Too Weak To Be Worthwhile - Teleporting

[Rhomagus]

Oh teh noez, teh ez-modez is commin tah git us!

Rediculous time sink =/= any sort of challenge.





No one wants that in XIV, and they're not making a game like that. They're making a game where everyone has a fair shot at the content that doles out the rewards.

Darkhold, for example, is a fun experience. Easy to get to, easily repeatable, hard to beat. I know it isn't much of a challenge for an LS full of no life extortionists who have all classes at 50 -- thus have available whatever classes they need at the moment. But for us common folk, who only play enough to have one or two classes at 50, it takes coordination and planning.

There's no need for an XI system of "rewards" either. Spending an hour to get somewhere, to camp something for three hours and if you were lucky enough to get the claim you just had to wait through the no-challenge battle to hope the 5% drop rate favored you that day.

Is that the system you'd prefer? There wasn't a single challenge in all of XI. The hardcore only called themselves hardcore because they were able to put in 10+ hour every day. I'd much rather a performance-based reward system with all the arbitrary time sinks out of the way. If it takes my group 300 tries to get it right, well, at least we got to try instead of watching four hours go down the drain as a mob pops claimed.



Now you're just being silly.

I support a performance based-reward system over arbitrary time sinks. +1

[Rhomagus]

That always happened to me in XI and it was awesome every time except for the rest of the facepalming pt members who couldn't believe I didn't have some of the most common telecrystals yet XD Anyway it gave me a lot of smaller goals to achieve where as in XIV you're still restricted to only one activity: leves that's all you can do with different names for the same autonavigation system.

This is a false assessment, even at this stage in XIV's development.

[Rhomagus]

Thats some weak middle ground talk right there!

I really just want instant travel to be limited and earned instead of giving to us like a gift from the gods as soon as we start the game.

This is also a false assessment of the current state of XIV's development.

[Rhomagus]

There are tons of things SE could do to flesh out the world instead of cutting around it, I do hope they start to focus on these issues soon. The game needs more than grinding and raids to be a great MMO and thats what I want it to become.

I wholeheartedly agree with this post. Removing instant teleport options does not fix this problem though. They should add worthwhile content to barren areas to entice players to look around.

Photographers and visual artists use asymmetry to provoke your eye into moving around the picture so that you take it all in. If everything is centralized and in the center you don't get the whole picture.

[Rhomagus]

I think what the QQ crowd (myself included) are lamenting is not the fact that other people have different play styles, its the fact that the developers have approached travel with the mindset that it is a time-sink.I can agree here. The developers should add content to areas that encourage you to travel to them. You don't have to remove the current anima system in order to accomplish that. As a result, we have a game world so bland, devoid of mystery, danger, and variety, that instant teleporting is really the only palatable method of transportation.I think it's the only method because they didn't have the other content ready. I also think that it's so bland for similar reasons. Sure, SE could force us to run a few more places, at least for the first time, but honestly, how much fun is running between Gridania and Uldah, even for a rank one noob?Precisely, it's even worse for seasoned veterans. There are two sets of repeating scenery, virtually none, if any, aggroable mobs (which are clearly marked) along the path, and you are given a detailed map of both regions, from the start. It's 20 minutes of yawn-inducing auto-running.Agreed. Again, this could be fixed without removing the current anima system as it is.

We just want a few goals that require a little bit of effort, obtaining maps, getting a chocobo license, etc., and we want a world engaging enough to physically travel though, rather than magically appearing 50 yalms away from wherever you need to be, every time!That isn't true even in the current state of XIV and can easily be reinforced by creating content for the barren areas. If we demand that all travel be (or have the option to be) as instantaneous and easy as anima, we will end up with a game world that turns out to be as boring and repetitive as "menu>teleport>location"Disagree. The fun factor comes in the content provided, not finding ways to get to the content. every single time you want to go somewhere. The idea that different forms of transportation, come at different speeds is not a crazy idea.It's not a crazy idea. It's just not a necessary one in order to create a fun game world. Chocobo is faster than foot.I'm glad they're doing more than this with chocobos. Airship is faster than chocobo.I hope they do more than this with airships. If you're interested you can view my thread on "Future Airship Content Ideas". Anima is faster than airship. Sure, every form of transport could be as fast as anima, if the developers wanted, but how can you not see that would diminish a fun aspect that some players want to enjoy?I would rather they not look at the different methods of transport as just transport apply their chocobo logic to them as well. A truck isn't used just for moving from place to place. You can also carry large loads. You have a whole deck of an airship to do something with. Fill it up with NPC's that talk about their own personal lives. Have those NPC's give you quests. Have day/night conditions. You don't have to just travel with these modes of transport. It's about the journey. Spice up the journey.

Just as many people ask for strategic battles instead of button mashing, some of us want transport which requires planning and thought, and has trade-offs, in terms of time and cost. Your passion for insta-travel teleporting is just like someone else saying, "We want more button mashing battles! You can still play with strategy if you really want to, but it's just as easy to button mash. Don't crimp our playstyle, man!"I don't think your metaphor hit home with me. I understand it but I want to be properly rewarded for enduring difficult/dynamic content. I also want to retain raptor parties for a grind when I don't feel like being engaged in battle. Offering both options is the better road in my opinion. Negating one for the other is a mistake.

I agree with some of the points made in this post. I've written my disagreements within the quote itself.

[Rhomagus]

That's a lot different than the general consensus of people that are arguing against instant travel, who simply sound as if they want other people to be forced to play how THEY want to play the game by removing options.

Like you have said, part of the issue is that there is really no point to taking your time to travel. I think the planned map redesigns are trying to alleviate that. I personally believe the philosophy of quick vs slow travel should not be penalize those that want an easier path, but reward those that go out of their way. Maybe random happenings along the field that will reward you in various ways, settlements with quests for you to do, or something along those lines. The treasure chests on the fields that they are adding seems like a way to make it more rewarding to go explore without stepping on others' toes.

Don't you take away my maps though! =P

I very much agree with this post and +1'd it. Add actual rewards and incentives to exploration. Don't take away the instant travel methods or how they are obtained.

[Rhomagus]

I guess I can't really speak for everyone, only myself. I'm really pinning a lot of my hopes for this game on the impending zone redesign (mega-bonus points if they tie it into the lore of the world) and the eventual release of completely new zones. I think strategic gameplay is the key. I have no problem with having alternate gameplay methods designed for casual players, like leves and anima or an aggro indicator, for example. Although, if SE goes too far and puts in too many shortcuts around parts of the game requiring strategy and cooperation, or an investment of time and effort, then why should I play FFXIV when I can go play Angry Birds on my phone?

And I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree about the maps thing. Not having a map and not knowing where to go is what makes visiting new areas difficult. It also promotes cooperation between high-level mentors and new players. The difficulty of getting the map should mirror the difficulty of the zone, maybe with maps of the starter zones being given to new players. It gives players something to do, something to achieve, and a sense of character progression, other than ranking up, day after day. Same thing goes for a chocobo license or airship license. Fortunately for you, and unfortunately for me, Yoshi P. seems to be on your side.

I just look up the maps online. That ultimately negates the point of acquiring maps. I think the development team knew this and decided to forgo it altogether. I'd rather they introduce content that encourages me to tread the less beaten path.

[Rhomagus]

I noticed the same and it's kind of weird. It's like using a wheelchair even though you can walk.

Not quite. It's that there a times when we want to explore, and there are times when we don't. Sometimes I want to walk to work. Sometimes I want to drive my car.

Making it easy for newer players is something that SE needs to do more of. I've tried to coach several people through the opening cutscene and they seemed appalled by the UI layout, little explanation on key game mechanics, or direction in the game. I know I got through it fine but I've been following this game since E3 09'. I knew a vast majority of the in's and out's prior to release. My friends didn't. If my friends ever find themselves in a situation where they haven't been to an area before and I really want show them, I don't see why wasting both of our limited playtime is necessary. Now if he wants to grind on the mobs in an area that's outside of his level range that's a completely different story.

[Rhomagus]

Next they'll be asking that bosses drop every reward they have times the number of people in the party.

To be honest I'm not entirely against that. I'd rather them make the boss so hard that it's considered an accomplishment in and of itself. Especially if these drops are unique/untradeable. Doing the same content over and over again is a poor substitute for game design.

That completely changes if those drops are sellable/tradeable.

[Rhomagus]

I have walked to all but six camps in the game. Some of them are hard some are damn near impossible, but that is the fun part. I fyou can't make the walk you can't use the camp. This game lets you pay someone to take you there or have a friend port you around without ever having been near the location. It is both loreIt's not lore breaking as the lore has not expressly condemned or condoned pooling anima resources. breaking and excessively easy.For some camps. The harder gates still cannot be obtained through sharing teleports. This negates your point.

Lore breaking because you are supposed to have to attune yourself to the crystalsRead above. and excessively easy because you never have to put in any effort to get anywhere.I just showed you where you have to put forth effort to get to certain places. This assessment is false.

Of course get anywhere won't matter anymore since we are getting instant travel airships..

You can already teleport to the Aetheryte crystals in town. That's a moot point. As soon as they develop legitimate content for the airship besides a repetitive cutscene and a bs matching game then I'll start using the non-instant option.