel, make it like you do now in eq2 or WoW did....be it like a horse taxi service that moves fast across the continent or a griphon. Let me appreciate how far i'm traveling to get somewhere...not some instant teleport.

I voted for limitations but still needing to take the long way. I did not enjoy having to rely on specific classes for say SOW or a wizzy port, but I do believe each class should have their own form of speed boost or "smaller" travel. Exploring is part of the fun and their should be travel between say major citys or hubs.

However in the zones themselves it should be left alone and exploration required. This allows in depth immersion into the play field and memories!!

The adventure is in the journey, not just the destination.

I dunno, the majority of the population will use it if its there. Immersion will only be achieved by making the game dangerous again, that is what really did kill EQ1 and EQ2 if all you got to do is run your *** to a town with one of your guildies killing everything just to get a port... noo mam... if I want to go from kelething to Freeport.. I best be taking a boat.. and hiking my *** over dangerous cliffs, hazardous forests, and through skeleton infested plains every time. Its authentic.. it will allow the designers to add random events. If there is a town crushing monster on its way to some keep/stronghold with everyone fast traveling they will miss all the interaction. MAKE me run into the monsters, make me force to group to get home..

This method simply doesn't work.

If I want to refuse to use fast travel and my group decides to go to another area across the world, then I'm gonna need to find a new group because they won't wait 30 minutes to an hour for me to catch up. Suddenly the optional choice has become something I need to use. Doesn't sound optional to me.

Yes, they are your choice. Group with people who enjoy your way of playing, join a guild with other players with the same preference. MMORPGs, especially AAA mainstream ones, are played by a wide range of players with different preferences. You can't expect everyone to like the same things, features as you.

Forcing everyone else to play your way and your way only is extremely selfish... and that kind of attitude is what ruins MMO communities. Other players having the option to enjoy the game their way is just unacceptable for some of you for some obscure reason.

Besides, sandbox games are about having options. Fast travel or walk and explore, it's your choice.

I would add a rally call to build a portal pad or something. The RC would also have to travel many times to the other end to build another portal/spire etc, to go to.

This should be the only method of travel without running there yourself.

Fast travel with limitations, for sure. No fast travel would become tedious and irritating after a few months. We want a huge explorable world for sure, but once you've been somewhere you should at least have short cuts to get back there.

Tough question.

Option 1 - In my experience, most of the guildies I played with really kind of need this option. They typically would log in for 1-2 hours a night, so anything more than just a few minutes gathering time for a dungeon and they weren’t left with enough time to really do anything. (Forcing them to solo or duo with a partner in that same level range.)

Option 2 - While a long travel time is more immersive in terms of exploring the world, a lot of people really don’t care. Explorers are only a small portion of the playerbase, and most just want to get in and get to smashing things in the face. I don’t know that I’d agree with forcing people to have long travel times, particularly when most seem to fall under category 1.

Option 3 - As someone who is as much an explorer as a PvE content person, I do like the appeal of option 3. However, again going back to option 1, this really hurts people who simply don’t have a lot of playtime. Yes, you can have gaming sessions where you take people around to the various places, but again as per point 2, a lot just don’t really care about it. I think, if getting somewhere and unlocking the location were as much fun as the dungeon you were going there to unlock, this would be a valid option. If, however, it's 'just a long boring time sink', players won't like being forced to do it. The question is; what kind of player is EQN targeting? With the option for any race/class they may be targeting players in option 1 more than anyone else. So this option may not be ideal for them.

Option 4 - I think I’d agree with this option the most. However, since distances are unknown between said major hub and the dungeon a person is going to, this could be very problematic. Again, since most only have a short while to play, when I think back to WoW prior to people really having mounts (once upon a time it was restricted to like level 60, when that was the max level), people didn’t always have time to log in, go to that major hub, fast travel to the next hub, then get to the dungeon. At times that was an hour investment on it’s own. Back in the early days of EQ, spending 4-8 hours to gather and go to a raid wasn't a big deal, it was the norm. Even in the early days of WoW spending 3-4 hours to gather and get to an instanced dungeon was more the norm. But now? Again, with people in option 1, that’s most of their time sunk in just getting there. Again, as an explorer and someone who "lives the life", typically spending 4+ hours for each play session, I kind of like something like this. But again I think for the majority this may be too limiting unless said system limited all dungeons to within about a 15 minute ‘reach’.

I guess I should agree with 5 since I’ve got feelings on each.

this one is a tricky subject. in this day and age, if you don't have a type of "fast travel" you'll likely turn off a bunch of people. especially with friends wanting to group up, but they could be on opposite sides of a continent, or even on a different continent all together. with no means of getting to one another quickly and taking half an hour to even meet up to start, that can be frustrating.

here's the thing, with the way mmo's are these days people tend to want to get to their friends and start questing, grinding, dungeon running, or whatever relatively without much issue, which is understandable. for long traveling to work, it HAS TO BE REWARDING. there needs to be incentive for a player to make a long journey to or from some remote, out of the way location. the trip itself needs to be engaging to make somebody feel immersed in the world. traveling for half an hour shouldn't be a requirement, however, there should be incentive to choose that option, should a player wish to. i know when i first get going, i don't want to take an inordinate amount of time just getting to my group so we can start. exploring with my party, though, that's another story

EQ1 was ruined with PoK. The reason why all the old zones are lifeless.

Man. Not quite good enough options for me, again.

I would like fast travel between major points on the map (spires and maybe one or two cities) **or** to my group mates... but the cost/cool-down to be high so that travel is not "cheap."

It's no fun not being able to get to your mates, but it makes the world feel smaller if you can just instantly teleport all over, wherever you like.

Oh well, with this in mind, I'm going to select "I would like a fast travel network between major cities/hubs only, not outside." as it's the closest to what I'd like to see.

My best memories from EQ1 (at the beginning) was to travel from Kelethin to Freeport... getting across town without getting killed, then when I thought I was ok.... trying to cross Kithicor forest at night... dammm was I scared... but it was fun.

We need to explore the world first.... as we get "older", then we can "fast travel"

Like when you want to create towns/events that wont be there to start with... maybe faster portals could be built after many many big big quests...

Fast travel is just spoon feeding in its most gluttonous form. .. When I saw a Barbarian in Kelethin, i thought wow that MF jsut traveled along way.. must be kinda a badass..

I have mixed feelings about this subject.

I guess I would have to agree with Syllogy, in that I would like to have a form of fast travel but I don't want it to completely take away the need to travel the old fashioned way. Perhaps if there were meeting stones for group content for dungeons or some form of group summon for that purpose, while having some form of assisted travel, that still takes time and requires you to traverse the environment, but maybe you don't have to actually do anything like a taxi service so you can afk or eat a sandwich unless someone else that you encounter has a different plan.

Perhaps this could be attached to a form of transportation for goods and resources, like a convoy that would also take players from location to location, but may need protecting or something.


[added]
Also, fast travel skills feel amazingly rewarding when earned, but not if the desire for them isn't great to begin with. And having leveled that class character with those skills is great because you feel like your character is incredibly useful and has a great role in the world to fill.

No, the reason the old zones are dead is because EQ1 invalidated all older content with each expansion.

Yeah, lets just ignore that the expansion that killed EQ was the one with fast travel. I thought fast travel was awesome when it was first added, it wasn't until choosing to not use it on a random run that I saw the consequences of it's implementation. For small towns and meeting areas in zones to feel alive, fast travel cannot be implemented. I for one, prefer a living world over a pretty set piece.

The best tales told are of the journey. Instant or quick travel would have made The Lord of the Rings a short story. I have no interest in a game that doesn't recapture the time investment and thrill of travel/exploration that existed in EverQuest prior to the Shadows of Luclin expansion.

My enjoyment of EQ dropped considerably after the SoL expansion when it was made possible to travel great distances without time and/or risk. To this day the best stories I continue to tell my friends were those that involved traveling from one place to another. My best friend's fondest memory of EQ was when she traveled from Halas to Freeport as a young barbarian. I have a similar tale of a young wood elf bard carrying a package from Kelethin to Qeynos. The people we met and the adventures that we had as we moved from one location to another were what made the game more than just fun, it made it addicting.

Mounts that can be summoned virtually anywhere, non-class restricted teleportation, flying mounts of any sort, and trivial time investments to enter 'wilderness' areas are pretty much all deal breakers for me when it comes to MMORPGs today. I want to know that those people that might be exploring the same dungeon as me have also spent hours getting to the location and it is not a trivial endeavor to travel to civilization to sell loot, bank, and recover.

EQ2 is lifeless, entirely... to try and inspire newbs I play My class up in newbie zones, Hand out PP help them, when they are in danger, Forced interaction is best for game play there is no other way around it...

That's not how it works out.

I played NW, and it was impossible to find groups who would do the whole dungeon. Even if two or three of us wanted to do it, the others would just run off without us or leave the group and then you'd be 2 short and not ABLE to complete the dungeon.

It really isn't a choice in NW to run entire dungeons... even though it's a feature available.

People will take the fastest route and they will make sure that people who won't do so, regret their "choice". If fast travel exists, people won't wait around for you. There's no reasonable reason except, "I want to"... and their answer is, "well, I want to get this done and over with! Let's go!"

It's a nice fantasy that it's possible to find people in MMOs who will take the long route and do things the hard way... but 99 out of a 100 times, those of us who DO want to do that will be stuck giving in or playing alone... If I'm going to play alone, I'm just going to play a single player game, anyway. Why play an MMO to play with people when they're all taking the easy way and you're alone anyhow?