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The Repopulation details transportation options
How do you like to move it, move it? The Repopulation is offering a variety of transportation methods for traversing its vast world to fit most any style and circumstance. Players can always hoof it to their destination, either by walking or running indefinitely, or sprinting until their endurance is depleted. If that seems too slow, there will also be pets for mounts and customizable vehicles. An even quicker method will involve underground stations that will let players take a subway train to specific locations; even large enough player cities can develop a connection to this system. If all that is still just too slow for your liking, there's the instant travel option that lets players teleport back to their faction's capital city once every 30 minutes. Some players might even opt for the death express: Players can bind themselves to different cloning facilities and respawn at one after a death.
LotRO introduces travel to quest feature
Sometimes it's the little things in life, such as a McFlurry in the middle of a business day or an MMO giving you an express ride to where you need to go. Among the bushel of features coming with Lord of the Rings Online's Update 9 is a cool tool to let you do just that (and no, we're not talking about McFlurries). In a new dev diary, the LotRO team explains that it's adding a new icon by most quests to allow for an easy return to the quest-giver. If the icon is clicked, players have the option to immediately travel to the NPC in exchange for a Traveller's Writ. If you feel the whisper of money behind that last sentence, then you probably suspected that these items will be in the game's cash shop. This shall be the case. "For long-standing players with several level-capped characters," the dev writes, "I expect this will make it easier to try out a new class or race." The feature won't be available for some quests. It also won't function while you're in combat, in an instance, riding a stable mount, or in the PvMP zone.
The Daily Grind: Does instant travel trivialize MMO worlds?
Among hardcore MMO fans, there's a theory that instant-travel is a bad thing. If you can just click a map or teleport somewhere instantly, they say, you lose your sense of place in the world along with your appreciation for the setting. Everything feels close together when you didn't have to meander there by foot, and sooner or later, you won't bother exploring at all. But the opposite's been true for me in practice. I've done far more exploring in (and have a much deeper nostalgia for the landmasses of) titles like Ultima Online and Guild Wars, which boast Recall spells and map travel, respectively, than I have in less-travel-friendly titles, and I'm guessing it's because the ability to get to strange and out-of-the-way places quickly means you'll actually go there by choice -- because you can. If it takes me two hours to walk to that cool oasis hidden away in a secret corner of your map, I'm probably not going to bother going at all. What do you think -- does instant travel trivialize the MMO world experience? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Fallen Earth 1.9.2 debuts tomorrow, expands fast travel options
There's a lot going on in the wasteland these days, and the Fallen Earth dev blog updated with a bird's eye view of all the shenanigans over the weekend. First and foremost, the 1.9.2 patch is on the way (it's currently scheduled for tomorrow, in fact), and the blog entry has the patch notes ready for your perusal. Along with the requisite combat, skills, and recipe updates, the big news is the expansion of the game's fast travel mechanics. Players are now able to zip between certain LifeNet pod locations, with additional destinations becoming available as LifeNet's supplies are restocked. The fast travel system necessitates mission turn-ins at each pod location that a player wishes to use, and the mechanic also features level, chip, and knowledge requirements. That's not all there is to 1.9.2, of course, and the update notes are pretty extensive. Head to the Fallen Earth dev blog to read new info on progress towns, mission updates, and a laundry list of other tweaks.
Collecting tech for your very own Star Wars Galaxies space jalopy
This past Friday's featured article on the official Star Wars Galaxies site was all about a brand-new toy. Chapter 9 dropped onto the live servers on Thursday. Alongside the bevy of other content, a brand-new collection was added that ends by obtaining a new instant-travel vehicle called the 'Rattletrap.' Instant travel vehicles have been available for some time now as claimable gifts in retail boxes, but this piece of space trash is available to anyone with the time and keen eyes to find it.Instant travel toys are one of the clearest departures of the 'new' SWG from the thinking of at-launch Galaxies. The lengthy runs and endless travel times of the pre-vehicle days were notorious. With vehicles and mounts in place for some time, as well as shorter shuttle waits and instant travel vehicles more recent additions, SWG marches forward towards that always-elusive goal of 'Fun'. For full details of the recent Chapter update, make sure to check out our extensively-linked breakdown.
