Flight Paths: Appeasing the Masses

[-Joker-]

In recent months, flight paths have been used more and more as folks make their way from point A to B in the game, regardless of zone or level. I wonder if maybe there were a more fitting way to adjust flight paths for use. Instead of the current method, there could be 3 options (based on your need or preferred play style):

Option 1: Standard - Flight path remains the same as it always has, allowing for a scenic route view, and a chance to go out to smoke or hit the bathroom/kitchen/etc.

Option 2: Streamline - Path is now a direct line between A and B with no looping through zones or around mountains. You lift up, fly straight, and land.

Option 3: Skip - With this choice, you lift off, fly forward a few feet, brief loading screen, then arrive 50 feet from your destination location. Think Cataclysm taking the dragon from Moonglade to Mt Hyjal, except instead of coming out near Rag, you came out just over the lake behind the lodge.

And, with the advent of Legion using your personal flying mounts when leaving Dalaran, now you would have the same effect happen at every FP on Azeroth. No longer would you be relegated to riding a Gryphon or Windryder. Just my take on adding some depth to flight paths.

Thoughts?

[Deleted]

Option 3: Skip

bzzd wont, cuz "pl need 2 enjoy the landscape"

[clevin]

Watch, people will want #3 but bitch about player flight because immersion...

[Deleted]

Why overcomplicate something that works fine? Most flightpaths are pretty direct in legion. Most of the time you don't even divert to a connecting flight master unless its litterally directly under your path.

Are flightpaths really an issue for people? or is this a case of people whining for the sake of whining and causing problems where there are none?

[xezar]

This is where I wish they'd rob from FFXIV some, they at least let you simply warp to places (crystal to crystal, basically FP to FP) instead of having to waste time with this "scenic" flight shit.

[A dot Ham]

In recent months, flight paths have been used more and more as folks make their way from point A to B in the game, regardless of zone or level. I wonder if maybe there were a more fitting way to adjust flight paths for use. Instead of the current method, there could be 3 options (based on your need or preferred play style):

Option 1: Standard - Flight path remains the same as it always has, allowing for a scenic route view, and a chance to go out to smoke or hit the bathroom/kitchen/etc.

Option 2: Streamline - Path is now a direct line between A and B with no looping through zones or around mountains. You lift up, fly straight, and land.

Option 3: Skip - With this choice, you lift off, fly forward a few feet, brief loading screen, then arrive 50 feet from your destination location. Think Cataclysm taking the dragon from Moonglade to Mt Hyjal, except instead of coming out near Rag, you came out just over the lake behind the lodge.

And, with the advent of Legion using your personal flying mounts when leaving Dalaran, now you would have the same effect happen at every FP on Azeroth. No longer would you be relegated to riding a Gryphon or Windryder. Just my take on adding some depth to flight paths.

Thoughts?

Is there an option 4? Perhaps randomize flight paths.

Solution: You keep current scenic routes. Add say 2 more random routes. 1 still scenic, but shorter, another that is without a doubt a straight line quickest path.

The result is variety between points A and B, and the overall time spent on FP is lessened. Everybody wins.

[Kul Tiras]

OP, World of Warcraft players are the biggest hypocrites in this world, so this thread is pointless because:

1. They claim on flight paths you get to see the scenery, even though flying allows you to actually control your path, whereas flight paths do not, in any shape or form.
2. They claim flight paths allow you to see the scenery, yet many of them will admit in other threads to alt-tab during flight path flight.
3. They claim flight paths allow you to see the scenery, but that they'd rather use a port once they've taken it a few times.

The list goes on to bout #25, but the point is: in conclusion, they themselves admit indirectly that flight paths are pointless and that flying mounts themselves would ruin nothing when it comes to the "advantages" of flight paths, which is just another argument for why flying mounts ruin nothing except world PVP to some extent.

All those options are of course very rational, well rounded and reasonable to appease all the groups (read: the vocal minority and the rest of the sane people).

The problem? They're a very, very vocal minority, and they have a lot of time to waste defending one of the only things they have power over in their lives: negating quality of life decisions on the basis that it makes the game "harder" which in turn makes them think they're more resilient and "better".

[Sinndra]

OR.. we just leave it the fuck alone. add flying into the game and be done with it.

flying is not the problem. lack of meaningful shit on the ground is.

WPvP is frustrating because your target flies away? add better WPvP rewards into the game. give people an actual reason to get down off their flying mount and fight. its just time wasting frustration at this point.

People fly over random mobs and skip straight to the quest items? remove the daze mechanic outright, then make mobs worth fighting. having them drop absolute garbage consistently makes them a tired bother to slog thru for repeated grinding dailies.

flight paths due to their automation, remove what people want, control over their movement. being able to choose where to fly to, the height to fly at and the duration of the flight is something that many players enjoy and want.

[darkwarrior42]

This is where I wish they'd rob from FFXIV some, they at least let you simply warp to places (crystal to crystal, basically FP to FP) instead of having to waste time with this "scenic" flight shit.

This. Numerous other games do it, and it solves so many problems.

Why overcomplicate something that works fine? Most flightpaths are pretty direct in legion. Most of the time you don't even divert to a connecting flight master unless its litterally directly under your path.

Are flightpaths really an issue for people? or is this a case of people whining for the sake of whining and causing problems where there are none?

In my case, it's more a matter of seeing numerous other games do it (fix the travel system), playing those games, never once losing a feeling of immersion while still spending a lot less time getting from zone to zone, then coming back to WoW and seeing people make arguments about how terrible for the game it would be to go this route. It's a case of WoW doing it in an outdated manner because that's the way it's always been done.

It's not exactly the biggest priority right now, but it is an irritant.

[Kul Tiras]

This is where I wish they'd rob from FFXIV some, they at least let you simply warp to places (crystal to crystal, basically FP to FP) instead of having to waste time with this "scenic" flight shit.

Ironically, in games like GW2, the open world is always full of players even in low level zones, not only because they implemented the "world" quests system since inception, but because players can log in, port to an event, log the fuck out and be done with their fun, instead of being gated by a lot of mini pointless time wasting gimmicks. And no one complains about it, not the artists, not the players, no fucking one.

[Usagi Senshi]

OR, Blizzard can drop the shitty archaic mechanic and actually just put in instant teleports like what i get in every other MMO I play.

Ironically, in games like GW2, the open world is always full of players even in low level zones, not only because they implemented the "world" quests system since inception, but because players can log in, port to an event, log the fuck out and be done with their fun, instead of being gated by a lot of mini pointless time wasting gimmicks. And no one complains about it, not the artists, not the players, no fucking one.

Yup, lots of players out in the world in FFXIV as well.

[Lumineus]

Why overcomplicate something that works fine? Most flightpaths are pretty direct in legion. Most of the time you don't even divert to a connecting flight master unless its litterally directly under your path.

How about the fact that Obsidian Overlook doesn't connect anything so if you fly between VS and SH you get a nice horse-shoe shaped path through Thunder Totem. -_-#

[ComputerNerd]

OR.. we just leave it the fuck alone. add flying into the game and be done with it.

flying is not the problem. lack of meaningful shit on the ground is.

WPvP is frustrating because your target flies away? add better WPvP rewards into the game. give people an actual reason to get down off their flying mount and fight. its just time wasting frustration at this point.

People fly over random mobs and skip straight to the quest items? remove the daze mechanic outright, then make mobs worth fighting. having them drop absolute garbage consistently makes them a tired bother to slog thru for repeated grinding dailies.

flight paths due to their automation, remove what people want, control over their movement. being able to choose where to fly to, the height to fly at and the duration of the flight is something that many players enjoy and want.

Very much what I have said.
Lack of continued relevance is a problem.
Storyline quest content in a zone is relevant only once.
After that is exhausted, what does that become other than generic terrain like the rest of the continent.

Flying for ME is about letting me spend more time on that which is relevant.

Flight Paths while arguably having some issues do fit their role well IMO.
The inherent protection that a flying mount cannot guarantee.
The afk-able travel which will still guarantee getting to your destination.
The sometimes convoluted route, the longer flight time I think is a fair compromise given those.
They should remain an alternative with their own pros and cons.

[-Joker-]

This is where I wish they'd rob from FFXIV some, they at least let you simply warp to places (crystal to crystal, basically FP to FP) instead of having to waste time with this "scenic" flight shit.

I had an idea awhile back to allow the Hearthstone to be used at ANY Inn in which you have spoken to the Innkeeper. Essentially, you could teleport to a safe spot and either log out, or continue your adventure. And, to steal an idea from Diablo, allow Scribes to make a Scroll of town portal which would allow you to pick the town you wish to port to. They make some gold, the proff gets a bump, and a gold sink is born.

[dextersmith]

It should be teleporters.

[-Joker-]

It should be teleporters.

Maybe they could add Teleporters (for Engineers), Mage Towers (for spell casters), and other options based by Class/Spec/Proff. Add more depth to the travel system and offer a variety of things. Like the Ogre Waygates, etc.

[dextersmith]

Maybe they could add Teleporters (for Engineers), Mage Towers (for spell casters), and other options based by Class/Spec/Proff. Add more depth to the travel system and offer a variety of things. Like the Ogre Waygates, etc.

That's a lot of programming to do one thing.

[ItachiZaku]

How about they remove flight paths? No flying. No flight paths. No portals aside from Dalaran to the broken shore. The. Fucking. End.

[Deleted]

instant flight paths would be nice. currently blizzard made flight paths come bundled with alt+tab

[Thorbalt]

In recent months, flight paths have been used more and more as folks make their way from point A to B in the game, regardless of zone or level. I wonder if maybe there were a more fitting way to adjust flight paths for use. Instead of the current method, there could be 3 options (based on your need or preferred play style):

Option 1: Standard - Flight path remains the same as it always has, allowing for a scenic route view, and a chance to go out to smoke or hit the bathroom/kitchen/etc.

Option 2: Streamline - Path is now a direct line between A and B with no looping through zones or around mountains. You lift up, fly straight, and land.

Option 3: Skip - With this choice, you lift off, fly forward a few feet, brief loading screen, then arrive 50 feet from your destination location. Think Cataclysm taking the dragon from Moonglade to Mt Hyjal, except instead of coming out near Rag, you came out just over the lake behind the lodge.

And, with the advent of Legion using your personal flying mounts when leaving Dalaran, now you would have the same effect happen at every FP on Azeroth. No longer would you be relegated to riding a Gryphon or Windryder. Just my take on adding some depth to flight paths.

Thoughts?

you should look into windowed maximized mode and alt tabbing on flight paths