Hydaelyn Role-Players

I noticed a lot of random RP'ers seem to utilize airships and not put much weight on IG travel times and privileges that are handily available to our PCs for typical gaming reasons, whereas people like myself and most in my tribe treat terrain with a lot more significance than it would normally appear.

i.e
Traveling from Forgotten Springs to Ul'dah takes 2-3 days.
Traveling from the dead Goobue in Eastern Thanalan to the Amalj'aa encampment in the same map takes about a day.


I was just wondering how most people tend to lean in this regard since I logged in briefly to check on my retainers and heard people in Gridania casually mention about going to Costa, which then reminded me of other times I heard people ICly referencing using airships.


Thoughts?

A fair question I have asked myself often. The game itself just cutscreens anytime you travel, so there's no identifiable passage of time.

Some people use teleporting in their rp, which I generally shy away from. Mostly I use chocobo travel, but I generally don't rp the travel portion, as I haven't come up with a good answer in regards to length of time.

One time, on a ferry ride to Costa, I had my miqo turn and apologize for standing up in and capsizing theboat, and the other person ran with it which was cool. And now my miqo isn'tr allowed on that particular ferry again :p

I honestly haven't really decided. I find it more immersive to RP out ground travel, and I have been sort of dithering around and treating it like at least a week or two journey between Gridania and Ul'dah, at a normal pace.  I would imagine that a fast clip would cut time off that, but who knows how much.

(12-06-2013, 01:33 PM)K Wrote: [ -> ]I noticed a lot of random RP'ers seem to utilize airships

I would question any roleplayer's IC use of airships, as they are not supposed to be available for public use due to the Garlean threat. The story character's access to airships is one of great exception and not something I think people should take IC. It's unfortunate, but airships in ARR seem to be even more exclusive than the pegasus travel of TERA (which was supposed to be extremely costly and highly regulated). That said, there are plenty of other means of travel across Eorzea, so not being able to use airships IC doesn't really do away with much in the way of opportunities. There are still boats and carts and chocobo porters and your own mount and walking and aetherytes (for those with enough command of their aether to manage it).

Actually, Airships are quite open to the public. The stipulation is that the airways are not. Anyone can ride one of the Highwind airships if they own a pass. The reason why the airways themselves are restricted is because of the empire, however. Due to a severe lack in airship technology compared to Garlemald, they simply cannot afford to have a heavy presence in the skies. The empire would have a field day shooting down all the airships, simply put.

That being said, I see nothing wrong with a player actually owning or piloting an airship so long as they both understand the risks and consequences, and have the requisite training and experience that would be required to even operate it, maintain it, and afford the incredibly expensive fuel. Not every player is going to have those, though, and most people that would go so far as to make the claim generally take the proper care in shaping their character beforehand.

For example, since 1.0 my character has been firmly rooted as a magitek engineer who works with the Garlond Ironworks. As such, he and one of his lifelong friends (Who is even more of a seasoned engineer than Merri) jointly own an airship. His reasoning for being able to take to the skies on specific occasions is simply because he's with the Ironworks.

Of course, that's canonically speaking. Not everyone follows canon, and that's fine. Everyone is entitled to play how they want. Just means you don't have to socialize with them if you so choose~

Kan-E-Senna has this to say about airships:

"In better times, airships were available for the convenience of one and all. Alas, the risk that our crafts may fall to imperial attack has forced a reduction in the number of flights. Consequently, it has become necessary to restrict air travel only to those whose need is great. Such individuals may petition the relevant parties to be issued an airship pass. As you may have deduced, I myself am one such party... Yet I was not alone in desiring that you be granted the privilege of air travel."

Clearly, the airships set up to travel between Gridania, Limsa Lominsa, and Ul'dah are not for common use. RP your own personal airship all you like, but to make use of the city ones would be rather presumptuous.

In the past I have played travel times, and having to track the IC location of your char. I found that overall it got in the way of RP that is based on when people an be on-line.

For FFXIV instantaneous travel in part of the game and lore, so I embrace that. I find this helps for a more reactive and fluid RP, but I also accept it does lead to "school yard football" RP, where everyone appears for the RP incident.

However it depends on the perspective in which the players are roleplaying from. Are we reoleplaying from after the main scenario or before? because after it. Well, the garleans are pretty weak now.

Are they? Losing a battle doesn't mean they lost the war. The game becomes a bit silly after the main scenario, what with the city-state leaders declaring a new age only because
So I'm not sure we can state that the garleans are effectively weak after the main scenario. Unless, of course, the garleans are stated to retreat en-masse from Eorzea after it (I forgot a lot of the details, so feel free to correct me). But that makes no sense and can't be enforced in-game, where all the garlean enemies and forts remain right where they were.

Well, here's another quote that seems to refute the idea that airships are restricted. This is lifted directly from the official ARR page.

Quote:By pioneering the sky routes between the realm's major cities and establishing regular flights along them, Highwind Skyways, an institution founded by the exorbitantly wealthy aristocrat and adventurer Tatanora, is now slowly but surely making commercial flight an ordinary aspect of everyday life in Eorzea. Even so, only a few airships are permitted to take flight at any given time, for the Garlean Empire is always watching, ready to strike at the first sight of an enemy vessel.

So, it depends really on which you want to run with. That quote implies that commercial flight is growing. Both are from official sources, so it's hard to really debunk either one.

Wait...none of ya'll are Supermaning all over the place? Damn, I've been doing it all wrong o.o

(12-06-2013, 01:33 PM)K Wrote: [ -> ]I noticed a lot of random RP'ers seem to utilize airships and not put much weight on IG travel times and privileges that are handily available to our PCs for typical gaming reasons, whereas people like myself and most in my tribe treat terrain with a lot more significance than it would normally appear.

i.e
Traveling from Forgotten Springs to Ul'dah takes 2-3 days.
Traveling from the dead Goobue in Eastern Thanalan to the Amalj'aa encampment in the same map takes about a day.

I may be just a dummy, but I am not aware of "handily available IG travel times". Can someone tell me where to look up that information?

If there are cannon or widely agreed upon IG travel times then I would gladly go by those. However, I was not aware, so I've been making my best guesses about travel time.

I never ICly use airships, nor do I ICly use aetherytes. This is because my character is currently poor, and does not have authorization to use them because she is not a citizen of any city.

That said, if a person is wealthy, a powerful wizard or a government authorized diplomat or scholar then I see no reason why they can't ICly use the crystals or airships.

Edit: ROFL, Tobias.

(12-06-2013, 06:24 PM)Knight Kat Wrote: [ -> ]

(12-06-2013, 01:33 PM)K Wrote: [ -> ]I noticed a lot of random RP'ers seem to utilize airships and not put much weight on IG travel times and privileges that are handily available to our PCs for typical gaming reasons, whereas people like myself and most in my tribe treat terrain with a lot more significance than it would normally appear.

i.e
Traveling from Forgotten Springs to Ul'dah takes 2-3 days.
Traveling from the dead Goobue in Eastern Thanalan to the Amalj'aa encampment in the same map takes about a day.

I may be just a dummy, but I am not aware of "handily available IG travel times". Can someone tell me where to look up that information?

If there are cannon or widely agreed upon IG travel times then I would gladly go by those. However, I was not aware, so I've been making my best guesses about travel time.

I never ICly use airships, nor do I ICly use aetherytes. This is because my character is currently poor, and does not have authorization to use them because she is not a citizen of any city.

That said, if a person is wealthy, a powerful wizard or a government authorized diplomat or scholar then I see no reason why they can't ICly use the crystals or airships.

Edit: ROFL, Tobias.

By that I meant non-rp necessity. Having to travel with neither airships nor teleporting for the entire game would be a massive burden and its only natural that our characters are given such a liberty in-game.

I don't believe my(nor my friends') interpretation of travel times to be best for everyone and I wouldn't dare imply so. I was simply asking to find out how many people take serious consideration into in-game distances and travel. Personally, I believe distances to be far greater than they are represented in-game. Its only natural that they would be kept as such, since non-rp'ers normally won't appreciate vast areas of sheer nothingness.

I mean, if travel between Gridania and Ul'dah was really only five to ten minutes by Chocobo then just think about how realistically, miniscule that is and how it would affect things in-game from both a lore and logical perspective.


Its not as though I am critizing ANYONE who uses such methods, I just wonder if many people are taking (non-RP) in-game privileges for granted and applying it to their characters without much thought. That's only because I am of the same opinion as Naunet, however; that airship travel is HEAVILY limited(city at least, in the case of a personal airship then that seems totally fine).

With regards to the number of people with airship passes, we have to remember that our PCs are the minority of people in Eorzea. If you go just by the parts of the main scenario quest that can apply to all PCs, they're a subset (those who have fought Primals) of a subset (members or affiliates of the Scions) of a subset (people with the Echo) of a subset (adventurer members of a Grand Company) of a subset (adventurers) of people in Eorzea. If you put a 10% limit on each subset, the PCs are -- before getting into elements of the story where one might need to make elements generic -- .001% or less of the actual Eorzean population. I think it's fair to say airship passes could be granted and air travel used by that small group of people.

In short, I'd say don't worry about it. If you want to use airships, it fits with lore. If you'd prefer not to, that fits too. There's readily available lore-compatible options for whichever approach a player wants to take with their character.

EDIT: Yes, yes, I know that my percentages are straw men used as an example and that I'm including MSQ elements that happen after you get an airship pass, but the fact remains that PCs are a minority of Eorzeans, so it's relatively easy to have lore-compliant justification for one's possession of an airship pass.

Normally my character is where ever they need to be as far as travel goes. Only once did I get to rp out travel time and thats because there were two characters traveling from the shroud to Ul'dah. That was pretty fun though even if it took way longer then we said it took. 

I tend to stay away from airships for ic. My character has no reason to own a pass. Though on that note my character tends to stay away from ships as well unless drunk. ^^; Dislike of water means I hoof it or ride a chocobo everywhere.