magnuskn Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) The whole game has a lot of mechanics which seem geared towards forcing people to keep being logged in as long as possible. The whole ridiculous travel mambo you need to go through to just change zones is only one of them. It just is an archaic mode of thinking in MMO design, that you absolutely need to have players stay logged in for as much stuff as possible. IMO, the question should rather be how to get players to keep coming back to your game. And making simple travel so excruciating boring and needlessly complicated is one way to show your costumer base that you are not welcoming them. Edited January 12, 2012 by magnuskn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJDrakken Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I agree, I shouldn't have to through 5 different places, just to get to a planet. Ship, Docking Line to Elevator, Elevator to Main Space Port, Space Port to Planet. It's stupid. Should be Ship to Space Port to Planet at tops. JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knyghtprowler Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 When I first found the Emergency Fleet Path I got extremely excited.. until I used it and realized it had an 18 hour cooldown. If you use an authenticator you can access the authentication Vendor and buy fleet passes for 1000c, they have 1 hour CD's. I always have a stack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnuskn Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Anyway, you guys are spoiled rotten. I guess noone remember's corpse running naked back to where you died. (ala EQ). You don't remember that it took WoW 7 years to implement better traveling and questing to the original level 50 content (Cata). Yeah, and doctors don't apply leeches anymore to sap the bad humors, either, last I heard. Your point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strattjw Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I don't understand how travel times are all the more great then other games. In WoW if you want to go from one side of the world to another you either take a flight path and afk to make a sandwich or get on your epic mount and autorun while afk for a sandwich. It's not like it's instant travel anywhere you want to go. In this game it seems much more immersive to be on your ship fly (pretty much instantly) to any planet then land. The only thing I wish they would add is the ability to mount up on orbital stations and space ports. I don't mind moving through them I just hate moving at a slower pace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breeti Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS, annnndddd THIS. When I first found the Emergency Fleet Path I got extremely excited.. until I used it and realized it had an 18 hour cooldown. It is dissapointing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qoojo Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I just wanted to say that the travel system isn't even close to as bad as that. In eq1, I remember waiting close to an hour for a stupid boat from BB to freeport. Talk about waste of time. Pretty much all games before WoW, and many after it, had worse travel systems or about the same. What makes this system so annoying is the worthless run through those spaceports. Second, I don't want to buy recall scrolls to avoid a 18 hour cd. Overall, it doesn't really bug me that much. I do not need to go to my ship that often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duckfather Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 In EQ I used to love getting to a level I could use invisibility and then doing the run across the entire continent on foot (invisibility was to get through just one nasty bottleneck full of mid lvl30 mobs). It used to take 1 1/2 to 2 hours (including stopping because of nightfall when you couldn't see an inch in front of you). And perish the thought of dieing, as you may have to run across 99% of the continent to get to your corpse and your kit I enjoy traveling (with the exception of the space port portions which have already been mentioned). You can discover tons just by doing this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExBrillig Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 constant loading screens You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantomlimbs Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Queuing for pvp and leaving immediately solves quite a bit of my traveling issues, but yes I agree there are way to many loading screens. Even dying in a flashpoint you get 2 f'ing load screens in a row - that is asinine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazorous Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I don't understand how travel times are all the more great then other games. In WoW if you want to go from one side of the world to another you either take a flight path and afk to make a sandwich or get on your epic mount and autorun while afk for a sandwich. It's not like it's instant travel anywhere you want to go. In this game it seems much more immersive to be on your ship fly (pretty much instantly) to any planet then land. The only thing I wish they would add is the ability to mount up on orbital stations and space ports. I don't mind moving through them I just hate moving at a slower pace. That's a good point. As people know if you want to travel from one major area to another (particularly across the continents), you have to find your way to the ship port (Alliance) or tower (Horde) and WAIT for the next ride. If you afk too long and missed your ride, doh... gotta wait again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eortotai Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I love these posts Lets see you get a fleet pass 1x/day You can port anywhere on a planet 1x/30min You have speeder ports for quicker travel then the speeder you get I just dont get it I can concede with the whole get off ship run through an airlock to get on a shuttle to run through an airlock, which I hate but I do think it is logical Just another fast food mmoer Pretty much sums it up right here. From most places you can take your speeder to a taxi in less than 5 minutes and taxi to the spaceport. The one thing I don't get and really takes away from the immersion is lifting off as soon as you enter your ship. I need to to launch to talk to my companion? You should definitely only take off when you use your navigation screen. Reminds me of a good old game called KoTOr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evray Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 That's a good point. As people know if you want to travel from one major area to another (particularly across the continents), you have to find your way to the ship port (Alliance) or tower (Horde) and WAIT for the next ride. If you afk too long and missed your ride, doh... gotta wait again. People like to ***** about anything they can get there hands on. Sharding, how long it takes to get somewhere. How quickly people level up. How that, by changing everything and making it easy to travel, now people level up WAYY to fast. They got there hands on rested XP, the complained about that. They complained "give us 50 only brackets" now I see people complain because they can't play with there friends and theres not enough 50s to queue as often. The game seems like a long treck often enough but there are enough travel points along your way that you should never be all too far from a hub. I think however, being in a dungeon that you've just completed (instanced only, not just a regular hole in the wall), should insta port you to the entrance, its annoying to treck back through the stuff you 'just did'. Often times the transport service helps, but its a 30 min cd and some of those instanced areas are looong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warlocc Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 The sharding actually isn't bad, in my experience so far. Places are still busy enough, and the numbers up at the top left are always decent. I will agree that it takes way too long to get from planet to ship, in many cases. They should definitely look at that again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeSamourai Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Queuing for pvp and leaving immediately solves quite a bit of my traveling issues, but yes I agree there are way to many loading screens. Even dying in a flashpoint you get 2 f'ing load screens in a row - that is asinine. Someone honestly needs to get that stickied on the top of EVERY page. I was annoyed when it happened a few times at first, but then when I realized how I could "exploit" it...made things SOOOO much easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mannic Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I don't understand how travel times are all the more great then other games. In WoW if you want to go from one side of the world to another you either take a flight path and afk to make a sandwich or get on your epic mount and autorun while afk for a sandwich. It's not like it's instant travel anywhere you want to go. In this game it seems much more immersive to be on your ship fly (pretty much instantly) to any planet then land. The only thing I wish they would add is the ability to mount up on orbital stations and space ports. I don't mind moving through them I just hate moving at a slower pace. Because in WoW I can get on my Epic mount and afk travel. I can't do that in TOR. I have to be there the entire trip to go through every single area transition and loading screen. Let's say you want to go from Hoth to Taris and then back to Hoth. Here's how the trip will go. Use your port to the entry camp. Make your way to the shuttle. Shuttle to orbital station. (I still can't for the life of me figure out WHY Bioware didn't just allow us to land directly on a planet.) Go to elevator on orbital station (area transition.) Run to airlock. Finally board ship. (Loading screen.) Run to bridge. Access ship computer and choose Taris. Run to back of ship. Exit ship (loading screen.) Land on orbital station. Run to elevator (area transition.) Run to shuttle. Land on Taris (loading screen.) Do whatever it is you need to do on Taris (help a guildy with a heroic.) Run to nearest camp and take taxi back to entry point. Take shuttle back to orbital station (area transition.) Run to elevator (area transition.) Run to airlock and board ship. (Loading screen.) Run to bridge. Access nav computer and choose Hoth. Run to back of ship. Exit ship (loading screen.) Land on orbital station. Run to elevator (area transition.) Run to shuttle. (Loading screen.) Land on Hoth. Run to taxi. Take elevator to the taxi-point nearest where you left off. And the worst part is you have to be present for every dang area transition and loading screen. This makes 10 minutes of travel in TOR seem longer and more tedious than 20 minutes in other games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imtrick Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I'm not sure I understand the OP's complaint, personally. This game certainly has more fast options for getting from one place to another than any other MMO I've ever played. I'll agree that the loading screens can sometimes be a little annoying (though nowhere near as annoying to me as some people, apparently), but their are numerous options for just instantly teleporting from one place to another near-instantly. I don't know about the OP, but I certainly didn't have anything anywhere near as convenient as travel is in this game seven years ago. Hell, I didn't have it seven weeks ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sevenpatch Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Kill yourself and port to nearest facility (hopefully with a travel route). Consider the armor penalty the traveling fee. That's what I do from time to time =P Additionally, join a warzone then quit out. If you plan it right, it might take less time than actually traveling back to your ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kahldor Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 That's a good point. As people know if you want to travel from one major area to another (particularly across the continents), you have to find your way to the ship port (Alliance) or tower (Horde) and WAIT for the next ride. If you afk too long and missed your ride, doh... gotta wait again. If you played a Shaman in Vanilla, you bound Astral Recall to one continent and used the stone on the other. After BC, you just bound your stone/AR to Shattrath City. I am not asking for instant travel, I am just saying running all over the GD place to get to a spaceport, to get to an airlock, to get in a ship, to run through a ship, to fly to a planet, to run through a ship, to run through an airlock is (while overly immersive) monotonous and archaic in the world of MMOs. Yes I played EQ and happily gave up that crack. That game had huge time sinks. If you want to appeal to more casual gamers, then you have to streamline. Because all those servers that were full are now Heavy and some Very Heavy... with many approaching Standard. Most people want to play the game, not run monotonously and encounter load times (I feel for those without SSD as well). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazorous Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) People like to ***** about anything they can get there hands on. Sharding, how long it takes to get somewhere. How quickly people level up. How that, by changing everything and making it easy to travel, now people level up WAYY to fast. They got there hands on rested XP, the complained about that. They complained "give us 50 only brackets" now I see people complain because they can't play with there friends and theres not enough 50s to queue as often. The game seems like a long treck often enough but there are enough travel points along your way that you should never be all too far from a hub. I think however, being in a dungeon that you've just completed (instanced only, not just a regular hole in the wall), should insta port you to the entrance, its annoying to treck back through the stuff you 'just did'. Often times the transport service helps, but its a 30 min cd and some of those instanced areas are looong. I agree. If there's one thing I would like for decreased travel are the flashpoints, that have only one way out, particularly if it's a looong flashpoint. I don't need an instant port out, but at least a noticeable shortcut once you complete the flashpoint. A good example of this was in the Inquistor's story line. Made your way through a cavern to get your companion. Afterwards, another path opens up, you beat a boss, and the path leads to the beginning of the cavern. Now I haven't been through enough of the high level flashpoints to know if this is or isn't already implemented. But I think of Athiss, for example, needing some short cut (or I and the groupies I went with have all missed it) Edited January 12, 2012 by Lazorous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renshei Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) Look i spent 50,000creditson this bloody speeder I will use it in the space port. I totally agree with the OP the constant loading of "ZONES" is so 1998 game tech. I've never liked zone loads and this game has more than even games made back in 98 did. Chalk this up to another thing I don't like about this game. the things i dislike about this game are starting to out number the few things I like. Edited January 12, 2012 by Renshei Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beetlejuicexx Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I agree. I love the game, but the amount of time it takes to get anywhere is just ridiculous. This is what i reported in beta and i hope a lot of others did, too. However, it proved of little use reporting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CupieFoxtail Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I don't mind travel times. It makes you feel like you're really going from planet to planet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanomancer Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I would be way happier with this game if when i click on my door of my ship there is ONE loading screen which when finished IM ON THE DAMN PLANET FFS. it is torture when you have to go back and forth from planet to planet and you have like 12 loading screens to go through. horrible game design Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamanous Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) OP is new school, has no patience, is not use to worlds trying to give a sense of size yet complains still about instancing? Crazy talk! Travel is so easy in this game. Phasing only exists at lower levels which you blow through fast anyway (only time I EVER had to change phases was back in beta. My friends and guildies have always been in the same phase as me when needing to group. Partial luck mind you). You can recall, taxi travel to most areas near where you need to go. You can emergency fleet pass, use 1 hour recalls or simply use a taxi to quickly get to the fleet transport on every planet. I can be anywhere at nearly any time and get back to a place to hit another planet within 5 seconds to a couple minutes. Edited January 12, 2012 by Tamanous Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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