Public Transportation in MMO's/Online Games (Deeprum Tram/Orgrimarr Zeppelin)

[g23]

Any other examples of Public Transportation in online Games that had you in awe when you first encountered them? I remember being amazed at the Deeprum Tram and Orgrimarr Zeppelin when I was new to WoW and MMO's in general. I remember it being crazy that you can actually hop on board the train and actually see it move from stormwind to Ironforge and vice versa, it blew away my teenage mind.

TBH it's still kinda cool that these systems exist and are found in games in games, and it's a shame that you don't see them in any other multiplayer games (most just settle with a simple fast travel or teleport mechanism) since it breathes so much more life to the experience and really immerses you in the World.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

The Deeprun Tram was incredibly, incredibly cool and I loved the goofy little station it had in both towns. I was never as impressed by the Zeppelins though, since they had clear loading screens in the middle for much of WoW's early lifespan.

That tram, though. I may hate WoW's gnomes but they did good work there.

 

[Deepwater]

The flying boat/ship to Osyria/Orbis in Maplestory. It only came every 15(30?) minutes and had a safe room instance you could wait during the passage, or you could go out onto the deck and fight a Balrog which was going to kill anybody under level 70 for the most part.

After the game matured, quicker ways of going between continents emerged but for the early days of the game it was a pretty unique experience

 

[low-G]

The boats in EQ, gave a real feeling of adventure.

 

[rodrigolfp]

Star Wars TOR. Edit: The train

 

[Vimto]

The ship to orbis in maplestory was the best thing ever.
You met new people, exchange items, play mini games, some high level will try to kill the pirates and fail.

The game feels truly alive.

that was like >10years ago.

 

[Bane]

I was telling my WoW guild recently about the boats and airships in FFXI. They were on a 15 minute timer so if you missed one you were waiting a while. Or more likely AFKing while autowalking towards the end of the pier. Then you had the actual ride where you were just waiting on the vessel as it traveled to its destination. They were all amazed by these facts. It had a charm to it back then, especially as it was my first MMO, but I can't say I miss it.

 

[Armouredpriest]

FF XI had airships you could ride between the various hub locations, if memory serves.

edit: damn, beaten

 

[Android Sophia]

The flying boat/ship to Osyria/Orbis in Maplestory. It only came every 15(30?) minutes and had a safe room instance you could wait during the passage, or you could go out onto the deck and fight a Balrog which was going to kill anybody under level 70 for the most part.

After the game matured, quicker ways of going between continents emerged but for the early days of the game it was a pretty unique experience

Click to shrink...

The boats in FFXI were a similar experience. Pretty cool, although you only have to do it once or twice now and then warping everywhere is available.

I was telling my WoW guild recently about the boats and airships in FFXI. They were on a 15 minute timer so if you missed one you were waiting a while. Or more likely AFKing while autowalking towards the end of the pier. Then you had the actual ride where you were just waiting on the vessel as it traveled to its destination. They were all amazed by these facts. It had a charm to it back then, especially as it was my first MMO, but I can't say I miss it.

Click to shrink...

Don't forget the fact that monsters could show up too!

 

[fanboi]

The star Citizen trains come to mind.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

I felt off the ironforge train once and had to walk the rest of the way :v

 

[kodax_shc]

I've got a special memory of the Deeprun Tram from during the Burning Crusade era. The guild I was in horde side planned a big iron forge / stormwind world pvp raid and it just made the most sense for us to ride the tram from one city to the next. After we took down Magni we all regrouped in the the tram and we stayed for a while cause the tram would just show up with fresh Alliance for us to slaughter every few minutes. We would hide behind the pillars or take seats on the chairs and just wait for the next train to arrive. It was so funny to us and we were having a blast. I miss it, but it's not like WoW is the same game anymore and really what made the experience special were the people I played with back then.

 

[Bane]

The boats in FFXI were a similar experience. Pretty cool, although you only have to do it once or twice now and then warping everywhere is available.

Don't forget the fact that monsters could show up too!

Click to shrink...

Yep, the Kraken or the pirate boat with the skeletons. If they showed up you were probably hiding in the bottom of the boat, but man it felt great when you were high level and could stay up there with others and fight them off. I felt more like a hero then than I ever have by killing a major boss in any other MMO.

I'm surprised to hear Maple Story had something so similar. Hard to imagine they weren't influenced by FFXI.

 

[Real]

Archeage has giant airships, player controlled fishing boats/battle boats, cars, and more. Lots of content for transportation.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

Honestly the large speeders in Star Wars Galaxies were amazing enough to me.

Having an MMO mount that could carry up to 8 people still blows me away today.

 

[sredgrin]

These are very cool novelties when you're playing your first character and getting to know the world, but quickly become tiresome once you're at the level cap.

 

[idolminds]

I remember riding the Deeprun Tram and suddenly seeing some cyber roleplay /say chat appear in the middle of the path. Never know what you're going to find in the tram.

 

[Rotobit]

Deeprun Tram was mindblowing in concept, yeah. And I tried to play FFXI earlier and the airships were definitely one of the coolest aspects - especially considering they were rendered flying away in completely different maps, just to add to the immersion.

While I think there's a negative side to them if they're basically the only way you can traverse a world, I wish more modern online games had down-time moments like it. FFXIV at least went out of its way to make a unique instanced map for the Stormblood boat ride, but it was nowhere near the same experience.

I'd love a chill new MMO where the focus is more on role playing and living in the world rather than levelling up and getting the best gear.

 

[OG YOLOwen]

The flying boat/ship to Osyria/Orbis in Maplestory. It only came every 15(30?) minutes and had a safe room instance you could wait during the passage, or you could go out onto the deck and fight a Balrog which was going to kill anybody under level 70 for the most part.

After the game matured, quicker ways of going between continents emerged but for the early days of the game it was a pretty unique experience

Click to shrink...

I remember my first time taking there airship. I got rocked by the balrog and was too scared to ride it again.

 

[HandsomeCharles]

I used to play this old Korean MMO called "RF Online" which had airships that transported you to a place called "Ether"

It was really interesting as Ether was one of the only places in the game you could not directly teleport to or from, and was also one of the first places where all three of the factions were forced to grind for exp in the same area.

This meant that each faction had their own wharf, and at those wharves you could buy special items that weren't available at the other vendors anywhere else, so people would do "supply runs", and stick those items on the auction house (Ether was level locked)

The Airships were interesting too. Though they were essentially just a glorified map (rather than a physical entity you "got on"), they ran on a 15 min timetable, and you actually had to buy a ticket from a vendor to get onboard.

As the departure times were broadcast on a regional chat, this led to quite a few times where people would be dashing to get the next flight only to just miss it and have to wait 15 mins for the next one. It was actually quite tedious, but it certainly did add to making the game world feel "alive". I loved it!

 

[KentP]

Ah, memories of the wiseass cab driver in Wildstar...

 

[g23]

It honestly feels as if the industry has taken a step back when it comes to crafting open worlds in MMO games. Nowadays, all you get are self-contained instances where you jump in with your party, grab your loot and xp, rinse and repeat. There's no thought anymore into crafting the journey to get to the actual dungeon/objective which was in most cases the funnest part of old-school WoW.

 

[Deleted member 14735]

The boats in EverQuest and airships in FF11 sound so dang cool, I'm so sad I missed out on that era of MMOs. It isn't public transportation in this sense but I was awestruck riding a gryphon for the first time in WoW, seeing it actually fly over the world, more than anything to that point it gave me a true sense of being in a virtual world and it was amazing. Even in my most recent years playing WoW I don't tab out from them, there's just a magic there.. that in many aspects of the game, has been gutted away for the sake of convenience.

There are some who want video games and some who want virtual worlds, and the former far outweigh the latter it seems. I wish the latter was more popular. I wish we had a modern day EverQuest or FF11. Here's hoping Pantheon fills that void.

 

[Velocity:Design:Comfort]

I liked the idea of these, as much like real life, you can connect with others/engage in random acts of humanity (both positive and negative) in a way that wasn't just sitting around org or the ah. And it made it feel like the distance was big which made the world feel bigger.

I've played ffxiv to the beginning of heavensward, does it have anything like this in the newer expacs?

 

[Dandy]

The boats in EQ were wild. They took forever, you could get attacked while you were on them, and sometimes if you lagged while zoning you would be left in the middle of the ocean to die.

 

[Velocity:Design:Comfort]

It honestly feels as if the industry has taken a step back when it comes to crafting open worlds in MMO games. Nowadays, all you get are self-contained instances where you jump in with your party, grab your loot and xp, rinse and repeat. There's no thought anymore into crafting the journey to get to the actual dungeon/objective which was in most cases the funnest part of old-school WoW.

Click to shrink...

I don't disagree with your overall point, but people who think like us are in the minority. Or at least I thought so; wow classic is doing pretty well. But even I thought a lot of that was tedious and was better by wrath

 

[HarryDemeanor]

The spaceports in Star Wars Galaxies and then Jump to Lightspeed adding in space travel. Nothing like jumping to Naboo and then flying to the space station.

 

[LazyLain]

I don't really play MMOs, but do any of these examples actually travel through the world in a convincing manner? Like, could someone outside of the public transportation and someone riding it see each other while it's travelling?

If so, this thread might sell me on MMOs. lol

 

[Transistor]

Catching a boat or an airship in FFXI was a damn event. God that game was amazing.

 

[Deleted member 14735]

I don't really play MMOs, but do any of these examples actually travel through the world in a convincing manner? Like, could someone outside of the public transportation and someone riding it see each other while it's travelling?

If so, this thread might sell me on MMOs. lol

Click to shrink...

Can't speak for the other games but the zeppelin and gryphons in WoW are proper transportation, neither are instanced, they're out in the world and anyone can see you on them. The tram is instanced though.

Though, I just remembered that cross-continent zeppelins do have loading screens, there is no seamless cross-continent travel.

 

[Rotobit]

I don't really play MMOs, but do any of these examples actually travel through the world in a convincing manner? Like, could someone outside of the public transportation and someone riding it see each other while it's travelling?

If so, this thread might sell me on MMOs. lol

Click to shrink...

In Final Fantasy XI you see the airship pull out of the city in the distance at the schedule time, at least when I played it and saw this:

Of course I doubt it renders the players on it, and there's no flight mechanics to get up there I believe, but the illusion is pretty solid.

Pretty sure it's even more in depth in WoW.

 

[g23]

I don't really play MMOs, but do any of these examples actually travel through the world in a convincing manner? Like, could someone outside of the public transportation and someone riding it see each other while it's travelling?

If so, this thread might sell me on MMOs. lol

Click to shrink...

Yup! A bystander walking outside the gates of Orgrimarr or the Undercity could totally witness the airship arriving in port. There was even a zonewide alert that signalled to players that the ship was departing/arriving.

 

[thisismadness]

The Airships and Boat in FFXI. The Airship itself was mostly infuriating since it was easy to miss and you end up waiting. However, I do remember working my ass off to get the airship pass, which made riding it the first time feel like something special.

I loved the boat purely due to schadenfreude. Seeing unsuspecting players get mauled by sea monsters was always hilarious.

 

[TrashHeap64]

Everquest boats! The boat ride was like 20-40 minutes (I forget) so all of us would just end up chatting during our adventure. The boat would zone into different areas throughout the journey and sometimes people would just clip through it and get stranded in the ocean.

 

[Pendas]

Yep, the Kraken or the pirate boat with the skeletons. If they showed up you were probably hiding in the bottom of the boat, but man it felt great when you were high level and could stay up there with others and fight them off. I felt more like a hero then than I ever have by killing a major boss in any other MMO.

I'm surprised to hear Maple Story had something so similar. Hard to imagine they weren't influenced by FFXI.

Click to shrink...

This was the best. Hiding out with a bunch of other low levels, while the higher ups fought on top to protect the boat / farm for drops. It's like a naturally unfolding story. What's even better is if the Notorious Monster also spawns, and the higher levels can't take it out and start a train of death as the Kraken makes his way to the bottom of the boat and starts killing all the low levels.

Man that was fun.

 

[Dremorak]

The star Citizen trains come to mind.

Click to shrink...

Yep. The trains in star citizen, also even the elevators physically move. Hell, you fly your damn spaceship from one side of the system to the other and fly into the atmosphere, land in a hangar, take an elevator and then walk to a train that you take out of the city with no loading. Its pretty nuts.

 

[blitzblake]

Loved them in WoW.. kinda wish theyd make the boats/zeps do the full trip with no loading screen... triple speed if they have to so it doesnt take ages but i just wanna hop on a boat from stormwind and watch the destination arrive on the horizon.


Also loved the train and taxis in GTA 4, from a world building perspective. (sucked to use, think i used the train once. taxis were fun to be driven around in though)

 

[Bane]

This was the best. Hiding out with a bunch of other low levels, while the higher ups fought on top to protect the boat / farm for drops. It's like a naturally unfolding story. What's even better is if the Notorious Monster also spawns, and the higher levels can't take it out and start a train of death as the Kraken makes his way to the bottom of the boat and starts killing all the low levels.

Man that was fun.

Click to shrink...

Trains might be one of the things i miss most from XI. The Yuhtunga Jungle/Khazam entrance specifically. They were inconvenient and could become annoying but there was a sense of camaraderie about them when one would happen. Once I hit cap if there wasn't much else going on I'd occasionally go back there and kill the goblin as the trains came in so people could just keep doing there thing while I just hung out with my LS.

 

[Retromess]

Topics like this really make me nostalgic for FFXI. I remember the very first time I took the boat from Valkurm with a friend, and we dared to pop up to the deck, only to be one-shot by a giant kraken monster. It's a great way for a game to further build the idea of its world, compared to the constant teleporting and much more convenient things many MMO's offer nowadays.

It's a tough road to walk, and while I miss those days, I don't miss the times where I would miss the boat, and have to wait a full 30 minutes for it to return in order to catch it again. I don't miss the times where I would miss my opportunity to run past a high level mob, and basically be trapped there, since FFXI (at least when I played from 2003 to 2007ish) didn't offer any form of free teleports unless you were a specific class/level.

I miss those days, and wouldn't necessarily mind an MMO built to capitalize on a lot of things (makes me think of the very mechanics heavy stuff in games like RDR2 or Death Stranding), but I don't know if I would want EVERY game to have that. With WoW Classic being as seemingly well-perceived as it is, who knows where MMO's will go from here.

Edit: I guess Black Desert has some of the stuff from FFXI at least, with the lack of fast travel and whatnot, but does that game have public transportation like airships or boats at all? I've never made it to end game in that game.

 

[Thrill_house]

As others have said, airships in ff11. Was a cool touch. I can't remember how many times I barely missed my ride lol

 

[Baron Von Beans]

Not quite a MMO, but GTAOnline has taxis and a subway system that almost never get used. The buses are sadly best used to surf on top of, you can't actually be a passenger in one

 

[Cheesetriangles]

EQ boats owned even if they were buggy as hell and you took your life into your hands when you got one on.