Should Flying be implemented on AQ3D?

Depends. When you work with animation, you don't think about the entire system (that is, the entire object you're modeling). For instance, a cape would be a separate object from the player model, and you'd probably just focus on how the cape should behave, depending on the type of cape item. If you have to reanimate a player model for every time you animate a cape item, then that's just loss of development time. It's a lot cleaner to work in modules.

So it's not really about "more animation" to implement a feature. It's just that the animators are already inundated with other things to animate (e.g. cutscenes, monsters, so on).

 

It would look strange though when there is no animation for flying travel forms to fly up and down and if AE were to implement flying now it would more like floating than flying if they don't add more animation to emphasize on flying.

 

Yeah, some travel forms already kinda give us that feel. Not really a priority for me but couldn't hurt for a bit more of an open world kinda feel. Maybe make some areas that are only accessible by flying through the air to get to.

 

It would be cool to see more areas which are accessible only when you meet a requirement and not just a level requirement. Flying could be a requirement if implemented well, but AE's stance is that travel forms are optional.

 

Then they'd have to make forms specifically for that area, and I think players would be disappointed when their "land form" cannot fully utilize a fly-exclusive area. In other words, there would be exclusion, and the only way to make it seem fair is not to give flying forms over 100% speed (which already seems bad). Otherwise, they'd have to make flying forms cost more than the current forms, and I pricing at over 4,500 DCs is not at all reasonable. And I think that would already be difficult to accomplish, because there are forms that currently exist that could fit the flying form criteria (e.g. dragons). It's just too much to consider, because there's already too much things set in stone.

 

I could see them have a different approach to this. Maybe make jump pads that you can use after doing enough quests.

 

That would probably take away the fun of actually exploring since jump pads would try to force you into a path. And it wouldn't really make the area exactly a fly-exclusive area, if there are alternatives.

 

That's the whole point. AE hasn't made travel forms necessary to get and if they added flying ones, they would make them optional as well. Jump pads can be implemented in a way that they blend in well, but it depends on how big that area is going to be.

 

But that would just be a reason to not having a flying feature at all, if there's an alternative that everyone can use that doesn't involve flying at all. The whole point of flying is being able to explore more and really just to have fun, not so much to get from point a to point b which is what jump pads would imply.

 

It's up to AQ3D to implement either or both features. Wouldn't it be great to have alternative ways to explore?

 

Alternative ways to explore would be great, if they were unique that different people will enjoy it depending on how they explore. Otherwise, there's no need to change the current formula.

 

AE should at least experiment with new ways to explore because AQ3D is their biggest 3D game.

 

They can always add new modes of explorations without requiring flying. They already have portals, crystals / travel menu, way points that lead you to the next map, respawn (when your character dies or falls in a reset zone), climbable objects that lead you up in the y-axis (e.g. being able to scale a tree), the standard x-axis and z-axis of the map, moving platforms, and so on. Most players just don't really think about them, especially since you don't see them incorporated all at once.

Honestly, I don't see portals and crystals being utilized enough. For instance, you have to traverse in a vast map and it wastes so much time. On the other hand, when you look at AQWorlds, you usually see a button, or multiple buttons, in the hub area of the map and it takes you to any of your progress points (like the boss area of the map); the button might be grayed out until you've completed that area of that map, but having that button in the hub area saves so much time.

I feel like World Tree is a missed opportunity. You have a travel crystal at the spawn point that does absolutely nothing, but that travel crystal feels like it could be useful. For instance, maybe you click on the crystal and you have the option to travel to the air area, fire area, water area, earth area, rather than always having to walk there. It would definitely save some time when battling Voidlings since players tend to camp near an area and kill that boss as quickly as possible when doing their Pet Dailies, and you sometimes never have enough time to get a hit on the monster.

There are a lot of other maps that feel like they could benefit from currently existing modes of exploration that just aren't fully utilized. For instance, Isle of the Dead could really benefit from some sort of system (crystal, portal, button) without having to walk a long distance. Maybe have buttons that take you to the spawn point, to a particular NPC, or to some ending point.

 

Travel forms clearly aren't the only way to move around. Going from a point A to B can be achieved in a variety of ways in AQ3D and many of them do get overlooked.

I frankly want to see teleportation items which teleport to you somewhere specific, like near a dungeon or a NPC for example. AE's story so far does make it feel that these Travel Crystals should be useful, but they kinda fall under the table when you look at the bigger picture. We need more ways to get to places, but it doesn't hurt to have a few places with one way to move around.

 

And they did change the Travel Shard, so now it says "Travel to Battleon", but the icon still shows a crystal, but I think the "Travel to Battleon" inside of your inventory is so redundant since you already have a travel menu that you can use (and you're not even limited to where you can go via travel menu, compared to the "Travel to Battleon" item).

I can see why it exists, because someone might want to add an item slot next to their skills for a quick travel, but you rarely even need to travel to Battleon. Maybe to see new events, sure, but it's mostly pointless since you aren't going to need to visit Battleon on a daily basis. If anything, they could move that item to the bottom of the inventory or in some other inventory tab, and give assignable places to add to the shard other than just Battleon. And ultimately, having the "Travel to Battleon" in your item slot is a waste of space, especially when you could have more useful items (for combat) like health potions, mana potions, attack boosts, etc. and a slot for your form.

Travel is something that ultimately needs more improvement. Rather than a 'simple hack' of just lazily putting a travel option inside an inventory, there's so much more that could be done that won't feel intrusive.

 

I would assume AE changed it so more players would use it, but that name change was pretty redundant to be frank. Travel Shard itself is the fastest way to get to Battleon because it requires just 1 click/tap and it gets you near Travel Crystal and Quest Board. I use Magic Concert Ticket, renamed to Event Meet and Greet because why not, when I do my Pet Feed daily so it still has use outside of battle concerts. I don't use potions so me putting both teleportation items on my item bar doesn't hurt me at all, but that doesn't apply to everyone.

 

Depends. If you have it in your item slot, then it's one-click, but it's also a waste of value item slot space. And I can type /join battleon much faster than I can open the menu, click on the shard, and click on the 'use' button.

And I find it equally as fast, maybe barely faster, to open the travel menu, click on Battleon, and click on Battleon Town Square compared to opening the inventory, clicking on travel shard, and clicking 'Use'. When you open it from your inventory, you have to drag your cursor more, so it is a small difference.

Ultimately, the item is useless. It doesn't have much use in travel. If anything, the item makes the News menu seem redundant, because usually the News menu serves as a way of providing a graphic of what's new and giving you a button to travel to where a new event is, and sometimes that new event isn't even in Battleon.

There are many ways to improve travel, and forcing an intrusive method in the player's inventory just isn't the way to go.

 

Using /join and and using item shortcut are equally fast assuming that you have a copy-paste of that /join command ready. It's not a waste of an item bar slot if you want to save time traveling to locations with those two teleportation items.

It's not faster because it requires more clicks/taps and thus it's not as efficient compared those teleportation items.

Travel Shard definitely isn't useless, it just hold a small niche when it comes to getting to a specific spot fast. AE could utilize it more, maybe as you complete quests, you can select from a list of options to teleport to a specific spot in an area just like it does now. It would have a menu where you can set what location it teleports you when you use it. That would make it more useful.

 

I find it more of a harm than an actual benefit. By being in the first slot of my inventory, I have to scroll down a bit more, and that could mean a couple milliseconds lost, which might not sound as bad. But when you manage your inventory a lot and sell/delete items very often, then that "Travel to Battleon" being at the top of your inventory is a huge nuisance. It's especially annoying, if you farm a lot, and the game does encourage a lot of farming... you might have an inventory full of craft items and other things. So ultimately, it is a useless item for that reason. The least they could have done to achieve the teleportation to a town was added an optional keybind, rather than forcing an item to the player's inventory, but even then, people already have the ability to keybind their travel menu. They could even put a button at the bottom of the travel menu and label it as "quick travel" and let the player assign that quick travel to any location that they want, so then they don't have to navigate to a location in the travel menu and find a specific sublocation, and I would much prefer that than a useless inventory item that only takes you to one place.

 

As I said before, it fills a niche and that doesn't make it useless. AE hasn't really delved to teleportation items which aren't really tied to something else before so there's room for improvement.