(08-14-2015, 11:53 AM)Lilia Lia Wrote: So to shift gears a little bit, how inconvenient is it for most people? "A fraction of people can use it habitually" because the recast time "varies" is pretty vague. I still don't see why airships would exist if everyone could only teleport once a week, for example, except for people who teleport several times in a week. In order for that level of infrastructure and for travel by chocobo to still be relevant, I'd say most people would find teleporting to either be very uncomfortable, very risky, or very rarely available to them.Â
Adventurers (otherwise known as Us) are like, 2% to 5% of Eorzea's population or whatever. We get to be special.
Every Tom Dick and Harry putzing about in cities and around the world could probably teleport like, once a month, accompanied by extensive puking or whatever else happens when people try to teleport and get sick.
It's also noted that anima, the life-force, is needed to teleport. This means all physical goods must be transported through physical space, because objects are not alive. That alone gives substantial reason for boats, airships, and chocobo carts to exist.
To make it more personal, Oliwat can teleport all the time because he's a wizard, but usually doesn't because he's also an explorer, and teleporting would defeat the point. Adalhaid does not because she's broke and a slave to debt.
As an afterthought, a good analog for thinking about how something that would seemingly see such little use would still be a service is Airplane travel. Some people might travel by airplane once a year. Some might travel once a month. A small amount of people might travel every day, or every few days. In this case, it isn't the frequency of use of any one group of people, but the sheer number of people using the service collectively that make it profitable. Less expensive or less uncomfortable methods (chocobos, airships, etc.) would therefore still see use. Chocobo and Airship Travel are to Aetheryte Teleportation as Bus and Rail transportation are to Flight. Additionally, Aetheryte, like Flight, can only take you to very specific, already-established places where extensive infrastructure already exists. Chocobos and Buses can just drop you off at whatever backstreet you need to get to. That's another advantage for them.
We, the Adventurers, are the Frequent Flyers with like a million bonus miles or whatever. Normal townsfolk are the Average Joes that might travel twice a year to visit their family or whatever.
