Group fast travel

[Omnires]

I was thinking about while playing another game. One of the problems I run into when helping new players or even friends who might not have much time to play is just getting somewhere to meet up so we can play together. And in games with large maps / worlds trying to travel from one end to the other even at full speed can take like 20 to 30 mins at best. So I was thinking back to games where I didn't have such problems and how they dealt with them.

I know that in Em-8er we can glide and stuff. But how do you get a new player to where you are or where they need to be if they don't know the area nor know how to read a map and/or radar? So I'm going to list things I've seen in other games that dealt with this problem in no real order.

• Group mounts - Some games have mounts that more than one person can use. This let's people taxi other players around or even let them protect teammates in long raids they need to go AFK for awhile.
• Pinging location - Players have the ability to send out a ping to teammates or friends that will highlight their location on the map and even let you see them through walls.
• Teleport to player - There is an ability with a long cool down time that let's you teleport a friend and/or a teammate to your location. Sometimes there is an item that lets you teleport to the location of a player to whom you typed the name of.
• Group teleporting - Only really seen this ability in Anarchy Online with the Fixer class. You have the ability to teleport people into special location that only Fixer can get to. This place is like a nexus with gates that lead everywhere, even to places the normal gates doesn't go. And for as long as the Fixer is in your group you can use these gates even if you don't normally have the ability to use them.

Are there any other ideas that you can come up with for moving around groups of people at once? Because I'm one of those people who at times do just like to sit around in town/city and help random new players when I'm bored. Lol, in one game there was player who thought I was an NPC because they seen me in that same spot everyday with people around me like I was giving out quests.

 

[liandri]

All four of those are good. I can't think of any other method I've seen in games that allow you to quickly traverse from one area to another, from your location to a specific player, or for travelling with players with or without grouping.

Group mounts are already confirmed, both as player deployables (in the case of the M3 bikes, and probably other things later) and in-game in the form of vehicles. Skimming is just as fast... Maybe if you're "group skimming" you can go faster? Sort of like car slipstreaming, might encourage players to travel together.
Pinging makes sense with the Fabric, and the Tsi-Hu messing with the Fabric's connection could make for some interesting gameplay mechanics.
Teleporting to players and group teleporting could be a function of the dropship, though it would have to be decided whether it is a scenic cruise, an instant warp, or something in between. I'd be down for a scenic trip if being picked up on Em-8ER, but an instant warp from Home. Given that the dropship is now meant to be bigger and have an interior, you and your mates could all come down planet-side together by jumping on the same ship!

 

[Pandagnome]

Grouping is all fun, but how will the server closest to the players be decided, e.g

A- Player summoning group transport gets them all to the nearest server that the summoning player is in.

B- Player summoning group transport dictated by A.I and calculates what is good for the group.


Another thing that could be interesting for group transport is if your near the sea there could be a Submamek that pops out and comes in and takes you all to the underwater wonders there you can meet at the underwater hang out!

If such underwater hang out exist they will be able to see the fishing options and have surf modes the heavy meks would do this with their shield surfing as they do enjoy the big waves.

 

[Wyntyr]

Meet up at Home, use group vehicle, and have knowledgeable player assist with directions. Done.

 

[Pandagnome]

Meet up at Home, use group vehicle, and have knowledgeable player assist with directions. Done.

Customizable vehicle horn because that could help and make it fun.

Friendly toots to mega toots

Musical


Also just with groups of players position there could be Pet group positioning system to locate or direct them to do something while the Players scout covering more distance.

 

[Omnires]

I just remember a different version of the pinging system. It is inside the game Dauntless, where players can fire flares into the air to quickly let other players know where they are. Because flares are one of the things on the hot keys are linked to it allows people to fire off a flare even while in the middle of combat. It is really helpful when you are out hunting and you hear a loud sound like fireworks off in the distance see someone's symbol in the sky letting you know where they are. It is also helpful when pointing out rare resources. And given the nature of the game's severs the flares help people to don't talk the same languages to still give signs to each other.

And that got me thinking. There also needs to be easy and simple ways players can talk to each other without the use of words just in case they don't all talk in the same language. It also has to be something that can be done fast even while in the middle of doing something like fighting. I know of a few games where there is as a kind of RTS command system with basic symbols everyone can understand the meaning of. After all, you don't need to know what language I'm using to understand what I mean when I post an image of a stereotypical monster with an aiming reticle over it's head to know what I mean. The same would be for someone posting an image of a stereotypical monster with an aiming reticle over it's tail or of a monster's with dotted lines over across it and a sword over the tail.