Which of these commands should be removed at launch?

In the earliest interviews about Tabula Rasa, RG was talking about how most MMOs forced you to spend most of your time on chores, and very little of your time doing the fun things you wanted. I think some of this is accidental and some of this is intentional to stretch content out. Players can always play content faster than it is produced. But RG wanted Tabula Rasa to be based around teleportation to enable players to spend more time playing together having fun, and spending less time just trying to get in the same place to group up in the first place.

There is still something to be said for that.

 

I can understand both views, but this is a game and should maintain a focus of fun. Implementing unnecessary time sinks to make it more "hard core" is not fun. If the travel serves a purpose, certainly disable /summons and /ports. I believe Guild Wars has a good system. Each player must visit a location and unlock first.

Playing the game shouldn't involve running around the same paths over and over everyday you want to have some fun and earn your keep. Most of us experience the same on our drives to work each day wishing we had a /teleport command.

If a certain player believes these modern MMO conveniences are game breaking, they can chose not to use them.

 

I can only support this. The other commands, except from /zone, can come back as magic spells.

 

In UO, I would have quit playing LONG ago without recall and gate. For a lot of players, having to walk everywhere would be a huge bummer.

 

We have a stretch goal for mounts to reduce the travel time. But you should know where you wanna go and that there is always a long way back.

 

Not always, no. I'm fine with those functions as a spell or something you can pay for...but no, giving the player easy ways to circumvent game systems is definately not good for the game.

That's part of designing a game...you have to have things that will inconveinance the player, not just for that reason but to make travel meaningful as well as areas and random encounters etc.

If we go by the logic what is good for the player should be the way to go, why have your character die at all? it inconveinences you...or take damage or anything that slows you down. If I recall correctly you were against slowing down on the map etc...where do you draw the line on what should be put in and shouldn't.

 

Very well said. When I also suggested to remove everything except /stuck and /follow, that did not preclude other ways to travel around besides travel by foot (or eventually mount).

I agree that the game should be fun and not only encourage, but facilitate player interaction. (soapbox: but never force me to with artificial limits)

With that said, I suspect we may have other ways to quickly join our party or go home, but not random /zone to any player.

Perhaps the /summonparty type commands will only operate in adventure zones. You want to join your friends that are already there. You can teleport there, do the adventure zone, but when you leave, you are transported back to where you came from. You do not exit the adventure zone to its attached/associated scene, thus giving you an exploit to travel vast distances or skip control points, etc. -- only the Lunar Rift provides for that.

Regarding /home, this might come at some cost where you may need to obtain a relatively rare (or expensive at vendors) resource to fuel the aetheric device (making this stuff up here as I type) that can teleport you back home. The further the distance, the more of this resource it uses up. So you'd have this thing powered by tesla coils (or whatever) at home, that uses this rare resource as fuel, and perhaps some object you carry on your person, which might even be lootable in PvP

 

i would also add that if you use the /stuck it sends a bug report automaticly to the devs. This should reduce the amount of abuse this feature would do. I can be anywhere in an instance and just do /stuck and it takes me to the entrance to the hex anytime and repeatedly.

 

I currently abuse /stuck to death right now.

So I'm surprised that so many people want to keep it.

 

I don't believe that removing /stuck is an option for any MMORPG.
With that said, I really hope that /follow will stay in game. It will help a lot to move as a group and it's essential for any melee with a ping over 100.

Peace,
Leos.

 

You can always put a timer on /stuck. Issue the command, it records your location (I'm sure it does this anyways, so if tons of people are doing it at the same spot it's a bug they can fix) and then waits 60 seconds before transporting. If you move, the command is cancelled since you're not stuck

 

Eh, this should be a nobrainer.

Absolutely zero Teleports or summons. /Stuck stays, so does /follow

 

I don't think this is intended, you should report it as bug. Stuck is needed to help yourself out of decoration/housing bugs. It doesn't work anymore in dungeons what is great.

 

I haven't been in a dungeon in a while. I just mean that when I get lost or I don't want to jog back to the beginning of a scene I often use /stuck. Which is a minor abuse. But hey, that's why I think they should get rid of it.

 

Common denominator is that players should have more choices, rather than fewer. Taking away any of these 6 commands restricts the playability of the game, by definition. Each has a specific purpose, and is useful. I don't like taking away choice and play options, particularly when they are community-building.

Slowing play down restricts choices.

Honestly I don't understand forced immersion. "Take away choices and slow down so you enjoy the game more." "Remove functionality for the good of the game." The players are the game. Let them have fun instead of shackling them for some (theoretically) higher purpose.

Dying in melee isn't a pure inconvenience, the way that forced encounters or slow travel speeds are. Dying in melee is part and parcel of combat. Risk makes the combat experience, and therefore the gaming experience, better. Whereas restricting our ability to join others, move across the map, etc. makes the playing experience suffer.

 

Someone please explain to me why /summon, with an option to opt out, is bad?

The command lets people get together in-game. Must we really traverse the planet to join our friends? Does anyone really think that the long-term health of the game is better served by making things a pain in the ass?

 

It's kind of hard to have a regional player based economy if you can just teleport at will anywhere on the map.

 

Who says the economy has to fluctuate based on region?

And with encumbrance, it isn't like someone can just go to Brittany and buy every single suit of armor and then pop into Ardoris and sell them there for a profit.

Markets self-correct anyways. If economy is your only concern, then I don't know that should trump the game being fun or not.

 

1. The devs say the economy is based on region.
2. I think that's more fun than making the game a chat room.
3. I think there could be a compromise where central locations would have fast transportation (moon gates), but it would come at a cost (gold) and it would not always be available (limited). Oh yeah, I think that's already in the game design.

 

You can't just teleport to anywhere on the map. Someone has to summon you.

And your post begs the question, why do we need regional economies? In UO, I had runebooks full of good vendors. If they restocked regularly and had good prices, that's where I shopped. If they didn't, I'd go somewhere else. Should it be any different in SOTA?