Pyrizzle wrote:rijackson741 wrote:I think fast travel, in the sense of teleportation, would detract from the game. I would like more shortcuts (the mine and cabin at BWM, a shortcut form Lodar to Charwood, maybe a shortcut from Charwood to the river, etc), as long as they could only be opened by completing a quest. A "travelers potion" that reduces the chance of getting attacked is also a good idea.
What I would much rather see than fast travel is something that brings greater rewards for traveling long distances. One such possibility is trade, which was suggested a few months ago:
http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4268. Something like this would expand the game, and it is not compatible with fast travel because then it would be too easy to make lots of money.
My opinion, in a nutshell, is that adding rewards that make long travel worthwhile would expand the game, whereas adding fast travel would restrict it, because it is not compatible with adding those rewards (either now or later).
You make a very excellent point. The fact is that these 2 ideas will directly effect each other.
If fast travel was added... a global economy would be nearly impossible to add without ruining game play by making it too easy for players to gain extra money.
my 2 cents: I would rather see some sort of a global economy added instead of fast travel.
This incompatibility is a good point, but one I think could be solved rather than treated as given. For instance, fast travel could be expensive, and be priced by distance. This could be adjusted to align with the scale of gold made on trade. Perhaps, even, it would be worthwhile stocking up on tradeable items just so you can ensure you have enough money to hire a boat, horse, or carriage back to where you came from.
Additionally, to avoid the excessive ease of fast travel from a monster perspective, chances of monster encounters could be calculated based upon the type of transportation, the desired difficulty the developers and community wish to see for fast travel, and perhaps skills such as evasion and, if added, "survival". The skills could then take on the added value of facilitating easier fast travel, if players wished to invest points in them (on a side note, "survival" could also effect the chance of contracting food poisoning from raw meet, for example). If, for instance, I do run throughs from Fallhaven to Remguard, without intentionally avoiding monsters (some unavoidable as on bridges), and calculate that I run into an average of 200 monsters (a wild guess, I have no idea at the moment), then that could be set as the base number of encounters at walking pace, and converted into a % chance of encounter for that path, or for each particular map segment, given a calculation of total monsters in each map segment at a given time (this must already be part of the programming calculations, no?). Fast travel by horse, assuming a 300-400% increase in average travel speed (assuming horse not running full speed the entire time), could result in a decrease of 300-400% in the chance of running into monsters on the way (or less, considering increased visibility), but would certainly not eliminate it entirely. The travel would still be faster than normal, but would not allow you to completely avoid encounters.
For travel by boat, we could create sea monsters
Anyhow, my thoughts. I understand the lack of realism with teleportation and instantaneous travel with no risk, but I think a well developed additional travel mode or two could actually increase realism, as who in their right mind would travel everywhere on foot given the impending size of this world as it keeps growing.
Turd: has passed...
Turd2: (bedridden) L:49 HP:113 AP: 3/12 AC:236 AD:31-42 BC:118 DR:7
Durf: (rampaging) L:58 HP:152 AP: 3/12 AC:235 AD:33-47 BC:195 DR:8
