After reading a few posts on travel by foot, it remided me of how we traveled in Shadowbane. There were no mounts for travel in Shadowbane, so the devs put in elements to help travel faster. First there were a type of boots players could buy/craft called Windlords. They gave the player a 15% faster run speed, along with a % stamina regen stat baked in, along with other stats that were available.
But the players were still asking for a faster form of travel so the dev's came up with "Traveling Stance" that gave you a 50% run buff ( it did not stack with other run buffs) but it also lowered your Attack / Defense rating by 50% so you really didn't want to be attacked while the buff was active.
There was also a teleport system that you could access called a "Runegate". There were 3 different game maps and each one had its own Runegate system. To fully take advantage of the Runegate system, you had to have a "Traveller" rune applied and trained. Once you had the rune trained it allowed you to open gates to various zones on the map.
IF VR is looking to add elements for faster non mount travel, perhaps these types of fast travel would be favorable..... Cheers
SoW was how I traveled in EQ when not on a boat, but my favorite was the Yarnosaur from Rift. Not too fast and animated beautifully. Riding tigers are my second.
You know, teleportation is a bit maligned as being too instantaneous. What if it was something more classes did, but had limitations on it to keep it from being overused?
In EQ: PoP, books just made things far too easy and there wasn't a real need for wizards and druids until you wanted to visit certain planes.
I kind of wish that more classes had ports that went different places, though. Necros for underground or undead infested places. Enchanters for social places, like cities and neutral ground. Magicians for places of elemental extremes, such as Lavastorm Mountains and Lake Rathetear. Clerics for holy temples and sacred ground. Shamans for places where certain animals dominate the land.
It was never an easy thing for me to get a teleport when I needed one, so maybe I'm biased against two classes having the only means to bring others along with them.
I'd add a "Service Fee Request" window that someone can use while targeting another player. It lists the spell or service that will be performed in a drop down and the coins will change hands when the spell is cast properly on the party who agreed to pay. I have heard that some players would abuse the system of teleporting by not tipping, giving very small tips or would take tips, then teleport away themselves with hardly more than a "sorry!" I've also been cussed out by a druid (only the one) who thought that 20pp was too little money for the teleport he just gave to me. If we had negotiated about the price ahead of time, I think I would have just risked the run, because my character was still young and I hadn't more than 100pp between my bank and my pockets.
As for limiters, how about taking away the ability to bind a spirit anywhere but a city, then it would serve to make corpse runs hurt a bit more - even if you did have a teleport spell. You could also add the limiter of having to carry components relative to your destination, meaning the caster would have to have been there to learn the spell and collected something from there as an expendable component in order to teleport themselves or anyone else.
You could also make it a tiring spell to cast, limiting caster's teleports to a once-per-game-day casting, maybe with wizards and druids being able to do three per day.
I'm sure there are some good ways to limit fast travel options, while keeping it lore-friendly and not prone to abuse. With only the limiters above, this isn't even close to WoW's dungeon-finder system and it's even more limited than the PoP book system. I can see how it would be seen as a slippery slope, but it's up to the devs to limit the abilities properly while keeping it fun.
This is one of those things I thought EQ had just about perfect and better than all other games. There's something different and immersive about having to wait for a boat and then take a dangerous ride. Running across a continent to start exploring around a different city.
Fast travel, instanced content, and global LFG systems together have turned many newer games into a situation where it feels like they're just a glorified old Diablo II entrance window. You end up just waiting to get a group then quickly pop to the other side of the world to zone into your own private version of the content... why is it an MMO anyways?
Everquest boats. With modern graphics and incredible sound effects, I can imagine it being such a beautiful and powerful thing to experience. The sound of waves crashing along the shore and boat, weather effects, the sight of clear open waters or mist and fog, storms... Sign me up.
Also, EQ2 Griffons were neat. It was something else to be flying along with a nice view of the zone and the strong beating of the wings beneath you.
Sicario said:Ohh god, I didn't even think about the advancements in graphics and such. Actually being able to go into the boat. You could have some types of faster boats that have a heavy lean so you have to walk around this confusing cramped slanted boat to get back outside. Maybe outside has waves so you could get knocked off if you're not paying at least some attention (just walk back inside once things are rough).Everquest boats. With modern graphics and incredible sound effects, I can imagine it being such a beautiful and powerful thing to experience. The sound of waves crashing along the shore and boat, weather effects, the sight of clear open waters or mist and fog, storms... Sign me up.
Also, EQ2 Griffons were neat. It was something else to be flying along with a nice view of the zone and the strong beating of the wings beneath you.
I liked the boats already, but the idea of them being even better... yes!
I got my jboots in Najena...in the time when you had to camp with others to get them. Hasten's quest was implemented later. I do tend to like teleporting groups, (played a wizzie most times) or rescuing newbies dropped down in zones that were red to them. (Some folks can't resist a little griefing from time to time it seems :P)
Cana
Walking or boat I think are my favored methods. I'd especially like if there were some explorable ships (even if just a few rooms) and that actually took a while to reach the destination.
Something else that I could enjoy would be hitching a ride with a passing caravan or along those lines. Maybe some NPCs in the game that make regular trips between locations with a cart or other transport and if one passes by you can ask for a ride (or just hop in). Even if it were no faster than walking something about that just sounds fun.