... minus the 20 minutes. Because, I can run to the landing from EN faster than that. For 2,000 silvers and a gold ring use.

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Rohese: "... the TownCrier (tune in if you haven’t, it’s without doubt the best thing to ever happen on LNet)"
;tune towncrier

I think the whole idea of transportation needs to be re-thought for the entire product. When we built transport "delays" or similar systems where it takes a long time to get from A to B, it was only partially due to "because, realism!" and less so than most would think. Most of the sprawl within the continent occurred at a time when GemStone was growing exponentially, just after the release on AOL and the move to the Web. We had released Teras just as AOL was entering the picture, and put the boat in there partially so that "AOL-sprawl" would be harder to reach the island. It gave long-time players a "town" refuge if they wanted some peace and quiet. It was similar with Elven Nations, because at the time we had upwards of 2,000+ players in-game regularly and the towns where straining. Wehnimer's Landing and its environs could in no way support that level of population.

The situation is completely different now from a population standpoint, as is modern game design. When I travel from the Landing to Ta'Illistim, I think "Who is the complete GOOB that put in all these delays to get through the mountain?!" and realize of course I was involved (Lyredaen and I coded the mine carts in Zul Logoth, thinking "wouldn't it be cool to put an Indiana Jones style mine cart ride here?"). I'll be he first person to say that such travel delay no longer applies to the current GemStone and should be removed.

I'll just add a bit to what Erek said.

Back when I designed the overall layout for the EN expansion, I had a few goals in mind. First and foremost priority was the critical need to make more space for people. It is probably difficult for people who did not play at that time to fathom just how overcrowded the Landing was. There was a small population living on Teras, but fully 2200+ people online in the evenings based themselves out of the towns on the western side of the Dragonspine. And if we had an event going on, such as the Jug or similar, pretty much all 3000+ online players were in the Landing.

So breathing room (which was quite literally the code name for the project when I started it) was #1.

My secondary goals were to provide towns for more of the races that didn't have anything to call their own. Humans had WL/Baronies and halfings had IMT and Teras was sort of dwarven due to the crash but not really a "home land" for them. So Zul Logoth was conceived as an origin home for dwarves, the three elven cities of Ta'Illistim, Ta'Vaalor, and Ta'Faendryl (though Ta'Faendryl is unique). Ta'Ashrim I destroyed from the get-go when writing the history documentation, as we didn't really need another port city type (and plus, drama! action! betrayal!). Sylvankind were adopted in via friendly relations with elves.

I remember some questioning the need for a full leveling-spread of creatures from 1+ on up in EN, but we really, really needed space. And we didn't want people to have to go back and forth just to find something their level to hunt. The plan, at the time, was to be able to comfortably accommodate 1500+ people living on each side of the Dragonspine, for their entire "lifetime". (I still regret that we didn't finish Ta'Loenthra and Ta'Ardenai, but there's just no need for sprawl anymore. So those will live forever in my mind, I guess. :) )

Times have changed. The community is smaller (but no less amazing)... however, that means people need to be able to come together more quickly. I love that GMs and players have adopted the EN side of the mountains and run events and things there all the time. It's a gift to see these places still enjoyed. I do feel like they'd enjoy even better attendance if people could get there faster.

Fun fact: Back when I was planning the travel to and from EN, my first thought was to use elven airships on a long timer schedule (like the Glaesen Star), and even have an airship dock atop the mountains that would allow you to climb down a pass into Zul Logoth, with continuances to Ta'Illistim and Ta'Vaalor (and eventually Ta'Ardenai and Ta'Loenthra). However, I ended up scrapping airships in favor of overland travel, since we already had the long-term travel to Teras, and it made it harder for people to go there. So the thinking was - it might take you 20 minutes to walk, but you could go ANYTIME you wanted, and not have to wait 2 hours for an airship.

Times have changed though. Elven Nations was designed and built when MMOs like World of Warcraft were nothing more than a fevered thought in some developer's dreams, Ultima Online was nothing but a gankfest, and you walked across Meridian 59. Back then, nominally adhering realism in travel type and time was still done in virtually all games. (Who else remembers spending 4+ hours walking on foot from one end of EQ1 to the other?) However, today's games have pretty much standardized near-instant travel, usually via magical portals. They want you to play, not task out to read the internet.

It seems like it would be a really excellent perk for Premium to have instant, free or nominal fee (like 10k so all levels of premium characters can afford it) chronomage portals from Mist Harbor to every city. Might even net more premium subscriptions for access to that service alone. If you want to add a small travel time, you could have a 5 minute wait to "charge the portal" or similar.

IMO, the costs should be capped at 50k or 75k. It's premium and should be better. Our population is much smaller now, and lower costs may encourage more people to travel crossrealms more often via the system, which may result in them spending more overall. It may also mean that attendance to player run events is increased because of the convenience.

~ The girl behind Debia

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> It's been discussed but will likely not be looked into in depth until AFTER phase 2 of the transportation updates is released. ~Kynlee

Are you able to provide us with a release schedule for the Phase 2 transportation updates? :>