Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-31507215-20180701172201

Please do not kudo this suggestion unless you agree with all of it!

''I do not claim to have come up with all of these ideas on my own. Some of the concepts in this suggestion are from other sources (I will try to credit said sources in these cases), and chances are that more still were subconsciously gathered from other suggestions and pages.''

In short, the current Fast Travel mechanics do not follow from the concept; Fast Travel is supposed to emulate skipping time (fast-forwarding, in a sense) while traveling - right now, it is essentially a delayed, limited teleportation. So, the purpose of this suggestion is to make the Fast Travel mechanics fit the concept more closely.

Before I begin, here are some other suggestions that I drew inspiration heavily from:
 * Fast Travel on the Calendar, by MayorMale
 * Fast Travel Points and Paths System, by Raedus the Wise

Summary
For those of you who do not wish to read this whole suggestion, here is an extremely shortened version:

Fast Traveling would now consume supplies (mainly food) - the amount depending on the distance traveled, terrain traversed, etc.

If possible, a new mode of fast travel would be implemented that would utilize roads and milestones (a new feature) to allow players to travel in a more controlled manner along roads, with a lowered food/supply cost.

If this is enough for you, here is a shortcut to the bottom of the suggestion (and, consequently, the comments), to avoid lots of scrolling.

If you want more info (or just like to read), read on!

Changes to Fast Travel
The largest change to fast travel would be that it would now require food.

Determining the Cost
To determine the food required, you would first need a ratio of food points spent to distance traveled. (I would suggest 3 food points per 1000 blocks, but I stink at balance, so it is simply a suggestion.) Once you have that ratio, find the distance between the player's position and the target waypoint (a). Then, you would divide a by the distance traveled in the ratio aforementioned to get b. (The remainder could be rounded, or just ignored.) Once that is done, multiply b by the food points part of the ratio to get the total number of food points required to fast travel.

''For example, I am at the coordinates x:-8,884, z:-20,274. I want to travel to Weathertop, which is at x:24,128, z:-832. If I did my math right, the distance between me and Weathertop is about 38,316 blocks. I am using the ratio I suggested above, so I divide 38,316 by 1,000, and get 36. (I ignored the remainder, as it would round down, anyway.) I would then multiply 36 times 3 and get a grand total of 108 food points (Bar main|108|food}.  That is roughly equal to 18 cooked chickens if saturation is not accounted for, and 8 chickens if it is.''

Display
When you click on a waypoint, it would display the food points required to fast travel to that waypoint (perhaps in drumsticks) underneath "Press 'F' to fast travel to the selected waypoint". (If food cost replaces the cooldown, then this can replace the "Cooldown after fast travel:" line. If not, it could go underneath it.)

Execution
If a player presses 'F' while a waypoint is selected, the fast travel process will look at the first slot in the player's hotbar (slot 0). If that slot contains an edible item, it would calculate that stack's total food point value by multiplying the food points of each item (with or without saturation, your choice) by the number of items in the stack. If the total food point value for that stack is less than the food required to fast travel (or the items in that slot weren't edible), it would repeat this process on the next hotbar slot, adding this slot's total to that of the one before it. It would continue to do this until either the food point total is equal to (or greater than) the food points required, or it processes the last hotbar slot.

If the total number of food points in the hotbar is less than is required, the fast travel would fail, and a message would be sent to the player, saying something like, "You don't have enough food to reach that waypoint," or, "You would starve before you get there."

If there is enough food in the hotbar to last the trip, the player would fast travel as before, including the 10 second count down, etc. While the screen is brown and says, "Traveling to wherever", food from the hotbar would be consumed, starting from the first slot and going to the right, until the food points consumed would equal the food points required.

Server Config
In the server configuration, it would be useful to have the option of fast travel having: a food cost but no cooldown, a cooldown but no food cost, or a food cost and a cooldown.

Optional Additions
Here are some optional additions to this mechanic:
 * If the player is mounted, half of the food cost could be either negated or changed to wheat, or some other steed feed.
 * If possible, it would be nice if the food cost when traversing mountains and enemy territory could be doubled.
 * When crossing enemy territory, it may be fitting for a troop cost to be added, but I am unsure as to how that would work.

Milestone Fast Travel
Another Fast Travel mechanic that could be added would be Milestone Fast Travel. While the first part of this suggestion would not need this mechanic to work, this milestone concept would not be worthwhile without a food/supply cost, so I am putting them both in the same suggestion. (I also do not know how feasible this would be, but I am throwing it out there anyway.)

If added, this milestone mechanic would allow players to fast travel along roads. The benefit of traveling using milestones would be that it would cost fewer supplies to travel along a road than it would take to fast travel the same distance.

Milestones
At a regular distance along roads (1000 blocks?), milestones would generate. They would, at least, be small pillars of that region's rock near the side of the road. Depending on how simple this would be, or how far the Mod team might want to go with it, they could also have chiseled writing on them, with the name of the region, nearby waypoints, etc. If it is possible, they should be indestructible by non-operators. (A similar mechanic to banner protection, perhaps?)

At crossroads, a different style of milestone would generate in the center of the crossing. (Something similar to the posts in the centers of Rohirric and Gondorian villages might work.)



Milestone Mode on the Map
To use milestones to fast travel, you would have to open the LotR map (default key: "L") and hit a certain key ("P"?). If you are within 15 blocks of a milestone, this would set the map to Milestone Mode. (If you are not near a milestone, it wouldn't do anything.) To exit Milestone Mode, you would hit the key again.

When the map is in Milestone Mode, waypoints would no longer be clickable, and you would not be able to create custom waypoints. Instead, the map would display the locations of the next milestone in either direction along the road you are on. (If you are at a crossroads, it would show the next milestone in every direction.) It would also display the amount of food required to travel to a milestone. The food cost per milestone should be much less than it would cost to fast-travel the same distance (50%?), and would only change depending on whether or not you are mounted. It would display in green characters if you have enough food in your hotbar (figured out the same way as with normal fast-travel), and would display in red if you don't.

Traveling with Milestones
There are multiple ways this could be done, but I will go with the one that makes the most sense to me. (I can post more if requested.)

When a player has their map set to Milestone Mode, they would be able to travel to another milestone by either clicking on a highlighted milestone or pressing a key corresponding to the direction they want to go. (W = North; D = East; S = South; A = West; Q = Northwest; E = Northeast; - The last two would only be available at the Great Dalish Crossroads). If the player is currently being targeted by an enemy NPC, has been attacked in the last 15(?) seconds, or does not have enough food in their hotbar, the map will close and a message will be sent to the player explaining the problem. Otherwise, fast travel will succeed.

If the player successfully fast-travels, they will be instantly teleported to the destination milestone without leaving the "L" key map, and the required food would be removed from their inventory. Their view range will be at 1 until they close the map or exit Milestone Mode. (This should, theoretically, allow for faster teleportation.)

The player would be able to travel from milestone to milestone continually, as long as they have enough food, aren't attacked by enemies, etc.

End of Suggestion
That's all for now, folks! Thanks for reading! If I missed anything, please post it below!

 