I would prefer that we relied on our vehicles or other players who are piloting stuff, to move us around.
That way it gives people things to do while also promoting social interaction.
I am not against some sort of convenient and easy fast travel system, but it has to be extremely expensive and should be viewed as last resort option or luxury.
Just my 2c.
That way it gives people things to do while also promoting social interaction.
I am not against some sort of convenient and easy fast travel system, but it has to be extremely expensive and should be viewed as last resort option or luxury.
Just my 2c.
In some games I play when I'm stuck on how to clear a mission/quest or I'm just bored and want to help randoms out. One of the things I do is taxi other players around. This is because one of the things I do is get mounts that can hold more than one person and let others get on it with my while I take them to where they want to go. This is really helpful for new players who may not know their way around the game world yet. Or players who need to meet friends somewhere but don't have a mount or my mount is just faster. Personally, I taxi people for free. But you'll see people ask for payment to taxi people to hard to get to places, even more so if they are going to be protecting other players as they travel.
So I'm for the idea of things like group travel.
So I'm for the idea of things like group travel.
Completely agreed. There should be a dropship system that uses a determined path and isn't controlled by the player.
But this time Grummz, please make it so the dropship waits longer after landing, 5 secs to get in is a bit short sometimes.
I'm also thinking you could add a dropship to come to the city you built or something like that, for exemple if I created a city and it became big enough i could ask for dropships to also pass by my city, for a fee maybe.
But this time Grummz, please make it so the dropship waits longer after landing, 5 secs to get in is a bit short sometimes.
I'm also thinking you could add a dropship to come to the city you built or something like that, for exemple if I created a city and it became big enough i could ask for dropships to also pass by my city, for a fee maybe.
If you want a public transport system, then it should be modeled after how real like transit systems work. All you have to do is talk to a few real life city planners and ask them what are the rules they follow to best make things like bus routes. Knowing the logic of how real life cities and communities work will help both the lore of the game as will as the gameplay itself.
For example, one of the questions I asked in FireFall that I never got a real answer for was. "How do NPCs without battleframes or access to dropships get around given how dangerous the world is?"
I really like in games with both the lore of the game match the gameplay itself and make sense.
For example, one of the questions I asked in FireFall that I never got a real answer for was. "How do NPCs without battleframes or access to dropships get around given how dangerous the world is?"
I really like in games with both the lore of the game match the gameplay itself and make sense.
I don't want any NPC transports around that ferry players. The only NPC transports that could function for me would be transports that carry goods for you and need to be protected (or stolen).
At best I would like to offer players transportation missions. You take on some cargo and start moving. Other players can join.
Around the map, especially in straight lines between POI's, enemy resistance can be found in the form of fighters, flying critters and AA that will try to shoot you down. You can avoid it by going the long way around.
This is where passengers come in. Passengers can mount turrets on the transport and take out enemy forces. The more players there are, the shorter a route the aircraft can take without being shot down.
Additionally/alternatively, players can agree a transportation fee. If any type of vehicle, be it air or ground, comes along with open seats the player can jump in and ride along to the destination. He'll have to pay a small fee to the player he joined but get there faster. Players can also set themselves up for a taxi-service mission. Any player requesting a pickup is shown on the map. The player can then actively go towards them to pick them up and gain the fee for collection and bringing them to their desired location, which can be anywhere they please.
At best I would like to offer players transportation missions. You take on some cargo and start moving. Other players can join.
Around the map, especially in straight lines between POI's, enemy resistance can be found in the form of fighters, flying critters and AA that will try to shoot you down. You can avoid it by going the long way around.
This is where passengers come in. Passengers can mount turrets on the transport and take out enemy forces. The more players there are, the shorter a route the aircraft can take without being shot down.
Additionally/alternatively, players can agree a transportation fee. If any type of vehicle, be it air or ground, comes along with open seats the player can jump in and ride along to the destination. He'll have to pay a small fee to the player he joined but get there faster. Players can also set themselves up for a taxi-service mission. Any player requesting a pickup is shown on the map. The player can then actively go towards them to pick them up and gain the fee for collection and bringing them to their desired location, which can be anywhere they please.
In one of the Armored Core games, there is a mission where you have to protect a shipment on route to a base. So your ride along inside one of the ships as the fleet head to the base. Then there is an attack the pilot opens on the cargo doors of the ship and tells you enemy is coming, protect the fleet. Your goal is to make sure enough of your ships make it across the border to the base or destroy all the enemy ships. As these are large cargo planes you can just stay in the back and try to pick off enemies as you see them with long range weapons. Or you can fly out and try to fight them at close range mid-air, using the other cargo planes as islands you can stand on while you protect them. As you are fighting super high in the sky, if you fall off there is no way your mecha keep up with the fleet. So it is best not lost sight of the fleet while you are fighting.
That way you can have logical NPC transports that would also make sense in the lore. They are only giving you a ride because they want you to help protect them as they are doing something else.
That way you can have logical NPC transports that would also make sense in the lore. They are only giving you a ride because they want you to help protect them as they are doing something else.
Likes:
Daynen
Nah, there should be transport to just ferry players to another base directly and quickly. Not everything needs to be a mission. Especially since we do an escort mission every single time we thump anyways.
Any combat based escort mission should be something that a player initiates. If they just want to go from a central base to an outlying base where their friends are waiting for them to go thumping that is what the transit dropships should be there for. A way to get to there without hassle.
Not to mention, sometimes people just want to hitch a ride and fly around the zone just to relax. I know I did that on occasion when I was bored and would hop on coral forest's transit dropships and just look at the world around as it flew along its route. Sometimes I would even hop out to glide to BK, or glide to treasure bots.
Also transit dropships to get people from base to base already fits naturally in the lore. The only other way to transfer personnel from base to base would be by armed ground convoy.
Any combat based escort mission should be something that a player initiates. If they just want to go from a central base to an outlying base where their friends are waiting for them to go thumping that is what the transit dropships should be there for. A way to get to there without hassle.
Not to mention, sometimes people just want to hitch a ride and fly around the zone just to relax. I know I did that on occasion when I was bored and would hop on coral forest's transit dropships and just look at the world around as it flew along its route. Sometimes I would even hop out to glide to BK, or glide to treasure bots.
Also transit dropships to get people from base to base already fits naturally in the lore. The only other way to transfer personnel from base to base would be by armed ground convoy.
Fast travel is generally a necessity for games with not much to do between A and B and slow travel speed. I would hope that Ember has neither of these problems, especially considering its expected reliance on dynamic encounters. Why should you be able to just skip everything good/"bad" between one platform and another?
Likes:
Daynen
Well, if the transit dropships were anything like the ones in Firefall's Coral Forest at any time you could just jump out of the dropship and glide down to a dynamic event. The transit dropship would simply give you a means of ignoring it without getting shot at on your way to another destination. You would still take time to get to the destination, but its travel that makes sense and provides opportunities. Without being a simple teleport to destination.
Because sometimes you just want to link up with your friends and go do stuff together and not have to go slow and fight your way through things.
Because sometimes you just want to link up with your friends and go do stuff together and not have to go slow and fight your way through things.
That really kills the exploration and expansion element though. FireFall's map felt very domesticated. You were never far enough from other players to not get automatically backed up given enough time and a remotely decent server population. What's more, the idea of fighting back against an overwhelming force was really trivialized due to the fact that you could just glide chain or infinite glide your way to any zone on the map with minimal risk. If we're to be on the frontier, it should feel like it
This can also be achieved by not making the map trivial to traverse, meaning players will be closer to civilized areas and thus easier to meet up with. You can also speed this up with player-piloted vehicles
Can't do much about a player trying to push his luck and head into uncharted territory, but finding and possibly extracting them can be an adventure in itself. Or they could just /kill (or your preferred equivalent) and respawn back at base
This can also be achieved by not making the map trivial to traverse, meaning players will be closer to civilized areas and thus easier to meet up with. You can also speed this up with player-piloted vehicles
Can't do much about a player trying to push his luck and head into uncharted territory, but finding and possibly extracting them can be an adventure in itself. Or they could just /kill (or your preferred equivalent) and respawn back at base
I fail to see how a NPC driven transit dropship flying from a central base to an outlying base kills exploration. In fact, it just means that people can head to the frontier a bit quicker and more direct. It also allows for the map to be bigger, a lot bigger. Honestly I would say it aids exploration by allowing for there to be more to explore without impeding those who just want to get to their friends who are by an outlying base.
Also, we do not know how readily available gliding will be, or even if we will get something like soaring afterburner.
This means that the areas have to be so small it would almost be pointless to use vehicles at all. And you are never far enough to not get automatically backed up given enough time and a remotely decent server population. This also kills exploration, since it will be so easy to explore everything. The map also becomes trivial and feels domesticated in addition to being annoying to traverse because...
Oilspillmk2: "Hey Reaper 3-5, we got a broken down THMPR near your position can you help us recover it?"
Oilspillmk2: "Hey Reaper 3-5, we got a broken down THMPR near your position can you help us recover it?"
Oilspillmk2: "Hey Reaper 3-5, we got a broken down THMPR near your position can you help us recover it?"
Oilspillmk2: "Hey Reaper 3-5, we got a broken down THMPR near your position can you help us recover it?"
Like in Firefall.
If you want it to feel like a frontier then the map needs to be large, which means we also need transport options to get to outlying bases so that we can link up with our friends then explore out from there into the frontier that is the edge of our habitation bubble and beyond.
It needs to be large enough there is plenty to explore, with plenty of options to get around the map to the areas near where our friends are operating, without it being so small that we will be there nigh instantly after ignoring our dynamic event com spam.
The transport options should also make sense within the world itself. That is why I want NPC driven transit dropships.
Also, we do not know how readily available gliding will be, or even if we will get something like soaring afterburner.
This means that the areas have to be so small it would almost be pointless to use vehicles at all. And you are never far enough to not get automatically backed up given enough time and a remotely decent server population. This also kills exploration, since it will be so easy to explore everything. The map also becomes trivial and feels domesticated in addition to being annoying to traverse because...
Oilspillmk2: "Hey Reaper 3-5, we got a broken down THMPR near your position can you help us recover it?"
Oilspillmk2: "Hey Reaper 3-5, we got a broken down THMPR near your position can you help us recover it?"
Oilspillmk2: "Hey Reaper 3-5, we got a broken down THMPR near your position can you help us recover it?"
Oilspillmk2: "Hey Reaper 3-5, we got a broken down THMPR near your position can you help us recover it?"
Like in Firefall.
If you want it to feel like a frontier then the map needs to be large, which means we also need transport options to get to outlying bases so that we can link up with our friends then explore out from there into the frontier that is the edge of our habitation bubble and beyond.
It needs to be large enough there is plenty to explore, with plenty of options to get around the map to the areas near where our friends are operating, without it being so small that we will be there nigh instantly after ignoring our dynamic event com spam.
The transport options should also make sense within the world itself. That is why I want NPC driven transit dropships.
I'm not sure how you can ask how it kills exploration and then talk about how easily you can head to the "frontier"
And map size is no indication of quality. A big empty map is no more worth having than a smaller but more action-packed one
That's not actually true at all though. You can have a reasonably large map and still make it so that people can't just walk all over it by having a reasonable number of encounters and creating difficulty via attrition, an option FF couldnt really handle because there were already permanent bases everywhere.
The constant questing was there to try to combat the tedium. It was a poor fix, but just leaving the tedium there and letting you fly past it is hardly a better solution
It doesn't have to be large, it just has to be rugged and dangerous. Additionally, from the sounds of things, the bubble will be the playable area, not the bases. It doesn't actually make all that much sense to waste such a large portion of land purely on premade settlements anyway. It should be difficult to expand outward from the "spawn" area and dynamic events should be throwing a wrench into your plans. Being able to skip over that completely trivializes the experience. It's like suggesting that a lift doesn't trivialize hiking up a difficult trail. You can still go up there, but if your goal is just to reach the top most people are going to sit down and let the lift do all the work. You're no longer out in the wilderness hiking up mountains, you're at a resort
And map size is no indication of quality. A big empty map is no more worth having than a smaller but more action-packed one
That's not actually true at all though. You can have a reasonably large map and still make it so that people can't just walk all over it by having a reasonable number of encounters and creating difficulty via attrition, an option FF couldnt really handle because there were already permanent bases everywhere.
The constant questing was there to try to combat the tedium. It was a poor fix, but just leaving the tedium there and letting you fly past it is hardly a better solution
It doesn't have to be large, it just has to be rugged and dangerous. Additionally, from the sounds of things, the bubble will be the playable area, not the bases. It doesn't actually make all that much sense to waste such a large portion of land purely on premade settlements anyway. It should be difficult to expand outward from the "spawn" area and dynamic events should be throwing a wrench into your plans. Being able to skip over that completely trivializes the experience. It's like suggesting that a lift doesn't trivialize hiking up a difficult trail. You can still go up there, but if your goal is just to reach the top most people are going to sit down and let the lift do all the work. You're no longer out in the wilderness hiking up mountains, you're at a resort
Umm... in case you did not know (well last that I knew) Grummz wants player built bases which is what helps expand the bubble. Which means there will be large portions of land "wasted" on premade settlements that players invest into. Which that will necessitate a large map in the first place. Also, to me at least, exploration covers the entire map. A small map is easier to explore then a large one. It requires less to get around.
The Frontier, or the frontline as some might call it, is the edge of the map. Something that players should be capable of reaching easily because it is from there that it is going to get harder. Especially when/if it gets to the point that the Tsihu launch coordinated attacks on our bases to push our wall back.
People already want the ability to do excursions beyond the habitation wall, even if they would be timed and full of risk. They should have the ability to quickly get to a base near the wall to go do those kind of excursions... without having to slog through the entire map to do it.
Course hey, it can always be treated as a double edged sword if it really bugs you. Ignoring the dynamic events could speed up the process of a invasion on the nearby base. If the base fails to get defended its habitation field generator gets destroyed and the bubble collapses and shrinks. We have to push the wall back to reclaim the base.
We just need to enable the player to do what they want. Which Transit dropships help with without completely invalidating the combat between base a and base b like a teleport fast travel system would. With a large map with plenty of nooks and crannies to explore it will take longer for the explorers to get through everything, and not every explorer wants to slog through fights all the time when they would rather be actually exploring. With a large map you can have the dynamic events more spread out to prevent situations like Oilspill's barrage of broken thumpers every 20 feet.
As an aside, quests were not thrown in to combat tedium. Quests were thrown in because The9 wanted Firefall to be a World of Warcraft. While the quests did tell story chains, and had some interesting characters, they were also just as tedious as everything else.
I feel a bit sad you were not around to see Coral Forest back before it got more bases added to it. Back when all we had was Copacabana and a lot of space to grow.
The Frontier, or the frontline as some might call it, is the edge of the map. Something that players should be capable of reaching easily because it is from there that it is going to get harder. Especially when/if it gets to the point that the Tsihu launch coordinated attacks on our bases to push our wall back.
People already want the ability to do excursions beyond the habitation wall, even if they would be timed and full of risk. They should have the ability to quickly get to a base near the wall to go do those kind of excursions... without having to slog through the entire map to do it.
Course hey, it can always be treated as a double edged sword if it really bugs you. Ignoring the dynamic events could speed up the process of a invasion on the nearby base. If the base fails to get defended its habitation field generator gets destroyed and the bubble collapses and shrinks. We have to push the wall back to reclaim the base.
We just need to enable the player to do what they want. Which Transit dropships help with without completely invalidating the combat between base a and base b like a teleport fast travel system would. With a large map with plenty of nooks and crannies to explore it will take longer for the explorers to get through everything, and not every explorer wants to slog through fights all the time when they would rather be actually exploring. With a large map you can have the dynamic events more spread out to prevent situations like Oilspill's barrage of broken thumpers every 20 feet.
As an aside, quests were not thrown in to combat tedium. Quests were thrown in because The9 wanted Firefall to be a World of Warcraft. While the quests did tell story chains, and had some interesting characters, they were also just as tedious as everything else.
I feel a bit sad you were not around to see Coral Forest back before it got more bases added to it. Back when all we had was Copacabana and a lot of space to grow.