Patch 2.4 has better ways to go
by Ryan Carter 
Feb 19th 2008 at 5:30PM
Blizzard has started to realize that travel (as in real life) can be boring in the game. On the Public Test Realm (PTR), they have put a few new ideas to good use when forcing players to travel long distances to get to new content.I copied my character to the PVE test server (once it started working again), and began a flight to Quel'Danas from Ironforge. First off, I already had the flight path, which was refreshing to start with. The odd thing is that upon reaching the gates of Ironforge, the bird rocketed straight up vertically which panicked me a little until I realized that it was on purpose. All the sudden, welcome to a loading screen appeared. I was dropped on the far side of the Ghostlands gate and continued my flight all the way north to the new content at Quel'Danas. This shaved off several minutes flying time and provided an easy way to bridge an old flight path to a new one easily. A flight path spanning from the original content to the content now in the expansion (technically a patch is both and neither) is the type of crossover innovation I knew Blizzard was capable of doing.
Another new idea is to provide a quest reward to transport you to Shattrath, Darnarian's Scroll of Teleportation from the new quest Know Your Ley Lines. This is as opposed to the hearthstone you get. This item only has a 20 second cool down, so at least the outbound trip from Quel'Danas to Shat will be quick and painless.
Blizzard is adding some creative ideas to help travel become a bit easier especially for those who have run around the world and picked up every last flight path during the course of their rise to 70, and now are tired of flying everywhere.
Now what I wonder is how travel to and from the floating city of Dalaran will work, not to mention other destinations, once it has blasted off from Hillsbrad and begun to hover over Northrend. Perhaps travel will be done in much the same way. This isn't all that new, since boats already use a very similar mechanism from Darkshore to Azuremyst Isle. I imagine things will get even trickier to manage with 2 expansions up and running, from a technical perspective for Blizz, so it is nice to know that they are thinking ahead on how we will get there, get back, and generally move about the world we love. Nice to know indeed.
Filed under: Patches, Blizzard, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jasperwind Feb 19th 2008 5:46PM
Woot! This is the best 2.4 news I've heard yet (that affects me). :D
Lain Feb 19th 2008 5:49PM
Crossover innovation? For crying out loud they just shortened the flight path for testing purposes, or maybe they haven't finished the FP yet. Have you ever taken a FP into Zul'Aman? You fly through the big obvious portal in EPL.
Thander Feb 19th 2008 5:50PM
That sounds like it might just be for the test server. I can't imagine almost instant travel from Azeroth to the new island. I think the flight will go like normal, passing through Eastern Plaguelands and going through the portal to Blood Elf lands. Then, it will continue over the water to the island. I think the scroll of teleportation is going to stay, but I just can't see almost instant flights like that.
Archaic Feb 19th 2008 6:06PM
Is that scroll a permanent item?
Furien Feb 19th 2008 6:09PM
It's far from instant, you still fly from ZA right across the Ghostlands and beyond to the island. You do skip the wetlands, arathi and the plaguelands. I'd say it's to stop Alliance QQing that we have to fly from IF and the Horde can fly from Silvermoon.
Zarzuur Feb 20th 2008 7:02AM
That sounds alright, I suppose, and the Quel'Danas island is a unique case.
As long as there are not "instant" flightpaths because that would undermine spells such as summoning and portals.
Odok Feb 19th 2008 6:09PM
Fast travel is really nice when you need to get somewhere quickly, but the slow paths can be very scenic and full of eye candy if you have time to stop and smell the virtual flowers. If the new focus is indeed on faster travel, I hope they also throw in some slower choices for the sake of it.
Aticus Feb 19th 2008 6:53PM
An excellent point. I remember when I first traveled from Stormwind to Booty Bay. I loved flying over the coast and to this day, it still makes me want to watch it. If they were to do this, I would hope that they would put a check box in the options menu for "Short Flight Paths".
-Aticus, http://www.paladintales.blogspot.com
EM Feb 19th 2008 7:02PM
Flight time = [bio|beverage|play with the cat|turn over the laundry|check email] break.
I like having a little bit of downtime.
Fletch Feb 19th 2008 7:04PM
Think they'll ever connect the Exodar flightpath with the mainland? It'd be nice not to have to wait for the boat.
Meira Feb 19th 2008 7:09PM
Would be not much to ask... then again, who besides jewelcrafters/lowbie draenei/ lvl 20&40 mages go to exodar? At least beyond the EPL gate there's ZA and now Sunwell.
matt Feb 19th 2008 10:51PM
I think the issue there right now is the fact that blizzard never planed to put anything over t by Exodar other than there starting area. As such for the horde you have to run through a bunch of guards at Auberdine then ride a hostile boat. Not that any of that is overly hard mind you but it does kind say that blizzard doesn't want to make it easy for horde to get there. And I don't there is really any room left on the island to put anything new in. Exodar location makes it worse for travel than Darnassian. They really just need to restart space ship and park it closer to org then it was be in the center of everything is Kalandar.
As for the new flightpath no way blizzard is going to let you save time that goes against there whole time ship philosophy.
Jardil Feb 25th 2008 3:19PM
I visit exodar on my mage all the time, very little lowbies asking for boosts/gold than compared to SW or IF, and the bank and AH are pretty close to each other too.
Whome Feb 19th 2008 7:22PM
What an awesome change! Travel as a time sink has always been an aspect of WoW that I did not care for.
Aichon Feb 19th 2008 7:46PM
While the scroll is nice, I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the innovation is with the flight path.
I mean, we already have flight paths in-game that bridge the old and new content. You can fly from Light's Hope Chapel (and any connecting paths, of course), through the portal in EPL and into the new content, such as ZA, Tranquilien, or Silvermoon. I suppose the "flying straight up" thing is new and neat, but as was mentioned, it's probably just for PTR purposes so that you can get there faster.
Adese Feb 20th 2008 7:16AM
The innovation that this post refers to is that instead of flying over Wetlands, Arathi Highlands, Hinterlands, and EPL, your bird goes way up high, you get a BC loading screen, and come out of the EPL/Ghostlands portal on the other side.
When I first got onto the PTR, the FP was just like I was flying to ZA, but then kept going to the new island. Earlier this week, however, they changed it over to this approach - which tells me that this will see live as well, because the original flight path was probably the longest in the game (way worse than Auberdine -> Theramore).
Michael O'Connor Feb 19th 2008 9:08PM
Many seem to think it's just to stop people QQing about the awkward travel, but as an Alliance player on the PTR, I can honestly tell you that flying to Quel'Danas every time you want to involve yourself in the new content *is* horribly repetitive and tiresome. Especially early on, when there's only 2 quests to do there.
It may seem like a small change, but this is going to be extremely welcome for Alliance players, and I'm betting that it *will* make it into the Live Realm. They'd be crazy not to.
@Aichon: I think he was referring to the very flight paths you just mentioned.
What exactly is the deal with this now Shattrah transport? Is it permanent item that acts as a hearthstone from anywhere in the world? If so... sweeeeeet.
JD Feb 19th 2008 10:54PM
Time and distance are what add value to things. Shortening them via patches lowers the value of the game. Shortening them via earned things increases the value of the game. If making it easy to get places is a great concern let people choose a mount account or a teleport account at level 40. One or the other.
blitzkrieg999 Feb 19th 2008 9:30PM
I still think Asheron's Call/Asheron's Call 2 had the best transportation system with its portal rings. There was still a sense of travelling and adventure (not instant teleport to wherever you wanted), but not nearly as time-consuming or boring as hopping on a flight from Orgrimmar to Silithus (or whatever FP you want to use as an example)
Daryl Feb 20th 2008 6:49AM
I remember doing the dishes during a flight from Everlook to Marshall's Refuge when scaring NPCs with the mechanical yeti.
And remember when Un'goro didn't even have a FP?
Rydo.