Greetings!

One of the interesting questions that came to my mind after last week's QOTW was that of transportation, so I enlisted the help of the developer team to help explain teleporters a bit more. We know that getting you (and your goods) where you want to be is an important part of playing in the world, so without further ado, here is what they had to say:

This week we transport in as fast as we could to cover the subject of instant transportation - teleportation, that is. How is teleportation handled in Earthrise, where would teleports be located, who could have access to them. Are they guild based or individual based?
 
Enterra is a huge island - even with a moderate vehicle at your disposal, it takes quite some time to walk (or run) across the island especially when in a hurry. With teleportation available, many players will choose to instead instantly transport, even with associated fees. There are two types of teleports - small, short-distance teleports, meant to transport players from one location to another within a single zone (a must for larger zones) and large, long-distance teleports that allow players to cross the whole island. All teleports interconnect in a complex network, with each interconnection costing depending on the distance covered, so a trip around the island may cost a considerable sum. Teleporters are not for grabs - they are heavily guarded and Factions make them available for both their faction and neutral players, with only teleporters to their own faction city being forbidden for players of the opposite faction.
 
Guilds also have the ability to build teleporters in their own territories. Once built these teleporters become interconnected with the global teleport network and allow Guild members to teleport to the closest major teleportation point, and vice versa - they may return to their base from a distance. These teleports give those Guilds huge advantages, but also cost more to build, maintain and use. Guilds with their own teleports can skip all the drama of failed resource escort to the nearest city, and can quickly return their members to a siege fray after they have been resurrected on a distant cloning facility.

Come talk about transportation and teleportation below.
~ m.

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Other topics you may find related to this:
http://forums.play-earthrise.com/index.php?topic=1785.0 (geography x2)
http://forums.play-earthrise.com/index.php?topic=891.0 (the environment)
http://forums.play-earthrise.com/index.php?topic=1037.0 (resources, transportation)

Discussion/speculation:
http://forums.play-earthrise.com/index.php?topic=2312.0 (vehicles)
http://forums.play-earthrise.com/index.php?topic=1918.0 (multiplayer vehicles)
http://forums.play-earthrise.com/index.php?topic=2479.0 (includes discussion of run speed and mobs)
http://forums.play-earthrise.com/index.php?topic=2317.0 (exploration)

Epmty zones empty world no interaction no pvp, there goes my interest in the game finally,

I'm with Joker.

Also, I don't see how a teleportation network will cause the world to be empty. You still have to walk from the teleportation hub to the point of interest. On the contrary for PvP, teleportation nodes will make it easier to search for targets, while walking will possibly allow for a slower but safer travel experience.

Yei. Less people are clogging my resources. Less people = More Bandwith for me

I believe teleports are in the game for sole purpose of resource transportation. As Moll noted, they are pricey. They are probably scattered in horrible locations as well.
Now going back to the mechas QOTW, you can recall that you get speed "debuff" when you carry a lot of stuff on yourself. This is a great time to use a teleport pad.

Besides... do you really expect to have your personal means of transportation (hoverbike) from the beginning of the game?

It wont, this is this just the "hardcore" pvpers getting all bent out of shape because they cant zerg gank random solos running around the game. i don't see any issues with fast transport, its worked in many other pvp oriented games. if anything its going to add to pvp, especially mass pvp when you CAN go and wander out for exploration or pvp, but get back quickly in the event of guild territory siege or something like that. in a full loot pvp game a lack of mass transportation will deter people from exploring the world. everyone needs to understand the average gamers doesnt want to get zerg rushed and looted every time he leaves a safe zone, and its the average gamer that pays the devs bills, they are the majority. those of us in the blood thirsty ffa pvp community are the minority and there are 11 million people that attest to that. so you can have your hardcore gankfest with no mass transport and suffer the same fate as darkfall or you can curb your bloodlust for camping newbie zones and enjoy a healthy game. imo

so let me ask you this? should EVE not have the ability to warp between systems? does it deter from pvp? no its doesnt, and its the same premise. go play darkfall and hop on a mount and cross the map. thats a boring 2 hours of travel and if you lose a pvp fight, back to the beginning to start over and that is NOT fun. These are the reasons why fast transport is needed in large game worlds.

I'm not a "hardcore" pvper. Its what I enjoy doing but I'm not anything more than mediocre at it. However, what I want to see is people coming across each other and making the concious decision to fight, run, and act friendly.

What a porting system creates is camping of ports. I hate that as a PvPer. Sure ER will have guards near the ports, but the camps will just set themselves up outside the aggro range of the guards.


Won't work that way because you have to get to a port to teleport to the base. If a guild seige timer is immenent, no one is going to be out in the game world. Without a teleporting system, they'd be in the guild base and attackers would have a chance to gauge the defenders numbers (only fair since the attackers have to commit themselves to the field). With a teleporting sytem, members could be near any teleporter doing their own thing and port in if their guild mates send out a call for help.


Instead they are going to be zerg rushed when they leave the safe zone near a port.


Wasn't this game developed for the minority? I never heard of ER spoken in anything other than in the terms of a niche game.

Already got a thread setup. See: http://forums.play-earthrise.com/index.php?topic=4727.0

I think quick travel is a necessary feature. But I'm not sure the transport mechs should be able to use it. Or perhaps only part of it. Let's say the big area-to-area ports are only two-way and located a considerable distance apart. A player on foot can take the local teleports to reach the larger ones, but the mechs have to make the run through part of the zone.

As for ganking around the ports, I wonder if we aren't taking the factional system seriously enough. What if Continoma vs Noir is important enough that in the non-guild controlled areas, factions will largely work together? Since the teleports themselves are faction controlled, you won't get ganked because there will be others of your faction nearby to help out.