Soooooooo… What I’m reading here… Is, "we hear yea’, but don’t really care about what’s happening this patch… so we’ll ‘fix it’ in a future xpack.
Sounds a little like the ‘fix’ is going to finally be like, ‘9.0, all flight removed [feature], Flight paths are going to go 30% slower [feature], Ground mount speed slowed to only 80% run speed, running up to 120% run speed at max level [feature], and World feels 500 time bigger [feature]’
Still bad form, Blizz.
3min x 10 alts = 30 min of not playing (longer, if you have more alts). I don’t call travel “playing”, personally.
Just leave it as it is. It’s what we’re all use to. If you feel the necessity to add a one stop location that has portals to everywhere, like a Hall of Portals with over a dozen portals to the various places, then do so, no one would feel the worse. Just don’t remove the portals. Any of them. You clearly can’t get it right so just don’t. That even even need to tell you which ones should stay and which can be trimmed is part of the problem. You just don’t get it. Prime example, Caverns of Time.
This exactly. It sounds like there’s a set of “golden rules” out there that are directly responsible for many of these bad choices. I’d love to know exactly what they all are so we can tell them whether or not they’re right.
I’m out of likes so…
#POSTENDORSED
#GIVEMEMYLIKESBACK
#YOUNOTAKEPORTALS
#SMASHTHELODESTONE
#BRINGBACKTHEYAK
The theories are all out there that it’s to increase the time-played metric.
What’s that you say? Ion said the only metric was “if the players are having fun?”
CLEARLY this proposed change to portals ISN’T being viewed by the players as “fun.” You’ve once again contradicted yourselves as we wade through a mediocre expansion always hoping for improvements but constantly being met with disappointment.
My personal take is they’re removing some portal locations to try and decrease the amount of old content people want to do (like Caverns of Time mount farming) in some last ditch attempt of desperation to guide them towards current content (which, I think most of us agree, is one of if THE worst expansions to date).
Either way, the changes will happen, people will enjoy the game less (not more), and we’ll all wait until November 2019 to actually use our flying mounts again.
Cause flying, then not flying, then flying, then not flying, then flying, then NOT flying again just because a new expac is launched … that’s fun too, right?
Right?
Then how was the Caverns of Time portal still in the game 11 years later? We had the Cata portals, MoP portals, and WoD portals still, so history proves that your statement is a lie.
Or how about don’t remove the portals at all, and then there won’t be anything to add in the future?
This is so disingenuous! Once again, you’re trying to rewrite history. The Caverns of Time portal has been in the game for 11 years! (I have no idea what you’ve done on the PTR. You could have mentioned which portals will be available, but of course you didn’t.)
It’s not the players’ fault that the devs and CMs don’t do old content, so aren’t aware of just how many people this is affecting - especially for the 7 instances in CoT. (And 2 reputations, and a Legendary rogue weapon, and… and…)
You know what? I’m just going to be glad that you’re going full speed ahead with this because all it’s going to do is make some new people who have played other MMOs not want to play WoW due to its clunky travel, and some current players will decide to leave and come to FFXIV where I am now.
There’s a new FFXIV expansion coming out, and it’s a great time to try out the game, get leveled, meet the requirements to buy a house, and make enough gil to buy your home that you can decorate how you wish - just in time for its July 2 launch. (Player housing is limited, so make the switch asap if you’re thinking about it because the closer it gets to Shadowbringers, the more returning players there will be who will want to buy a home.) Eorzea has teleportation which will never be removed. And it also has flying, unlike WoW these days.
Mount collectors - FFXIV has some incredible mounts and they’re eventually going to make every single one be able to fly and swim underwater. Transmog collectors - the clothing and weapons are fantastic, and most is dyable, too. Pet collectors - there are minions for you to get. Achievement hunters - you can use your achievement points to buy things like mounts, glamour (transmog), things for your home, etc… You can do everything on one character, but altoholics can make up to 40 characters with a standard subscription. There is raiding. Dungeons stay relevant. Your character gets stronger as you level and remains strong. The only downside compared to WoW would be pvp, and they’re working on improving it. I’m having a ton of fun so far!
Signed, former Ranged Survival Hunter WoW player for almost 12 years straight. My entertainment money goes to Square Enix now.
It feels as if you guys don’t even play your own game and when you do, you have a skewed perspective on what makes the game interesting to play. All of these comments and the best you can come up with is "you think you do but you don’t."
Thanks for actually bringing up how popular these threads have become and taking some time to actually respond to them.
Doesn’t sound like the amount of noise we made for our discontent with these changes has made a difference.
Isn’t it contradictory to remove the portal to Kara while leaving in an item that ports you right to it? You’re making an argument that we should experience more travel while simultaneously telling us how to get around it? If you’re going to leave teleport items in the game, why not just leave the portals?
I’m going to weigh in on portals, because I think Blizzard is missing an opportunity.
Human beings are hard-coded into taking the shortest paths to a goal. This is why there are so many “desire paths” (dirt paths showing how people actually travel from point a to point b, ignoring the actual paved paths).
Portals are Blizzard’s “desire paths” and should be leveraged as such. The result would be MORE people funneling into the same locations, thus causing the world to feel more alive.
Now, not every portal has to be five steps from the other, but strategic placements of portals not only gives the world a believable framework (and while I get gameplay > lore, it can’t be gameplay at the expense of lore).
So the way I would play this is that portals in the capitol would begin as a network of LORE AND GAMEPLAY portals:
Ironforge/Thunder Bluff, “Darnassus”/“Under City”, Exodar/Silvermoon - Why? Because lore-wise each city would want a fast way to send their emmissaries and representatives to and from the capitols. Yes, I know we have the tram for the Alliance and we have flight paths, but that’s what choice is about.
Partner cities: Boralus/Dazal’alor, Shattrath, Dalaran and Shrine. A two-way portal for these cities makes sense because this is the extended network of aligned cities.
Military locations: Tol Barad, Ashran.
Frankly, I would move the Cata portals into the portal room as well (you have shown you can do that already by moving Tol Barad). This is because people aren’t going to get that some portals are in location a and some in location b, as well as have an “Allied Race” room. And frankly, the Silithus portal and Dark Portal portals should also be in the Tower.
I would keep the more esoteric, one-way portals in Dalaran, because lore-wise it would make sense to have the peculiar locations something the mages would keep around but would not be pragmatic for the capitols, who are already maintaining a slew of portals.
So if we look at hubs (and I’m going to focus on Alliance as that is my wheelhouse)
Draenei - Exodar, Shattrath, Lightforged,
Dwarf - Ironforge, Twilight Highlands, Dark Iron, Silithus
Night Elf/Kalimdor - “Darnassus” Hyjal, Uldum
Human: Boralus, Dalaran, Old Dalaran, Void Elf
Military: Ashran, Tol Barad, Vashjir, Pawdon Dark Portal
Pandaren: Shrine
Earthen Ring: Deepholm, Shaman Order Hall
Dalaran Portals: CoT, Dalaran Crater, Kara,
You’ll note that some Legion content is creeping in here. That’s because Blizzard is missing a golden opportunity by not leveraging the class order halls and setting up the 1-100 experience much like the monks are done, with each class heading back to their hall every 20 levels. Order Halls were very successful and Blizzard has to stop abandoning concepts that engages players on multiple levels just because they weren’t perfect out of the gate ( ::cough::Garrisons::cough:: ).
If Blizzard wants people out in the world, you don’t make it take forever to GET there, you hijack the human desire to get from point a to point b in an efficient way and bank on their desires to stay engaged within their final destination. The gameplay cannot be the player flying or taxi-ing for ⅔ of the intended play. Not only is this not engagement (people are taking bathroom or snack breaks or are alt-tabbed) but as all the travel is in the air, there is no perceived “in the world.” Leveraging portals basically funnels players through major capitols, this keeping the “lived in” feel as all the flow is going through major nodes, especially when those nodes are strategically placed around in-world targets.
The tl;dnr is in leveraging portals, you will actually encourage people to be MORE engaged with the world as the travel from point a to point b is not gameplay, and that having redundant means of getting places (three to IF, for example) is not a bad thing as it gives people options.
If Blizzard wants people in the world, then put stuff in the world for people to do. Making it harder for people to get from point a to point b just discourages people from going anywhere at all.
Not really contradictory IMO, as those items have a cooldown.
This is the thing that Blizzard doenst realize, the removal of content kills the game for me. Their competition doesnt remove content, and they make it all relevant to do at high level
People actively going to Kara and other places like this are going to farm a mount. They kill the boss, and then leave. They don’t need to port their multiple times on one character. Also, cooldowns seem irrelevant to this entire conversation…
If their logic is to remove the convenience of portals to encourage traveling, how exactly is it not contradictory to leave in a teleportation ring?
Why are the portal room portals so random as well? like azsuna? Jade Forest?
Try Broken Isles Dalaran and Shrine. a portal is a waste if it brings you to nowhere important.
verything shouldn’t be a loading screen away in an mmo
Ahem
FF14 says hi there…Im an MMO.
I understand what they’re trying to do.
I dont.
What I don’t understand is the fuss and the backlash blizzard is getting in the forums and on wowhead over a change that i personally feel is better for the health of the game
Its a change no one wants, no one asked for, no one needs, no one agrees with, and no one sees any sense in. Will that suffice?
Also, lemme clue you in.
Less players is NOT “better for the health of the game”
There are loads of far more important problems in the game currently
Yes there are. So why not fix them and leave what isnt broken alone? Those portals have been there for eleven years and NOW they are a problem?
Hmm…sounds EXACTLY like the same excuses they had about flight. Wasnt a problem then but now it is…why?
they’re disconnected from the player base
Seeing as they have two threads with an overwhelming majority are AGAINST this idea…mayhap they are.
I agree there are LOADS of problems. But this isnt one of them.
Flight wasnt a problem until Blizzard made it one.
These portals werent a problem until Blizzard said they were.
Sound familiar?
Mate
FF14 has what can only be called a MASSIVE portal and teleport system…and no one minds in the least. Its also in the throes of a HUGE influx of new players. Take one guess where they are coming from.
This claim that a port system doesnt belong in an MMO is so much rubbish.
Y’all have a broader view of the playerbase than I can. But…for me at least the world is not made to feel larger by changes like these. The way to make it feel larger would be to add in large “sandbox” buffers between the zones (a thing I’m totally a fan of BTW) or to add in things that make travel more than “jump boat, take fp, fly to destination, never look at the world or interact with any npc that is not the way to board a boat/zep/fp”. This change will/may make some travel longer (and TBH I had forgotten about the Kara ring) but that only means time burned to no useful purpose not any new discovery or wonder in the course of travel.
So…why is it cool for there be like 200 ways to open locks when your not a rogue then? Or have potions and items that replicate so many other class abilities (invis pots, healing items, tp items that go places mage tp does not, waterwalking items, hrm…I wonder how many class abilities have no consumable analogue). This argument feels emotionally good and sounds logical on it’s face…but I think that’s more of a warm blanket to make it feel better than a valid argument (IHMO of course).
Might have to switch back to mage as main just for the ports.
Agreed.
Engineers should be able to build portals around the world.
Make it another sub-discipline of Engineering. You have to level it like goblin and gnomish engineering.
You can’t build portals inside instances, and there might need to be other restrictions too.
Mages should also be able to add to their list of permanent portals too.
Just make the whole game more interesting by giving us fun things to do.
I still dont see how I will “interact” with anyone…I dont now, why would I later?
It’s astounding you still don’t understand. This logic is illogical. Why do you persist when the majority of the player base wants the portals? By your logic, there should be no portals to any place, old or new. The game has gone through multiple expansions, different timelines and revamps of complete zones. By taking away these easier means of access exemplifies your complete distaste for something you did not create. Legion was the best expansion in years to some and BFA is the worst since WoD. You just want to destroy something because it was better and you did not create it.
No PVP Vendors because that would ‘confuse the playerbase’ when there is a complete area with a PVP chest and PVP vendors that sell patterns for PVP equipment.
No portals because that ‘diminish a sense of the world having a meaningful size’ when the game has been out for over a decade and no one visits these areas on a regular basis and its convenient for the playerbase.
So instead of going to Legion Dalaran with my hearthstone to go to the Caverns of Time to run that god-awful Dragon Soul that I played in Cataclysm, I will now use my hearthstone to go a Stormwind portal, to go over to the Cataclysm portals that I obtained access to years ago, telelport to Uldum, and fly to Caverns of Time by alt-tabbing and not looking at a zone that I spent plenty of time in already because I was there when Catacylsm came out.
For Shine in Pandaria, I will do the same thing, go to the Jade Forest, hop on a flightpath and alt-tab out because it does not interest me.
You really want to push the playerbase away. You don’t care. You are apathetic and burnt out. I see it in the replies from Blues and from the Devs. You think you know what the players want, but you are deaf and blind to them. You know nothing and that is * why you fail.