The Long Walk

[Achab]

As expected the 1.03 trimming of the taxi teleport service adds tedious real time minutes and boring ingame weeks. One just walks and walks through peaceful neigbourhoods hoping his sanity won't walk away too in the meantime. The extended real ingame time might look great in reviews and stats though ....

For illustration, it takes 30 real seconds and 3 ingame days of walk for Goldie to purchase that nice Racket from the nearest taxi rank:

 

[Andre Bolkonsky]

As expected the trimming of the taxi teleport service adds tedious real time minutes and boring ingame weeks. One just walks and walks through peaceful neigbourhoods hoping his sanity won't walk away too in the meantime. The extended real ingame time might look great in reviews and stats though ....

For illustration, this take 30 real seconds and 3 ingame days of walk for Goldie to purchase that nice Racked from the nearest taxi rank:
View attachment 679217

As you said, it takes thirty seconds of game time. Very reasonable.

There are two taxi stands plus a possible safehouse in every district, it makes sense and yields a big improvement.

 

[Achab]

As you said, it takes thirty seconds of game time. Very reasonable.

There are two taxi stands plus a possible safehouse in every district, it makes sense and yields a big improvement.

Yes, it takes 30 boring real time seconds ... and 3 days of virtual ingame time.

There are neigbourhoods with only one taxi rank.

Safehouse spam, really? The invested time won't probably pay back ... and each safehouse requires a lieutenant as well.

 

[g123456]

Out of all the 1.03 changes this fast travel seemed to be the only change that received mixed feedback.
maybe it can be a ‘Settings’ option. Fast travel ‘on/off’.
Or put 3 taxi ranks in each neighbourhood plus you have safe house.
Or going forward maybe a taxi company could be a legal business/ racket (money laundering) allowing you to fast travel between those buildings too.

I personally would never want to see fast travel return in its previous form. Though I have seen many comments from people not liking the change, so maybe there needs to be a happy medium.

 

[Blaeys]

All strategy games require a bit of patience to play. It comes with the genre.

And, yes, sometimes you do have to spend a little time walking across a seemingly boring stretch of map - but that trip can actually add to the strategic experience. As an example, what if your your biggest racket is attacked while you are taking that walk. That means you have to think twice and weigh the potential risks before making that decision (in the old model, you would just insta port to retaliate). Without that risk, there is no strategic choice.

So, yes - it may add 30 extra real time seconds (which isnt a lot of time btw) or a few ingame hours - to the gameplay, but anyone that loves strategy games knows that sometimes those delays are necessary in order to give real weight and consequence to your decisions (as in my example above).

 

[Achab]

The sad thing is the sanity saver teleport was there ... and it has been trimmed by 1.03 to something like 10% of previous usability.

Things could be done differently, but of course they would require a little bit more coding work than this simple turning off a feature.

a. Introduce no teleport in/out dynamic zones. If hostiles are active within 3 days of walk you just can't teleport in or out.

b. Change the teleport to an actual fast travel, so it's not instant, but instead it consumes hours of ingame virtual time (not real time!).

 

[Blaeys]

The sad thing is the sanity saver teleport was there ... and it has been trimmed by 1.03 to something like 10% of previous usability.

Things could be done differently, but of course they would require a little bit more coding work than this simple turning off a feature.

a. Introduce no teleport in/out dynamic zones. If hostiles are active within 3 days of walk you just can't teleport in or out.

b. Change the teleport to an actual fast travel, so it's not instant, but instead it consumes hours of ingame virtual time (not real time!).

I think a more logical solution would be a way to speed up/slow down time - similar to how it's done in Crusader Kings.

Still not sure it's needed, but if they change it, I would rather see that than the return of the old fast travel.

 

[Mag Riada]

The old fast travel was unbearable for me. Your racket is under attack and you never invested in defenses? No worries, just teleport the doomstack over from all across town instantly. You never need lose any fights, ever. Zero challenge, zero strategy. Personally I am so glad they got rid of it. I don't mind games having cheats when you have to open a console and type them in but they shouldn't be built into the UI.

 

[Big Bucket]

I agree with Mag Riada. This was one of my favorite changes from the patch. Playing on the beta, there were a few times when I was sweating how to race back to one of my rackets that was under attack or how best to infiltrate a neighborhood where the taxi stand was next to racket owned by a very unfriendly faction. I've found that the change has made the game more interesting.

 

[Achab]

The old fast travel was unbearable for me. Your racket is under attack and you never invested in defenses? No worries, just teleport the doomstack over from all across town instantly. You never need lose any fights, ever. Zero challenge, zero strategy. Personally I am so glad they got rid of it. I don't mind games having cheats when you have to open a console and type them in but they shouldn't be built into the UI.

I agree with Mag Riada. This was one of my favorite changes from the patch. Playing on the beta, there were a few times when I was sweating how to race back to one of my rackets that was under attack or how best to infiltrate a neighborhood where the taxi stand was next to racket owned by a very unfriendly faction. I've found that the change has made the game more interesting.

I understand you concerns about the teleport. They could be adressed by introducing no teleport zones and fast travel virtual time cost as I described above. without forcing the players to perform mindless uneventful walking over peaceful neigbourhoods for tedious real time (and life) minutes.

And at the end the trimming never sorted your concerns .... you can still insta teleport to your safehouses and to the taxi ranks.

 

[PhaedraElyse]

Ugh I miss fast travel sooooo muuuucchhh!!! lol. I would not be sad if they put that one thing back in the game.

 

[Blaeys]

Ugh I miss fast travel sooooo muuuucchhh!!! lol. I would not be sad if they put that one thing back in the game.

Maybe add it back to the easiest difficulties - or offer it as an option to toggle on or off. for me, it really does invalidate strategic choice and shouldnt be in the game at higher difficulties (but if people really want it back, it could be a toggle - or maybe something modders can add back in when modding becomes a thing).

 

[Andre Bolkonsky]

Maybe add it back to the easiest difficulties - or offer it as an option to toggle on or off. for me, it really does invalidate strategic choice and shouldnt be in the game at higher difficulties (but if people really want it back, it could be a toggle - or maybe something modders can add back in when modding becomes a thing).

Instant travel is a short cut that simply breaks the game. It needs to be removed to balance out the other issues. We, and I mean that in terms of the entire community, can't ask them to constantly change everything every time someone has a complaint. Find where the major source of pain is, operate there. Move on. From my perspective they are moving the ball down the field steadily and should be applauded and encouraged.

A suggestion made to them that might alleviate this whole issue is not permitting the Boss Mook teams to hit the Thug Crates (except the Five Thug elite crates, which should be first hit/first win for any boss - but one of the five needs to be near to the player's starting position) for a year or so to give the player time to fully explore the city. And Angelo can solo open up the full map in about a year of running the streets and doing nothing but recon, killing thugs and opening crates, doing sit downs, and finding all the minor powers. this requires the player to move fast and learn quickly the geography of the districts and forces them to take the 'See Chicago' route in the game's design. The player has a year / eighteen months to loot the crates then get to work building his empire with a full arsenal and a fat bank account.

 

[nottinghamforest13]

Perhaps there's a happy medium by tweaking the time at which a game day progresses. Taking 30 real life seconds to walk there is not a big deal, but it probably shouldn't take three full days to walk a few blocks either.