Solution for Shadowlands Flying

[Gyuri Geller]

It's very simple:

Unlock it in the form of an achievement if you have completed every quest in every zone for the first character you level through.

After you earn the account wide achievement, every new character can automatically fly if they have trained flying.

Going forward, every expansion should stick to this logic.

[Collected]

The trouble with that is Blizzard use the lure of flying as a method of getting players to work on the achievement. Completing every quest, whilst a worthy achievement, wouldn't take anywhere near as much time as Blizzard want players to spend working on getting flying. It's a time sink.

[rrayy]

It's very simple:

Unlock it in the form of an achievement if you have completed every quest in every zone for the first character you level through.

After you earn the account wide achievement, every new character can automatically fly if they have trained flying.

Going forward, every expansion should stick to this logic.

This isn't a solution because because their isn't a problem. Pathfinder is fine as is. The issue is laziness and that is a 'you" problem, not a game problem.

[letssee]

remove pathfinder fuuuuukkkk
either that, or kepe the achievment but remove the fking timegating reps.

wasnt the whole point in pathfinder that u dont skip content, so if u lvl and get secrets and treasure then uve experienced the ground content why cant they just allow flying then.

theyre literally doing it as a carrot stick, they may deny it but its so evident.

instead, design areas with flying in mind, that would be cool

[Somnium]

I'm absolutely fine with Pathfinder. I wouldn't mind if it was available during the x.0 patch though (so you're still grounded for about a month, to earn the reps).

Alternatively, they could still do the two-parter, but part 1 gets you the ability to fly in your covenant zone as soon as 9.0.x, and then like older pathfinders you can fly everywhere in 9.2.

[Gaidax]

Pathfinder is fine.

[CalamityHeart]

Having to hoof it for half of BFA wasn't actually that bad, honestly. Sure, there's some annoyances with pathing in certain areas in Vol'dun and Stormsong, but overall, I found that the flight paths + the whistle made getting across the world not too big an issue. It helped a bit that it wasn't one massive landmass, but rather, two smaller ones. In SL, it'll be five even smaller landmasses. I'm curious to see how that'll work itself out when it comes time to fly.

I don't have too much of a problem with how Pathfinder works currently. Personally, I hope flying becomes a 9.1 thing and not a 9.2 thing, but other than that, keep the system as is.

[Azerate]

More crying for handouts, free allied races is not enough apparently

[kaminaris]

Having to hoof it for half of BFA wasn't actually that bad, honestly. Sure, there's some annoyances with pathing in certain areas in Vol'dun and Stormsong, but overall, I found that the flight paths + the whistle made getting across the world not too big an issue. It helped a bit that it wasn't one massive landmass, but rather, two smaller ones. In SL, it'll be five even smaller landmasses. I'm curious to see how that'll work itself out when it comes time to fly.

I don't have too much of a problem with how Pathfinder works currently. Personally, I hope flying becomes a 9.1 thing and not a 9.2 thing, but other than that, keep the system as is.

Of course it wasn't since you didn't actually do anything besides getting to raid/dungeons in open world. And I hope it stays that way in shadowlands.

[kappalol]

Pathfinder is fine a totally easy to get. There is nothing hard about it. What it takes is only time and not even much of it.

[Nero Duskwind]

If Pathfinder were to be removed, then introduce more looming aerial threats like in the N'Zoth invasions or introduce a stamina/fatigue bar that inevitably forces your flying mount to land and recuperate (higher ranks of flying increase flying mount stamina as well as flight speed).

[Ragedaug]

This isn't a solution because because their isn't a problem. Pathfinder is fine as is. The issue is laziness and that is a 'you" problem, not a game problem.

The issue is you attacking other players and calling them lazy for not wanting to play the game like you like to play it.

[HateTrain]

It's fine as it is.

[Ragedaug]

It's very simple:

Unlock it in the form of an achievement if you have completed every quest in every zone for the first character you level through.

After you earn the account wide achievement, every new character can automatically fly if they have trained flying.

Going forward, every expansion should stick to this logic.

For the most part, I'm fine with Pathfinder Part I, as it is, being required to unlock flying. Maybe drop the rep requirement to honored (or remove it). But doing all the zone quests and unlocking the achievement for exploring the zone seems to meet Blizzard's requirements for "playing it their way first". Now that I've done all the quests once, and viewed the entire zone from the ground "as intended"...please let me fly hereafter so I can get to the content I want to do faster.

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It's fine as it is.

I would counter that by saying, it is not.

[Nachturnal]

I think pathfinder is fine, I just don't like the time-gating aspect of it and also that the element of choice is removed from the player. I don't enjoy that it's become routine to break pathfinder up into two separate achievements just to hold it off until the x.1/x.2 patch, arbitrarily extending the time needed just for the sake of keeping the player hooked and playing longer. It feels sort of metric-y.

I understand that it makes the world seem more, "alive", but honestly how much do we socialize in-game outside of guild chat? What's it matter seeing more players on the ground you're not going to interact with? It's no different than seeing someone on your adventures across the sky, you both go your merry way. I believe when it comes to open world exploration, it should be up to the player to decide how they tackle the world rather than it being gated behind rep/time sinks. Even worse when Allied Races faced the same system.

I'm fine with pathfinder as a mechanic if it were made a little simpler and was available from the start or at the least have just the one achievement rather than the 2-part split.

[Ragedaug]

I'm continually amazed that people on this forum can spin "I don't want to spend my gaming time doing pointless world quests" as "laziness". Seriously, it's a game, and the quests are stupid easy. How can anyone possibly, possibly think that they're not "lazy" because they are willing to sit at a computer for hours a day for weeks on end grinding? How can you be so lost?

Wake up man.

The ironic part is that it seems lazier to me to demand everyone use flight paths instead of their own mount to get around. Then running from the flight path to the content you want to do seems lazier they quickly flying there.

If I saw someone IRL who was moving as 1/4 speed to get to the task they were supposed to be doing, I would assume they were lazier than someone who moved quickly to get to the task.

[Ragedaug]

I think pathfinder is fine, I just don't like the time-gating aspect of it and also that the element of choice is removed from the player. I don't enjoy that it's become routine to break pathfinder up into two separate achievements just to hold it off until the x.1/x.2 patch, arbitrarily extending the time needed just for the sake of keeping the player hooked and playing longer. It feels sort of metric-y.

I understand that it makes the world seem more, "alive", but honestly how much do we socialize in-game outside of guild chat? What's it matter seeing more players on the ground you're not going to interact with? It's no different than seeing someone on your adventures across the sky, you both go your merry way. I believe when it comes to open world exploration, it should be up to the player to decide how they tackle the world rather than it being gated behind rep/time sinks. Even worse when Allied Races faced the same system.

I'm fine with pathfinder as a mechanic if it were made a little simpler and was available from the start or at the least have just the one achievement rather than the 2-part split.

A little more irony...I unsubbed the last 3 Xpacs until the achievement to unlock flying is available. I'll play until Pathfinder I is complete, then unsub and return several months later, at which point my desire to play the Xpac is greatly reduced as I haven't been thinking about it as much for several months. So their choice to keep us grounded seems to have backfired on them (at least in my case).

[FelPlague]

It's very simple:

Unlock it in the form of an achievement if you have completed every quest in every zone for the first character you level through.

After you earn the account wide achievement, every new character can automatically fly if they have trained flying.

Going forward, every expansion should stick to this logic.

thats just.... how it is now... but its introduced part way into the expansion and not at launch..

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This isn't a solution because because their isn't a problem. Pathfinder is fine as is. The issue is laziness and that is a 'you" problem, not a game problem.

I am fine wiht pathfinder, but i do think it should be added in the first major patch, not the second.
or if a midground the second minor patch (so 9.1.5)
this way all the content has been done to full.

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If Pathfinder were to be removed, then introduce more looming aerial threats like in the N'Zoth invasions or introduce a stamina/fatigue bar that inevitably forces your flying mount to land and recuperate (higher ranks of flying increase flying mount stamina as well as flight speed).

and people would complain even more. have you seen the madness over the nzoth worms? imagine that everywhere.

[Kuja]

I would like that very much. Much better than waiting for stupid pathfinder achievements to become avaiable. Players should be able to start working on it as soon as they step into Shadowlands and not a year later.

[Nachturnal]

A little more irony...I unsubbed the last 3 Xpacs until the achievement to unlock flying is available. I'll play until Pathfinder I is complete, then unsub and return several months later, at which point my desire to play the Xpac is greatly reduced as I haven't been thinking about it as much for several months. So their choice to keep us grounded seems to have backfired on them (at least in my case).

That's a pretty common thing to do also. It's ridiculous to call players lazy because they want to traverse the world quicker. Time is a precious thing to everyone, so fuck me for trying to get to in-game tasks a little quicker with less hassle. Even worse when the excuse becomes, "well you just want content spoon-fed to you and if you're finishing the game quicker, you no longer have incentive to play more". Pfft. Let the player decide for themselves the incentive and how much they want to play and how they want to allocate their time. It's such weird reasoning to say, "well the player will have less to do", in a game that has an endless supply of content to chase.

I've done exactly what you've done. Sub to get pathfinder and then be done until the next pathfinder with actual flying is introduced. It's just so boring to deal with daze, agro, weird pathing, getting stuck in combat, slow rolling your way across large land masses just for the sake of spending more time in-game, because of someone else's definition of pseudo-fun.