Hydaelyn Role-Players

So I'm curious.... how do people as a whole or in general treat teleporting in RP?

For me, it's there. People can and do teleport. However... what keeps it from becoming a mechanism that people just don't want their character in trouble. If a player character (and player) don't want capture that's fine and that's a person's character.

I feel like there's game mechanics that say "you can't teleport some where you haven't attuned to" and "you can't teleport while in battle." Other things say that it requires anima and many of those out there just don't have a lot of it or any to actually fully use it. So I imagine that you can't just keep teleporting away (you'll waste your energy and/or your gil eventually giving the guards that fee).

I'd imagine teleportation can happen, but it takes a while. And like many things, one could likely find a way to dim the effects of the stone so that it takes longer to gather the aether necessary to perform the teleport.

As far as combat is concerned, let's assume teleportation takes 30 seconds. That's.. a lot of time. Even if it was just ten seconds, that's a LOT of time. I'd imagine anyone in a combat setting can fire an arrow, throw a bunch, cast a quick spell, whatever to try and stop the person from teleporting away.

Assuming their teleport is successful, it does use aether. If anyone is nearby, perhaps someone familiar with aether can trace some sort of, ah.. aetherial residue in order to discern the location the person went? If not the location, the general area, which would be far less OP. I'd imagine something like that would take an expert in the field rather than just your atypical caster, though.

Just my thoughts

I personally don't care for teleportation because it makes the world feel small, and trivializes things that should be terrific sources of drama (and challenge ).  But, in the world of Final Fantasy teleportation is baked right into the setting, so its really unavoidable.  In my own RP I never bring it up as a possibility, but always just roll and play along with it when its used by other characters.  I kind of hand-wave it by saying that its just too expensive for Aya to afford, a luxury, in a sense, for playing a poor character ^_^

For characters who really are jet-set types, movers and shakers, it may be something of a necessity to keep all of their stories in order. Using it to escape trouble sounds like a Deus Ex Machina, perhaps useful when the situation really demands it, but it may cheapen the story (or drama) in the process.

I'm willing to use the aetheryte and airships for personal transportation, but since Verad gets a lot of junk cargo, I take overland travel times into account whenever I can.  Of course, it would help quite a bit if I had a sense of how long travel across Eorzea is meant to take, and how the airships and aetheryte nodes cut down on that time. 

How long did it take those Doman refugees to get from Vesper Bay to Mor Dhona, anyhow?

There was a post awhile back that adventurers are generally heartier and do not suffering the aetherial sickness that a commoner might, which is why most NPC's stay "close to home".

I think certain restrictions being imposed during certain sorts of events seem reasonable to prevent godmode, but I also feel that it's an element of the universe of Final Fantasy XIV and shouldn't be forsaken just because of the possibility for abuse.

In past RP I have suggested that it requires a certain amount of focus, and even once suffered a condition where one of my characters was unable to teleport due to this lack of focus, being unable to recall being attuned to aetheryte, or other aetherial sorts of blocks that made things a bit interesting.

It's easy to have events where a DM-type-person says, "you can't teleport" for whatever reason - aetherial disturbances, whatever.  I think most RPers wouldn't abuse it, and sort of self-impose these blocks in order to facilitate more interesting storylines.  But like things like magic, abilities, etc. - players are going to vary in opinion with what is acceptable and what is not.

(07-21-2014, 04:09 PM)ExKage Wrote: [ -> ]So I'm curious.... how do people as a whole or in general treat teleporting in RP?

For me, it's there. People can and do teleport. However... what keeps it from becoming a mechanism that people just don't want their character in trouble. If a player character (and player) don't want capture that's fine and that's a person's character.

I feel like there's game mechanics that say "you can't teleport some where you haven't attuned to" and "you can't teleport while in battle." Other things say that it requires anima and many of those out there just don't have a lot of it or any to actually fully use it. So I imagine that you can't just keep teleporting away (you'll waste your energy and/or your gil eventually giving the guards that fee).

At least in my understanding of the lore, I'd fall into the anima-based ideas from 1.0 as my basis. THe general idea was that all people that could use aether would also build up anima, which was how they'd teleport. but that isn't to say everyone had an equal amount. Natually, someone with more anima could handle more teleports. But also, from a lore-perspective, we don't really know what a lack of anima would mean. Aethersickness? A complete inability to teleport?

From an RP standpoint, I think it's ok, and something that should be there, having seen/used it in a few scenes. But because of an RP standpoint, I do think it needs ot be discussed as a possibility beforehand, as someone could simply write "/em teleports all over the place with perfect dodge", which would ruin a scene. So my main concern would be, how much is a "proper" amount, and how would we expect it to work?

As for tracing a teleport, I agree with Val. Aether is an energy, and we know that events can be measured from residual aether from much, much later in time. (MNK story quest shows some of this). It would definitely take someone who was knowledgeable in the field, and had the right tools. But I could also see a person with an innate aetheric ability being able to maybe sense where it happened, and maybe where it led. (I tend to see teleports as pathways on an aetheric plane, others' interpretation of lore may vary, and that makes good discussion).

TLDR: I think teleports would need to be discussed/limited to a certain scope in a scene to prevent powergaming. But the same could be said for healing. It ultimately depends on what people are comfortable with, and if there's agreement in it, I see no problem, and would encourage it if it fits within the context. People won't see me teleporting left and right, but I have certainly used the aethernet and aetherites in scenes. ...there have also been two get-aways that used teleports, one of which was my own.

Coatleque will use the airship to travel between cities. She'll ride most other places then. The Aetherite is used only when absolutely necessary because it makes her sick.

I feel that something as powerful as Aetherite travel should have it's own associated negative consequences for over-use.

The devs have provided us some lore on this. Basically, a fairly limited subset of the populace has the spiritual strength ("anima") to regularly teleport; that subset just happens to be player character adventurers. Most "normal" people can only teleport very rarely due to a lack of anima. When you arrive, you pay the guard gil for Aetheryte upkeep.

Based on the MSQ and mechanics, we know that because Teleport and Return have you traversing the Lifestream, you need to "lock onto" an Aetheryte as a sort of beacon, so you can only teleport to an Aetheryte to which you've attuned; this is a big part of the Titan part of the MSQ and plays into the HM Primal quests, too. Presumably, you can't teleport in combat because it's a time-consuming ability that requires considerable concentration.

So, I basically play it straight from the mechanics and lore. I'll confess that I have, for comedy reasons, had L'yhta miss a teleport, appearing near but not at an Aetheryte when she's very flustered, but she can't teleport to any random location intentionally. In terms of tracing teleports, that's something she's been actively researching, but hasn't yet produced a repeatable breakthrough -- which is to say that, if the person running the plot wants to allow it, then she can do it, and if not, then she can't. In RP, L'yhta doesn't try to teleport if there's danger about; the spell leaves you extremely vulnerable for a long duration, and that's just asking for trouble. It's not really a viable escape technique.

EDIT: In terms of how L'yhta uses it day-to-day, she views it as just any other spell, albeit one that costs her gil unless she's teleporting back to Limsa Lominsa (because of her associations with the Maelstrom). She uses her Reaper for short distance travel or if she just wants to go out exploring, her chocobo if she wants to go out for a ride, and the airship if she's feeling cheap, but teleportation is her primary mode of long-distance travel. Then again, she is a highly skilled spellcaster who regularly uses magic, so that works for her conceptually.

Indeed a lot of what I decided on about teleportation was from Camate's post in the lore subforum, here.

That said I was curious as to how RPers treat it.

Kage used to liberously use it since he had been a (practicing) thaumaturge but after his transformation... well he uses it very sparingly. He uses his chocobo a lot more now (thankfully the person who just handed the chocobo to him wasn't a Lalafell) or he uses the airship. Just as sparingly does he use sea vessels. Why? Even though he's taller, he's no less anxious about deep bodies of water than when he was a Lalafell. Still a child of the desert after all.

I like the words about tracking too.

I just.. never did the monk questline yet so that wasn't something I was aware of. Interesting.

(07-21-2014, 04:32 PM)ExKage Wrote: [ -> ]I just.. never did the monk questline yet so that wasn't something I was aware of. Interesting.

Aetherometers are weird.

From my character's perspective, teleports are a strange and magical thing that she has no grasp of. I, as the player, may tele/return or use Aetheryte to get around when I'm keeping to myself and just trying to get OOC things done, but IC I'll never have Yune use any because I don't view it as something that she understands/feels she needs. Most days I don't even think of them as a physical presence in the game when I'm moving about.

That isn't to say I'll wag my finger at those who do use them. As I said, she takes it as something awe-inspiring when someone does teleport right in front of her to get around. As for combat, I'll agree with Val when he says that the spell itself takes an eternity in battle time. So much can happen and chances are (depending on who is trying to stop you and how) you're not going to get away. A character can try if that's just what they would do, but I'm sure the casting process would not occur without some sort of physical or mental penalty of sorts. Perhaps something along the lines of too much exposure to all of that raw and active aether that is forming the "bridge" from point A to point B. Not all of our characters are well-traveled individuals who have already experienced exposure to many of the world's elements, so especially for a first-timer, the penalties should be very noticeable.

Personally, I would just want to view teleportation as another form of magic, hence, not everyone can do it, only those who are very adept in the arcane arts or know how to manipulate aether in the air. I'm sure there could be a very sciency way of explaining the mechanics of how a teleport could work if we want to get technical, but as this is a fantasy game, it's just simpler for conversational purposes to chalk it up to plain ol' magic.

Though I am curious on how it could be justified IC how a person can taxi other people along with them. Is it just to be taken that they just open up some sort of a rift that you can walk through together? Or is it more that they know how to manipulate the aether just right to snatch you up in the spell? (Scotty, beam me up?) Would be especially frustrating in kidnapping scenarios, I suppose.

(07-21-2014, 04:36 PM)Yune Wrote: [ -> ]Though I am curious on how it could be justified IC how a person can taxi other people along with them. Is it just to be taken that they just open up some sort of a rift that you can walk through together? Or is it more that they know how to manipulate the aether just right to snatch you up in the spell? (Scotty, beam me up?) Would be especially frustrating in kidnapping scenarios, I suppose.

I kinda see it as like opening a door. Provided it's still open, other people could walk/get dragged through. Once it's closed, you may not be able to reopen it, but you could find out where it leads to.

Now randomly teleporting someone out of the blue would be something I couldn't find possible. (At least, not without some really amazing RP detailing how). I don't think we'd have to worry about a portal gun-level of teleports. (But that would be funny to see in an OOC stance)

Raz is the same as Coatleque -- he can teleport, but it gives him the Mother of all migraines. I think it has its place in RP as it's pretty ingrained in the lore, but it's up to the players to decide if their character can make use of it or not.

As for teleporting in battle? Sure, why not. But I imagine it would require a whole lot of concentration, more so in the heat of a battle. It could, of course, become OP extremely easily if an individual can just teleport to safety with absolute ease. /shrug.

In teleporting other people, I always thought that that was a very exhausting process on both your aether and your gil. I imagine you can teleport someone by taking them alongside you but it takes a lot out of the character. I don't think you can teleport someone if you can't physically grab them.

For L'yhta, teleporting a group is just casting a larger spell -- more draining, yes, but feasible if everyone is in the vicinity. However, to provide a convenient story "out," the patterns of the participants and their thoughts have to "synchronize" with the spell's arcanima pattern, or they end up getting left behind. So, those who don't want to be teleported don't go. Likewise, those who are bound, chained, or otherwise held fast can't be teleported, because the pattern to which they're connected interferes with the spell's pattern by requiring the teleportation of too much mass, presenting an "unowned" aetheric pattern, or what have you. Even if she were to get to the room where someone is chained up, she'd still have to free them from those bonds before being able to teleport away with them.

Magi-babble: It Solves Plot Problems.