How to make no portals acceptable.

[Zoots]

I don't see what the problem is. I remember back in vanilla the flight paths weren't as efficient, and the best you got was the top speed ground mount. Now you'll have flying mounts and they move a much faster than the ground mounts. I felt like the portals were making the world seem so much smaller, so I'm glad they are taking out the portals.

[Jekyll]

I almost always take the flight path, if there is one available. Let's me refresh my beer. And the portals in Shatt are usually being used by someone leveling a toon to go to the main city to find a trainer. Now the trainer will be right there.

there's a lot of reason besides seeking trainer, a lot of festival events, darkmoon faire and ah is in the old world so the portals are still relevant.

---------- Post added 2010-09-28 at 12:22 AM ----------

Its fine without them, ppl were able to move whenever they wanted before TBC.. Accept it and move on you slackers

that was wrong pre tbc, your time was consumed just for travelling and in outland you needed a travel hub since you do not level in the old world ANYMORE.

The portals are still relevant for level 58-68

[Onos]

Overall I like it, but my question is what will a level 70 do to go from Outland to Northrend? By 80 you should be somewhere around blade's edge. So you fly from there to the dark portal, go through, fly all the way grom'gol and take a zepe to org/uc, from which you take another zepe to northrend. That sounds like a long ass run.

[kingmob]

Except there are no "cardboard mountains" being hidden by the "victory lap" around Dalaran and the Argent Tournament Grounds every time you fly into them. Cataclysm flight paths may be a bit better, but these indicate a less than 100% commitment to efficient travel on Blizzard's part.

They're like that to give you an initial sense of majesty when first encountering the zones. They're also like that to give you visual information of pvp and pve goings on.

But, Stormwind and Org will be the portal hubs instead, so what's the big deal?

Not to other major cities. To leveling hubs.

[Eroginous]

In my opinion, the only way to make portals being removed from Dalaran/Shattrath even remotely acceptable, is to fix the taxi system in general.
Mounts are going to be 310% speed in general, so why are the in game taxis this slow when they fly a path 150 times more convaluted than the worst tour guide ever.
Make flight paths move around 500% - 750% speed, and stop circling around the departure and arrival points(and any points in between).

In one of the earlier beta builds when paladins were REALLY bugged, you moved at what I would assume to be around 500%. I thought to myself, this is what all flying should be. It was awesome. But, it still got old pretty fast, having to fly from one end of the continent to the other... SUCKS. Which makes the other half of my prerequisites to make removing portals acceptable, is to have at least 1 portal hub per continent near the middle of the continent. (ex. Portals in SW / Theramore / Dalaran / Shattrath that only go to the other hubs, so you still have to fly from one point to another on the continent you're on, but not have to wait for some stupid boat to get to the other continents.)

The removal of portals is a good thing. Speaking as a mage, it sucks that I have a built in mechanic for making money, but the only time I get asked for anything, is when someone wants to portal to dal. Sometimes I get asked for stonard ports, but only because there is no stonard portal in dal/shat.

I think the general idea is to make players rely more on each other, thus creating more social interaction, even if it is just a 'hey fuckwad, give me a portal. Oh here's your lousy tip asshat.'

I look forward to being asked for portals to places like ORG, UC, SM, TB, and shat. One can only hope this carries over to Tol Barad, and they decide not to put any portals there either.

[luccadeo]

I like the no portals in Dal and Shat, it reminds me of Vanilla.

[Veniz]

If you feel that portals hurt your gameplay OMG then dont use them.

If you feel that the dungeon finder hurts wow and the experience for you then don't use it.

Both of which are optional meaning that if you want a more meaningful wow experience then don't use these systems go take a flight path to the dungeon or ride your own mount. Me personally if I want to see the world I'll jump on my mount and do so but in the meantime I'll be taking portals and using the dungeon finder for pure convenience.

Basically don't complain about something ruining your experiences when its freaking optional. Blows my mind how retarded people can be.

[LQDMTL]

You sir, are a moronic jackass. Yes, for the most part your post is intelligent, and somewhat correct. The problem is that while you're right, they don't pander to my personal whims, they do pander to the whims of the masses, because if they don't, they don't get paid. Yes there are a lot of new FP's, but I've played the beta, it's still a pain in the ass. More over, you're a moronic jackass, because talking down to people is not only stupid, but makes you a jackass.

You lost the argument and so you resorted to absurd name-calling. Congratulations on proving both your intelligence and your overall credibility in one fell swoop. The rest of the forum is now free to ignore anything and everything you have to say as useless opinionated drivel.

The fact of the matter is that Blizzard makes the decisions it does and, regardless of how vehemently you disagree, they make bank doing so. Removal of portals is not going to cost them a single dime of profit, even if you nerd-rage and quit. You are the vocal minority. The vocal minority does not "pay the bills". You've thus no leg to stand on.

Any intelligent, well versed player is able to adapt and roll with the punches without complaining unnecessarily about things that truly mean nothing. Removal of the portals is a minor inconvenience that does nothing to hinder your ability to play the game. The worst it will do to you is incur an additional 5 or 6 minutes travel time every now and then. Boo hoo, cry me a river.

[Squike]

This change has already been done on beta

/thread

[Shinshiva]

ACCEPTABLE? What the fuck? How is it unacceptable for blizzard to take away the portal so that you don't just get fuckwits that don't actually play the game clumping in Dalaran still.

Anyone that plays the game for real does not care about this change at all. The rest of you are self centered. Give it up and learn to live with the fact that you may have to move further than "hearth to portal".

/sigh... kiddies.

[LQDMTL]

Yes there are a lot of new FP's, but I've played the beta, it's still a pain in the ass.

Go back to single player games. No, seriously. Go back to something that's more instant gratification than WoW. As much as this game dumbs things down to grant everyone access to everything in as quick a fashion as possible, it's still not enough for you. You have no idea what "pain in the ass" travel is, apparently. EverQuest 1 (which this game was patterned after) involved sometimes HOURS of travel time to get from a city to where you were going to raid / exp. Holy hell, you MIGHT have to travel for 5 minutes it's the end of the world...

[sicness]

ACCEPTABLE? What the fuck? How is it unacceptable for blizzard to take away the portal so that you don't just get fuckwits that don't actually play the game clumping in Dalaran still.

Anyone that plays the game for real does not care about this change at all. The rest of you are self centered. Give it up and learn to live with the fact that you may have to move further than "hearth to portal".

/sigh... kiddies.

'Play the game for real'? You need to realize this is just a game and a form of entertainment, so it's logical for people not to want unnecessary time sinks, which is all this is really enabling, to not be in the game.

---------- Post added 2010-09-27 at 01:06 PM ----------

Go back to single player games. No, seriously. Go back to something that's more instant gratification than WoW. As much as this game dumbs things down to grant everyone access to everything in as quick a fashion as possible, it's still not enough for you. You have no idea what "pain in the ass" travel is, apparently. EverQuest 1 (which this game was patterned after) involved sometimes HOURS of travel time to get from a city to where you were going to raid / exp. Holy hell, you MIGHT have to travel for 5 minutes it's the end of the world...

I get what you're saying completely, but tell me how that was good for the game 'cause I'm failing to understand that. How is additional travel time in any way good for the game? I'm not saying having to travel for 5 minutes is hard or anything like that, but how is requiring more time to travel good in any way?

[Vic]

This is for the people that are for them removing portals in Dal/Shatt--the ones that says it shrinks the world:

Without portals traveling:
Im in Org.
the raid im going to is on Eastern Kingdoms side.
I take the zep to UC
I fly over the continent seeing areas I've never seen before.
I get to the raid

With portals:
Im in Dal/shatt.
the raid im going to is on Eastern Kingdoms side.
I take the port to UC
I fly over the continent seeing areas I've never seen before.
I get to the raid.

It's kind of a moot point to say that traveling via zepp vs port is much different (we've seen all the zep pathing already). Your still going to have to travel from a major city to the raid that could be far away or just wait for a warlock summon (making the world smaller right? Maybe they should get rid of lock summons too.)

It's nothing, but an inconvience, and nothing more than that.

[LQDMTL]

I get what you're saying completely, but tell me how that was good for the game 'cause I'm failing to understand that. How is additional travel time in any way good for the game? I'm not saying having to travel for 5 minutes is hard or anything like that, but how is requiring more time to travel good in any way?

Travelling all day and night to get somewhere is no fun. But a few minutes on a flight point is not going to kill anyone. (EQ had no flight points, and the boats.. yeah, you waited the entire journey they didn't blip to the finish. Oh, and no mounts at all back then. You ran. On foot. Everywhere).

If he, and players like him, want to rage and quit the game because it's "unacceptable" to remove city portals from the game then I think the game would be better off without him. If you don't agree with his butt-hurt original post, as if Blizzard was personally trying to screw him over, then my posts are not directed at you.

[Togarox]

You don't really need a reason to explain what they did. It is simple. They want everyone to go back faction cities. How do you do that? Get rid of the reason to go to Shat/Dal. What is the reason? Portals.

I don't see why people are getting upset about it. There is no point for having portals anymore. You stay in Org/SW and you have the bank, AH and portals to all the 80-85 areas. The only use of portals would be going from say org. to UC, but they got zepplins for that. It may take 2 minutes instead of 30 seconds but so what. Go take a piss.

[LQDMTL]

so it's logical for people not to want unnecessary time sinks, which is all this is really enabling, to not be in the game.

5 minutes != time sink.
Instant port clicky == Convenience
Instant port clicky != Necessity

[sicness]

Travelling all day and night to get somewhere is no fun. But a few minutes on a flight point is not going to kill anyone. (EQ had no flight points, and the boats.. yeah, you waited the entire journey they didn't blip to the finish. Oh, and no mounts at all back then. You ran. On foot. Everywhere).

If he, and players like him, want to rage and quit the game because it's "unacceptable" to remove city portals from the game then I think the game would be better off without him. If you don't agree with his butt-hurt original post, as if Blizzard was personally trying to screw him over, then my posts are not directed at you.

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with him, I'm simply pointing out the fact that the only argument people who are for this change have is either some sort of self entitlement with the whole 'we did it back in my day' bullshit, or it's people claiming it's better for the game, which as I said I fail to see how taking additional time to get to where you want to go to actually tart playing the game how you want to is any good for the game.

At least the people against this change have a valid argument in that it taking more time to get places may not ruin the game, but it certainly doesn't make the game any better for them and makes it take more time for them to actually get to the point where they can play the game however they choose.

Also, the whole point of comparing it to what another MMO does or did is moot because this isn't the same MMO. No one cares that you had to spend hours upon hours to get somewhere in Everquest, this is WoW and that's what it should focus on. This game isn't designed solely for 'hard core' players who may like time sinks like that and so the comparison is invalid.

---------- Post added 2010-09-27 at 01:13 PM ----------

5 minutes != time sink.
Instant port clicky == Convenience
Instant port clicky != Necessity

Again, I'm not saying 5 minutes is a lot of time, but tell me how this isn't anything but a time sink when added up overall. I'm not saying it's necessary that we get to where we want to go instantly, but how is it so necessary that things like this be in the game to only add time overall to how players choose to play the game? How does it really help the game in any way other than making people not stay in Shatt or Dalaran any more?

[shadet]

Well I logged in the beta today and found the portals missing in Dalaran. At first I thought "Ahh crap" then I took the portal to Caverns of time and Flew to Orgrimmar from there.. You know what, it was lovely, I sat back listened to some music and enjoyed the view of the new world. Really, lack of a few portals is not important at all. As it's been stated already once you're 85 you'll spend your time in a major city of your choice anyway so that's not important. Orgrimmar and Stormwind have portals to all the new levelling zones so that's not important.. So... Really. There's no issue not having portals unless you suddenly feel the urge to afk in Undercity instead of Orgrimmar

[Vic]

Again, I'm not saying 5 minutes is a lot of time, but tell me how this isn't anything but a time sink when added up overall. I'm not saying it's necessary that we get to where we want to go instantly, but how is it so necessary that things like this be in the game to only add time overall to how players choose to play the game? How does it really help the game in any way other than making people not stay in Shatt or Dalaran any more?

It's not necessary, and the people defending it fail to see that they'll still have to fly from a major city to said raid, which, keeps the world big right?

[Doombringer]

I don't mind the "scenic route" for Flight Paths if they traveled faster overall. Or, keep the current speed but go the more direct (boring straight line) route.