How Should Fast Travel Work in Cyberpunk? Fast Travel From Anywhere?

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Fast travel from anywhere?


  • Total voters
    37
Fast travel from anywhere, but it costs a few eddies.

There could be a skippable scene of a cab picking you up or something.
 
(Actual / simple) Fast travel or not, I can only recommend to those who look for "immersion" to go for the "natural options".

Natural options? If you can just teleport somewhere by clicking on a marker, reconsider. Use a car or 'tram' (if able to' instead. Or in simple terms use "natural means" and go there yourself.

Who knows what you find or what happens on the way.

In that sense I think having those means would be nice - cabs or cars that drive you there, using the sub or tram, etc.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance tried to marry expeditiousness and travel encounters. You could initiate fast travel from almost anywhere to a set destination point (usually in the villages/cities). Whenever fast travel was used, the character didn't just disappear and appear at his destination, instead you followed his journey on the map, highly accelerated of course, and when or if some unexpected encounter was about to occur you were warned and could participate or avoid (if the character was skilled enough to avoid the nasty ones, like ambushes) them.

That was a decent solution and it somewhat kept the immersion going since it wasn't necessarily you that was doing the fast traveling but the character which you could see on the map and time kept flowing in an accelerated manner so events could still happen while you were fast-traveling.

Pretty balanced. Would like something like that if possible but any option is good for me.
 
Not having convenient fast travel only works in a game if the act of moving around is fun in and of itself. For example, I never minded for one second that there was no fast travel in Dying Light because just running from one end of the map to the other was so much fun, and the option to fast travel would have taken that away. However, if the movement system is just comprised of holding the analog stick forward for an extended period of time, Like RDR2, then not having fast travel turns the game into a chore.

If the driving in Cyberpunk is fun enough to justify doing it over and over again, and driving for long distances doesn't get boring, then I will prefer having some barrier between me and fast travel. It's more complicated than just choosing not to participate in it. If fast travel is super convenient and cost-less, I will always feel like not using it is just wasting my time.
 
Like GTA 4 with a twist.

Go to the train/metro station, buy ticket for the destination (select the train station on the map and pay, nothing that makes the pace slower like a real vendor), get on the train:
a) skip button
b) watch the full trip WITH random events à la RDR, GTA, RDR2 (you get robbed, you help someone, you attack someone, have a little chat, get some info, get a new contract for a street story). In order to make it easier to program, a dynamic loading like the one of god of war 2018 can be used: you get on the train/subway, it starts going through the tunnel (the game has only the train's wagon in memory and textures moving out of the windows to pretend the train is actually moving) while it loads the arrival area, which is another subway station. Once you get there, train stops, you get off, trains gets cancelled from the memory and you walk out of the station (arrival station is small as well so the game has few seconds more to load further). Open world again.

get to destination.

Not a single loading screen unless you skip the trip. Same for taxi.

Nothing really new, all these things exist already (not in the same game).

Not gonna happen, just let me dream.
 
I'd rather never use a pure fast travel system (would use public transportation in the game though) but I still believe in more options being better for more players (that want to enjoy the game their way), so I'm ok with that kind of system.
 
But, there should be a chance for some unfortunate/fortunate encounter that breakes the routine (and the travel) from time to time.

Kind of like DA: Origins whenever you travelled to another area. Sometimes, when fast travelling, you would stumble upon a group of bandits along your journey, and it would be very nice if the same system was implemented in Cyberpunk. You shouldn't be able to go anywhere peacefully all the time.
 
Wicher 3s fast travel system was perfect...how was it tedious to ride to a fast travel point to use it? There were enough of them around.

Fast travel from anywhere could break the game like the mod for Witcher 3 did on some ocassions.
 
With the metro stations you could have the option of immediate fast travel to another station by accessing a metro map (like W3's sign posts) or go about actually getting on a train, though why you'd want to experience this tedium, I don't know.
 
Public transportation (that costs) only would be my choice.

I’d leave conventional teleporting out completely.

Since it would be optional, I don't see why it would need to be left out. You can always choose not to use it if you desire "realistic" approach.

But its possible that the map is compact enough to not require fast travel.

It depends on game design. Something that is very common in RPG games, particularly MMORPGs, is that the missions force you to crisscross the entire map all the time (the mission start and mission finish are on opposite sides of the map). Because the purpose of the game is to make you waste time. Time wasted travelling counts toward the time you spend playing the game. The longer "game experience" is, the better. I sincerely doubt this is something that CDPR wants to do, so who knows.. If the missions don't subscribe to "make player waste maximum amount of time" school, I don't really care if there is quick travel or not.
 
Since it would be optional, I don't see why it would need to be left out. You can always choose not to use it if you desire "realistic" approach.

But its possible that the map is compact enough to not require fast travel.

It depends on game design. Something that is very common in RPG games, particularly MMORPGs, is that the missions force you to crisscross the entire map all the time (the mission start and mission finish are on opposite sides of the map). Because the purpose of the game is to make you waste time. Time wasted travelling counts toward the time you spend playing the game. The longer "game experience" is, the better. I sincerely doubt this is something that CDPR wants to do, so who knows.. If the missions don't subscribe to "make player waste maximum amount of time" school, I don't really care if there is quick travel or not.

I’ve always felt the conventional fast travel cheapens both, the gaming experience and the fictional world created for the player because it offers (and by merely existing, tempts) easy solutions, not to mention that oftentimes the world is created with that method in mind - so as to say, the world is largely boring and repetitive with the base assumption that the player WILL get bored with it. And so, with cheap solution, nothing is done to the real problem... the boredom of the world.

This issue could be tied to all the gameplay mechanics and gameplay opportunities and interactions and provided events and what not, all the things that could and would make the gameworld an interesting place that the player might not - by default - be assumed to want to skip, but you get the idea without a nigh incomprehensible wall of text.
 
Fast travel at specific public transit points only, and players should have the option to actually sit in the train/subway/cab/etc. as it moves. You have to pay either way, and skipping could cost you an extra fee. Alternatively, perhaps the "skip" could be you nodding off, and there's a small chance a random bum will swipe some of your eddies or other (relatively unimportant -- don't want to lose a quest-critical item with no way to get it back) belongings while you sleep.

Magical teleporting fast travel.. Not a fan of it, but we know it'll be in the game because it was in the most recent behind-closed-doors demo. I just hope there are real-time alternatives if players choose to take advantage of them.
 
Fast Travel by multiple methods. Also, an option to fast travel using the cab similar to GTA 5.

I also think players should have to option to fast travel without spending any eddies.
 
They've said night city will be very dense and tightly packed. Both the demo regions had open raised highways. And there are lots of vehicles. No fast travel at all may be best.
 
Am i the only one on that topic who cannot waste video game time?

No. But whereas you’d skip the void, I’d fill it in various ways so it’d be void no more and in much less need of skipping.

Dead gameplay is useless gameplay and indeed warrants skipping. I’d not have that.

Gametime is not wasted if you’re having fun or otherwise interesting time even if that time didn’t contain questing or something else critical for progression.
 
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it's not wasted if you enjoy it,

Well, I might, but always a lot less than finely written missions and unless V is an unrealist magnet for troubles.

if it helps immersion,

I doubt a lot of people who doesn't like fast travel would not support permadeath or realistic healing times and wound sequels, even if it helps immersion.

and if it's interactive. A black screen with a couple of suggestions is wasted time, IMHO.

Well, some seconds of wasted times > mildly amusing minutes imho.
 
@kofeiiniturpa I'm gonna break my mouse click liking these posts :howdy:

I believe that knowing the game's pacing is crucial to figure out if fast travel is needed. I hope they asked themselves these few questions to determine the place of fast travel in their game : What amount of "dead time" is expected between the missions (if we don't count purposely) ? Is it OK to experience dead time (like 2-5mins metro or riding the bike with no substantial interaction) ? Is it worth having these moments of doing nothing in particular (it could be worth having those cool-down moments before a very intense action) ?

And then, does the game provide ways of spend time doing something (this question can be vague) ?
For example, it could be worth spending 2mins on the public transport every now and then if we don't expect many back and forth, or if we own an item like a portable mini-game that is fun to play (or having e-books to read : knowledge is power...), or if we appreciate the mood of using this public transport (nice views through the windows), or else, if we knew that when on certain lines, we have chances to meet certain type of NPC that we wanna have "business" with, and so on.

IMO, if the pacing is kinda fast = succession of missions, not much things allowed to do outside of them... then there's gonna be a fast travel system. The less you let the player spend time on side activities (and whatnot), the less you want them to experience dead time.

In contrary to that (this is more what I expect CP77 to be), if the pacing is slow = take your time, explore, new fun things around the corner, great panoramas, the game itself should emphasis on giving the player the freedom to meet these moments and be free to either do the side activities, experience the game, etc.

Am i the only one on that topic who cannot waste video game time?

Sadly... ? I don't know. At the moment the poll result is kind of a tie. But IMO, considering the game design (vehicles + public transports), I doubt that they add many fast travel points on top of that. Maybe some.
 
@kofeiiniturpa I'm gonna break my mouse click liking these posts :howdy:

Glad to be of service.

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