Family Summons Sucks (And How to Fix The System)

Argument Against Family Summons in Ashes of Creation

Undermining Travel Significance:

The introduction of the family summons system poses a risk of undermining the significance of travel within the game.
Fast travel systems, if too efficient, have the potential to make other means of travel less appealing. This could diminish the sense of adventure, exploration, and danger that is integral to a vibrant open-world gaming experience.

Uniformity in Travel Choices:

The dominance of family summons as the go-to method for fast travel may lead to uniformity in players' travel choices. If family summons becomes the most efficient and widely adopted means of travel, it could homogenize the player experience, limiting the diversity of travel options and strategies players might employ.

Impact on PvP Dynamics:

Family summons may have a negative impact on player-versus-player (PvP) dynamics. PvP scenarios often rely on strategic movement and positioning. If family summons provides a quick and easy repositioning tool, it could reduce the importance of strategic planning and alter the dynamics of PvP encounters.

Contradiction to Meaningful Travel Commitment:

The concept of family summons contradicts the initial commitment to meaningful travel experiences as described during the Kickstarter campaign. If the developers emphasized the importance of travel in creating a rich and immersive game world during the Kickstarter, the inclusion of an easily accessible fast travel system might be seen as deviating from that commitment.

Overall, there is very little good to be gotten from "Family Summons". Sure, it could be balanced in a way that it's not very abusable. Sure, it could be made weaker if people disliked it. But at the end of the day, it's a bad concept. It should be thrown into the dumpster.

Find more posts tagged with

Staff

Comments

GrappLr

One thing I'd like to add: In order for this to not be abused, the family summon stone should only be available at one home node (assuming family members can be citizens of different nodes). Maybe the head of the family's node.

Raven016

GrappLr wrote: »

This stone can only be placed once, and once it has been used, a new one has to be gotten from one's home node.

Family members are not restricted to one node. Like guilds, they can have different citizenship.
So 2 members of a family can act as stone carriers and teleport all others between continents.
Also players can leave and join another family, to just teleport, if that brings an advantage.

GrappLr

Raven016 wrote: »

GrappLr wrote: »

This stone can only be placed once, and once it has been used, a new one has to be gotten from one's home node.

Family members are not restricted to one node. Like guilds, they can have different citizenship.
So 2 members of a family can act as stone carriers and teleport all others between continents.
Also players can leave and join another family, to just teleport, if that brings an advantage.

I covered this (the multiple nodes) in the second post.

As for leaving/joining new family for teleports, this is a non issue, as Steven said that leaving/joining families will be extremely tedious, not worth doing. Probably long cooldowns/costs/whatever.

Raven016

GrappLr wrote: »

One thing I'd like to add: In order for this to not be abused, the family summon stone should only be available at one home node (assuming family members can be citizens of different nodes). Maybe the head of the family's node.

Players can leave the family as soon as they were teleported and ready to join another one when they want to teleport back.

GrappLr

Raven016 wrote: »

GrappLr wrote: »

One thing I'd like to add: In order for this to not be abused, the family summon stone should only be available at one home node (assuming family members can be citizens of different nodes). Maybe the head of the family's node.

Players can leave the family as soon as they were teleported and ready to join another one when they want to teleport back.

I quote: "Leaving one family and joining another family will have a cooldown period in the order of days."

Source:

https://youtu.be/KtVUiS7yAHE?t=1h37m27s

Trickster

I'm in favor of the system since I used to play with 3-4 friends, the pvp normally would never happen at the point we teleported but a few minutes later after we try to embush players. in archeage for exemple there were this system and honestly I never seen any kinda of abuse, like dying and teleporting imediatelly to the person of the family or anything, because obviously the TP feature had a huge CD and we would use only to group up BEFORE A PVP, not in the middle of it, and grouping up honestly is something that can be done with or without the familly tp, just makes things a little easier

(Also its just a feature to meet up with your friends easily, not only in case o pvp)

Trickster

Just put a 3-5 hour CD after you teleported to a family member, done.

Vaknar

I merged your two threads on Family Summons together. I think this will help facilitate discussions

Vyril

If you keep family summons.

23hr cd.

So if you have a daily group you should always have it available at the same time.

Otherwise good without it.

Xejo

When in doubt, developers should err on the side of an time/effort-required system.

Convenience and comfort are easy to argue for - but we tend to lack appreciation for them over time. I believe, subconsciously, these type of mechanics, especially if released too early, fast-forward us to an end-game mindset where we can do everything and be anywhere. I think this brings about boredom faster than it needs to. Take it slow. Start on foot. See the world. Burn the calories. Earn extra rewards of fast travel. Slowly introduce them over time. Don't provide them all at launch - that is completely unnecessary.

Swifty00

Travel withing your own node or allied nodes should be something you can develop/build/buy. It would be fun if you had to have a regular supplier of mounts to operate the service. Perhaps the ultimate service could be a group summon or portal system.

But you should not have a group summon into enemy territory.

RazThemun

If the timers were lengthy then I do not see it as much of an issue. Example: You are in a family of 5. You want to game together as a group but are nowhere near each other. So naturally you do a summons. You are now able to be together and set out on your adventure.... however the timer is a 3 hour cool down... therefore for many, you will probably only be able to use it one more time during your gaming session. It is when quick travel is always available or timers are to short that it truly becomes the problem. If people can summon or hearth every 15-30 minutes then that certainly destroys the concept of stepping out into an open world and face the dangers at hand. The same way flying in game does. Intrepid not having flying for a majority of the player base also helps with the issue. A family summons is the least of our worries if they choose to keep it.

Child Item