I've done most of the quests in the game 10-20 times over. Whilst running around Shing Jea Island completing quests on my latest creation I had a brainwave; a way to avoid having to run long stretches back to a quest giver, through miles of monster-less environment, simply to receive my reward.
My idea is simple. A flag which, when deployed, will allow the user to teleport back to that point at any time.
Clearly, such an addition needs some fairly heavy conditions to try to keep misuse to a minimum. I propose the following:
- Only one flag can be deployed by a user at any one time.
- Flags can only be deployed within an explorable area
- Flags would be obtained in four ways:
- With Commendations, Credits, etc.. (Quest reward items)
- From other players who have previous obtained them as described above
- With Zaishen Coins.
- From rewards from Prophecies Pre-Lion's Arch primary quests
- The teleport only transports the user (and his/her pet). Any heroes, henchmen, NPCs or other party members would not be transported, and therefore would run behind if unflagged.
- A flag would be deployed by double clicking it in the inventory. A flag button would appear on the user interface which, when clicked, would transport the player back to his flag.
- Flags would be PvE-only.
- The time limit between teleporting and deploying another flag would be 5 minutes.
I propose two types of flag:
Silver Teleport Flag, buy-able for 1 commendation/credit/etc., would work solely within the zone it was deployed in. If the player wanders out of that zone, the flag is wasted and disappears.
Gold Teleport Flag, buy-able for 3 commendations/credits/etc., would allow the user to travel between explorable zones and still be able to teleport back to the point at which it was deployed. Heroes / Henchmen would be deposited and automatically flagged next to the portal closest to the zone you teleported from. Entering a town would cause the flag to disappear.
In conclusion:
Nope, it doesn't take much effort to wander through an explorable area you've just cleared simply to get a quest reward. I'm sure many people will be jumping at the chance to remind me of that! All this is, is a fun little toy to make quests you've done time after time a little more easy on the mindless running.
A further advantage is with Survivor. I've not completely thought through the implications here though. Clearly a Survivor could clear an area at the start of a map, set a flag, and use it to jump out of a dodgy battle later on if needed. I figure the effect here wouldn't cheapen survivor too much, as XP farming in other ways would still be a far quicker method of cheating your way to Legendary Survivor.
