The recent media released about the planet Coruscant included multiple pictures of a taxi building being implemented within the city-planet. These pictures may have conveyed different methods of transportation, potentially not unique to the Capital of the Republic, showing what could be the basis for intraplanetary travel or even interplanetary travel to other worlds. But what possible systems could this crazy "taxi system" be hinting at?
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Any faithful Knights of the Old Republic fan will remember the transportation system implemented on the planet of Nar Shaada, which may be the closest thing to Coruscant ever released in a Role Playing Game. The way the system worked is you theoretically owned a speeder, and when you clicked on it, you would fly to another location on the planet where the speeder would be conveniently parked. In fact it would be parked everywhere you went on that level.
While a possibility, this system could shatter immersion if implemented by Bioware. Having forty characters all clicking on the same little speeder, that they each supposedly own, would be a definite way to take people out of the environment.
It appears that BioWare could be using a taxi system to avoid the confusion. In the screenshots revealed by BioWare, there appear to be various different taxi stations and space ports, some of them look quite different. It stands to reason than that each ship might travel to each other station with similar looking ships.
If this is true, there are a couple different ways this could be handled. For example, if there is a "Yellow Hovering Taxi" at a station and Jim hops onto it, a display menu could then pop up listing all of the places in the city he could be transported to. Once a destination is chosen we could see a couple different things happen. In the first option, there is a cinematic, a short load time, and then Jim would instantly appear close to the area he wants to go. While quick, this system has been criticized for ruining immersion.
Another possibility is Jim actually watches the hovercraft flying to where ever it's going. This would be the "WoW Transport System" which has received both praise and criticism. The bonus of this system would be that one could leave their character flying in a ship for about a minute while the player grabs a soda, but watching fifteen minutes of the ship weaving through Coruscant traffic could get old, fast.
The other method of transportation that was displayed in the cinematic shows a much larger ship entering the "Harbor". This method would likely involve hopping aboard a ship where you can walk around with other passengers for a longer trip, similar to the system used in Final Fantasy XI. If the ship includes functions such as a bank, auction house and that sort of thing, than this would hardly be a pain, especially if you could move around. Additionally, RolePlayers could have a field day in this sort of environment, especially if BioWare thought of making an interplanetary Cantina Cruiser.
"You came in that thing? You're braver then I thought"
Whether or not this taxi system ends up spreading across the galaxy, this has been one of the more practical elements of the game unveiled and hopefully will be implemented in such a way that doesnt take away from the experience. There are pros and cons for each system and it will be interesting to see what direction BioWare decides to go.
Any faithful Knights of the Old Republic fan will remember the transportation system implemented on the planet of Nar Shaada, which may be the closest thing to Coruscant ever released in a Role Playing Game. The way the system worked is you theoretically owned a speeder, and when you clicked on it, you would fly to another location on the planet where the speeder would be conveniently parked. In fact it would be parked everywhere you went on that level.
While a possibility, this system could shatter immersion if implemented by Bioware. Having forty characters all clicking on the same little speeder, that they each supposedly own, would be a definite way to take people out of the environment.
It appears that BioWare could be using a taxi system to avoid the confusion. In the screenshots revealed by BioWare, there appear to be various different taxi stations and space ports, some of them look quite different. It stands to reason than that each ship might travel to each other station with similar looking ships.
If this is true, there are a couple different ways this could be handled. For example, if there is a "Yellow Hovering Taxi" at a station and Jim hops onto it, a display menu could then pop up listing all of the places in the city he could be transported to. Once a destination is chosen we could see a couple different things happen. In the first option, there is a cinematic, a short load time, and then Jim would instantly appear close to the area he wants to go. While quick, this system has been criticized for ruining immersion.
Another possibility is Jim actually watches the hovercraft flying to where ever it's going. This would be the "WoW Transport System" which has received both praise and criticism. The bonus of this system would be that one could leave their character flying in a ship for about a minute while the player grabs a soda, but watching fifteen minutes of the ship weaving through Coruscant traffic could get old, fast.
The other method of transportation that was displayed in the cinematic shows a much larger ship entering the "Harbor". This method would likely involve hopping aboard a ship where you can walk around with other passengers for a longer trip, similar to the system used in Final Fantasy XI. If the ship includes functions such as a bank, auction house and that sort of thing, than this would hardly be a pain, especially if you could move around. Additionally, RolePlayers could have a field day in this sort of environment, especially if BioWare thought of making an interplanetary Cantina Cruiser.
"You came in that thing? You're braver then I thought"
Whether or not this taxi system ends up spreading across the galaxy, this has been one of the more practical elements of the game unveiled and hopefully will be implemented in such a way that doesnt take away from the experience. There are pros and cons for each system and it will be interesting to see what direction BioWare decides to go.
Comments
That being said, I do hope that we will see player controlled ships at a later date, and I full expect to have to pay for the explansion which brings this in. It would be a lot of work, and we should be expected to pay BW back for this work.
-Macer
Also im wondering, if we get to own a speeder (as a mount) how would that work? I mean there are only 2 things i can see happening. Either flying a little above, or right on the sidewalk where you would walk, though that just sounds dumb.
The next option is to make you fly in the normal skylanes where you see other speeders fly, but if u loook at the trailer those speeders are moving REALLLY fast. So maybe im just not thinking outside the box (well i just woke up..) but im seeing a problem here
As for interplanetary travel... Show up at a star port, and take the next cruiser to the planet of your choice. They are timed, leaving every X minutes or so (like boats or zeppelins in WoW.)
Honestly I hate to say it but Blizzard got travel times perfected... enough immersion where you feel like it's a real place, and where travel means something, but not annoyingly long wait times.