Faster travel on roads?

[<Kabal>vtgamergirl]

Something I have always thought a good game mechanic and something to consider for this game, is possibly traveling faster when on the road.

It would actually make sense if you think about it. You would travel faster on a road then you would traveling across the country.

[Keign]

If I'm recalling correctly, this idea has already been mentioned on the blog - I believe it was in the post about structures.

Yep:

Quote:

Other Kinds of Structures

We also envision the ability of characters to build and improve roads that increase the speed of characters using fast travel, to erect docks which will permit watercraft access to rivers and lakes, and to build bridges to allow roads to span those rivers.

[Dakcenturi]

From the blog

Goblinwork wrote:

Fast Travel

This has been a topic of much interest on the messageboards, and this is a good place to address it.

Fast travel is a mechanism that allows a character to move from place to place in the game world faster than it would take to walk. Typically, fast travel in MMOs is "hands free," meaning players don't have to interact with the game while their character is traveling.

In general, fast travel in Pathfinder Online will not be instantaneous. Instead, characters that are using fast travel are assumed to be moving at a rate of up to five times normal speed (that is, 20 times real time). Traversing a hex at this rate requires less than a minute. During fast travel, you will not have to direct your character—it will simply move to the destination you've selected.

To engage in fast travel, you'll need to start at a defined location; you can't just be wandering in the wilderness. And you'll need to know the location of your destination. These locations are discoverable as you explore the world, and can be shared by members of social organizations as well. To initiate fast travel, you'll access the in-game map, find your destination, and select it.

Your map has several levels of magnification. At the highest magnification, you can see a fairly detailed visualization of the hex you're currently in (or as much of it as you've explored). Zooming out, you can see the region surrounding your current hex, and the locations you know of in that region. You'll be able to use fast travel on this level. At the lowest magnification, you'll be able to see the whole Crusader Road area, with only certain kinds of locations visible—likely settlements—enabling you to make the longest journeys.

Typically, a long-distance journey would start by setting your map to the lowest magnification and fast traveling to the settlement nearest your final destination, then zooming in and fast traveling in a series of hops towards the closest defined point that you're aware of near your destination, and then walking the rest of the way if need be.

During fast travel you may be ambushed (see our previous dev blog to read about hideouts and how ambushes are triggered). If you're ambushed, you'll drop out of fast travel and will have to take control of your character and navigate to a place of safety where you can initiate fast travel again. You won't be able to enter fast travel while you're engaged in combat, or for a while after you've engaged in combat.

You can't use fast travel if you've been flagged as a criminal.

There are likely to be other effects that restrict or negate your ability to enter fast travel or have the capability to force you out of fast travel into normal movement. So even though it's a "hands free" method of movement, there will be a risk to your character. If you leave your computer or don't pay attention to what's happening, you could find that you've been ambushed, attacked, and killed while you thought you were moving from place to place.

[Fulcrum]

It would seem that even outside of "fast travel" a road ought to speed up your character's standard pace. Naturally, it should offer the same benefit to any ambulatory creature. I don't think you should have to opt for cruise control to benefit from some pavement.

[randomwalker]

I like!
It gives another reason to stick to roads unless you are exploring.

I'd also like to see "difficult terrain" giving slower movement, plus abilities (at least for druids/rangers) to reduce/ignore this penalty.

[Marlagram]

randomwalker wrote:

I like!

It gives another reason to stick to roads unless you are exploring.

I'd also like to see "difficult terrain" giving slower movement, plus abilities (at least for druids/rangers) to reduce/ignore this penalty.

I agree - even if this proposition means a lot of additional work for developers, this will add a plenty of new combat tactics and much more variants of planning your routes. With working and useful logistics in this game this will create whole new area of activity - pathfinder. Literally. :)

[Uthreth Baelcoressitas]

I wonder if it would be good to just increase run speed while on a road, except when in the sphere of influence of a non-friendly watch tower, or while in combat. That way people could actually meet others on the road while still allowing for fast travel (though not hands free). Maybe have both systems, the current one already proposed at 20x normal movement and also increase run speed on roads by like 5x if you want to just run along the road yourself.

[Hobs the Short]

I would like to see terrain be more dynamic in regards to movement, either by the inclusion of items that force you to slow down, navigate around, etc. (such as rocks, logs, etc.), or by some mechanic that simply slows you down in particular hexes (marsh, rough, etc.). Especially with unit combat, terrain movement modifiers could be very meaningful additions. Imagine broken ground that mounts could not easily ride through or thickly wooded hexes within which units lost their cohesion.

[Wyspr]

For a long time I've wanted games to include the sort of mechanics the effect movement speed as a lot of above posts have mentioned.

I envision movement on roads = 100%, open grass land = 95/90%, heavy grass/light forest = 90/85% etc. (examples only). I think this would be a great thing to implement and would certainly encourage people to use roads for travel, more people on the roads makes them potentially safer and so the benefits multiply.

It also would make them potentially more lucrative targets for bandits while also being riskier due to the chance of someone else stumbling into the SAD potentially assisting the person being robbed.

I like this concept a lot.

[The Wiseman of the Wilds]

It also lets bandits know where to plan their ambushes :p

[Malin Blackshire]

I also see another cool thing: If a hostile settlment would attack your home settlement they have to think about which way they take to attack you. They have to choose between the road, which ist fast but mostly good guarded and so there is a greater chance of being recognized. Or to walk through the wilderness where they are slow but there is a smaller chance for an ambush. This would make the wars between settlement more tactical and I think also more realistic.

[Keovar]

I suppose different levels of movement speed bonus or malus could be applied based on the terrain, but I would hope it's not terribly obvious the moment you touch it. Tall grass shouldn't look like wading through molasses, though slogging through a swamp might. I think it should be subtle enough to change travel speeds over time, not to suddenly switch you into slow-motion or fast-forward. Ranger and Druid training, as well as skills like Survival and some spells could allow the user to lessen or ignore difficult terrain effects.

I doubt this would make it into the "Minimum Viable Product" at the launch of Early Enrollment, but it's a neat idea for the future.

[Hobs the Short]

I like the survival skill getting a nullifying effect. Nice.

[The Wiseman of the Wilds]

I think the survival skill has a LOT of promise, not only the aforementioned nullifying effect, but potentially tracking troop movements, seeing whether anyone has been using a particular road.

Do we know if there are going to be random weather effects?

[Valandur]

Haven't really heard. Although I think it would be nice to have, I don't think it's something we will see until release, likely after.

[Hobs the Short]

I've seen tracking done several ways in games. I'm interested in how it will be handled, if at all, in PFO.

[Malin Blackshire]

I like the idea that with the survival skill you can track troop movements. That makes scouting even more effective and usefull. Like in the real world. No good general sends his troops in a fight without scouting before.