Reasons for why and why not shouldn't be implement a "fastest" or global travel-teleport system

[Junn]

So, people crying out on the fact that they only can teleport to one place and/or Sacrament, I am making this list of reasons…

Why it should be implemented:
-It’s a “waste of time”.

Why it shouldn’t:
-Because it’s intencional and walking arround while exploring is a part of the game, if you don’t have time then you should be working.
-The devs created an outstanding and beautifull game with a lot of landscapes so pause your brain for a while and appreciate the aesthetics.
-It is fun to encounter new enemies on old maps.
-It makes you take choices and play with the risk. If you go for a bounty-challenge and you don’t want to save a new location you have to be very carefull to not die.

With the rising of “strand games”, people have been realizing that walking and going arround it’s also part of the fun, enjoy it. Make a halt of your dopamine craving, if you want a rush of mindless dopamine go play LoL, Diablo or a mobile game. Think how boring it would be with just fights and menu diving for everything else (and easier-cheaper to create).

Edit:
Summary of some arguments against and for, recopilated from the discussions here and on the Patch 1 Sneak thread:

-Many people is against unlimited fast travel in the entire gameplay: they say it isn’t necessary, good shortcuts and small maps, contribute to the story and characters development, enjoyment of traveling across the map, LIVE system of NRFTW, to avoid a mindless and fast paced style of others ARPGs, new players will have no incentive to explore the map shortcuts and old players would feel the shortcuts as a joke.
-LIVE system isn’t fully implemented yet as intended, so we don’t know how it could feel in the full game. Atm if fast unlimited travel gets implemented it could be reverted to the original system after 1.0 and that would backlash against devs.

-People that support fast travel say they shouldn’t be forced into a differentt “play-style”, so if other people don’t want to do it they just should avoid that even if implemented.
-But there is a contra-argument: “Gamers love to optimize, and will always pick the most efficient solution, even if that solution removes fun. Its up to game designers to prevent this from happening”. So walking is part of the gameplay, closer to stranding games. But for other people walking isn’t fun after a while.

-Some people agree to allow fast travel but in late-game: it gets boring to traverse the map, the value of the map gets lost after playing it for a long time, there are no more incentives like story or characters, the gameplay gets repetitive and walking distances makes it worst, it adds overall frustration because respawn points and walking times. BUT some say it couldn’t be necessary if the map really changes and different things happen on each exploration. Some say it could be grinded and should be expensive (Plague Ichor, destructible runes, etc). Also it could inflict some sort of punishment (less exp, gold, etc.).

-A general consensus gravitates towards better respawn points and fast travel but ONLY inside the main cities, and NO unlimited fast travel during early-game. So the majority of people supporting fast travel don’t want it to be implemented on early-game.

A middle point, limited fast travel:
-Fast travel but limited, only certain whispers by location, some sort of restrictions, cooldown between teleports outside of Sacrament, only allow between main cities or villages, only one main whisper per zone, temporal whisper points by crafting or runes effects.

[Zenith]

It’s not so bad when you realize as you progress through a story area that a lot of shortcuts are actually unlocked.

I just wish Marin Village had a central whisper and it became a general travel option alongside Sacrament once you rescue the village.

I think what’s bothering people about travel is that the danger level of earlier areas keeps upscaling, which makes traversing them really taxing on your food reserves, and with the upscaling, the mobs feel outrageously tanky, so they take pretty long to kill unless you’re running broken OP super optimized builds.

[Junn]

I forgot shortcuts, traveling is way faster.

@Zenith

I think what’s bothering people about travel is that the danger level of earlier areas keeps upscaling, which makes traversing them really taxing on your food reserves, and with the upscaling, the mobs feel outrageously tanky, so they take pretty long to kill unless you’re running broken OP super optimized builds.

You can always run as a a coward

[Junn]

That is the fun, like D&D campaigns or games like Ashes of Creation or even Albion. Traveling is your own quest and you should be prepared.

[S_n_e_a_k_y]

“if you don’t have time then you should be working.” Lol.. what? I don’t know if you understand what free time is. You might be too young and have no reference point because all your time is free time, but changing up tedious things so they can enjoy the little time they do get to play games, is perfectly straightforward for people who have limited free time.

[Junn]

I have 32 years, three jobs and studying a Phd. Maybe you want to change your meaning of “play games”. Seems that mobile games are your thing. Nothing wrong tho, just have fun with those.

[S_n_e_a_k_y]

3 Jobs wow. Not good enough to get on fulltime on any job I see. You’re the man. Maybe you want to change your meaning of ‘work’ and ‘jobs’ lol. Nothing wrong with being a slacker, just have fun with that.

[Zenith]

I’ll never understand the mentality of someone so absolutely egotistical that they feel in the position of telling other people what games they are meant to play.

As if you owned the game anymore than the next person who paid the same money you did for the same game.

The feedback forums are for players to communicate their thoughts to the developers. They don’t need any other player’s validation to offer their opinion on what the game should be like.

[ntftwman]

1. While this game draws inspiration from Diablo and Dark Souls, both franchises feature streamlined fast-travel systems. I’m perplexed by the absence of such a feature here.
2. Catering to casual players who prefer fast travel doesn’t conflict with those who enjoy slower exploration (“pause brain” players). If you relish scenery, simply refrain from using fast travel—this isn’t a mandatory multiplayer game where others’ choices affect your experience.
3. The open world shares similarities with “strand-type” games. While visually stunning, landscapes grow stale after dozens of viewings. New enemy types in older zones are scarce, repetition breeds fatigue, and the lack of random events or meaningful loot in wilderness chests undermines exploration incentives. Overall, the current exploration loop doesn’t justify omitting fast travel.
4. A compromise: Place a single fast-travel point at the midpoint of each zone. Restricting teleportation to these nodes would preserve the relevance of in-world shortcuts while addressing player convenience.

[Ide]

2. It does when co-op gets involved and one player wants to skip ahead and the others prefer to play “slow”.

[Zenith]

It is not the developer’s problem to arbitrate multiplayer behavior. If you have crappy friends that don’t respect your playstyle, you are always free to not play with them.

Don’t balance games around multiplayer. People are grown adults. Let them handle their own social interactions responsibly.

[Junn]

Goods arguments, I would say that the weather systems changes landscape tho.

[Junn]

I guess your only jobs in your live have been fulltime contracts working to other people. Maybe you never have had your own bussnies nor the responsability to work for your own entrepreneurships. I guess your idea of ‘job’ is to waste you time for others while signing time stamp.

Anyway, I feel sorry for you if your life is so busy that you can’t play a game without watching the clock every min stressing out because the walking takes too long.

[Junn]

What I meant is that if your gamestlye is about fast paced games, you should play that. That is the reason of the diverse and huge amount of genres.

What I don’t cope with is people giving bad reviews or demanding the devs in a rude way to change a mechanic that, in my opinion, is part of the gameplay just because they are used to do it in a different way in other games or due to their incapacity to enjoy the game as intented.

It’s like if I where criticizing a fighting game because I can’t choose my weapon or change my skill set.

I think the discussion would be if a fast/global teleporting system is or isn’t part of the core gameplay in NRFTW, or if implementing it could change in a bad way the core game loop. I would think it is because of the plague system as well as the shortcuts that are carefully designed between zones.

[Ide]

I think if they were to implement a system that allowed fast travel, it to be to a single central point within that area, and it shouldn’t be freely travelable, it should only be once you’ve already cleared the fog of war. Basically just a small QoL if you want to go back to a place you’ve already visited in your session, it’s not something that would be constantly available.

[rallianto]

Sure buddy, lectures us on what opinions we should have

[S_n_e_a_k_y]

I’ll bite I guess..

1. “entrepreneurships”, right lol, says every unemployed or unemployable person ever. But you’re right, I must not have "responsability " to do that. Glad you figured out a way around “signing time stamps” haha.
2. My idea of a job is doing what I enjoy in a career field that’s financially stable, I really hate “wasting time” making a good amount of money doing something I’d do for free lol.
3. Don’t project your mental state on me my dude, I’m perfectly happy and my worklife balance is fine, I enjoy the time I get to play games : )

[EC_QWERTY]

I disagree. Firmly.

-Because it’s intencional and walking arround while exploring is a part of the game, if you don’t have time then you should be working.

This might be true for the first 20 - 30 hours.
I felt the same way the first time I played, it was cool and fun to look for shortcuts and re explore areas felt good since there were some environment changes, but then it just became repetitive and boring.

After that amount play-time there are 0 reasons for me to keep fighting random mobs while I do the “daily quests” (bounties), I’ve encountered them all, I know all the attack patterns.

If I fight is for new loot and for the satisfaction of the combat or to test my new build.

Some times I just want to get bounties done and to do that I am FORCED to walk back and forth.

Even with shortcuts if you spam dodge all the way it will consume hours of time if you multiply that for each session.

-The devs created an outstanding and beautifull game with a lot of landscapes so pause your brain for a while and appreciate the aesthetics.

They did. The world is awesome, the art direction is insane, the style is gorgeous. This game is like a living painting and I visually love it .

Nobody is forcing you to take a break and admire the scenery while you play, but if I want to to thing faster I can’t ?

-It is fun to encounter new enemies on old maps.

It is for the first 30 hours as stated before, after that time it’s not the same.

This system is good on paper but they will need constant updates and new content to actually keep it fun and entertaining. Such a thing is not possible unless they modify the world with every update after release.
That would be like a GAAS or live service, and I would not be happy to see the game like that.

Not to mention that this is irrelevant here, you will be facing old enemies either way, teleport or by walking does not matter.

-It makes you take choices and play with the risk. If you go for a bounty-challenge and you don’t want to save a new location you have to be very carefull to not die.

It is not making me take any choice, it’s forcing me to spend time dodge spamming until the next boss/bounty location.
If the objective is i one of those areas far away, I am forced to re-explore another area to reach that destination.
Not to mention that materials for higher items are found in distant zones, so I have to farm different materials from far away areas that means…it is a waste of my time.

I also repost my answer form another post
https://forum.norestforthewicked.com/t/teleport-waypoint-changes/15849
https://forum.norestforthewicked.com/t/suggestions-for-a-fast-travel-system/16455/2
"Best solution would be greater/lesser whispers for me. That’s just it.

I really don’t understand the

because the world is beauty, has a complex level design and is constantly updated and alive.

This is not a valid argument against fast travel. Even if I teleport to a whisper I can admire the beauty of the level while I look for objectives inside that area.
I am still encouraged to explore to find more chests, items, enemies and so on.

The only part that is cut out it’s the walking/running/ dash spamming to get there.

If you want to walk you can do it even if fast travel is there.
But something tells me you will use it as well, right?

The complex level design is okay, but once the shortcuts are enabled it’s done, like a puzzle with a solution. I can’t do it twice. It meant I explored almost all of the area.
Sometimes there are significant changes that requires to find another route to reach the objective but as far as I’ve seen these are rare and still do not encompass all the zone and most of the time it’s still just rush to the target objective."

Also It can be available late in the game. Like an upgrade from Davos or the crucible shop guy. Not just from the beginning as soon as one unlocks fast travel.
Maybe after all the area has been explored?
After one has unlocked all shortcuts?
Create an item that can be placed but it’s consumable and needs to be farmed?

I don’t know, but there is a better solution for this and I hope they find some kind of compromise, just like the Davos time skip from the crucible.

edit: Forgot to tell one important thing.

If you want to walk around and that’s what you like it’s okay, you can still do it even with the teleport.

But you want to force other people to do something that you like and maybe they don’t.
Why?

[Junn]

Thanks for taking seriously. So, resuming some of your aspects as well as others here, the main arguments are:
-Even with the exploration component as a key aspect, it doesn’t need to force players to walk around in the late game when the world is already explored.
-It adds a frustration component because the risk of being killed, wasting food reserves and/or extreme caution at fighting (I would add a frustration to the fear of falling, maybe).

About the others reasons:

@EC_QWERTY

If I fight is for new loot and for the satisfaction of the combat or to test my new build.

@EC_QWERTY

This system is good on paper but they will need constant updates and new content to actually keep it fun and entertaining. Such a thing is not possible unless they modify the world with every update after release.

I think this is the case for the most of us at the end game in the limits of the current patch. But imagine the system in the context of full 1.0 over ALL Isola Sacra. Think also that this kind of system could be part of the core and not the end game only, there should be other Bounty/Challenges in mayor cities like Ravenport or Caylen, I guess. So the constant updates are not really necessary because it will be the content itself and the zones will change with your playthrough.

SPOILER:

Remember, how Nameless Pass changed after the breakthrough. So during the gameplay the zones could be changing as a result of the history, even drastic changes (i.e Cataclysm in WoW), but the difference is that will be part of the content and not of an expansion pack.

Also, I guess that some of the history it’s also related to the places (i.e the crow with the message when you are walking into Sacrament after Lowland Meadows events, etc).

The 1.0 will be in all Isola Sacra, and the place is huge, I guess it would be some kind of teleporting after all.

@EC_QWERTY

But you want to force other people to do something that you like and maybe they don’t.
Why?

No, I don’t, I just got annoyed by the quantity of people review bombing naming, in my opinion, dumb things as this “long walking” knowing that the game is not even fully developed. Maybe these systems are placed with intentions related to the core gameplay and not because of devs laziness. So if I got exalted about that, my bad.

@EC_QWERTY

Even if I teleport to a whisper I can admire the beauty of the level while I look for objectives inside that area.
I am still encouraged to explore to find more chests, items, enemies and so on.

The only part that is cut out it’s the walking/running/ dash spamming to get there.

If you want to walk you can do it even if fast travel is there.
But something tells me you will use it as well, right?

Yea, sure, I would do. But I don’t fell that my time is being wasted because I just spend a couple of minutes arriving to the quest’s place.

Finally, I guess if it adds too much frustration to players it may be implemented as well. One of the interviews that Thomas gave a couple of days he mentioned how the wisps could improve by adding some elements to that system, but to my eyes he didn’t want to change it.

[Junn]

Oh sure, every mayor company, start ups, and independent proyects are full of “unemployed or unemployable” persons. I guess for example some of the people working under a service contract in Moon Studios, or everyone that works by itself writing books, creating independent content and games, animating, making music, etc. So most of the of the creative industry, including private consultancy in areas like advocacy, and even financial advisors, sure budy, sure. Maybe you know the saying but, if you’re good at something never do it for free.

@S_n_e_a_k_y

• My idea of a job is doing what I enjoy in a career field that’s financially stable, I really hate “wasting time” making a good amount of money doing something I’d do for free lol.
• Don’t project your mental state on me my dude, I’m perfectly happy and my worklife balance is fine, I enjoy the time I get to play games : )

Congrats, it seems that your supernatural psychoanalytic skills are awesome As awesome as the free time that your boss allows you to have.