Travel time to quests

[maximus123123]

Make it so that the Adventure Compendium can port you straight to the quest entrance.

This is not an easy button but merely a time saver.

I avoid some quests in particular due to the time it takes just to run all the way out there (and wait for others to get there as well).

Perhaps the very first time doing the quest could require you to make the run if someone thinks that it takes away from first time exploring. But at the very least, after the first time of discovering the entrance, you should be able to port straight to it from the Adventure Compendium.

[maximus123123]

This along with making ship buffs lost on death would go a long way to reducing time sinks in the game.

I want to be able to log into the game, not have to get ship buffs (because I hadn't died and they are still there), join a group and be able to port straight to the quest entrance along with the other members of the party.

For me the fun is in playing the game not running to ship buff shrines or spending five minutes running out to distant quests and getting Dungeon Alert while heading to the quest so that I have to waste even more time and resources before finally getting there.

If I want to spend time in a wilderness area, I can do that another time rather than during the time I want to spend completing a specific quest.

[mobrien316]

Especially when I have a character without a Key to Eveningstar, it is a bit annoying to have to go from the ship, through all the different loading screens, then run all the way across Eveningstar, then run through the King's Forest in order to get hit with an XP penalty because the rest of the group started already.

Or, just let us go from the ship to Eveningstar.

[Karavek]

yes lets make this game more of a virtual lounge/lobby where you just hop into instances. hell why even waste time on areas like cities and towns where we dont do more then wander around aimlessly. Lets make this game just a fps/third person shooter where only gearing and doing instances isolated from the larger game population matter.

D&D is about travel, wandering, getting lost, and being forced to spend resources prior to the big battle.

DDO is already a small barely existing virtual world. demands like yours only reinforce that it doesnt even need to exist.

[Gkar]

D&D is about travel, wandering, getting lost, and being forced to spend resources prior to the big battle.

You mean that's what it is TO YOU. Personally every D&D group I've been in since Basic/Expert D&D days has seen travel and an annoying part of getting to the quests and often we've just glossed over it most of the time.

Also you have been here since 2006 so you probably remember that initial box promissing "real D&D", and "spend your time questing, not travelling to quests". Those are the things that brought me to this game, and sadly we are moving away from both.

[Paryan]

yes lets make this game more of a virtual lounge/lobby where you just hop into instances. hell why even waste time on areas like cities and towns where we dont do more then wander around aimlessly. Lets make this game just a fps/third person shooter where only gearing and doing instances isolated from the larger game population matter.

D&D is about travel, wandering, getting lost, and being forced to spend resources prior to the big battle.

DDO is already a small barely existing virtual world. demands like yours only reinforce that it doesnt even need to exist.

Gotta agree here. AFAIK there is no quest that takes more than a few minutes to get to if you know the way. Chains of flame is one of the longest routes in an explorer and even then it's a few minutes. Yes, some Eveningstars quests are out there, but finding the PDK waypoint/farshifter, access to the central portal in the drow city, etc. all make for faster commutes. Many games take quite a bit longer to travel anywhere....while this is NOT those games, travel is not that bad or cumbersome.

Mechanics are in place to shorten most trips.....airships/navigators, farshifters, teleport spell, dijnn in Meridia, even /death...These have all been added as the game grew in size and longevity.

Learning how to navigate the world, discover wrong turns in explorer areas and learn correct paths, and conserve resources to get to a quest are all part of the "entire" game, and not just within quests themselves.

All the methods currently available fit in (somewhat) with the lore. Instantly traveling to an entrance (especially if you haven't found it yourself yet) doesn't thematically make sense. And if time is such a huge constraint, there's Greater teleport or bracelets of friends if working within a group or guildies.

And as much as I hate running to the ship to have to buff (and sometimes don't if it's not going to be a big benefit for the next quest), buffs should disappear on death...there has to be motivation to staying alive, and with all the new sources of XP (pots, tomes, etc.), the -10% flawless bonus isn't a huge motivator to some. Having penalties for dying improves player ability and resource management.

The game should not be like a FPS where you go into a room, get destroyed and go back to your last save point/checkpoint with everything intact.

[Memnir]

I don't like the idea at all.
I cannot quantify why, beyond saying it just would feel very wrong somehow.


While I can see the potential for minor time-saving benefits, I would genuinely hate to see this added and feel it would cheapen the DDO experience as a whole.

[Flavilandile]

Also you have been here since 2006 so you probably remember that initial box promissing "real D&D", and "spend your time questing, not travelling to quests". Those are the things that brought me to this game, and sadly we are moving away from both.

^This^

Still we don't need a jump to quest.
Compared to all the other MMO I tried, travel to quest in DDO is not long, at worst it is going to take you less than 5 minutes ( and 6 Loading screens ) to go from one of the most remote location ( Reaver's Refuge ) to another remote location ( Eveningstar ) assuming you don't have a teleport wand and/or a Key at hand.

What gripes me the most is the time wasted in explorer areas reaching quests, that's where they could do something. The first few explorer areas ( except Desert... and still in desert you could reach most the quests pretty fast ) were relatively small and you could reach quests fast, but most of the last few ones are just timesinks. ( Cannith, King Forest, Underdark, Demonweb )
And that's definitely a deterent to running those quest once you've done them for flagging/First Time XP.

[Gizeh]

[...]

Or, just let us go from the ship to Eveningstar.

I'm not sure if I agree on a quick travel option to get ported directly to quest entrances, but we should at least have the option to exit the airship to Eveningstar, especially as we can enter it from there.

[Qhualor]

I assume OP is referring to wilderness quests because the other quests are practically right outside the guild ship entrance. Running to a quest i consider to be part of the gaming experience. There isnt many Eberron wilderness quests that take more than a few minutes to get to, but Eveningstar has quite a few long runs. A guild ship portal in town would help cut that time down. I would like to hold onto the feel of gaming and what little pnp is in DDO now without instant time savers everywhere.

[Vellrad]

D&D is about travel, wandering, getting lost, and being forced to spend resources prior to the big battle.


How traveling looks in D&D:


[Players] We are leaving the village and go to that cementary in the forest.
[DM] It tooks you 2 days to reach your destination. The closer you got to cementary the worse forest look- dead trees, stech of decay and lack of animals are very disturbing. As you approach cementary gates, you hear moans of the unliving. Rumors about undead were true after all...

or


[Players] We are leaving the village and go to that cementary in the forest.
[DM] [rolls dice] As you travel through the forest, you encounter pack of wolves. They look starved and frightened, and attack! [short fight] It tooks you 2 days to reach your destination, except for pack of wolves you didn't seen any living creature. The closer you got to cementary the worse forest look- dead trees, stech of decay and lack of animals are very disturbing. As you approach cementary gates, you hear moans of the unliving. Rumors about undead were true after all...


Travels in D&D always was a cutscene, or cutscene with random encounter.
Extremally long journeys are considered waste of time for people wanting to enter dungeon and kill monsters, both in pnp and in video games.

[mobrien316]

yes lets make this game more of a virtual lounge/lobby where you just hop into instances. hell why even waste time on areas like cities and towns where we dont do more then wander around aimlessly. Lets make this game just a fps/third person shooter where only gearing and doing instances isolated from the larger game population matter.

D&D is about travel, wandering, getting lost, and being forced to spend resources prior to the big battle.

DDO is already a small barely existing virtual world. demands like yours only reinforce that it doesnt even need to exist.

Yeah, PnP was always a blast when you had a DM who insisted on "realism" when traveling from town to the quest.

DM: You are walking. (several minutes go by...)

Players: Are we there yet?

DM: (rolls for wandering monsters, none are around) Nope - you're still walking. (several more minutes go by...)

Players: What's going on?

DM: Hey, in real life it would take you a couple of hours to walk from the town to the caverns.

[Jay203]

don't think this will be needed if the teleport to quest thing from the LFM actually works o-O

[madmaxhunter]

I'd say forget the possibility of airship portals in Eveningstar. It wouldn't make sense. Now a bi-directional farshifter would make perfect sense, Shavarath is a different plane and we can go there.

I'm for adding jump spots like GH has, in Sands and Vale. But not OP's idea, players running around tells me there's still people playing, and if I see a group standing next to a quest, I can ask if they have room.

[fco-karatekid]

There ARE a few places (Chains is one, GH optionals and flags PRIOR to getting the appropriate teleporters are another, Underdark pre-schyndylasdfoijh-discovery is yet another) where this actually annoys me; but the travel requirements in this game are reasonable in the majority. Restless Isles can DIAF.

I HATED the walk through the ruins of Gianthold until U17 (epic at least, will tell you on heroic shortly) not because it was so far away, but because it was so far away with nothing to do/not enough encounters. A few areas still suffer from this - undead sands, I am looking at you.

Having to walk back and forth t complete quests is another area where travel seems to be the problem, but where in reality it's the completion mechanic at fault. Tangle rootcanal, thankfully, is a short walk between repetitive reruns; but Co6's quest completion mechanics cause you to walk back and forth with nothing interesting to occupy your time while you're doing it.

I think we're ok where we are now, but there are small tweaks that could make the perception of travel as a grind better - add in missing teleporter and teleport spell options, for example; maybe allow quest turn-in and reacquisition in the compendium?

[fco-karatekid]

Yeah, PnP was always a blast when you had a DM who insisted on "realism" when traveling from town to the quest.

DM: You are walking. (several minutes go by...)

Players: Are we there yet?

DM: (rolls for wandering monsters, none are around) Nope - you're still walking. (several more minutes go by...)

Players: What's going on?

DM: Hey, in real life it would take you a couple of hours to walk from the town to the caverns.

That guy was a wedgie candidate.

[madmaxhunter]

Yeah, PnP was always a blast when you had a DM who insisted on "realism" when traveling from town to the quest.

DM: You are walking. (several minutes go by...)

Players: Are we there yet?

DM: (rolls for wandering monsters, none are around) Nope - you're still walking. (several more minutes go by...)

Players: What's going on?

DM: Hey, in real life it would take you a couple of hours to walk from the town to the caverns.

Players: Running to store for Dorrito's and Mountain Dew. Here's our character sheets if we run into something...

[fco-karatekid]

...bi-directional farshifter would make perfect sense, Shavarath is a different plane and we can go there...

Haven't thought this through, but there are already farshifters - initial gut feel for me would be that would be very nice.

[Gkar]

Yeah, PnP was always a blast when you had a DM who insisted on "realism" when traveling from town to the quest.

DM: You are walking. (several minutes go by...)

Players: Are we there yet?

DM: (rolls for wandering monsters, none are around) Nope - you're still walking. (several more minutes go by...)

Players: What's going on?

DM: Hey, in real life it would take you a couple of hours to walk from the town to the caverns.

lol, that DM would find himself without any players rather quickly.

[Karavek]

You mean that's what it is TO YOU. Personally every D&D group I've been in since Basic/Expert D&D days has seen travel and an annoying part of getting to the quests and often we've just glossed over it most of the time.

Also you have been here since 2006 so you probably remember that initial box promissing "real D&D", and "spend your time questing, not travelling to quests". Those are the things that brought me to this game, and sadly we are moving away from both.

No actually it IS what D&D is about, entire articles have been written about it in both dungeon and dragon magazines. Its infact considered one of the most important tools for DMs to use to sap the party and keep them off balance. Hell its the way to drop in side quests or story leads for future adventures.

The fact is if YOUR DM never made good use both for story and adventure purposes the classics like getting your group stuck in a storm, on a wrecked ship or broken down caravan, then your only telling me your DM wasnt worth the plastic his dice where made from.

Hell look up the spoon experiment and see his section on counter monkies and vids like never get on the boat, it will explain to you how much a core of D&D tactics for the DM like putting heavy armored players on a boat then having it attacked by a sea monster forcing players to abandon not just ship but their expensive plate armors as well.

[fco-karatekid]

No actually it IS what D&D is about, entire articles have been written about it in both dungeon and dragon magazines. Its infact considered one of the most important tools for DMs to use to sap the party and keep them off balance. Hell its the way to drop in side quests or story leads for future adventures.

The fact is if YOUR DM never made good use both for story and adventure purposes the classics like getting your group stuck in a storm, on a wrecked ship or broken down caravan, then your only telling me your DM wasnt worth the plastic his dice where made from.

Hell look up the spoon experiment and see his section on counter monkies and vids like never get on the boat, it will explain to you how much a core of D&D tactics for the DM like putting heavy armored players on a boat then having it attacked by a sea monster forcing players to abandon not just ship but their expensive plate armors as well.

Wait - y'all may be agreeing and are unaware of it - what you just described Karavek is actually adventuring - there was an encounter in your examples. Not walking in "dead air", so to speak... literally "travelling" doth not a fun game make (I just made that up).

[Gkar]

No actually it IS what D&D is about

When you conclusively state what D&D is about like that you pretty much start by making your point meaningless since by its nature its an open game, as it was intended to be by its creators.


entire articles have been written about it in both dungeon and dragon magazines. Its infact considered one of the most important tools for DMs to use to sap the party and keep them off balance. Hell its the way to drop in side quests or story leads for future adventures.

The fact is if YOUR DM never made good use both for story and adventure purposes the classics like getting your group stuck in a storm, on a wrecked ship or broken down caravan, then your only telling me your DM wasnt worth the plastic his dice where made from.

None of those examples are examples of real travel, they are examples of a DM using the travel as a story mechanic. Up to the point where that storm stuck, the DM text would have been "you travel two days uneventfully at which point..."

The travel is unimportant MOST of the time except as an into to a plot line. It's not like they make you move every 5ft at a time and actually go through the woods (at least not a sane DM).

The travel time in DDO presents none of the advantages you are talking about (surprises during travel that are more than random encounters and actually are the plot line), it just includes the boring run through predictable enounters the DM put along the path you will run repeatedly.

Wilderness areas bigger than GH are too big and are a PITA. (Heck, even the PoP run is problematic for grouping sometimes)

[Aliss7]

Turbine attempted to add or experimented with adding a "teleport directly to quest" during the lfm update sometime ago... it never worked properly so it's been disabled since.

[Zorth]

This makes sense to me. *

It also says that we need mounts.

It also points out that mounts will not work in this game. **

*If we have already run the quest.

**A True Dungeons and Dragons game will have mounts. This game can't have mounts because the world we travel in is a box with walls, with no way to travel outside it. This is lame and hurts us and makes us sleep less at night, knowing that we are playing one of the best combat RPGames, yet we cannot fast travel unless we are a caster, and even still teleport is lame, and even recall is just for one spot in the game. It is ridiculous that we cannot make a rune or something that our characters can teleport to a spot we mark in this game. Ultima Online did it best and this game should do the same but it does not.
It insults the community to think we can never have mounts or a means to fast travel with technology that this game should have in order to compete with other games.

This game is in its death times, sorry to say it, but it is.

[Zorth]

I don't like the idea at all.
I cannot quantify why, beyond saying it just would feel very wrong somehow.


While I can see the potential for minor time-saving benefits, I would genuinely hate to see this added and feel it would cheapen the DDO experience as a whole.

because the game and the dev's do not have the foresight nor the means to make it possible. They are lame.

With all do respect Memnir you are tying to hold onto something you and I both have spent 7 to 8 years, (not counting 20 or so years of PNP before DDO!), of our lives trying to like, but hate to admit that this game is going sour and is about to be not worth playing.

[gerardIII]

D&D is about travel, wandering, getting lost, and being forced to spend resources prior to the big battle.

There is already a direct teleport from ES cavern to CitW.
You suddenly go from a nice looking underground waterfall to the center of Lolth's demonic plane.

I dont think losing a few loading screen is a bad idea.

Twelve tower teleport anyone?

[lorenpechtel]

In many cases the loading screens are a good portion of the journey time and I can't see that anybody enjoys them.

How about a toned down version of this that doesn't eliminate the value of the areas yet cuts out a lot of travel time:

1) If the quest spawns from in town you can teleport straight to it *IF* you have previously run the quest.

2) If the quest spawns from in a wilderness area you can teleport straight to the quest *IF* you have completed the explorers for the area and thus have the map. If you have run it before but don't have the completed explorers you can teleport but it takes you to the wilderness area, not the quest.