13.0.1 Will there be boats or ships?
Yes, both NPC-controlled as well as player-controlled and owned.
Player-owned ships will need to be crafted by the appropriate crafting classes.
Various types of player owned ships will be available, including 'coast hugger' ships, as well as ocean going vessels, some better for defense, some better for hauling equipment, etc...
Players will, just like with their residences and their horses, be able to both store goods in their ships. They will also be able to enhance their ships, horses, and other vehicles by equipping them with items.
13.0.2 Will there be anything to do on boats?
We believe travel should be fun—it’s a basic part of the adventure. With that in mind, encounters and other events can and will occur while on board boats and ships. Sea monsters will be able to attack not only the characters on a ship, but do damage to the ship itself. This is also the case with pirates.
A vast empty ocean, devoid of land, is unlikely. Expect to see lots of islands or archipelagoes en route to your destination.
13.0.3 How will you deal with teleportation?
The trick, we think, is to make travel a part of the adventure too. Sitting on a ship doing nothing isn't fun -- it's downtime at its worst. But what if traveling from one location to the next was challenging, exciting, and fun in and of itself? If we can manage that in Vanguard, extensive or egregious use of overland teleportation should not be necessary.
Teleportation within dungeons, however, will be present, including 'call of hero' and 'evac' style spells.
13.0.4 Will there be horses? How will they work, how important will they be, and are they just a status symbol or integral to the game?
Horses are integral to ground-based travel. We expect characters to own a horse fairly quickly to help with travel. Horses will also be able to store goods and even be enhanced with certain items, just like your character and/or your ship.
It is also possible for combat to take place while on a mount, or even while on board ships
13.0.5 Can my horse or ship 'die'? If they ‘die’, and I've equipped them with valuable items and/or am storing valuable items on them, what do I do to recover them?
Think of your horse or ship as an extension of your character. Your character can 'die', but it really only generates a corpse with your items.
Healing a horse will undoubtedly involve skills similar to those used to heal or revive a character. Repairing ships, on the other hand, will involve the crafting sphere. Once you have completed your healing or repairs, you may not only retrieve your items, but your horse and ship are also 'brought back to life' and made usable again.
13.0.6 Will I be able to name my ship, horse, or any other vehicle?
You will be able to name your ship and your horse and any other persistent vehicles.
13.0.7 What if I die while in transit on my boat? What if you die under water? Will your corpse just float to the surface? What if you die inside a building under the water? Will it still find its way to the surface?
Ship flotsam (corpses) and character corpses will float on top of the water and not move/drift. Doing a corpse retrieval on the water will be functionally the same as anywhere else.
If you die underwater in an area marked as an adventure area or some such (say, a sunken city), your corpse will stay underwater where you died.
As for currents and such, it may be unrealistic, but right now we’re assuming one won't want to track one's corpse and flotsam around the oceans of Telon (e.g. gameplay & fun > realism)
13.0.8 Ships never seem to work in other games-- they always lag and kill the passengers and losing a body in the ocean is not fun.
This shouldn't be an issue based on how much more we now know, the better tech, and the fact that we built Vanguard from the ground up knowing that ship travel would be an integral part of the game, as opposed to an afterthought.
13.0.9 How does one control the speeds at which your ships can sail?
We know this isn't exactly what you guys are talking about re: druids, but it made us think of the other day when we were testing pilotable ships and messing with wind speed and direction -- it occurred to us how cool it will be to have a druid on board to help you influence the wind to your favor and perhaps even increase its speed via higher level spells... Concepts like this are what we feel distinguish Vanguard from its competitors.
13.0.10 So what are our options for travel?
To be clear, you will have access to horses pretty quickly. The idea then is that you can traverse the continent you are on more quickly than just by running.
Coast hugger ships come next, which will help people get around continents by sailing around their perimeter.
Ocean going ships are higher level, but not uber epic only a few people will have. They'll be around, believe me. And even if you don't choose to build one, I think it's likely that you'll have a friend or guildmate who does have one. If not, perhaps you pay someone for a ride, and then we are also going to implement NPC piloted transport ships if necessary. Keep in mind that these ships, especially the ocean going ones, are pretty big and can carry multiple people.
Combine that with the offline travel that the caravan system gives you, and I think we'll be in good shape. Worst, worst case scenario, as I've posted in the past, we could implement a small number of Velious style teleports, but we really hope to not have to do that (mostly because we really want to make meaningful travel an important part of the game. Coding them is actually pretty easy).
Vehicles are integral to gameplay (and not just for travel).
We are planning horses and ships at this point. There's not reason we couldn't have another more exotic vehicles, but they'd probably be in an expansion. (This answer is courtesy of Silky Venom)
13.0.11 Will there be different types of horses?
Different types of horses will be available, both depending on where you are buying them and also what type (a horse more focused on carrying goods vs. speed, etc.), as well as how much you have to spend on one.
How many variations? Honestly, as many as we can make. And we will add more after release too. (This answer is courtesy of Silky Venom)
13.0.12 Will horses be customizable?
At this point horses look different depending on the type, and you can also equip them with armor (barding -- I think some of the more recent screenshots show this). The degree to which customization will be possible at release, though, is to early to commit to. Horses and other mountable NPCs are being built, however, with customization in mind. (This answer is courtesy of Silky Venom)
13.0.13 So will there be mounted combat? And sea battles?
We are NOT promising MOUNTED combat on release.
You may have to get off your horse to fight effectively, and then your horse would be a pet and fight with you, etc. (and, remember, you can equip your horse with armor and such to make it more formidable).
I'm all for mounted combat, but man, it's tough stuff.
What's pretty solid: Pirates or any other NPCs you end up fighting while on a ship will likely attack you, any other players you're with, and your ship. You and your companions will obviously be able to fight back.
What's likely: In addition to being able to store items on your ship for transport, you'll hopefully be able to equip it (and your horse, etc.) with items that could increase its armor class, sturdyness (HP), etc.
What's post launch: Hopefully ship to ship battles, but hey, as cool as it is to dream about that stuff, we have to be realistic right now and get this crazy big detailed game as it is into beta!
Actual ship to ship combat probably will NOT make the game by launch, but we do plan to have it one day. If you are on your ship you can be attacked by sea creatures as well as NPCs piloting their own ships. Your ship can be damaged during the battle, needing to fixed, but it doesn't actually deal damage -- you and your passengers will do the fighting. (This answer is courtesy of Silky Venom)
13.0.14 Might there be a NPC intercontinental ferry available?
There may be a ferry service available, a larger boat captained by an NPC. It will probably be quite a bit slower, or go on a route that takes you around a circuit that you might not really want to waste your time on if you have the resources and capabilities to craft a boat yourself. (This answer is courtesy of Silky Venom)
13.0.15 What can change boat speed?
In general, based on boat/ship type.
*possibly* enhanced by how you equip your vehicle.
Some modifications to speed from spells and the like.
We know this isn't exactly what you guys are talking about re: druids, but it made us think of the other day when we were testing pilotable ships and messing with wind speed and direction -- it occurred to us how cool it will be to have a druid on board to help you influence the wind to your favor and perhaps even increase its speed via higher level spells... Concepts like this are what we feel distinguish Vanguard from its competitors. (This answer is courtesy of Silky Venom)
13.0.16 What happens to my ship/horse/vehicles/pets when I log out?
You 'log out' your ships and horses at the appropriate locations so they don't sit there and take up a ton of room when not being used.
Characters are persisted, and then everything that character owns. Except now your character can own other persistent objects which can be in various states, including being logged out of the game or in.
So we save your character, his items, any vehicles he owns if they are logged in at the time, and any items on that vehicle. And vehicle is used very generically: it really means anything that needs to be persistent that isn't on your character, so it's horses, ships, your house (a vehicle that doesn't move, I suppose), etc.
A vehicle is also really a character is most ways. It has a status. It can contain items. It can have stats. Etc. Etc. The difference is only that it's owned by another character, whereas your main character isn't owned per se.
Now you're probably asking yourself, why is Brad going into all this detail when I asked a simple question
Well, I think it helps to think of your vehicles/pets/buildings in this sense.
Can your character die? Yes, though he is not permanently dead, but you are restricted to him in the sense that your items are still on the corpse and you may also have the opportunity to resurrect that corpse.
The same is true for, say, a horse. It's a character owned by your character. It has an inventory, it can be equipped, it has stats, and it has a status (alive, dead). If it dies, it becomes a corpse as well, and you can loot it, potentially drag it, and resurrect it as well.
Same with a ship. It has an inventory (cargo), can be equipped with items that affect its stats and abilities, and it can 'die'. The names change (instead of a corpse, it's 'floatsam'; instead of being resurrected by a cleric, it's repaired by a craftsman), but it's all the same.
And, lastly, the same with a building you own. You can place items in it, decorate it to some degree (equip it), and it can 'die' if it's attacked by, say, a band of wandering kobolds. And, like the dead horse or floatsam on the sea, the house's status changes to one of disrepair when it's hit points become zero. You'll also need a craftsman then to repair the house, though likely with different skills and abilities than the craftsman who can repair a ship, changing it from floatsam into something pilotable again.
There are some differences, too, though. You can, of course, log out your character. When you do, what happens to other persistent objects that you own? Well, it depends. A building you own stays in the game and doesn't log out. It's always there, regardless of its state, unless you actually purposely delete it.
Your horse? It should probably log out with you, but is this true in all cases? This is something we'll have to mess with in beta.
Your ship? Well, what if there are people on it when you log out (intentionally or unintentionally -- what if you go LD?). Again, some rules we're going to have to play with.
You can definitely, however, log out a ship or a horse if you trigger it and it's in the right location (docks, stables, an outpost, etc.). We don't want a situation like one saw in UO where there are ships for miles down the coastline because they don't log out.
Also, what about vendors or hirelings? (This answer is courtesy of Silky Venom)
13.0.17 Can I drown when out swimming?
I think drowning from exhaustion would be a little too hard core and frustrating. It will be frustrating enough swimming as opposed to using a boat/ship because you'll be moving that much slower.
Also, to head out into deep waters, you'll not only need a ship (e.g. you can't swim there), but you'll need an ocean going ship as opposed to a coast hugger. (This answer is courtesy of Silky Venom)
13.0.18 What are your latest thoughts on teleportation now that the game is further along in beta?
Our plans to 'ease' travel at higher levels is primarily centered around making faster vehicles available to higher level players. We're still of the opinion that adding teleports in the outdoors shouldn't be necessary and will make travel more meaningful.
There will be some teleportation in dungeons and the like, primarily to keep groups together. We've stated that we don't want to see it outside and want to make transportation meaningful and fun and also focused on vehicles (horses, ships), not teleportation.
That said, as with many of our ideas, we have a Plan B. If in beta we can't make some of our ideas work, we have other mechanics we can implement. With travel in particular, if it truly becomes necessary, we'd likely implement limited teleportation to specific points and require the player to have at least traveled to the destination point once without being teleported.
More specifically, the intent is to have no overland teleports with a travel purpose. You still have evacs, coh type spells, teleporter traps and such in dungeons, etc.
Overland teleportation: as you guys know, we don't plan on having it, focusing more on vehicles and meaningful travel. That said, I have talked about 'plan b', such that we can easily introduce some limited overland teleportaion if necessary (though at this point I don't think it will be). If it is, however, it will likely not be class specific (rather based on special locations where you can teleport from point a to point b, assuming you've already been to point b at least once, ala early Velious style).
Rezzing is class specific, or, more acurately, job specific -- any of the healers can do it, not just clerics proper.
SoW type spells will be available from several classes, although with our emphasis on horses and making quick overland travel accessible early on in the game, I don't foresee it having the importance it did in, say, EQ.
Non-travel related teleportation (evacs, CoH, etc.) are class specific, but also mostly spread out across all of the mage classes.
This is one of the advantages of our job system -- spells that are traditionally priest or mage related and also really key to gameplay can be given to each class within that job, while other more specific and situational spells can be given to one class within a job and not the other so we don't have all of the classes within a job become too similar as I know many fear may occur. (This answer is courtesy of Silky Venom)
13.0.19 Will we be able to fly?
Yes, very high level mounts will allow you to fly on their backs. There may be some areas for gameplay reasons that we don't let you fly into, but they will be the exception, not the rule. (This answer is courtesy of Silky Venom)
13.0.20 Tell me about your Caravan System and offline travel.
Players will be able to form Caravans, where one player becomes the Carvan Leader. Other players can then join the Caravan if the leader permits it. Then, if you are part of a Caravan, when you log in, you will have the choice of appearing at your last saved location or at the last place the Caravan Leader was bound (typically a village or an Outpost). This means that if your group moved a long distance one night when you were not online, you won't have to travel a long way to catch up with them. Offline travel will prove to be an integral feature in Vanguard given the size and seamless nature of our world. (This answer is courtesy of Silky Venom)
13.0.21 Will travel be meaningful, but hopefully not tedious as well?
"That is our goal, yes. The journey to your destination should be challenging and fun. There will be content along the way. Horses and other means of faster transportation will also become available as characters become higher level and need to travel further. We sincerely believe there shuold be fun in "getting there"."
13.0.22 Will you attempt to make distant lands really feel distant?
"Yes. The world of Telon is huge. Travel between lands will take some time, but again, we believe the travel in and of itself should be fun. We are including "assistance" items such as a Compass, Travel Journal, and map to help players deal with the size of the world."
13.0.23 How will you deal with mapping, navigation, compasses, and the like?
There will be a compass as well as a navigation/map system. The latter will be largely based on where you've already explored at least once, combined with a few other variations we're working out.