Airship is a waste of taxpayer money!

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#1

Ok, so we don’t actually pay any tax. But this is about addressing how terrible the airship is at getting you there without walking. Do you ever think about using the airship? Probably not unless you just started this game.

Right now this system of public transportation is way too slow to be useful, and is never really on time regularly or efficient!

If you sit in highsteppe and wait around for the airship, you’ll notice they come at irregular regular intervals.

Shortest wait = 3 minutes
Longest wait = 6 minutes

That’s a long time! Where can you walk in that amount of time?

Highsteppe -> Guild City in 2.3 minutes
Highsteppe -> New Kingsport in 1 minute
Highsteppe -> Lakewood in 2 minutes

Well you get the picture.

But wait, what about the fact that the airship is convenient to certain locations and relaxing compared to walking around Orbus? Well about that:

You get about 15 seconds to get on/off the airship before it leaves. That means you have to have your eyes peeled for your destination stop otherwise you’ll completely miss your stop as it takes 13+ minutes to come all the way back around! So is it relaxing? Not if you’re keen on getting off where you want! Compare this to public transportation where they announce each stop so you know when its approaching and when it’s stopped.

What about convenience and speed? Let’s take a look how long it takes the Airship to go from Highsteppe back to Highsteppe in order of its stops.

Highsteppe -> Guild City = approx. 1m 55s
Guild City -> New Kingsport = approx. 1m 50s
New Kingsport -> Lakewood = approx. 2m 20s
Lakewood -> Desert = approx. 2m 15s
Desert -> Highsteppe = approx. 4m 15s

That doesn’t seem too bad right? Now let’s compare it to walking around from Highsteppe to these same locations (because most people don’t use the airship anywhere else).

Highsteppe -> Guild City = approx. 2m 20s (slower than airship)
Guild City -> New Kingsport = approx. 3m 30s (slower than airship)
New Kingsport -> Lakewood = approx. 2m 30s (slower than airship)
Lakewood -> Desert = approx. 2m 10s (faster than airship)
Desert -> Highsteppe = approx. 4m (faster than airship)

Looks like the airship is still a good option because its faster right? But now that we factor in the wait time for the airship (3m to 6m), it doesn’t look so hot anymore.

TLDR: You can walk just about anywhere faster than the airship can get you there if you have to wait for the airship. Furthermore, even if you don’t have to wait for the airship, you still can walk there nearly as fast as the airship without having to think about missing your destination.

I suggest the airship at some point be upgraded in several ways:

Moves faster so it appears faster at each destination and reduces the wait time.
Has a sign post to let players know which destination it goes to from each area.
Audio/Visual indicators to let the player know its arriving soon.
If it’s upgraded significantly to be much faster than walking, make it cost a little bit of dram (20) if necessary

7 Likes
#2

Since they will eventually add something like pillar teleporting:

I think it would be cool if the airship was made into an instance area, like the Player house, or dungeons, that had was a minigame. It could have a cut scene with the airship lifting off. The minigame could be something like shooting birds off the sky. And don’t think I forgot you the warrior class. You guys can doze off and go into a dream state where you imagine to be fighting the same birds.

Idk if there would be prizes and if so what they would be. Cosmetics, tradeable items (e.g. 2-8 small tooths or something like that), a new item to slightly increase speed. Something that would theme well with killing birds.

1 Like
#3

I think there should be an underground mages group in each city that’ll unlock once you’re far enough in the story. Once you know they exist and are cool with them they’ll teleport you where you want to go (for a small fee or something?).

Maybe you have to knock just right to get let in, or some sort of mechanic.

#4

Imo, it would be nice if they redid the map and made it more epic\large/quests/filled. But it’s probably a huge request not likely to happen either at all or for a very long period of time. Airships would be useful then lol

1 Like
#5

Thanks for the insight I honestly never calculated and did use the airship now and then, but if you know the way by foot then with that speed it’s not really useful. Might even walk instead and find resources on the way… an easy way out would likely be skipping either the traveling or waiting time, which would make the entire mechanics implemented so far obsolete, though, and take away much of the atmosphere.
It is nice traveling first time, when you need it for the story, but if it should be useful to get from A to B fast(er) at least a skip-option of the “dragging” part would likely be needed, the waiting time I use to practice spells, so not too bothered by that.

#6

Awesome post! Sadly, the airship should be less useful than just walking now because it is an unfinished unsatisfying mess anyway. Inefficient pathing, missing multiple routes instead of one stretched one, lagging movement, restricted walking on the ship, no interaction on the ships, limiting render distance (stupid fog grrr), etc. It is just a marketing sell point for the game atm. Still cool to see one fly by thou. But I always get disappointed when it crosses a zone and disappears instantly. It would be really cool to see the airship from far away (and use that information to lead new players wondering where that airship flies. So they start following the airship what will lead them to interesting places). I think when the airship gets his/her love about most of those points, than the usefulness will be addressed too. I hope this will be addressed close after content patch 3.

You mean “(slower than airship)” in that example?

#7

Whoops, fixed that! Yes that’s what I meant.

#8

Just a few teleportation spots on the ship to get a view the world as you go would be nice, the current fixture in the middle of the ship sucks. :worried:

1 Like
#9

I’d be ok with it functioning like a fast travel location. Walk up, mark destination, board, fade out and fade in on your destination, disembark. Payment required, of course.

#10

What about when it pulls up to the dock right as you walk up to it?

1 Like
#11

When I first started to play the game I found that the airship was a dang cool sight. Me and a friend got super excited over being able to see where it could take us. Obviously this is a one time thing, but the concept really blew us away. I’d love for them to speed it up, but please keep the airship. Instanced travel will just isolate us off from the community a bit more.

5 Likes
#12

Then you don’t have to wait for the airship.

But its still only slightly faster than walking to GC from your house in Highsteppe. And if you were walking immediately from your house, the difference is like 10 seconds.

So even if the airship was basically waiting for you, you’re still nearly almost always better off walking the first stop the airship stops at unless the airship is always arriving right when you get there.

#13

There should be a second airship that goes in the opposite direction. Bc walking to the rainforest is much much faster than taking an airship from highsteppe.

2 Likes
#14

I think as the world grows in size and scope, the airship routes may become more viable, though it’s an interesting balancing act with runemage teleports. I’m curious to see how the devs support travel with the new zone(s) coming in Act 3.

2 Likes
#15

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