Make Travelling Smoother

[Fdzzaigl]

Travelling around in TOR can get a bit annoying as you encounter a whole lot of intermediate steps to get to your location, while those really shouldn't be required.

 

I don't mind some walking, but lets look at a typical journey to your faction's fleet and then back again to your spaceship:

 

Planet spaceport > hangar door > hangar itself > spaceship leaving animation > click on destination + animation > spaceship door > arrival animation > fleet hangar > elevator to station

 

Now, you can skip the animations, but the hangars and elevators get rather annoying, especially because some hangars are rather huge.

 

Proposed solution: add an option when you click your ship's door or the hangar door, similar to the one seen on many elevators. That way you can immediately get into your ship and fly back. The options would be:

1. Ship Hangar

2. Leave Planet (ship interior)

 

Secondly, legging it back from the closest base all the way through the spaceport can get annoying after the 50th time, there is a logical solution for that. Look at how you did things in Kotor with the "Return to Ebon Hawk" option on the map.

 

Proposed solution: your ship functions like a bind point in the quicktravel menu. When quicktravel is available, a "Return to ship" button appears below the menu that pops up. Using this option would also trigger the cooldown for quicktravel.

 

Thirdly, you need to return to the fleet far too often for a fleet pass to be on an 8 hour cooldown (dailies and helping out guild members with flashpoints come to mind).

You already provided a decent number of shuttles on planets, but you could do more.

 

Proposed solution: either add a "Return to fleet" option, also linking it to the quicktravel menu. Or simply shorten the cooldown for the fleet pass.

 

Finally, please avoid using elevators like you do on the fleet station as much as possible in future content.

Edited December 18, 2011 by Fdzzaigl

[elacourse]

really? i enjoy it, it goves you a sence that the world is actually a large place. i personally do not want shortcuts, the game is fine the way it is IMO. it actually takes you some effort and time to get somewhere. i say, get used to it. i don't want instand travel access to everything, there should be a sence of adventure with something as new as we have.

 

Lvl 29 Merc and still loving it.

[Fdzzaigl]

really? i enjoy it, it goves you a sence that the world is actually a large place. i personally do not want shortcuts, the game is fine the way it is IMO. it actually takes you some effort and time to get somewhere. i say, get used to it. i don't want instand travel access to everything, there should be a sence of adventure with something as new as we have.

 

Lvl 29 Merc and still loving it.

 

I agree that there shouldn't be an easy way to teleport everywhere. But quicktravel is on a 30 minute cooldown.

 

I don't think you can seriously enjoy going through your ship's hangar every time and the need to use 3-4 elevators to get around in some places, like the station.

 

That issue doesn't have anything to do with the size of the worlds, which I enjoy, by itself.

Edited December 18, 2011 by Fdzzaigl

[HELhikari]

I agree that there shouldn't be an easy way to teleport everywhere. But quicktravel is on a 30 minute cooldown.

 

I don't think you can seriously enjoy going through your ship's hangar every time and the need to use 3-4 elevators to get around in some places, like the station.

 

That issue doesn't have anything to do with the size of the worlds, which I enjoy, by itself.

 

There are some quick travel bind points on fleet, iirc. There's one in the main central area, which is where the hangar access doors are too.

[MeeeeZ]

There's a Fleet pass for 1000 credits each at the security vendor.

[Aardevark]

If you open your abilities book there is a spell in there called "Emergency Fleet travel" Or something like that. Cast that and you get teleported to the fleet but this is on a 20hour CD iirc.

[Ravenger]

personaly i dont have a problem with the way they set up the traveling system.

i add more immersion to the game. is it a little cumbersome? yes it is, but i dont mind.

however i do agree that the quick travel option should go to the ship itself aswel. also the ship needs a mailbox.

 

if anything needs to change about the traveling system it has to be speeder speed. 90 at the start is good but at lvl40 it should be 150 and at lvl50 it should be 200

[BoShekk]

really? i enjoy it, it goves you a sence that the world is actually a large place. i personally do not want shortcuts, the game is fine the way it is IMO. it actually takes you some effort and time to get somewhere. i say, get used to it. i don't want instand travel access to everything, there should be a sence of adventure with something as new as we have.

 

Lvl 29 Merc and still loving it.

 

 

/I agree with this guy!

 

I think it is great, and all the instant gratificaton quick travel crap ruins the gameplay and immersion and prevents you from interacting with the community as much.

[Fdzzaigl]

If you open your abilities book there is a spell in there called "Emergency Fleet travel" Or something like that. Cast that and you get teleported to the fleet but this is on a 20hour CD iirc.

 

I wonder if you people actually read the OP, if you did then you would know I'm perfectly aware of all this. You needn't inform me.

 

The things I see as becoming problematic aren't the size of the world or the quicktravel system (which is pretty good), it's all the intermediate clicks and runs through otherwise uninteresting areas that shouldn't be required.

Edited December 18, 2011 by Fdzzaigl

[BoShekk]

dude, the whole game is instanced to prevent overcrowding areas........ all the elevators and clicking you speak of are just ways to go between the instanced areas.

 

These things are needed for this to work.

[Fdzzaigl]

dude, the whole game is instanced to prevent overcrowding areas........ all the elevators and clicking you speak of are just ways to go between the instanced areas.

 

These things are needed for this to work.

 

I can accept that for the mission area on the station.

 

But you can hardly use that excuse for spaceship hangars and spaceports in general, most of which are rather large areas that are very similar each time and are always devoid of life.

Edited December 18, 2011 by Fdzzaigl

[Rephlexie]

Actually there are also in addition to the emergency fleet pass thing, a few direct fleet shuttles scattered around. I have seen them on every planet since Taris on the Republic side.

 

The only suggestion I would make is having an additional map indicator for where they are located because I often forgot where they were. Usually they are not a the major hubs but a bit off in some outpost.

[Fdzzaigl]

Actually there are also in addition to the emergency fleet pass thing, a few direct fleet shuttles scattered around. I have seen them on every planet since Taris on the Republic side.

 

The only suggestion I would make is having an additional map indicator for where they are located because I often forgot where they were. Usually they are not a the major hubs but a bit off in some outpost.

 

I also mention these in the OP

 

And yes, this is a good solution. Indicating their location would be nice.

[BoShekk]

I would refer back to the game immersion and MMO world play. If this was a real world there would be hangers stuff like this all over. This all makes the world more legit.

[Fdzzaigl]

I would refer back to the game immersion and MMO world play. If this was a real world there would be hangers stuff like this all over. This all makes the world more legit.

 

Except it isn't a real world.

 

If there would actually be something to do in the hangars, then yes, I wouldn't mind them, but there isn't and the resulting load screens and waits for elevators transporting you into other instanced places really doesn't add anything to the "legit" factor of the world.

Edited December 18, 2011 by Fdzzaigl

[corbanite]

I really don't have a problem with it. If I want to go to my car outside I have to open front door close it behind me walk down path.. open and close garden gate unlock door.. get in close door..

 

It is fine... just a bit of travelling and interacting.. One of my problems with wow is instant travelling.. One of my big problems with mirkwood in LOTRO is lack of travelling.. everything too close and on top of one another.. I love the big wide openess of everything just the vastness helps give me that epic feeling.

 

and yes it does help immersion..

Edited December 18, 2011 by corbanite

[Rephlexie]

I also mention these in the OP

 

And yes, this is a good solution. Indicating their location would be nice.

 

Oops sorry hehe.

 

It is weird though, having played MMOs since Ultima Online this one is just a bit weird in how it works I agree. Its not downtime per say for me at least, but it just feels a but clumsy at times as you have said. I came from FFXI though that took forever to get anywhere, so this seems fast to me.

 

The only thing I will never advocate is offering a solution of anything "Instant" that skip entire environments in the name of convenience over better management of existing traveling solutions. Exhibit 1: Flying mounts.

 

Perhaps when the "Porting" item becomes more common place it will be a bit smoother.

http://www.torhead.com/item/4E2UgbL

Edited December 18, 2011 by Rephlexie

[BoShekk]

Except it isn't a real world.

 

 

 

 

but the goal is to make it similar to one..........at least a believeable one.

Edited December 18, 2011 by BoShekk

[Fdzzaigl]

but the goal is to make it similar to one..........at least a believeable one.

 

You already have a quicktravel tool that lets you return to bound places, I don't see how returning to your ship or the fleet straight away through that tool or allowing you to leave the planet without a lot of clumsy intermediate steps would cause such a detrimental effect on immersion.

 

I agree with the poster above who is against flying mounts, I too will never support those.

And heck, earlier this week I spend a good 4 hours jumping around coruscant on every pipe I could find to look for datacrons, I enjoyed it.

 

But some things are clumsy and need to be smoothed out, you don't have to put up with overly long-winded mechanics.

Edited December 18, 2011 by Fdzzaigl

[Avigrace]

As an agent I have an ability under 'General' called 'Emergency Fleet Pass' which instantly returns me to the fleet. Not sure if all races/classes get it, it's also on an 18hour cooldown.

[noire]

Except it isn't a real world.

 

If there would actually be something to do in the hangars, then yes, I wouldn't mind them, but there isn't and the resulting load screens and waits for elevators transporting you into other instanced places really doesn't add anything to the "legit" factor of the world.

 

There's a holocron in one of the hangars, sure not in the class hangars, but still.

I don't particularly enjoy the hangars, since there's nothing to do in them - but I don't really mind the short distance I need to run to get to my ship.

[Dekadez]

It's realistic. I don't want to be able to click on Taris in my Galaxy map, see a loading screen, and find myself on the surface of Taris in front of the questgiver in the wilds.

 

I like the docking bays, I like the elevators, I like having to click the door of my ship to leave it. I like the size of the hangars, though I would enjoy it more if there was a bit more traffic in them, or mechanics bustling about.

 

Instant gratification is what this thread is about: "I want to go anywhere I want, anytime I want, and I don't want it to take more than 10 seconds". **** off really.

Edited December 18, 2011 by Dekadez