Airships perhaps?

ArchivedUser

Pooka was thinking about airships.  With airships it brings in the possiblity to make long distances a little shorter by presenting airships at certain nodes.  Pooka isn't talking about instant travel, but instead make the airships have a schedule to when they arrive and depart.  Pooka thinks that a player should have to sit around or play around on the shit during real time flight until you arrive at a destination.  Pooka thinks it should save time but not get the person to the destination instanly or near instantly.  It should actually fly them through the world on a set path and let them run around on the deck or inside the ship until they get to the destination.  Pooka thinks you could even add more to it like pirates who try to take over the ship or a monster trying to destroy it for being in its territory.

Pooka thinks it'd be interesting.

ArchivedUser

I love the airships of wow and why dont implement it here so the common people can experience the feel of flying. I understand why developers wont give flying mounts to everyone but still its one of the best feelings to fly. So under controlled conditions like this why not. 

ArchivedUser

While they have said that airships may be the form of Metropolis travel for scientific nodes to build, you can bet that you won't see a system of interlinked node airship travel. It would undermine one of their core pillars of meaningful conflict. Something that would allow you to travel unimpeded from node cluster to node cluster would cut out the overland slog between nodes. Part of the reason behind no fast travel is to make people think "Is going 4 nodes over to that dungeon through possible enemy territory worth it?" If they make it so you can just pop into your home node and travel to a node near where you want to go, cutting out all the inherent danger in between, it starts down that slippery slope that leads to summoning stones outside POI and LFG summoning.

ArchivedUser

I love the idea of airships but just like @UnknownSystemError said, discarding fast travel was something announced very early on, giving the game a bigger sense of danger. Well I wouldn't mind it if it was very expensive to use and I mean VERY, this way no one would be able to simply use it as they please and at the same time allow us to 'fast travel' during urgent situations.

ArchivedUser

I think Airships and anything of the sort is kind of not similar to the focus of the game itself. It'd work for a sci-fi fantasy theme.

ArchivedUser

The idea of airships is always cool, but i like the idea of fast travel not being a thing. I'm reminded of Final Fantasy 11 where if you chose to take a boat or airship there were certain times they would come by, and the flight or ride also had a duration. Now obviously thats much faster than walking but the ideas work well with open world games. There is way to much over simplification of games with teleportation or instant travel. I miss fishing off the boat in Final fantasy only to have an octopus spawn and destroy everyone on the ship.

ArchivedUser

I think a dwarven steam boat or hot air baloons would fit in nicely. I'm against fast travel but a fun cruise in the sky is a nice change of pace.

ArchivedUser

Pinkberry said:

I think a dwarven steam boat or hot air baloons would fit in nicely. I'm against fast travel but a fun cruise in the sky is a nice change of pace.

I think it's not the kind of fantasy. Maybe in Bless it's acceptable. It's feel less immersive in Ashes in my opinion.

ArchivedUser

Airships are certainly good, but they will give an unfair advantage. if they are not restricted. maybe some scientific node stuff? Who knows. not instant travel, but fast travel.
I am fully against any air advantage as far as battles are concerned.

ArchivedUser

I would like to see air shops in Sieges.  Like  six man team in an airship attacking or defending.  Would add a little more complexity to the Sieges.   Both sides should have the option to have one or not depending on tactics so it would be balanced.  So the decision is to have one or not would be tricky maybe even risky if it could be shot down too easily and waste resources.  Of course it would only be for Sieges.

Maybe Air Ships could be used to travel to some other part of the game that is seperated by water.  Swimming not to exciting.  Not to different than using a boat but with a nicer view.

ArchivedUser

Consultant said:

I would like to see air shops in Sieges.  Like  six man team in an airship attacking or defending.  Would add a little more complexity to the Sieges.   Both sides should have the option to have one or not depending on tactics so it would be balanced.  So the decision is to have one or not would be tricky maybe even risky if it could be shot down too easily and waste resources.  Of course it would only be for Sieges.

Maybe Air Ships could be used to travel to some other part of the game that is seperated by water.  Swimming not to exciting.  Not to different than using a boat but with a nicer view.

This wouldn't really work, the idea of Airships is closley tied to travel rather than combat (like a navy fleet) what's more such airships would require personnel and adequate amounts of players on them, so we would be limited to less than 5 ships per siege (even less if you count ground forces) this makes it awkward for the defending side to even deploy since unlike navy ships, the startup, size and maintenance of such ships would be bigger. The final problem would be the idea of 'bombing' since we already have seen catapults/trebeuchets in videos we can assume that sieges are ground focused, now imagine the assulting side doing some sort of blitzkrieg on the defending side, a complete one side massacre is all I can see from this really.

ArchivedUser

AutumnLeaf said:

Consultant said:

I would like to see air shops in Sieges.  Like  six man team in an airship attacking or defending.  Would add a little more complexity to the Sieges.   Both sides should have the option to have one or not depending on tactics so it would be balanced.  So the decision is to have one or not would be tricky maybe even risky if it could be shot down too easily and waste resources.  Of course it would only be for Sieges.

Maybe Air Ships could be used to travel to some other part of the game that is seperated by water.  Swimming not to exciting.  Not to different than using a boat but with a nicer view.

This wouldn't really work, the idea of Airships is closley tied to travel rather than combat (like a navy fleet) what's more such airships would require personnel and adequate amounts of players on them, so we would be limited to less than 5 ships per siege (even less if you count ground forces) this makes it awkward for the defending side to even deploy since unlike navy ships, the startup, size and maintenance of such ships would be bigger. The final problem would be the idea of 'bombing' since we already have seen catapults/trebeuchets in videos we can assume that sieges are ground focused, now imagine the assulting side doing some sort of blitzkrieg on the defending side, a complete one side massacre is all I can see from this really.   End quote**




Well if both sides can have Air Ships then it would be balanced  and not one sided said that in my post.   I did not make it clear on the number of air ships but was thinking there would only be one per seige per side so 2 max one on each  side.  Since it would fill or take up certain resources or (if you have an air ship that is takes away from number trebeuchets)  besides we are in alpha zero so all the game mechanics can be worked out to have them.

Really I am just stating an idea not trying to get into the details but just to clear things up without making a huge post about details, I am pretty sure that there are siege games out there not mmorph that use air ships very well so since other devs have worked it out in other games same thing can happen in Ashes of Creation. I am pretty sure devs can figure a good way to implement them in Ashes of Creation if they want to.

ArchivedUser

That still leaves the problem of bombarding the enemy, seriously if you think of how long it SHOULD take to start up an airship, also plenty of space would be needed for launch we can safely assume that they wouldn't have time to defend against already approaching airships. As for taking away trebuchets for airships, well the defending side wouldn't have them in the first place since they require a lot of space to operate so thats a no go either. But really in the end this game isn't steampunk so I highly doubt that something like airships will even be implemented, especially in terms of combat, it might be for fast travel but with magic and everything something like transfer gates are more likely

ArchivedUser

Well the ship could be docked in the air by ropes. So starting up would be zero.
As far as steam punk well there are a lot of classes of of air ships, as far as bombarding goes it is a real simple game mechanic basically a circle spawns on the ground and palyer moves it around within range of gun. Both sides would have air ships so it would be balanced. As far as size is concerned it could be as simple as a floating rock.

It is  a virtual reality. so every thing can be solved with magic (coding)  for example if air ship is to big then a shrink spell can be cast on it, or an another spell can be cast on it and turned into a four person flying dragon mount, or another spell could be cast turned int a flying carpet, or antoher spell could be cast on the airship and become a small zepling or a medieval rendition of a helicopter.  

All of your reasons can be solved with out to much trouble cause it is a virtual reality Which means the world can be sculpted into anything you want.  

I just wanted to present the idea and let the devs figure if they want to implement it or not.

ArchivedUser

I know it can all be solved but pushing every existing problem on magic is a bit... well stupid really. I'm not complaining about the idea itself, it's decent, just wanted to point out some serious problems with it.

ArchivedUser

Considering there's a coming MMO with airships as a central theme, I don't see them doing this. 

And frankly I hope they don't and here's why:

They have been very adamant about fast travel being very limited in game, not to mention flying. As cool as airships sound (I love ship to ship fighting) this would just unbalance what they hope to achieve here. Flight is going to be a rare reward for people who achieved power in nodes. This is done by design. Adding something that will completely change this doesn't make sense and would be very unbalanced. Why use caravans when you can just airship it? There goes that entire mechanic out the window.

I'm happy with their current plans for travel/vehicles.

ArchivedUser

]Well my idea was just for sieges which would be pretty cool I think not for fast travel I Did not mention it in my last post.  Just clarifying how airships could be used in seiges. And just to clarify used magic  to = coding to convey the idea that anything is possible cause it is a virtual reality.  Not real life like we cannot put anymore in the truck cause it is  full.  In a virtual reality you push a few buttons and shazam every thing that is in the truch just shrank by 50%.

It does not matter what the issues are 99.9 are solvable through coding.  One example that is not so easy to fix is pvp game balance, especailly in a complex system, but that is because the devs do not understand the classes or specs well enough even though they are the ones that created them.

ArchivedUser

How about tourist airships, that have same departure and destination.

Basically you board the airship in metropolis, it lifts up, takes you on circular path so you can enjoy the view a bit, and then returns you to the same spot where you left from.

ArchivedUser

What about something like the fantasy version of the Jabba the Hut party barge?

ArchivedUser

If airships were to be implemented, I think it should be a benefit from the scientific or economic metropolis. Also instead of it randomly appearing, I think there should be a "node quest" for crafters or all the node people to gather resources and construct the airship.

ArchivedUser

Chronoaxer said:

If airships were to be implemented, I think it should be a benefit from the scientific or economic metropolis. Also instead of it randomly appearing, I think there should be a "node quest" for crafters or all the node people to gather resources and construct the airship.

ArchivedUser

@UnknownSystemError
Thanks for the information, I believe that is a good way to approach air ship implementation. 

Personally I am not a huge fan and hope it doesn't happen for a long time.. It should only be a convenience thing and allow the travel between major nodes and that is all. 

ArchivedUser

So far from information released there are a couple things that need to be remembered to cool the speculation atmosphere. Metropolis development will take several months to longer than a year according to time estimates releases by them. Air travel (also known as instant travel) will only function in that particular metro's zoi and will be a choice that mayors need to make in order to construct. They have stated that just because a node "pops" to level 6 doesn't mean that poof, everyone gets to port all over the zoi. Node level branches will have definite choices, so a mayor could decide to NOT develop air travel stations over a level 6 branch that they think is more beneficial. The amount of resources required to construct said buildings will be immense.
My speculation: Once a level 6 scientific node decides to build airship travel, it will take a few months. Think of building a large ship class in EVE or other games with timed building. People will need to keep feeding resources into that city pool in increasing amounts beyond the regular upkeep needed to just keep the node at level 6. Then destination points (probably limited in number) will need to be decided upon and constructed similar to freeholds out in the wild. (Thus the zoi requirement that is confirmed.) During this time a whole new administration could be elected in. We know that elections will be monthly. If someone campaigns with a stop air travel, build option X instead and wins, all that work could be scrapped. Going to be lots of fun.

ArchivedUser

Sounds like lots of fun... before the node hits level 6, I will make sure to destroy it 

ArchivedUser

Instead of airship, how about a caravan.  You ride in a spacious wagon and have some of the benefits of being in a Tavern.  The caravan could be attacked just like a goods caravan.  If you are not online at the time of the attack you start back at your point of departure and you are out the cost of the trip.  

ArchivedUser

I'm not sure if it fits within the game itself. Especially not if used as a form of fast travel. And if they -are- there, not being able to use them for fast travel seems weird. Even without considering these things, I would personally prefer to keep it out of the game.