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Question about travel in Warhammer
qombi
Member UncommonPosts: 1,170
Hi folks, I like a lot of you are interested in Warhammer Online. I have a question for you guys that were in beta on travel in the game. I want to know how travel is handle and is it implemented tastefully? What I mean is I dislike travel in a lot of games that make the world feel less like a world and more like just a bunch of maps you can visit via teleportation. Does the travel fit into the world or does it feel too much like just a game mechanic thrown in for convenience? I really don't like World of Warcraft since the release of Burning Crusade but I feel they handled travel correctly in the original. It doesn't take that long but the world still feels like a world. Travel is convenient and quick but it doesn't make you feel like you are not in a world.
On the other hand the way EQ handled travel with the instant books to teleport were awful.
I hope some of you realize what I am asking and can fill me in on how you feel travel immersion is handled. Thank you.
Comments
During Open Beta, there were flight masters at every RVR PVP area. I didn't see them in the cities at all (I think). You couldtravel to other tiers and areas easily.
I think the traveling is well spaced out. Its not like theres a flight master everywhere you go. You can still enjoy the scenery and the environments without thinking you passed a lot of content.
Also, you can walk anywhere within your pairing that's connected to you. So for instance, you can walk from Dwarf Tier 1 to Orc Tier 1, or from Dwarf Tier 1 to Dwarf Tier 2, etc. etc. anything in your pairing you can and probably will walk to.
You only fly to other pairings and the capital city. I mean you "can" fly to other zones in your Pairing, but you dont have to.
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I live to fight, and fight to live.
Let me ask, if one was to choose to walk across the world is this possible unless you reach water barriers then of course you would ride a boat etc? I mean is the world a whole or is some parts only able to be accessed via instant travel? I think this would be immersion killer for me. I don't necessarily mean the instances because I realize they are not in the world really. I am still a little confused to if the world is actually a world or just big regions that you reach only by teleportation which I think would be bad in my opinion.
he wants to know is this is a sandbox game?
What I ask has nothing to do with a sandbox game. I realize it is linear level based but I can handle all type of games so that is okay. I want to know if it is an actual world like EQ or WoW.
What I ask has nothing to do with a sandbox game. I realize it is linear level based but I can handle all type of games so that is okay. I want to know if it is an actual world like EQ or WoW.
No.. Tiers are equal to uhmmm..., hmmm.. lemme see if i can find a comparrison. 1 tier is like 2 zones in WoW. There are 4 tiers(per pairing/race) and the 4th tier is like 2-3 tiers in size. The world is not seamless.
Also there you can travel by mount if you have 20 gold to buy a mount. And though as a closed beta tester for well over a year, I have never seen the mount upgrade(horseshoes etc.) maybe they will be implemented post release.
Thank you for all the information. I can't believe the game isn't even a world. Thanks for the information, I don't think I can pick this title up. I want to be part of a world, that doesn't feel like MMORPG to me but I hope others will enjoy it. Thanks again for giving me this info so I can save money for something that is world.
Im pretty sure in WAR lore that these places are nowhere near each other. The elf lands are off on their own island. It would break lore for everything to e right next to each other. You can travel through all of a races and there enemys zone w/o instant travel but the other pairings its not possible.
Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.
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Good luck finding a non instanced, non zoned full PVP world.
Waiting for Fallen Earth, World of Darkness, Old Republic, FFXIV
um...there are 27 HUGE zones that you can walk from one to another. Their are 3 seperate continents that you have to fly between but in each continent you can walk between any of the 9 different zones.
Okay now I am interested again. As you can see for me a game has to make sense. It can't be designed just for the sake of convenience or game mechanics. If what you say is true then that might shed some light to why you travel the way you do. When you travel (instantly) to these far away lands does it give you a screen showing maybe a boat etc or at lease elude to how you are traveling there? I guess what I am saying was it done to match lore. I would like to know why behind the reasons you are unable to reach these areas.
Anyone that is knowledgeable in the lore of Warhammer that can describe why you would not be able to walk to these certain areas such as seperated by water etc? Thanks, I think someone understands what I am after here. I want to thank all of you so far for you helping me understand how travel works in the game and why. I just don't want to end up with a game like AOC where nothing made sense, there was game breaking unimmersive elements everywhere you looked. You absolutely while playing had no deception of being in a world you always was rudely awakened constantly that you were in a game. That isn't rpg for me.
They try to make the travel not quite so instance feeling by having Cut Scenes when you take the flight master. Every City & Warcamp has a flight master. While you can't walk between the Realms you can walk between the Tiers of a Realm..there's a zone wall but it aestethically makes sense.
It's kind of like 3 continents.
Each continent is divided into 4 parts (Tiers), each part holding 2 or more seamless zones (map pages).
When going between the 4 Tiers (parts) there is a portal, not unlike an instance portal in WoW (it's not instanced though).
To travel between the 3 'continents' (pairings) you have to fly. There is an animation of taking off, then a loading screen which appears like the ToK and a landing animation.
Here are some zone maps to look at warhammer.gameamp.com/game_map/viewGameMaps
I can understand people feeling that this isn't an open world and it's not, but honestly the zones are so big and full of content that you really don't think about it all that much. You really have no reason to be going from Tier to Tier back and forth so you basically only get a loading screen when you zone through a portal when you've finished in a Tier or you're in flight.
*edit* you also get a loading screen when entering a scenario.
From what you write it sounds as if it was created to be immersive. It sounds nothing similar to the game breaking unimmersive gave that AOC is. I am okay with zones between tiers. I am also okay with instant travel between contents with a cut scene. I may give it a go, thanks.
The red 'explosions' signify a loading screen. Each 'continent' or pairing is set up exactly the same way, so there are a maximum of 5 loading screens when zoning per tier. (excluding flights to other pairings and scenarios)
You can see that Tier 1 is two zones (seamless), Tier 2 is two zones (seamless), Tier 3 is two zones (seamless) and Tier 4 is 3 to 5 zones depending how you look at it and if you include the cities.
When I say seamless, you're running from one 'map' to another, there is a very slight pause, like hitching and you can tell when you've crossed into the new zone.
AoC was a set of zones linked by annoying loading screens.
WAR feels much more like a living world to me. Maybe not on a scale as large as Vanguard but its better than i thought it would be. There seems to be parts of the world off the beaten track for explorers even.
Okay now I am interested again. As you can see for me a game has to make sense. It can't be designed just for the sake of convenience or game mechanics. If what you say is true then that might shed some light to why you travel the way you do. When you travel (instantly) to these far away lands does it give you a screen showing maybe a boat etc or at lease elude to how you are traveling there? I guess what I am saying was it done to match lore. I would like to know why behind the reasons you are unable to reach these areas.
Anyone that is knowledgeable in the lore of Warhammer that can describe why you would not be able to walk to these certain areas such as seperated by water etc? Thanks, I think someone understands what I am after here. I want to thank all of you so far for you helping me understand how travel works in the game and why. I just don't want to end up with a game like AOC where nothing made sense, there was game breaking unimmersive elements everywhere you looked. You absolutely while playing had no deception of being in a world you always was rudely awakened constantly that you were in a game. That isn't rpg for me.
Hmm tough call and personal flavor rules everything you know? I would suggest that you try and make Open Beta if at all possible as you are the best judge of what you'll like. If you get hung up anywhere in there make sure to /1 and ask around, most CBT and EBT will usually answer you pretty quickly ( I know I try to and am often beat to the punch.lol).
To address your initial q: I personally hate having to run around on foot at low level, want my mounts to move a smidge faster, wish the Flee ability lasted a bit longer, and that the take off for flights was slightly shorter. But then again, that is just me ( my own tissue issues if you will). I do like the transition points, instead of you running into a plain portal that just drops you into some random area there is design around them that give me the impression of going through a large overgrowth, another that mimicked a tree covered cobble path. It helped with my immersion and they only happen per tier. Also, the flights you actually take off, you don't just show up and some weird npc shoots off a "hows ya moms?" and punt you into the landing zone. Those things make it kinda nice for me.
Again, though. Nice for me is one thing. OB is your best bet if possible.
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When I heard about the layout and saw the maps, I groaned a bit. However, when I was in game, the Tier zones felt so huge that the game felt immersive.
It's better than it may seem on paper.
Also, unlike AoC, where you often had to completely back track to turn in a quest, here you are always moving forward to new quest hubs.
It's not a sandbox sort of world (I'm still waiting for an MMO with all the desired play elements PLUS an organic, sandbox style world layout), but I found it extremely immersive and content rich.
Hard to accurately judge long term play based on a weekend (or even a full week), but so far,so good.
At least the Tier zones with in a racial pairing all connect properly on a map, unlike AoC where every zone was an isolated cube.
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So if Im a greenskin can I go to other parts of the world? For example, If I want to travel to the High Elves teritory can I go there and PvP?
Sure it's very easy, you just go to the nearest Warcamp and take a flight to any other pairing. There are Flight Masters in every Warcamp.
As a Greenskin, you'd fly to a Dark Elf Warcamp which will be very close to the High Elves.
in case you don't know: Warhammer is over 25 years old.
there is more lore than to any other MMOG.
EVERY design decision has to be approved by Gamesworkshop, the company that owns the Warhammer IP.
of course it's immersive. and of course everything sounds well designed because it has been planned for 25 years.
read about the lore and the IP: warhammeronline.wikia.com/wiki/Warhammer
Sure it's very easy, you just go to the nearest Warcamp and take a flight to any other pairing. There are Flight Masters in every Warcamp.
As a Greenskin, you'd fly to a Dark Elf Warcamp which will be very close to the High Elves.
That sweet, I was hoping it was like that, I was afraid I'd be stuck fighting Dwarves unless I made another Character.
See where you're coming from, but the map design and world design has nothing to do with this. This is Mythic's solution, which as you say, may have had to have the approval of Games Workshop.
Warhammer Online has only been in developement a few years.
If you follow the natural progression of the game and your races starting area you hit your first Warcamp at about level 8.
There's nothing stopping you making a run for it at level 1, you might die a couple of times, but roads are fairly safe to travel on.