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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
No fast travel, so I am requesting a taxi!
I am fine with no fast travel, and going out to explore. Yes, really, I am fine with that.
But.............
Can we have a taxi service between node cities? I understand the science nodes will have quick travel, but I am talking about a taxi service between all towns. Doesn't have to be fast travel, just faster than walking travel.
What's the point?
No real point, maybe I have to rush off to cook dinner, but I need to get from town A to town B, and I don't want to logout yet. lol
Just an idea is all. Only to move between cities. Not used for anything else.
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"No real point, maybe I have to rush off to cook dinner, but I need to get from town A to town B, and I don't want to logout yet. lol"
Not going to happen. It undercuts a couple pillars of gameplay and the whole no fast travel promise if they automate and shield someone.
"Everyone mount up...we heard that Candy Crush outpost is under attack and we need to get there quick with everyone still intact. What? They have pocket groups to engage reinforcements between here and there set up? No problem, everyone hop in the taxi, we will break that blockade."
"Tonight the guild is going to attempt to take down the Rock Troll fortress we have heard about. Now it is a 3 node hop through some nasty territory, so make sure to taxi there to make sure you arrive with gear fresh and on time."
So for just those two examples off the top of my head, you will most likely never see a casual, "Let me click on destination and go afk" travel system. True, they could decide to do it, but the screams from those wanting to be able to block people from getting from point A to point B easily will most likely win out.
However, it would make sense to be able to hire a mount taxi such as a wagon or something to and from existing towns. It doesn't have to be fast travel, it could literally be real time, thereby also removing the factor of instant response that you are worried about. And in many cases, once you get better mounts, the taxi would be much slower than your current mount.
I think this is economical, especially if Verra is going to be a big open world, and future expansions included. If you have to travel somewhere, it could get really tedious to spend 15-20 minutes controlling your mount just riding to get from one side of the map to the other.
At the very least, if you have your own mount, and have discovered areas/nodes/towns, if you can click on it to make a marker that you travel too and it auto runs for you (think BDO), it allows you to go AFK, but you incur the risk with that of running into players who could gank you, or running into enemies on the road.
I can see this being an option they might implement as it doesn't break a pvp or economic pillar. You have 100 units that you can personally carry of shimmerwood, and extremely rare and valuable wood chip used in crafting. You want to go 3 nodes away to sell it where you know the price is just stupid high. You decide to taxi it, and someone ganks you and takes your wood of whatever percentage ganking gives of gathered resources. The option of being able to attack people who are afk travelling would not break their core concepts. Possibly tied to the caravan system, you hop a ride in a wagon going to where you want to go. It isn't fast, if the caravan is attacked you will be flagged defender, and people still have a chance to deny you easy crossing. Would stop zerg mechanics if there were only so many slots available per caravan for passengers. Would eliminate the argument of people using the taxi system to "sneak" 50 people behind enemy lines.
I am personally against AFK activity in general, if you are bored with what you feel your character "has to do" then maybe your character doesn't have to do it.
As for taxi's in general, I would say no for many of the same reasons USE stated. I would also go as far as saying it discourages exploration and community. As much as I love to explore in all of the RPG games I have, sometimes I just fast travel because I don't want to waste time or resources, so I understand the POV aimed for in OP. In the end I am getting less value out of my purchase by skipping potentially random/unique content.
Normally I don't like doing AFK period, but at times I have to run to the bathroom, or fix dinner, or answer the door. I would tell my kid to watch my guy, and do what I need to do at the time. Sometimes he plays on my guy, and a few times got me killed. I return to I don't know what happened dad, your guy just died. lol
I never get mad at him, but I think he gets mad cause I am taking up his WoW time. lol
Anyway, with a limited taxi service, I just figured it would let you get into a safe zone at least, if you have to go AFK for whatever reason. I used the town to town as one way to use it, but I can see where that might turn into an issue.
But still if the road is well traveled, and there really isn't anything new to find. Why not have a taxi service setup, just to go between town.
This isn't to move your items, just to move you only, so no seeking goods into the next town to sell. Maybe as a merchant you want to scout out the market to that town, but you want to get there safer vs riding in on a mount. You check things out, then return to your home node, and get the stuff your want to sell ready, then call up the caravan and away you go. New market to sell your goods. Then hope like crazy your items get to market without a bandit raiding them.
That's one use of the taxi service. Of course something like this would only be for the higher level nodes. If it's used at all. And I don't see this as fast travel, just safer travel.
Couple problems with it though. How to take a portion of the Uber mounts wages with no credit card system for the inventors of this ground-breaking technology. And the whole scorpion/frog scenario. How to trust your "driver" to not take you out in the woods and kill you.
Something like your talking about, I would only do with trusted friends, or my kids. Well........Not my one son who likes to get me killed. lol
I also liked in Ragnarok online how priests could memorize a location, and create a portal there with a reagent. They could add further limitations to this such as the number of times per day it can be cast and the number of people allowed through or how rare the regent(s) are to acquire. I don't expect anything like this at all, since they have made it clear they don't want any quick travel.
Transportation Q&A in wiki:
http://aocwiki.net/Transportation#Will_there_be_autorun.2C_ala_BDO._.5B20.5D
forum lagged, unintended post, delete if, possible
"Fast travel", or rather people not wanting fast travel, seems to be an issue in every game I've played. I've always argued for fast travel. Though, because of the node system and PvP aspect of AOC, I have no opinion yet because I'm not sure how anything is going to work.
However, generally speaking, the problem with "no fast travel" is exactly what Tiberious points out. It's not an exaggeration to say that you can travel from point A to B a 100 times, hundreds of times, thousands of times (ok, maybe that's an exaggeration). That's what happened with EQII.
I don't remember when they finally provided a way to quickly get from place to place, but I can tell you that before they did, travelling had become an exceedingly tiresome and boring time sink. It was mind numbing. Not to mention the problems/delays in forming groups or raids, because of the time it took to gather everyone together.
Like I said, there's so much we don't know about AoC that we don't know how "fast travel" would be a good fit with the game. I will bet dollars to donuts, though, that if we do have to travel long distances that after a couple of years we will come to loathe "slow travel".
Yes, I might travel the same path 100 times just to sell the same stuff, but that's not forced content that's what I decided to do with my character. I am hoping for more random encounters, traveling MOBS, and node/world content to affect that.
Yes, the world will be big and actually require time to travel from node to node even if mounted. You might clear an entire node and it's ZOI of content and be bored (although I hope IS works to avoid this for long periods) when traveling. That sucks, but is not imo a good reason for fast travel or auto-mapping or even auto-follow.
I am not a big fan of PvP and I despise PK'ers and I can't believe I am saying this but please, no safe Zones outside of owned properties or inside buildings in town (when not in a siege).
I am hoping this will be a fantasy world with fantastic risk and rewards such that walking to work everyday is never boring for long.
I'm Sure that given this , afk taxis 'll be a thing... however as folks mention, there'll be risk involved
Nice grab @Megs, should provide a possible partial solution.
@Guildart and @Megs, I think these would provide solutions I am okay with. No auto-follow and a player would be driving. I can be down with this, and it sounds like it would be a thing. So next question,
Who is going to start the first Taxi Guild?
What would it be called, I would vote for "Yellow Mule"
So it's far from safe AFK taxi.