bchorn Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 I agree that the planet travel is an unnecessary chore. Yes, I understand that BW wants to make the game feel big so they don’t want people to be able to click a button and instantly appear on another planet. However, I just think all the work that’s involved with the actual travel from fleet to planet is a bit much. For example, if I want to travel from the fleet to Ilum, I have to. Click on my hanger door in fleet Ride speeder into ship and click on ship Walk through my ship to the command deck so that I can click on galaxy map. Click three times to select the planet I ultimately want to travel to Wait for 1-2 minute load screen Walk through my hanger on orbital station and click on elevator Walk through orbital station to transport and click on transport Finally arrive taxi on planet. Now, the above is a lot of work compared to clicking on a gryphon from stormwind and selecting some faraway destination and just walking away for 5 minutes for a personal bio break. I get that there has to be some time passing to give the illusion of travel but there’s just too much work involved at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baracca Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 i'd rather click on a shuttle icon to port me to the ship and stare at "light speed lines" for 5 min - at least i could get a drink or use the bathroom in that time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bchorn Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 i'd rather click on a shuttle icon to port me to the ship and stare at "light speed lines" for 5 min - at least i could get a drink or use the bathroom in that time I second that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mangarrage Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Well having played republic and empire All I can say is empire really doesnt know how good they have it It certainly isnt blatent But I will mention a few DK so much easier and "linear" then coru Tatooine I honestly used quick travel to get from one side of the republic base to the other no joke As mentioned going into the senate building on Coru then ofc your NPC is on the 2nd floor Alot of the side main story guys stay in the first base on the republic side so you constantly have to port back to the beginning of the zone to turn in one quest to speeder all the way back to where you were Wasnt until Hoth where it is pretty much just bad for both sides And finally Taris, the absolute abomination of a planet, I almost quit playing republic side Not only is that planet the worst design of any zone I have ever been in but you have to walk on the republic side Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bchorn Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Correction: Open up inventory. Click on Fleet Pass. Loading screen. At fleet. Maybe 30 seconds depending on your machine. Can't buy fleet passes? Yes, you can't buy fleet passes. Also, fleet passes have an 18 hour cooldown! That means you only use a realistically once a day. If they are wanting a quick fix planet travel times, they should cut the cooldown on fleet passes to 1 or 2 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WutsInAName Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) Last night was the worst actually: 1. Beat Zash on Dromund Kaas 2. Quest orders me to travel to Fleet to meet person. 3. I use emergency fleet pass to go straight to fleet. Fast,right? Think again! The quest doesn't want me to do it that way! I have to actually get in my ship and fly there! 4. Head back down to hangar and get in ship. Watch entire cinematic leaving the fleet. Click the door and see cinematic of arriving at fleet. Quest wouldn't have that either!!! 5. Get back in ship, head to another planet. Immediately turn around and choose the fleet in the holographic map. 6. Go back into fleet and FINALLY meet the random Darth, who says nothing!!! Not a single line of dialog! (and get like 5 XP). 7. Next quest is to go back to Dromund Kaas. Seriously?! Why did I have to go all the way back to the fleet to click on a person that did nothing, and served no purpose?! And for goodness sake, you better get there the way the quests wants, as opposed to just getting there quickly. I was already on Dromund Kaas in the first place!!! This all only took about 10-15 minutes, but I just called it quits for the night after going through all of that ridiculousness. Also, sorry for all of the exclamation points there!!! You forget the Other part if this.... Fly to Drummand Kass, take the taxi to city outskirts, run to inside city taxi cause some idiot decoded that they should not be connected, use taxi to sith compound, run to Zash's chambers ..... and for the finale ..... duh duh duh! MAKE A HOLOCALL!! Which ends with.... USE SHIPS INTERCOM(which facilitates doing all steps in reverse to get back on ship). When you get back on ship you run 10 feet past your HOLOTERMINAL to use the ship intercom. This was pure lunacy and made me groan. I also think it was the end of that night for me. Edited January 31, 2012 by WutsInAName Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfmiolleh Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Ridiculous time sinks....hmmmm. well I'm here with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darka Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 How dare they not put everything you ever need in one spot! *shakes Fist* You have failed me for the last time Bioware Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir-Phobos Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Make an Everquest account, do the Vex Thal key quest, then we can talk timesinks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsillah Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Yeh, I am in the Imperial Fleet and I see a party looking for a healer for some level 50 flashpoint or something. So, I'm thinking, I have a level 50 sorcerer with healer spec. But I am on my alt and my level 50 happens to be on Ilum. I could get my level 50 and join this group that's been LF1M Healer for god knows how long but I don't. Why? Because my fleet pass is on cd and when I think of what I have to do to get my character from Ilum to the Fleet I give up. It's even worse when I am anywhere else but the Fleet and don't even have the option of a fleet pass. Bottom line. This travel stuff, as much as I love the game, is really one thing that keeps me from joining groups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisel Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Come on fan-boys,...do you really find the need to defend the time sinks? Is it necessary to compare it to games with even worse time sinks? That's like saying, well this guy only punched me in the face 4 times which is WAY BETTER than the last guy who punched me in the face 8 times. It makes me want to punch you in the throat. That would be ok with you right? Clearly you guys are ok with a gigantic load being dumped on your heads in your fervent desire to defend the glorious immersion of the SW universe!! /shrug I don't mind some grind, I don't mind things that feel productive - but to spend 10 minutes back and forth for one update or to have an NPC send you right back to where you just came from is bad design. Sorry - get over it. pure win. they seem to need to rationalize over n over instead of just leaving the thread to its fate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtybomb Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 MMO's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aloro Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 For example, I am on Illum at the moment and want to go turn in some quests for my champ bags - From Central Assault - take speeder to: Shuttle. From Shuttle to Illum Orbital Station From Station to Story Phase From Story Phase to Jedi Airlock From Airlock to Ship Entrance From Ship to Deck Click on 3-4 things to get to republican fleet Jump down, and leave airlock Total: 5 minutes, 10 seconds - and thats space barring through unnecessary cinematics. Fair enough. A few thoughts though: First, most planets have "flashpoint shuttles" that will take you directly to your side's fleet. My highest lvl char is only 42 though so I've not yet explored Illum and can't say if it's the same. The point though is that, for most planets, you can cut out steps 4-7. Everyone has an Emergency Fleet Pass by the time they own their own ship, and pretty much anyone can get the security app (which can be run on your PC) and thus buy fleet return passes with a one-hour cooldown. Then, too, this game is incredibly lenient in bind points, allowing us to jump to whichever spot on the planet is most helpful. All of which is to say, the problem isn't really all that bad. Second, putting all that aside, I'm going to put forth a very unpopular idea: travel delays are good for the game. Simply put, the more quickly players can get from any one point on a planet to any other point (or from one planet to another), the smaller the world feels. Note that a lot of players are already complaining that they feel the game isn't populated with enough players. ANYTHING done to lessen travel times will impact heavily here. Travel time not only directly relates to the perception players have of how large the "game world" is, and not only directly influences how many players you run into while "in the world", but it's also directly linked to the speed at which players can gather crafting materials, make money, and complete quests. Third, from an entirely different point of view... putting aside the workarounds, and ignoring the reasons why some travel delays are desirable... comparisons are informative. It can take >45 minutes to use the fastest available modes of transport from one end of Middle-earth to another in LotRO (worst case). I'm not sure what the worst case travel time in WoW is anymore but I'm sure it's still over 15 minutes. And those, again, are compared to, what, maybe 5 minutes max here? I don't think anyone can meaningfully argue that SWTOR's travel isn't a LOT less onerous than that of most other current MMOs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staffakar Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Fair enough. A few thoughts though: First, most planets have "flashpoint shuttles" that will take you directly to your side's fleet. My highest lvl char is only 42 though so I've not yet explored Illum and can't say if it's the same. The point though is that, for most planets, you can cut out steps 4-7. Everyone has an Emergency Fleet Pass by the time they own their own ship, and pretty much anyone can get the security app (which can be run on your PC) and thus buy fleet return passes with a one-hour cooldown. Then, too, this game is incredibly lenient in bind points, allowing us to jump to whichever spot on the planet is most helpful. All of which is to say, the problem isn't really all that bad. Second, putting all that aside, I'm going to put forth a very unpopular idea: travel delays are good for the game. Simply put, the more quickly players can get from any one point on a planet to any other point (or from one planet to another), the smaller the world feels. Note that a lot of players are already complaining that they feel the game isn't populated with enough players. ANYTHING done to lessen travel times will impact heavily here. Travel time not only directly relates to the perception players have of how large the "game world" is, and not only directly influences how many players you run into while "in the world", but it's also directly linked to the speed at which players can gather crafting materials, make money, and complete quests. Third, from an entirely different point of view... putting aside the workarounds, and ignoring the reasons why some travel delays are desirable... comparisons are informative. It can take >45 minutes to use the fastest available modes of transport from one end of Middle-earth to another in LotRO (worst case). I'm not sure what the worst case travel time in WoW is anymore but I'm sure it's still over 15 minutes. And those, again, are compared to, what, maybe 5 minutes max here? I don't think anyone can meaningfully argue that SWTOR's travel isn't a LOT less onerous than that of most other current MMOs. There is a problem with your assessment. You are 42, hence, you are still actively engaged in running around doing the stuff you do - once you hit 50 the game changes and you start to really notice these things. It's like turning the lights on in a fancy restaurant - once the lights come on you see how filthy it really is. Not trying to be elitist by saying this, but hit 50, play it for awhile, then see how you feel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiam Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) Having played a sorc, merc, to 50, I'm playing an operative now and by far the worse time sink I've had with any of the classes has to be the operatives level 20ish Nar Shadda Sp? quests. I spent over 2 hours just doing all the running around that they make you do. It's BS and it's not fun. Whoever made the quests with all the running around that takes hours to do need to know it's not fun at all. I also agree with everyone about the travel time, it's ridiculously stupid. Edited January 31, 2012 by Tiam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WutsInAName Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Make an Everquest account, do the Vex Thal key quest, then we can talk timesinks. You want to talk EQ timesink Try waiting for Varsoon in original eq for the Soulfire quest. zomg talk about painful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arugess Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 5 minutes too long... what is the gaming world coming to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tatermitts Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Nice sig I'm a fan Thanks for the mention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staffakar Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 5 minutes too long... what is the gaming world coming to. 5 minutes too long - every single time - do the math dude. You really think we would be complaining if it was a 1 time thing? How many times a day does it happen - a lot - that's a lot of 5 minutes - EACH WAY. Big dummy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorbrand Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Cinimatics all over the place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quip Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Time sinks are pretty light in TOR, the closest thing this game has to a time sink is running through space ports and that's a totally minor league time sink. Maybe the bizarrely long load screens I get all of a sudden count. Even then I remember three month time sinks in EQ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spawn_of_Santa Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) Yes, you can't buy fleet passes. Also, fleet passes have an 18 hour cooldown! That means you only use a realistically once a day. If they are wanting a quick fix planet travel times, they should cut the cooldown on fleet passes to 1 or 2 hours. You can buy Fleet Passes from the Security Key vendor on the fleet provided you have a security key tied to your account. Those Fleet Passes are 1000 credits each & they have a 1 hour cooldown. I usually keep 1 on me at all times in case the standard 18 hour one is still on cd (I always use that one first since it's free) & I need to hightail it back to the fleet for some reason. Edited January 31, 2012 by Spawn_of_Santa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinkfreudHC Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 I refuse to do the "wait for a floaty thing" datacrons. Pretty sure I can survive without the +2 whatsits or the +4 doodads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LyriaFrost Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Does my boyfriend count as a "ridiculous time sink?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chromiie Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Compared to all the other MMOs I have played, this game is relatively time sink free by comparison. Totally not the point of this thread. Orbital Stations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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