Faster Ways Of Traveling Something For Wurm?

[Darkmalice 242]

You can say it'll kill the joy of exploring, but that truly died when Rolf decided to release map dumps for every server.

If you want to have an adventure now, you can just go for a walk without looking at the dump, portals would not change this.

What portals would change, is the stupid amount of time it takes to visit a friend on another server, or help out with a project.

Travelling, not exploring, for hours on end is dull. Dull and pointless. Do we all have 22hrs a day to play? No. enough of it is a timesink already without walking in a straight line for a whole afternoon.

Allied portals would require you to actively seek out and ally with the other location in the first place.

I love exploring, I hate travelling in boredom for ages.

[Aetherwalker 1,863]

I love how this thread is tagged '"casual player"

[Lightonfoot 58]

The reason those games have fast travel is becaue travle by itself is not interesting.

One of the reasons travel in wurm is more interesting (and rewarding) is because things change.

And also because it's genuinely dangerous.

There're just more factors invovled. In other games I run the same speed no matter where I am.

Etc. Those games aren't Wurm. Wurm needs a different answer to the boat problem.

I've played plenty of games with teleporting.

What I find so profound is that... I accept the slow travel in Wurm. This is my 9th day playing.

(and you know Wurm does have teleporting... when we die we respawn at the deed)

The constant desire for speed is one reason players are always trying to improve roads (cut through hills rather than go over them can save time for horses/no horses) or to find shortcuts to destination.

Mainly... travel in Wurm is detailed and immersive. I want it to stay that way. If there's a way to make teleporting just as detailed and immersive as normal travel is then it's prolly ok. Broadly, I think that if a few deeds on the map had teleportation capability and players had to pay copper/silver to use them then I don't think it's a major concern. But the problem is with how this is all being approached. If you're approaching this from the perspective that speed is what matters hten you're looking at it all wrong. Depth is what matters! If teleportation can add depth to Wurm and not just be an excuse to speed up your travel time then it might work. Just be weary of the whole thing.

Thing is... with all of hte bells and whistles of spend $$$$ to get extra convenience features... Wurm increasingly is a have and have not world where those with $$$ are experiencing a completely different game. I'm not against money if you're using it to pay others to do elaborate things for you... but changing the game is different.

I don't wnat Wurm to get greedy and abandon depth and detail in favor of gratification. Too many people take depth for granted and just replace it with convenience features. Before long, the whole game is one big smoke and mirrors that gratifies with the simplest possible features. It's ugly. That's when games become casinos.

The day Wurm goes down that road is a sad, sad day.

No more dreams of dolphins following your boat. No more dreams of feeling immersed. No more dreams of riding the high seas and seeing strange sights. No more. Just a dried up antiquated abandoned boat.

That's where greed and gratification take you.

I'm a new player and might be ignorant, so maybe it already has.

Unfortunately, virtually every single mmo in existence goes down that road. It's human nature.

Edited July 29, 2012 by Lightonfoot

[Pingpong 1,070]

Hehe gl traveling in wurm if you're a casual player.

[Tekari 133]

The only idea I'm half-ok with is one portal in each starter town to allow travel between servers without a boat.

With a long cooldown of course. Maybe 12 or 24 hours.

Any other fast travel idea is not Wurm imho.

And instead of making the boats in general faster I'd rather see a lot less and shorter breeze periods.

The top-speeds of boats are ok I think.

[Lightonfoot 58]

Been having a sinking feeling since writing my last post here and can't shake it.

Bad feeling.

Foreboding.

Like something imminent and can't be stopped.

Wurm is going to change.

Everything you like about Wurm today is going to change.

You'll hold onto it, desperately, but it'll all slip out of your hands.

Just like life. We all die. Wurm will die too or it will change into something alien.

Why don't they just add teleporters now. And teddy bears.

Get it over with. This is my 9th day and I don't want to be here for a year and love it and then grow to hate it. I've already done that with other games. I don't want to go through that again. Kill me now, don't let it simmer.

Don't let me fall in love and then stab me in the heart again.

Kill me now:

Edited July 29, 2012 by Lightonfoot

[Ols 306]

Two things:

This should be limited to portalling between a deed after a significant payment from a special trader bought portal with a cooldown of at least a day so it allows people to get new players rapidly to where they live but not let people jump around everywhere rapidly.

This should never be implemented on Epic or Chaos in any sense, shape or form.

[Sevoflurane 141]

Travel should be made faster, especially via boats. One thing that makes people pvp less is journey time. If I get home at 5pm, and have work tomorow at 8am, then I'm not going to make the 1.5 hour journey to the east side of JKH/west side of MRH.

[Pingpong 1,070]

Well i would say the faster timers that folks were very afraid of have failed to ruin the game I'm hopeful we'll see improvement without devestation here!

[darthryan 588]

Well i would say the faster timers that folks were very afraid of have failed to ruin the game I'm hopeful we'll see improvement without devestation here!

Faster timers aren't really faster half the time

[Brash_Endeavors 4,735]

Faster travel between servers - Yes

Faster within a server - No

Each server should connect to all other servers, sail of any server edge and you should be asked which server you wish to travel to

I am pretty much against almost all forms of instant portal travel.

Something like this however might be ok by me, and it could be rather uniquely Wurmian in style:

Player Run Ferry Terminals and Routes

1) Players could created a pair of ferry port terminals connecting two widely separated ports (same or different servers) but ONLY if both are located on coasts that could also be connected by boat. They could then sell tickets to other players to ride their ferry, either as a foot or a cart-and-horse setup, at whatever price that player chose (the port terminals would need a deed-style writ to place, but much much smaller than a normal deed), Each route can only use those two stations -- so one player might choose Freedom Docks to a remote NW island, another might opt for Celebration-to-Wild. Another might connect cele-to-exo, then exo-to-Deli, Deli-to-Indy, and Indy-to-Cele, their cost would be 4X higher for having four routes. Up to them whether to chose 10c per ride or 1.25s per ride to charge other players, and whether passengers are cheaper than carts, etc. Only the players will choose the starting and ending designations, and only those connected by water routes somehow. The ticket seller is a player-purchased and placed NPC.

2) When a passenger purchases a ticket, either for foot or with cart+horses, he enters the terminal and the game logs him out. Three hours later, he will be able to log back in at whatever his destination portal is (you don't have to be exactly there at 3 hours, if you log back in two days later you'll also find yourself there, three hours is just the minimum.).. If he tries to log back in before then, he gets a little screen CGI-movie showing a look out a portal at passing sea travel, and a message "... Guess we are not there yet ..." and he is logged out again, until he is eligible to reach the destination.

There would be no "literal" ferry boats actually moving between the servers, just the player constructed terminals with an NPC selling tickets (which might have a static ferry there as color); the animated movie and message if you tried to log back in before the trip completed; then finally when they are eligible to log back in, they and their carts or whatever, are at their final destination which has a return terminal and ticket-seller.

Why is this any better if it still takes almost as long?

People don't have to literally sit there on a boat. They don't have to worry that their character will die and the corpse lost because they went AFK to answer the phone and got distracted. They can go have dinner and out with friends, or go sleep for the night, or go to work, or they go play another character for a few hours if they are a mega-wurm-addict, and when they are ready to play again, they got to bypass the "boring" stuff. But Wurm still remains a huge place and travel between far reaches is still a lengthy process, you just no longer need to sit there and stare at the screen for six hours. People who need to work or go do real life stuff will at least be able to continue their adventure when they return, without so much "dead time". But they cannot get someplace in a flash of an instant, under any circumstance. Also public transport becomes a player run industry, since the players will actually decide where these routes go, and players decide what it will cost. They will not be cheap to contruct, perhaps 50s for a 2-terminal-kit, possibly more (see below). Maybe players will make a profit on popular routes, or maybe its something well-established players do to offer convenience to their fellow community members, and only charge a token fee as a roleplay element. Or a gold-sink flourish of wealth for rich guild-villages, who might share their routes to everyone or keep them tightly limited to their own citizens only. Whatever. But they are expensive enough to not have one at every single deed, and the only person who has a voice WHERE they go, is the only purchasing the 50s setup kit.

Another alternative is that you buy a "headquarter" terminal for 50s, which has a building and NPC, and then you can also buy at 25s each "branch terminal ticket sellers", so that you could actually have a system with 3 or 5 or 9 destinations, the initial cost is high but the additional branches are cheaper. Tickets are only sold between destinations linked to the "headquarters" terminal (the headquarters does not have to be one of the ticket departure/destination locations). The "headquarters" is a physical 2x2 or 4x4 stone building that you contruct similar to a guardtower, but big and low insted of narrow and high, maybe make them something rather cool inside people could enjoy similar to a real train/ferry terminal; the single "headquarters" building can be placed at any portside stop of your route, you do not need one at each stop. The other branches don't need a literal building place, just a "merchant stall style" ticket booth that can be placed on non-deeded land I am just making stuff up here as I go along \o/ so devs would have to figure out what sounded good or not.

Also, the actual travel time between to locations might instead of a static 3-hour delay, instead be a interval based on the physical distance between the two -- maybe a south exo <-> north cele route would only take 20 minutes, but one that takes you from Cele to northern Indy might be a six hour travel interval.

One possible major issue -- if you allow carts with horses onto the ferries, you've suddenly got animals crossing server lines which was never before allowed. Either find a workaround to that, or make a rule that cart and animal travel can only be done within a server, and not between servers.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Brash_Endeavors

[Tinkerer 107]

Back in Vanilla WoW, travel was slow. Even the flight paths were pretty slow and there were not so many of them. This made the world not only feel much much larger, but created a far greater sense of immersion. The sense of achievement at finally getting to level 40 and having a mount was huge back then.

Now with all the fast travel, the world feels tiny and the immersion is gone. It's all dumbed down and geared to jump you straight into grind-mode irrelevant of location on the world.

I'd hate to see wurm changed into a simple grind-fest or PvP-fest. Travel is a hugely important factor in Wurm.

However.. and especially with the server layouts, I totally get that travel times between servers are somewhat excessive. Some form of simplification here or speed up on that side of things wouldn't overly kill the game. I've never bothered sailing to a different server and don't have much intention on doing so, however I can see why a lot of people get frustrated with it as it is.

+1 to some form of server-server travel with some kind of restrictions.

-1 to any travel speed increase within the same server.

[Pingpong 1,070]

I'd also like to bring up *again* connecting indi to celeb via saling north from indi. This would speed up travel.

[Kadore 926]

If left boat travel as is and had a way to arrive at the server border then you'd still have the same drudgery needed in game to support the purists and a way to not afdk sail into cliffs, sandbars and the ever annoying where the hell is the server border at fun.

I'm definately for some sort of portal travel, I believe the last time I said I was in favor I was told I own too many deeds and should be content to stay on one server or deal with as much boredom and pain as possible for the privelage of sailing from one server to the next.

[Tich 1,389]

How about some sort of Rune Stones, that are enchanted by a priest (any type of priest) and have limited uses (depending on the power cast) when used, teleports you to the location they were cast upon.

e.g. like Farewalker stones/twigs, but a lot cheaper

[Protunia 735]

How about some sort of Rune Stones, that are enchanted by a priest (any type of priest) and have limited uses (depending on the power cast) when used, teleports you to the location they were cast upon.

e.g. like Farewalker stones/twigs, but a lot cheaper

LOL how about not....Thats too easy.

[Brash_Endeavors 4,735]

Also I think priests currently have sufficient "clout" in the game as it is.

I would like to see something that instead suggested player made trade routes, silk road caravans type of flavor, rather than some click-your-shoes-and-puff-of-sparkles instant magic.

Something that both solved problems of practical convenience for more casual players without destroying the illusions of a huge world treasured by others. Something both sides might see as a win-win outcome.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Brash_Endeavors

[Wraithglow 787]

I dislike any player-made portals (i don't want portals everywhere), and definitely any cost-based portals (why should a new player be disadvantaged). My ideal situation would be this:

1. Portals between starter towns, where only starter gear can travel with you (this for new players who join wrong server or want to see other servers before starting)

2. Faster boat travel. Either by making boats just go faster, or having some kind of "trade winds" system where in certain areas speed is doubled (easiest example being "within 50 tiles of a server border" or whatever so people can zip up and down the edge of the freedom maps heading north/south). This way, it is quicker to travel between / around a server, but within that server there is still a sense of largeness.

[Blob 78]

Im also against insta travel and all portal thingies (epic ones don't count of course).

Im also against any big speed boosts to boats and other forms of travel.

The fact is people are asking for faster travel not because wurm has a bad travel system just because wurm is getting bigger. And the actual speed you can get around places if you know how to travel or know the area is quite shocking sometimes.

The above applies to normal travel.For abnormal travel it is largely the same but i like wraith's suggestion for new players but it should only be usable in the first 24 hours of gameplay to discourage people making alts to accept deliver across servers and therefore cut travel in half (one way trip instead of two way). It is not necessary but seems reasonable if there is a cool down for this of say 1 hour.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Blob

[Martynas5 435]

Instant teleports would run game.

Better npc ferries which can be bought by players and managed/built/upgraded and so on.

[Darkmalice 242]

Could one of the people saying portals would ruin the game please explain how it would ruin anything?

They would be entirely optional; they would have to be built, casted and allied to; they could be limited to one per 100 tiles or something; an inventory limit on items; a cooldown time between uses.

It's not like cutting timers down to 2 seconds which would automatically affect everyone.

And please don't say the economy, if anything it would encourage trade.

[MrGARY 12,421]

I dunno, I dislike portals for everything. Boat travel could probably just be rebalanced a bit. Solo Sailboat in no wind goes around 6-8 km/h or so, whereas a full sailboat with a gale behind it I've gone around 26 km/h at least. I don't feel it needs to go any faster than that (of course, just referring to one boat alone, knarrs and the like can go far faster), but the low end speeds could probably be buffed a little bit. Don't have to destroy the whole sail-by-wind game, or the faster boat with more passenger buff, just make it so the worst boat speeds aren't so mind numbingly slow.

[Ols 306]

Having portals between Freedom starter towns that only allow you to take noob tools through is the best idea I've heard so far. +1 to that.

I also wouldn't oppose players in their first 24 hours being able to use a deed token or a postbox or something similar to teleport themselves and noob tools back to the server's start point - it wouldn't change anything as it'd just substitute for a suicide.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Ols

[Pashka 707]

If I want to go to Celebration from Indy and use a portal, I will have to go naked. Which while fun for a lark would be crap for anyone that wishes to do any hunting while they are down there or exploring. Which is the whole purpose of going. If you can't leave the starter deed because you have no gear, you may as well not go. While it does help someone that made a wrong choice out of the tut, it doesn't help anyone else.

I still have yet to see why people do not want to cut out travel between the servers so you can explore other lands. You would still need boat travel around the servers just not between them which is when (for me) there is a forever long travel time.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Pashka

[Sklo:D 2,210]

Having portals between Freedom starter towns that only allow you to take noob tools through is the best idea I've heard so far. +1 to that.

I also wouldn't oppose players in their first 24 hours being able to use a deed token or a postbox or something similar to teleport themselves and noob tools back to the server's start point - it wouldn't change anything as it'd just substitute for a suicide.

I would never go anywhere without my axe .

Everything with insta travel will cause dramas on PVP servers. Anyways I am also against insta travel on PVE servers because this wouldn't be Wurm anylonger if you can hop from server to server without any delay and if it is only with noob equipment it is completely useless for the most people.

My Suggestion would be to increase the speed of every ship. Let a Caravel drive up to 56,14km/h (god speed). If you have ever moved so fast you recognised that this is still slow if you want to travel from server to server but stay away from anything which is automatic or instant this isn't fitting to Wurm.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Sklo:D