Why Do We Have to Pay to Teleport Via Aetheryte?

It makes no sense from a lore perspective. We’re following our own aether trails using our own magical ability. Not to mention, who are we even paying? Is Hydaelyn rifling through our pockets?

It makes no sense from a gameplay perspective. The paltry sums (topping out at 999g) are inconsequential, and far less than what we’d earn from a leve or quest, even as early as level 10. If the intent was to make teleportation a rare thing when you needed to go from one region to the next, the price should have been higher from the get-go. As it stands, it’s basically free, with players (myself included) teleporting with great frequency.

So why is there still a gil fee associated with teleportation via aetheryte? As far as I can tell, it’s just a holdover from 1.0 that no longer serves any purpose.

The lore reason is maintenance of the aetheryte site, including keeping guard and all that jazz. As for what it does in general it just acts as one of the many gil sinks, like repair costs or market board taxes.

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Originally Posted by Jpec07

It makes no sense from a lore perspective. We’re following our own aether trails using our own magical ability. Not to mention, who are we even paying? Is Hydaelyn rifling through our pockets?

It makes no sense from a gameplay perspective. The paltry sums (topping out at 999g) are inconsequential, and far less than what we’d earn from a leve or quest, even as early as level 10. If the intent was to make teleportation a rare thing when you needed to go from one region to the next, the price should have been higher from the get-go. As it stands, it’s basically free, with players (myself included) teleporting with great frequency.

So why is there still a gil fee associated with teleportation via aetheryte? As far as I can tell, it’s just a holdover from 1.0 that no longer serves any purpose.

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Lore - they cover this in one off the very early quests that has you attuning to a crystal.
Gameplay - money sink. I agree it doesn't seem like much, but a gil here, a gil there, it adds and helps keep the economy from going insane.
It still serves a purpose and always will.

Well here's what I've been wondering. Presumably, in-universe, there's some company or governmental agency that gets all that gil. Now, it's plainly established that we are connected to both the aetherites in the source and the aetherites in the first. Does this mean that there's some poor little Lala accountant, sitting at his desk in Ul'dah, trying his damndest to figure out where in the hell all this extra money is coming from all the sudden? "Norvrandt? Where the hell is Norvrandt?"

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Originally Posted by CazzT

Lore - they cover this in one off the very early quests that has you attuning to a crystal.
Gameplay - money sink. I agree it doesn't seem like much, but a gil here, a gil there, it adds and helps keep the economy from going insane.
It still serves a purpose and always will.

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There is related lore given in game, but it still feels kind of shaky to me. The teleportation system comes across as a developer invention rather than a part of the world. It would have made more sense if aetherlytes worked like airships where you pay an attendant to use them. If you go solely by what we see in game they're practically unguarded and anyone using them could simply cheat the system by holding their money upon teleporting. Not to mention that if your departure and arrival points aren't in communication with each other, how do they know the correct amount to charge a traveler? Do they just ask? Surely many people would lie.

In 1.0 you didn't use gil to teleport... you used Anima, which was a self-replenishing but limited resource and different aetherytes cost different amounts of Anima, essentially to gate how far and often you could teleport. The Lore resoning for the change in 2.0 is that the Aetherytes in Eorzea were damaged following the Calamity, and the City-states took on a large loan from the Syndicate which is paid as a tax for teleporting (I believe Koji Fox said to just assume there's a friendly attendant taking your money at every Aetheryte Plaza, don't think to hard on it).

In gameplay it serves as a money-sink, since there's already too many ways to get gil for nothing, and telportation, repairs and such serve to keep that gil from wrecking the economy.

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Originally Posted by PyurBlue

There is related lore given in game, but it still feels kind of shaky to me. The teleportation system comes across as a developer invention rather than a part of the world.

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I don't really get why this is a problem in the first place, to be honest (quoting you because your phrasing was an easy jumping off point for my post, but this is obviously directed at OP as well, and anyone who is bothered by this). LOTS of things in this game - in nearly all games - make zero sense in terms of lore or in-universe consistency. The segregation between gameplay and story to allow for things that serve ONLY the former even if they "break" the latter is a concept as old as videogames. See also: When it's noon in Eorzea, it's ALSO noon in Othard! And even in Norvrandt! This, obviously, is nonsense. But it's a conceit to serve the "game" side of things.

Yeah, the lore for teleport fees IS a bit shaky, but to me it feels like it's shaky because they knew it wasn't going to be convincing, so they didn't spend a lot of time or energy trying to make it so. It feels cheeky. Like the game is going "wink wink, nudge nudge" while providing this flimsy lore "explanation", because the devs and writers know that WE know that the REAL reason is, again, to serve the "game" side of things (in this case, to provide a gil sink - yes it's a small gil sink, but as someone else pointed out, it can add up bit by bit.)

People who try to defend the high priced teleports make me laugh.

To the person who said it helps the market board, not anymore it don't not since wanderer's come and things get lower my stuff takes longer to sell then I am basically undercutting the cutters to make ends meet and on top of that spending tons of gil telelporting yeah I could use tickets cut prices in halve yeah I could use flame guild to use the price cut thing but its still 500 gil a pop then by the time my items sell I am in the hole more than I sold.

especially for people who are late to the crafting scene also noticed armor seems to get damaged even more than usual so I am also paying that.

of course someone will come in and try to reason or soften the comment oh but this and that don't wanna hear it I am sure you have tons of gil doesn't matter what you spend right, me I spam dungeons to stay a float luckly but quickly burns me out luckly I don't own a house so I can quit any time I want.

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Originally Posted by Saito_S

I don't really get why this is a problem in the first place, to be honest (quoting you because your phrasing was an easy jumping off point for my post, but this is obviously directed at OP as well, and anyone who is bothered by this). LOTS of things in this game - in nearly all games - make zero sense in terms of lore or in-universe consistency. The segregation between gameplay and story to allow for things that serve ONLY the former even if they "break" the latter is a concept as old as videogames. See also: When it's noon in Eorzea, it's ALSO noon in Othard! And even in Norvrandt! This, obviously, is nonsense. But it's a conceit to serve the "game" side of things.

Yeah, the lore for teleport fees IS a bit shaky, but to me it feels like it's shaky because they knew it wasn't going to be convincing, so they didn't spend a lot of time or energy trying to make it so. It feels cheeky. Like the game is going "wink wink, nudge nudge" while providing this flimsy lore "explanation", because the devs and writers know that WE know that the REAL reason is, again, to serve the "game" side of things (in this case, to provide a gil sink - yes it's a small gil sink, but as someone else pointed out, it can add up bit by bit.)

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It's not unique to FF14, I didn't want to imply that it was. The inconsistency also isn't a problem persay - it really depends on what you mean by problem. I prefer having less holes in the lore but the teleport fees as they are aren't something that would reduce my likelihood of playing. I don't agree with not taking it seriously and only coming up with a quasi explanation for the sake of having it explained though. I don't think it would have been all that hard to come up with a more plausible system. Of course at some point fantasy will break with reality, so I understand not wanting to fall all the way down a never ending hole just for the sake of airtight lore. Maybe I just like to look into things too deeply.

Here is your answer OP:

An-aether-what?

Regarding gil sinks: I'd rather pay to teleport than have to pay a million gil to do the endgame raid every three days like we did in XI.

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Originally Posted by Catwho

Regarding gil sinks: I'd rather pay to teleport than have to pay a million gil to do the endgame raid every three days like we did in XI.

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Those restrictions are now gone in XI.

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Originally Posted by Krokov

Those restrictions are now gone in XI.

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I know that - first they dropped the price to 500K for an hourglass, then they revamped it so that everyone had 2 hours and could enter freely (much like how Eureka was done.)

But it was very much a thing when we were running Dynamis as active end game, and the sole purpose of it was as a gil sink.

It *is* explained in the lore very soon after starting a new character. Basically, it's to pay for Aetheryte network's maintenance and upkeep.

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Originally Posted by PyurBlue

If you go solely by what we see in game they're practically unguarded and anyone using them could simply cheat the system by holding their money upon teleporting.

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Maybe other people do, but you never would because you're one of the good guys, the Warrior of Light!

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Originally Posted by Catwho

I know that - first they dropped the price to 500K for an hourglass, then they revamped it so that everyone had 2 hours and could enter freely (much like how Eureka was done.)

But it was very much a thing when we were running Dynamis as active end game, and the sole purpose of it was as a gil sink.

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I remember that indeed.

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Originally Posted by Catwho

Regarding gil sinks: I'd rather pay to teleport than have to pay a million gil to do the endgame raid every three days like we did in XI.

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Cousin wanted me to ask you how did you lose money? Cause he was main puller of dynamis and used DKP points for gil return did your shell use you? Cause most of the time everyone split shells and currency to make back the money or even create relic weapons.

Cause he said he's heard of linkshells just using people for self gain not even paying their helpers.

Pay?
For teleporting?

I don't know what you mean, I haven't paid the fee in years. lol

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Originally Posted by Zeonx

Cousin wanted me to ask you how did you lose money? Cause he was main puller of dynamis and used DKP points for gil return did your shell use you? Cause most of the time everyone split shells and currency to make back the money or even create relic weapons.

Cause he said he's heard of linkshells just using people for self gain not even paying their helpers.

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Uh.... I was the LS owner of NoSephiroth Dynamis that commissioned FFDKP from Ismarc of Seraph. Was my first time writing out requirements. Launched a good career for me. o_O

Just because we didn't lose money doesn't mean it wasn't a gil sink in the game. That million gil you paid to the NPC for the hourglass was gone forever.

Do you have Gil issues? I can't seem to spend it fast enough.

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Originally Posted by WhiteArchmage

In 1.0 you didn't use gil to teleport... you used Anima, which was a self-replenishing but limited resource and different aetherytes cost different amounts of Anima, essentially to gate how far and often you could teleport. The Lore resoning for the change in 2.0 is that the Aetherytes in Eorzea were damaged following the Calamity, and the City-states took on a large loan from the Syndicate which is paid as a tax for teleporting (I believe Koji Fox said to just assume there's a friendly attendant taking your money at every Aetheryte Plaza, don't think to hard on it).

In gameplay it serves as a money-sink, since there's already too many ways to get gil for nothing, and telportation, repairs and such serve to keep that gil from wrecking the economy.

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^ this is about the gist of it...


I think I oprefer the gil to what we had in 1.x...
It was pretty much a mobile game style stamina system.

You had a limited amount of anima and it regenerated in real time.

I've always just looked at it like tollways!

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Originally Posted by Zeonx

People who try to defend the high priced teleports make me laugh.

To the person who said it helps the market board, not anymore it don't not since wanderer's come and things get lower my stuff takes longer to sell then I am basically undercutting the cutters to make ends meet and on top of that spending tons of gil telelporting yeah I could use tickets cut prices in halve yeah I could use flame guild to use the price cut thing but its still 500 gil a pop then by the time my items sell I am in the hole more than I sold.

especially for people who are late to the crafting scene also noticed armor seems to get damaged even more than usual so I am also paying that.

of course someone will come in and try to reason or soften the comment oh but this and that don't wanna hear it I am sure you have tons of gil doesn't matter what you spend right, me I spam dungeons to stay a float luckly but quickly burns me out luckly I don't own a house so I can quit any time I want.

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Simple, do your daily Hunts for ARR, HW and SB (and the weekly rank B Hunts for each for good measure). Then buy a huge stack of Aetheryte Tokens from the Hunt vendors with the seals you accumulate. You'll never have to pay for teleportation again (I haven't in years, I just make sure to do Hunts regularly to keep enough seals stacked up to buy the tokens).

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Originally Posted by Gemina

I've always just looked at it like tollways!

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Because that's exactly what they are - you're not paying for the actual teleporting lore wise, you're paying off the loan the citystates took out to rebuild and maintain the aetheryte that acts as a beacon for teleporting to (without that, you would get lost in the aetherial sea with no way out). Of course the credibility of this lore is stretched a little in places like Zenith that supposedly have not had a mortal use them for centuries and have no guards or attendents at all (and even then, why didn't those aetherytes explode in the Calamity too?), but... suspension of disbelief is needed here. ;)

i also like if you use chocobo potter in some place where there is no people around. your char will still put some money in it, just in case.

i like small touch like this

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Originally Posted by Jpec07

It makes no sense from a lore perspective. We’re following our own aether trails using our own magical ability. Not to mention, who are we even paying? Is Hydaelyn rifling through our pockets?

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Mostly lore reasons. Pylon maintenance is expensive and thus teleportation is prohibitively expensive too, which is why you don't see many NPC porting around.
Remember 100gil is A LOT of cash for most NPCs out there, our characters are absurdly rich by comparison.

Personally I never cared about the cost past the initial leveling process. Just as I don't care about flying costs in WoW.

100 gil is like..... a dollar.

No, the reason you don't see NPCs teleporting too much is because you can't transport physical goods with you while you teleport, so it's useless for transportation. Also, we do still have anima, but the WoL's anima reserves are basically limitless.

Anyway, the way to avoid paying for teleports that cost too much is to kill your B rank hunts for 2.0 areas ever week and get those nummy nummy free teleport tickets. Never pay 1K for a teleport ever again!

Just wanted to emphasize Catwho's point on Anima, the fact we can teleport day in and day out 24/7 is an INCREDIBLE feat. Teleporting can be very taxing on people as it consumes their anima. So for most people it's not a means of day to day transportation, no teleporting into the coal mines for work, out for lunch, back in, and then back out at the end of the day.

Of course Garleans have made their own magitek transporters, so in a sense they can too, and Ascians as well, but Garleans cannot use our aethernet like we do.

Bit of an aside but it's one of the reasons why I thought maybe something is uniquely wrong with us, as we used to have a very large storage of anima and now we have unlimited. As if we were no longer what we were, eh.. eh..? EH? lol. Maybe I should play more of the ShB storyline it might tell me something. Of course it could just be game design change, lots of other stuff changed back then too.

I'm just glad it isn't the teleporting spells from FFXI where you had to pay other players just to get somewhere quicker.

Get a hunt linkshell and bop some ARR S ranks as they're called.

You won't ever worry about teleportation fees ever again.

It's probably one of the largest gil sinks in the game. Removing it would be harmful to the economy.

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Originally Posted by Zeonx

People who try to defend the high priced teleports make me laugh.

To the person who said it helps the market board, not anymore it don't not since wanderer's come and things get lower my stuff takes longer to sell then I am basically undercutting the cutters to make ends meet and on top of that spending tons of gil telelporting yeah I could use tickets cut prices in halve yeah I could use flame guild to use the price cut thing but its still 500 gil a pop then by the time my items sell I am in the hole more than I sold.

especially for people who are late to the crafting scene also noticed armor seems to get damaged even more than usual so I am also paying that.

of course someone will come in and try to reason or soften the comment oh but this and that don't wanna hear it I am sure you have tons of gil doesn't matter what you spend right, me I spam dungeons to stay a float luckly but quickly burns me out luckly I don't own a house so I can quit any time I want.

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High price? Please, you've never played GW2.... You can teleport all day at 999gil and it still won't be putting a dent in anyone's coin purse except new players. But by the time they reach areas that require that high fee, then they can afford it anyway, it's not much gil. I'm just surprised that the fee isn't greater than what it is. But if you are cheap, you can always walk from place to place. In BDO you can't teleport but have to ride mounts. I think they may have added air ships by now (maybe?) but my point is, everything is handed down on a silver platter in this game and people still complain which is crazy.

You used to have to farm up this whole separate magical currency to use aetherytes because teleportation wasn't an easy thing. Now, after the calamity, the land is so saturated with aether that the old currency was no longer needed to make teleportation work. However the damage to the city-states was so great following bahamut's rampage, that they have decided to charge a teleportation tax to help with their rebuilding, and the cost is calculated based on proximity.

That's the lore explanation of it, anyhow.

999 gil a paltry sum? Not for me, Even though I have a bit over 11 million (Started in January), I'll use a ticket if the teleport price is over 250.
Before I learned about the Aetherite tickets a couple months ago, I'd travel to my destination via airships and mounts if it was over 200 gil, and tried to limit the 300g trips to Kugane to one a day.

Personally, I think it should be free if you initiate the trip by clicking an aetherite, but still pay if you do it in the field. (convenience fee.)

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Originally Posted by Jpec07

It makes no sense from a lore perspective. We’re following our own aether trails using our own magical ability. Not to mention, who are we even paying? Is Hydaelyn rifling through our pockets?

It makes no sense from a gameplay perspective. The paltry sums (topping out at 999g) are inconsequential, and far less than what we’d earn from a leve or quest, even as early as level 10. If the intent was to make teleportation a rare thing when you needed to go from one region to the next, the price should have been higher from the get-go. As it stands, it’s basically free, with players (myself included) teleporting with great frequency.

So why is there still a gil fee associated with teleportation via aetheryte? As far as I can tell, it’s just a holdover from 1.0 that no longer serves any purpose.

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the only part that doesn't make any sense is that is too cheap, this game has 0 gil sinks so people don't even know how to manage/make money, imo teleport prices should cap at 5k or 10k

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Because that's exactly what they are - you're not paying for the actual teleporting lore wise, you're paying off the loan the citystates took out to rebuild and maintain the aetheryte that acts as a beacon for teleporting to (without that, you would get lost in the aetherial sea with no way out). Of course the credibility of this lore is stretched a little in places like Zenith that supposedly have not had a mortal use them for centuries and have no guards or attendents at all (and even then, why didn't those aetherytes explode in the Calamity too?), but... suspension of disbelief is needed here. ;)

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Probably part of the reason we pay for teleports for places that don't have anyone to actual collect from is out of superstition. Its actually the lore reason for the Chocobo rides as well in places where there is no Chocobokeeper.

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Originally Posted by Jpec07

It makes no sense from a lore perspective. We’re following our own aether trails using our own magical ability. Not to mention, who are we even paying? Is Hydaelyn rifling through our pockets?

It makes no sense from a gameplay perspective. The paltry sums (topping out at 999g) are inconsequential, and far less than what we’d earn from a leve or quest, even as early as level 10. If the intent was to make teleportation a rare thing when you needed to go from one region to the next, the price should have been higher from the get-go. As it stands, it’s basically free, with players (myself included) teleporting with great frequency.

So why is there still a gil fee associated with teleportation via aetheryte? As far as I can tell, it’s just a holdover from 1.0 that no longer serves any purpose.

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My understanding from a 1.0 player was that it didnt cost gil back in the day and you should be thankful it does now.

The teleport prices are like a fart in the wind when you reach 60 - 80

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Originally Posted by Jpec07

It makes no sense from a gameplay perspective. The paltry sums (topping out at 999g) are inconsequential,

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You have no Idea how much gil gets destroyed via teleports. If the teleport cost went away Inflation would rise instantly.