Quote: "You could make it so once the player purchases a town map (or something to this effect) at the port, they are allowed to fast-travel there.
If you want to add an additional fast-travel fee, it could simulate the cost of a crew and/or supplies.
All these extra costs will surely discourage most players from using this "cheat"."
Even if I don't do that, that brings up another question as to whether or not I should have a mini-map at all, only have it when you have a map, have a map screen always, or have a map screen only when you have a map.
Quote: "I agree with the "taxi" service people suggested, where you pay to go somewhere. Obviously only select locations would be on these routes. But as an option, maybe you could eventually buy a horse and carriage of some kind so you would no longer have to pay any fees?"
Yeah, there will be horses (already are) and probably carriages, and I'm leaning towards the "taxi" service, but now the question as to whether you should pay and what the disadvantages should be (if any) if you DO own a ship...
Quote: "Perhaps fast-travelling would take, say, 150% as long as if you'd just travelled there "properly"? As a penalty. But this would only work if there is some kind of time-limit on, for example, the main quest."
Yeah, like you said, the problem would be that the game would have to be more time-based than I would like
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Quote: "The problem with the fee system in my eyes, is that on its own its too limiting, especially to role playing. What if I want to role play a complete bastard who steals, murders and robs everyone and everything? It wouldnt make much sense for me to then pay up nicely to take a taxi row boat to the next harbor A fee based system should IMO be a subsystem of the fast travelling, not the only option. As for travel when you own your own ship, I think it should involve decision making on what crew and supplies to take."
Lol, well I guess you could solve that by first stealing a ship, then claiming it, meaning you would own it, and not have to pay a fee. But what I'm not sure in is whether there should be costs like have been mentioned with crews and supplies.
Quote: "not really, not if you have needs that increase with time, say your crew gets paid by how long a trip takes, or you need to eat, and end up using more resources. Say your ship wears fast from being on the open sea longer, and so needs more repairs. There are all sorts of way of balancing a quick travel option without blatantly annoying the the player. Once you've traveled a part of the sea once, the game shouldn't be that hard on you for wanting to spend your time on other parts of the game. In fact, as long as you can only travel to main areas, and have all the minor areas reachable from there, you'll have plenty of sea travel without forcing the player to do so much sea faring that they get sick of it.
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Yeah, I definitely don't want to force the player to do something, but I also want to encourage something they might not have done otherwise (exploration/sailing). I like the idea that the longer the trip, the more the costs for things.
