Roads, Quality, and Travel Weariness

[Lunarius_Haberdash]

It's no secret to anyone who's read my posts previously, I am a rabid opponent of all forms of fast travel. A good horse, a well-paved road, and a healthy supply of water is all the fast travel we need. Well... And bridges, but that's a technical limitation we may or may not see lifted by code innovation, it's not part of the world we live in now.

But, if one must live in a world with teleportation and fast travel, then perhaps certain limitations could be considered that also add to gameplay and the ever-holy quality grind.

Roads and Quality
The best way I see to implement this is to give us another reason for increasing the quality of wood and other resources. Make the quality of the road you're traveling on meaningful. How I hear you ask (over the screams of 'you'll take my roads from my cold dead hands')

It all starts with the starting and ending sign posts. The quality of each step in the road is limited by the quality of these two posts. No post on the road can be more effective than the average of the starting and ending post. When a fast-travel trip is being calculated, the posts along the road are capped.

What does quality do?
Two things:
1 - Each post along the road adds time to how long it takes to initiate your journey. Let's say a Q10 post adds 2 seconds to the time it takes for the hourglass to fill at the start of your trip. Q40 would then be 1seconds, Q90 would be .5, Q160 .25 (The Roman Road of Hearthling Roads) A trip of 30 posts would, at default, take 1m to start. reduced to 30s at Q40, 15s at Q90, and 7.5s at Q160.

2 - The quality of each step of the road would also determine how much travel weariness it takes to travel said road. A truly high-quality road will be both quick and painless to travel.

Of Stone Roads
Given the ease with which you can create the intermittent milestones to that of wooden signs, I would see an increase in the required materials for creating milestones. Both an additional amount of stone (20 would be optimal), as well as the inclusion of any metal, and rope per milestone.

Stone roads would see the base time decreased to 1s per milestone (so 5, .25, and .125) and have a lower base travel weariness.

{edit}
On Travel Weariness
The amount of travel weariness consumed will behave in a way similar to hunger as well. New characters started at 'Well-rested', and will travel at 100% of the rate the roads can offer. This will decline to 'Weary' where travel speed is reduced to 150%, 'Fatigued' where it is 200%, and 'Exhausted' where no travel is possible. Travel weariness is reduced exclusively by logging off in a bed.

Spruce Beds recover travel weariness at a meager rate, but come with the additional benefit of allowing the character to rest beyond the 'Well-Rested' rate, adding an additional level called 'Energetic'. While in the Energetic Travel Weariness bar, a character will travel roads at 75% of the base time.

Straw Beds do the same as the above, but recover weariness at a faster rate.

Sturdy Beds do the same as above, and recover weariness at the same rate as a straw bed. However, it will also permit the character to gain yet another positive level of rest, known as 'Vibrant'. At the vibrant rate, they will travel roads at 50% of the base time.

Cottage Beds (Think of Regular Chairs vs Cottage Chairs) recover at a superior rate to Sturdy Beds, and of course make Vibrant available.

I would posit there would be one additional bed that requires both silk and metal that would recover travel weariness at the best possible rate (pending quality) and would also make the 'Exalted' energy level available, reducing travel times on roads to 25% of the base.


The Rested States
Just a quick recap of the above in a more orderly fashion. One additional note, unlike Hunger, TW levels are consumed at an increasing rate as you get into the better states. If Well-Rested can be thought of to consume TW at a 1-1 rate, than when in a Energetic state TW is consumed at 2-1 (twice as fast, or usable for half as many teleporats as Well-Rested), Vibrant at a rate of 4-1 (usable for half as many as Energetic, and 1/4 as many as Well-Rested), and Exalted is consumed at 8-1.

All states of well-rested and worse (Weary and Fatigued) are consumed at a 1-1 rate.

Once Exhausted, the character will not recover any TW until it has spent 8 RL hours in a bed.

Quests will be the only way to 'instantly' recover any TW, but certain items in the world may accelerate TW recovery while in a bed.

States of Rest and Beds
No Bed - Almost No TW Recovery, Max Rested State 'Well-Rested'
Spruce Bed - Slow TW recovery, Max Rested State 'Energetic'
Straw Bed - Moderate TW recovery, Max Rested State 'Energetic'
Sturdy Bed - Moderate TW recovery, Max Rested State 'Vibrant'
Cottage Bed - Good TW recovery, Max Rested State 'Vibrant'
(Royal?) Bed - Superior TW recovery, Max Rested State 'Exalted'



Additional Thoughts
It occurs to me that forms of damage could be used as well for any travel done in a weary/fatigued state, for which the only medicine that will work is time rested.





Just some random meanderings today.

[shubla]

Good idea.
As we have so small world, people should be encouraged to travel by their