On Travel: Why Old School SWG Travel was Cool

Beatnik59

This is an old post, but a good post with an interesting observation of mine.  Perhaps you'll agree!

Two of my most memorable moments were in July of 2003.  I was playing Star Wars Galaxies back then.

This was before mounts, vehicles, or POI tags on the map.  I was hanging in the cantina when someone asked me if I'd like to go to the Rebel base on Corellia.  He got some inside information as to where it was, but it was a perilous journey that took us the better part of half an hour to find.  It made what by today's standards would be a rote grinding routine into an epic journey; to see that which is concealed and hidden.

The same thing happened on the way to Jabba's palace.  You see, the closest town to Jabba was a place called Wayfar, which was so way far out there from civilization, it had no shuttle service.  So me and a couple others went there on foot.  It took a good deal of time to get there from Bestine, and once we were there, we didn't want to go back right away.  Instead, we made our stay in Wayfar for a good few days: using its cantina, medical center, and markets while working for Jabba.

Friends and allies were made in those places and along the way; people we would have never known if not for the factors of time and distance.  The entire galaxy seemed huge; so huge that you could spend your entire game on one world for months, and never be at a loss for what to do.  Yes, there was travel involved, but the travel was never boring.  The day turned to night, weather would turn from good to bad, random fights between creatures and factions would happen all around for people to intercede in, random POIs would appear every now and then in the most unlikely of places, and players would stalk the landscaple looking for Imperial or Rebel players who blew their cover (the old TEF system).

Those days are over now.  The galaxy is not only small, but boring.  First there was the mounts and vehicles, which wasn't so bad.  But then came the instant travel.  Then there was the removal of the TEF, taking half the excitement out of travel.  All the important places are marked, making exploration pointless.  Nothing changes in the landscape anymore.  There are no NPC factions duking it out randomly anymore.  There is no realistic constraints of time or distance anymore, as everyone can insta-travel to anywhere.

The developers made travel boring in SWG because they assumed it always was boring, and thus, cut out of it everything that made it interesting.  They staked the entire future of the game on their new combat system: one that they felt was more fast-paced and exciting, and made it so people didn't have to travel at all to get it, get loots, and get "quests" done (never minding that the word 'quest' is never mentioned at all in the entire Star Wars movie canon).

But what they failed to realize is that by making travel boring, they inadvertently made combat boring.  And that's because if all their players are expected to do is repetitively engage in combat after combat with nothing interesting in between, combat becomes old...FAST.  And this is something that developers of combat systems have yet to understand (or perhaps they understand all too well): no matter how "exciting" they make the combat, it only becomes exciting if there is ample spaces between the combat to make it out as something special, and you can only accomplish that through time and distance.

That said, I'm not wholly convinced that this whole "insta-action" trend is made for the purposes of making the game better.  I'm convinced it's created to burn players out periodically, so they can get their downtime by logging off instead of doing interesting things in the game.  The publishers get the player's money whether they log on for ten hours at a stretch or ten minutes, so it's better for them to burn them out every ten minutes than have them logged on for hours.  That's how they ration content these days as opposed to the early days of travelling.

 

TUX426

Damn!!! Good writeup.

Miffy

I agree and I hate how shuttles and starport times have been reduced and I hated it when JTLS introduced the quick travel. However the days before mounts and vehicles were hell, running everywhere got really tiresome. When mounts came out though it was really nice because you had tons of Creature Handlers in the cities selling their mounts and it brought the cities to life. I'll never forget seeing how amazingly animated the creatures were and hearing the noise of the Dewbacks. Then vehicles came out and killed that, I wish they handled it differently lol. 

They made vehicles too fast in the NGE, they allowed for quick travel to any city on the planet where ever you are. The running speed is crazy now and you don't gain any advantages like you used to on TN and stuff like that. 

It all just feels really cheap now, where as before all the mechanics felt in place to make you more immersed in a virtual world.

shinkan

Signed, good writeup!

warchant

Good stuff. It's happening in almost all games as well. Players, in mass,  have become ever more insistent on instant gratification. Easy is fun to the majority now. It's a lazy mans world in the game world now.

 

It's sad, and it is likely to continue for some time until the majority wants something more complex and challenging.

The game companies just want money. Awards and praise are fine and all, but if 100K people will pay to instawarp, instakill, instaloot, cap level in 1 week and only 90K will pay to face a tougher challenge, then the game will be easy mode..for the all mighty dollar.

 

Those of us that long for the "grind" that actually improved the sense of accomplishment, improved the social interaction, improved immersion, and gave some level of personal meaning to the game are left out in the cold because we are now the minority.

Nizur

Great post! I really, really wish I had been playing MMOs back when SWG was launched. From the many posts I've read about it, it would've been my favorite MMO so far.

Why cant SOE release a classic server? Has there ever been any talk of this from them?

Jimmac

I thought I was alone in feeling turned off by the travel system in SWG. 

This might be unreasonable of me, but probably the main reasons I won't resub to SWG is because you can pocket vehicles and just call them up anytime you wanted. Just like the Jetsons how George Jetson has the car that can fold up into a briefcase. Sure it was cool in the cartoon, but it's dumb in the game. 

I know other mmo's have similar systems, like in EQ2 and what not, but it makes more sense in those games to me. In SWG, I think you should have to park your car, and it should pretty much stay there until you go get it. Just like spaceships. 

But anyway, that's my main gripe about SWG. I also agree with the post more generally speaking about insta travel being stupid and unimmersive. I want there to be far off places that take a while to get there. I want the world to feel huge and like there are wildernesses that can be explored. Insta travel and popping cars out of your pocket that let you get wherever in 5 minutes really kills that immersion. 

And most importantly, you don't get to experience the cool feeling of being out there on the edge of the world, alone with just a few other players in a harsh and isolated part of the world. 

Hardlinemonk

As one swg vet from launch to another, I agree completely. Running around for hours at a time did get a bit tiresome, but once a mount was introduced it was all good. Should have left the expansions out imo. Never EVER enjoyed JTL, or instant travel. There's something realstic and gratifying to just make it to a shuttle within seconds of takeoff (and a hilarious feeling of regret when you miss one by seconds NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO). Good stuff OP. Master doc / pistoleer. Need a buff? 10k, form a line.

Nebless

Speeding up travel killed so very much that made the game special. 

Having to actually wait for the shuttle or ship at a starport didn't mean dead time because there was always things happening.  It gave the musicians a chance to pull out an insturment and busk, players would talk about hunting spots, groups would form on the fly.

All insta-travel meant was no one had time to talk anymore.

Trident9259

Originally posted by Hardlinemonk

As one swg vet from launch to another, I agree completely. Running around for hours at a time did get a bit tiresome, but once a mount was introduced it was all good. Should have left the expansions out imo. Never EVER enjoyed JTL, or instant travel. There's something realstic and gratifying to just make it to a shuttle within seconds of takeoff (and a hilarious feeling of regret when you miss one by seconds NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO). Good stuff OP. Master doc / pistoleer. Need a buff? 10k, form a line.

JTL was fine, but badly implemented for travel.

 

 

those who wanted to use their ship instead of the shuttle service (with the convinience to travel directly outside of the established routes) should have been forced to launch and hyperspace, or wait for spaceport clearance; as well as facing the consequences of being attacked by NPC in space.

 

the way they did it, however, made shuttles obsolete, because anyone could just click a button and spawn anywhere. 

j1flaw

There are goods and bads to the changes over the years, but personally, I could not stand the slow travel and the 10minute wait times for a shuttle. Back in the day I was a resource hunter for my guild and I would travel all over trying to find hotspots for everyone to lay harvestors. Running around the planets or riding my slow mount didn't help anything, and waiting for transport in a dead zone wasn't fun either.

I thought it was fine to wait in areas like Bestine and Coronet because there was a lot going on, but I'm at the point now that I need to get to where I need to go now to keep myself entertained, and the more I'm waiting for something to happen the faster I'm likely to logout.