Fast Travel / Quick Travel?

[Countersync]

I hadn't even /heard/ of Obduction until I happened to see Zisteau stream it last night.

Currently there are two main reasons I am reluctant to buy the game for my self.

1) Is FastTravel/QuickTravel missing? I didn't seem him explore the settings, but no one else in his chat seemed to be aware of any option to turn on / enable fast travel / quick travel (I recall either Myst or Riven having the option, after you had been somewhere, to click on a given segment of a path where the cursor became a lightning bolt and jump to the next nexus of interest down the path). Without that fast travel the game has a LOT of grindy walking.

2) Mostly covered in another thread that I posted, short version, I don't play games on Windows.

[Erik]

1) No, there's no fast travel. Though, you can hold SHIFT (or enable CAPS LOCK) to run. And it appears that if you run and use both [A] and the Up arrow on the keyboard, you go even faster.

2) What's your platform of choice? There's currently a preview version for Mac, so Cyan is working on that.

[Countersync]

Originally posted by Erik:

1) No, there's no fast travel. Though, you can hold SHIFT (or enable CAPS LOCK) to run. And it appears that if you run and use both [A] and the Up arrow on the keyboard, you go even faster.

2) What's your platform of choice? There's currently a preview version for Mac, so Cyan is working on that.

Not fast enough. I enjoyed the earlier games more for the puzzles and I don't enjoy 'grindy' games. Having to walk, rather long distances, to change aspects of puzzles is unappealing.

I happen to use an operating system that is based around freedom, control over my system, and continuous improvement over time; you can think of the platform as 'SteamOS plus a keyboard and mouse', but Unreal 4 would call it 'Linux'.

[Ray tracing is faster]

Originally posted by Countersync:

Not fast enough. I enjoyed the earlier games more for the puzzles and I don't enjoy 'grindy' games. Having to walk, rather long distances, to change aspects of puzzles is unappealing.

Well here is the thing; this puzzle design is tied with exploration. You walk through NEW areas much of the time, to solve these practical puzzles. Not all the time though, there is a little bit of backtracking, more if you get stuck. Also you'll probably hate the maze.

[Pesky]

As you progress through the game you open up many short cuts from one place to another. Sometimes they're bridges which can only be activated from one side. Sometimes you eventually get to a place where you can open a second door to a building. So something which might take 200 outdoor paces when you're first exploring can be reduced to 10 paces cutting in one door and out the other. So there is continuous improvement over time.

[Ray tracing is faster]

Originally posted by PeskyTheTroll:

As you progress through the game you open up many short cuts from one place to another. Sometimes they're bridges which can only be activated from one side. Sometimes you eventually get to a place where you can open a second door to a building. So something which might take 200 outdoor paces when you're first exploring can be reduced to 10 paces cutting in one door and out the other. So there is continuous improvement over time.

Yes, this too.

[Nebride7]

That's the whole fun of this type of game - taking your time and exploring. I think of the Cyan games as a nice stroll on a Sunday afternoon with puzzles to solve on the way. :) Probably not for people who like shoot-'em-up types of games.

[RabidChoco]

You've got two modes to get around, free roam where you're just walking around; or node mode, which is similar to classic Myst/Riven. Dunno about any zip mode on top of that, but it'd probably hinge on using nodes.

[tahgtahv]

Ya...not unless you want a headache. Or get headaches, whatever. What I mean is that the ndoe system is clunky at best. It's slower to go from node to node than to just run there, and you often get turned around 90, 180, or some other abitrary number of degrees, making navigating a straight line near impossible without being extremely careful.

[Countersync]

Originally posted by RabidChoco:

You've got two modes to get around, free roam where you're just walking around; or node mode, which is similar to classic Myst/Riven. Dunno about any zip mode on top of that, but it'd probably hinge on using nodes.

Yes, path 'nodes' is exactly what the classic fast travel system was based around. You could cut past all of the scenery that you didn't want/need to see and get to the next point of making a decision of movement direction along a route.

It was only an option if you'd already been down a path before, It really helped out when you had to navigate around different sides of an area that you hadn't been to yet or if you needed to go back and look for things that you'd missed.

[tahgtahv]

The problem here is there's no zip nodes. Also, unlike Myst where every shot counted, there's several thousand nodes in Obduction. It's all 3D rendered regardless, so nodes are cheap.

On a side note, I have figured out a bit more how the node system works (I still maintain it's stupid). If you're just pressing forward while looking at a node, you go there and look pretty much straight ahead. No problems there. However, if you *hold* forward, and press left or right, you can choose between looking forward, looking left, and looking right when you get to the new node. This is incredibly easy to do if you, like me, use WASD and the mouse as even aiming slightly to the side while pressing W can change which direction you end up facing.

EDIT: Using the LMB to move forward does not exhibit this behavior, as you move instantly on clicking, and not on key release.