The need for fast travel is dependent on world size, and planned future world size.
EQ did it brutal in the old days, but druids and wizards were common. The sublime solution would have been to put druid/wiz npc at the rings/spires that you could use if you had the appropriate faction to do so, but these NPC only offer a specific destination or two. Basically what they did later with the Ldon magus was a better approach than all the previous methods in my view.
I've never liked the Plane of Knowledge solution to create a hub in EQ, because it is the unchanging "dead zone" that no conflict ever impacts. It's also not lore logical that all these enemies would just allow a portal right near their home cities. If PoK was one way (out of it) then I have no complaints. If PoK was a bunch of smart gnomes that sent you whereever instead of static books... even better.
The guild portal would have been a nicer addition to the starting cities rather than an isolated from the immersive game community... it makes sense to be able to get a port in the wizard guild in the city proper.
WoW's flightpath system is alright, when you have to discover the unlocks. Once they gave them all for free it trivialized it. I get that people playing their 50th alt didn't want to do all the running again... I would have liked to see an account flag for flight paths opened up. This could even be made a toggle option on character creation (use account flagged discoveries or clean slate on the given character).
WoW's settable hearth system (bind point) is good too. I also liked their graveyard system. I also found it interesting that the basically built PoK into the two main hub cities by putting a ring of key portals in one location in the city --some of which you needed to do a quest (based out of the destination zone) first to unlock.
EverQuest Next Round Table Response: Fast Travel
Fast Travel - Love it or leave it?
Fast Travel in MMOs has always been a widely debated topic. When trying to create an entire living-breathing world that feels vast and unexplored, should players have the ability to simply open their map and click wherever they want to travel to? Or should you make them explore the vast jungles, mountains and other fantasy-like vistas that cover the landscape?
In the latest EverQuest Next Round Table we're joined by Senior Brand Manager Omeed Dariani and Lead Designer Darrin McPherson to talk about the pros and cons of "Fast Travel" and how EQ Next should approach it.
It sounds like EverQuest Next is planning on taking the "middle-ground" here and giving players access to Fast Travel with restrictions. You'll still need to explore the world in order to have access to certain travel locations. Once you've unlocked these locations you will then be able to travel to and from these points with relative ease. We've seen similar methods used in other MMOs and while this system definitely helps players connect with each other much easier, they did mention that the travel system would not be instantaneous. Hopefully this will help continue to make the world feel large and not like a series of loading screens as you jump from point to point.
What do you think about this approach to Fast Travel? Be sure to let me know in the comments below! For more EverQuest Next information visit the official website and keep your browser locked to ZAM for more EverQuest Next news updates.
See you in game!
Corey "Cyglaive" Jenkins
Follow Corey on Twitter @Cyglaive
Tags: EverQuestNext, News