Fast Travel

[Templarion]

I found a various different descriptions for fast travel. Here are a couple:

Fast Travel is a game mechanic that allows the player to skip from one section of the map to another (following a brief loading screen).

A device used in many games with vast open worlds, to travel instantaneously from one place to another. sometime appears in the form of an item or skill.

Now, lets look what you are writing...

Also teleport spell does NOT equal fast travel, well not your version anyway.

you don't seem to want to see it.
There is NO fast travel in DDO except via Haste, Expeditious Retreat, Phiarlan Pendant of Time and Striding that makes you running faster.

There, there, calm down now... Don't be blind if a game function is hidden behind fancy words and animations. The teleport spell function is exactly the same thing as fast travel. You press a button and - BAM - you are somewhere else. My suggestion is simply to make this possible for all the players.

What you want is what Neverwinter Online was supposed to be : a lobby where everybody is gathered until a quest is decided, then people jump straight into the quest.

This is not a bad concept at all. However, in DDO's case, it would be just easier to expand fast travel rather than create a totally new concept.


Someone also asked about usability. You can read more from Wikipedia but here is a short quote:

The primary notion of usability is that an object designed with a generalized users' psychology and physiology in mind is, for example:
- More efficient to use—takes less time to accomplish a particular task
- Easier to learn—operation can be learned by observing the object
- More satisfying to use

In this case, it would be more satisfying to get in the quest faster and finally to do what I enjoy most in the game: battling foes, solving puzzles, looting treasures & completing quests.

Fast travel makes me achieve my goals:
1) Faster (skip the running, only 1 loading screen)
2) More fun & satisfying (less worthless running around)
3) No need to learn routes (well, I know them already but didn't come up anything more suitable for "easier to learn" part )

[mystafyi]

This is not a bad concept at all. However, in DDO's case, it would be just easier to expand fast travel rather than create a totally new concept.

turbine already uses a graphical lobby in ddo, its called stormreach. If your asking for a way to bypass explorer zones completely, the answer is, it will never happen. The explorer zones are nothing more then outdoor dungeons.

If you want a text lobby with instant entrances to "dungeons" then try diablo.

[Flavilandile]

Fast travel makes me achieve my goals:
1) Faster (skip the running, only 1 loading screen)
2) More fun & satisfying (less worthless running around)
3) No need to learn routes (well, I know them already but didn't come up anything more suitable for "easier to learn" part )

The DDO is not for you.

No point in changing a game for 1 person when all the other are quite happy how things are.

[Templarion]

The DDO is not for you.

No point in changing a game for 1 person when all the other are quite happy how things are.

Thanks for the laughs.

[Ugumagre]

Thanks for the laughs.

No, Templarion. DDO is not for you. You want a shooter with D&D stuff. You log on, look around the servers, join a group and start killing. Nothing wrong in that. But the developers thought about making a consistent world, with some logic in its own, with a city design, a story, decorations, and so on. So you want a DDO shooter. It would be surely a great idea for some players, but I think the lot like the immersion in the world.
Not trying to flame, it is my opinion, 100% sincere.

[Yskuma]

As far as skipping through ambient/explorer areas, you know what... I like Stormreach. Sure running through the city and explorer areas can be a bit boring sometimes but remove that and you lose a lot of the immersion in the game.

I think you have a balance and the ambient/explorer areas of the game actually add something. They draw in new players and they are also add something to the quests. The Necropolis and Orchard are creepy, they act as a nice leadup to the actual quests. Gianthold is frozen, harsh and epic with dragons and mountains, a hint of things to come. The Vale of Twilight sets the scene for the story behind the Shroud.

A lot of us tend to lean towards a very min/max style of play (myself included) but you have to ask yourself... Would the game be as engrossing if you just skipped through these areas? I personally don't think it would be.

Also.. DDO isn't D&D but it is based on it. A barbarian wouldn't be able to teleport without help in D&D and shouldn't be able to here. Do you have a similar complaint about all classes not getting Haggle and UMD as class skills? It's a class perk, if you want it then play a class that has it.

[R0cksteady]

Would be nice.

But wont happen now that teleport rods are in the DDO store.

[Memnir]

Add universal fast travel option for every class.

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5 easy to find locations, 6 convenient destinations.
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5 easy to find locations, 7 convenient default destinations, 8 more upgradable destinations.
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Easy favor benchmark, survives TR, reduces all that awful time you actually need to run someplace public.


For faster travel then that, why even log into the environment at all? Just ask for a travel hub from the Character Selection Screen that will pull down all the quests in the game - check off the one you want to run - and then zone right in. That'd be super awesome.

[donfilibuster]

Usability is good but let's be creative, better add options to the game than take them away.
Stormreach merely needs more farshifters, more teleporters, teleport locations and airship entrances.

The farshifter seems the way to go, since npc casters are cheap and portal devices are not.
The twelve should allow this, to keep control of who goes in and out.

Surely House C can get their entrances once the security breach is looked at.
I keep saying maybe all that is need is some scrying device you can walk in
In the end Stormreach is heavily warded, despite the invaders keep getting in.

Free teleport, maybe in the form of magic items, of the sort anyone can activate.
There's nothing against them except competition to the rods. It could even be a good plat sink.

Thus shouldn't strictly need to have a class ability to each class, altough this isn't without precedent.
In PnP fighters used to have helpful followers, paladins mounts, clerics better word of recall, druids tree travel.
Rogues, Bards have UMD for this and the ranger have, um, track, to catch up with the party

[Templarion]

Sure running through the city and explorer areas can be a bit boring sometimes but remove that and you lose a lot of the immersion in the game.

Now here is another valid point against. Immersion would weaken. True. I cannot argue much against that.

My personal problem is that I haven't felt any immersion to the game over a year now. I didn't think about immersion and that's why I made the suggestion. This change could hurt immersion somewhat but how much DDO has it anyway? So much numbers, buffs, maps, indicators etc. going on the screen all the time anyway.

What you said about barbarians and teleport.... There could be always a loading screen with text like :"After a long journey you reach your destination."

Would be nice.

But wont happen now that teleport rods are in the DDO store.

At least they have the rods, true. Nice to hear that someone actually agrees, thanks.

For faster travel then that, why even log into the environment at all? Just ask for a travel hub from the Character Selection Screen that will pull down all the quests in the game - check off the one you want to run - and then zone right in. That'd be super awesome.

I can smell Memnirish sarcasm here but I answer sincerely: Yeah, it would be super awesome.

Usability is good but let's be creative, better add options to the game than take them away.

True. Good designer can combine usability tools and immersion. Almost every Elder's Scroll game fast travel is done by looking a map. In the Indiana Jones movies & games fast travels happens in the map while red line is drawn to show the route (for some reason I can hear the theme music while writing this).


At least, I got a couple good arguments against. Too bad, there were so many against only because they wanted to be. Sometimes vivid suggestions may get people on defensive stance and they are against it without even thinking about it. I also feel compassion to DDO designers when they make 'super radical' changes to the game content (*cough*blades*cough*).

[Vordax]

I can smell Memnirish sarcasm here but I answer sincerely: Yeah, it would be super awesome.

I think you may like this MMO instead, no travel time involved for any quest.

You can always get a Royal Guard Mask, it is a teleport clicky usable by any level 11 character.

Vordax

[danotmano1998]

I think you may like this MMO instead, no travel time involved for any quest.

You can always get a Royal Guard Mask, it is a teleport clicky usable by any level 11 character.

Vordax

That's pretty funny.. A game that plays itself!

[Ralmeth]

The developers have given us lots of options on how to move around Stormreach fast:

Expeditious Retreat/Striding:
For new characters or new players to DDO, just get yourself a couple of sets of boots of expeditious retreat clickies in Korthos (talk to the Mayor for the quest). Or if you go human, you could take the least dragonmark of passage feat for expeditious retreat clickies (and swap the feat out later once you get decent striding boots).

House P Favor:
The pendant of time is awesome for running around fast in town and cuts down on your transit time considerably. I think it makes sense to have this as a favor reward, so you have something useful to work for (unlike a number of other favor rewards).

Airship:
There's airship access all over Stormreach! Even without teleport it just doesn't take that long to get anywhere you need to if you use an airship. If you're not in a guild then join one or make your own.

Teleport:
Teleport is a key part of D&D. Yes, only certain characters can use this, but if you're not playing an arcane then work on your UMD, which anyone can work at. Teleport is one of the nice rewards for getting your UMD to a suitable level, and it should be a reward not automatically handed to you.

So...
/Not signed

[Memnir]

I can smell Memnirish sarcasm here but I answer sincerely: Yeah, it would be super awesome.

It'd be even more super awesome if that check box would take you right to the end fight - so you wouldn't have to waste all that time running the quest itself! Who has time to get past all those troublesome trash mobs and wander around in all those atmospheric environments created to immerse people in the game world?

Just a bare room, an end boss, and a box-like object that dispenses loot.



Or maybe we could just cut out all that "world" nonsense and just skip right to the pull-down menu for loot and XP dispersant!!! Super-Mega-Ultra-Awesome!!!!

[Doomcrew]

At least, I got a couple good arguments against. Too bad, there were so many against only because they wanted to be.

Too bad only a small few feel it's a good idea because they want it to be ........

[Quarterling]

Looks like somebody has been playing a bit too much Skyrim and probably abused fast traveling to no end.

Also, anyone can get sufficient UMD to use a teleport scroll. There's also guild ships.

[Falco_Easts]

Why bother with Stormreach at all? Why not just the LFM panel, the quest list and then zoom straight to quest?

Seriously, plenty of options for you to get around.

I would like more explorer area teleports however similar to Gianthold, Tangleroot etc... No need to skip public places though.

[Aeolwind]

http://godvillegame.com/

Progressquest, with microtransactions, for your PHONE. So you can carry it around and watch it eat battery.

[lilleengen2]

/not signed.

[Alaunra2010]

/signed

Going to a quest in any other MMO I played takes between 5 minutes to several hours.

Did you ever play Guild Wars?

1) Push m
2) Double-click

Nine times out of ten, this puts you either at your quest starting point, your quest endpoint (if it's a person in a town), in a town adjacent to your quest objective, or in your mission start point. Some dungeons require travel over an explorable area, but they are intended to be in remote areas anyway.

Arguing for my /signed: It's not the literal amount of time that it takes to get from point A to point B. We likely all agree that we have personally observed the cognitive phenomena of time compression and time dilation: time is compressed when you are engaged or interested, and time is dilated when you are unengaged or bored. Example: you are in the Shroud raid with a group of very interesting people and your run takes an hour after all of the joke-telling and levity, but it feels like 15 minutes because you're engaged. Perception of time is compressed. Another: you are stuck in an LFM for 20 minutes but it feels like an hour because you're bored. Perception of time is dilated.

Good game design must take the player's perception of time dilation into account, and prevent this whenever possible. All game designers, including the folks at Turbine, should make an effort to compress time where it is both appropriate to do so, and perceived by many as dilated. By appropriate, I mean that it cannot shortcut a quest objective. Travel from one enclave to the next within Stormreach lends to the perception of time dilation for many players. It is not germane to engaging in a quest, and is boring.

To make things worse:

1) The game rewards deeply-thought builds. Those builds will not necessarily include the stats necessary to commit points to UMD.
2) The game allows you to bypass the boring travel by paying money. That can brook resentment.

These easy-button-slippery-slope arguments are... well... if you're going to do that, I will pry open that can of worms and argue that pay-to-play itself is the slippery slope, and that we area already on it. If not, we shall respectfully disagree and leave it at that.

Therefore, any standard enclave in Stormreach available via teleport should be available via map travel for everyone.

[edit: deeply-though? deeply-thought. My bad!]