Town Portal Mechanics

The role-playing games (I-X) that started it all and the various spin-offs (including Dark Messiah).

Which game had the best Town Portal mechanics?

MM1-3
0
No votes
MM4-5
3
23%
MM6
5
38%
MM7-8
3
23%
MM9
2
15%
 
Total votes: 13

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Arret
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Town Portal Mechanics

Unread postby Arret » 30 Dec 2012, 00:22

Which game(s) has the best mechanics for the town portal spell?

MM1-3: Must be high enough level to learn the spell and travel to the appropriate city's temple or mage guild. Allows travel to any city at any time once spell is learned.

MM4-5: Must travel to a higher level area and join the guild. Allows travel to any city at any time once spell is learned.

MM6: Spell has chance to fail until you reach level 10 water. At normal level can only be cast outside and ports to last city, at expert works inside, at master, allows travel to city of choice.

MM7-8: Spell has chance to fail until you reach level 10 water. Must be master level water to learn spell. At master level allows portals to towns where you have already drunk from the city fountains so long as you are not in combat or near monsters. At Grandmaster can town portal even in combat or near monsters.

MM9: Must be expert level elemental to learn spell. Ports to closest town (not necessarily the most recent town) as long as the teleportation stone for the target has been cleaned. At master level allows portal to towns with cleaned teleportation stones as long as you are not in combat or near monsters. At Grandmaster can town portal even in combat or near monsters.

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tolich
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Re: Town Portal Mechanics

Unread postby tolich » 30 Dec 2012, 14:48

Arret wrote:At master level allows portals to towns where you have already drunk from the city fountains so long as you are not in combat or near monsters.
In MM7 there's no need to drink from the fountain, to visit area once is enough. I'd like to see someone drinking from The Pit's fountain.
Arret wrote:Must be expert level elemental to learn spell.
And novice spirit. Yes, Initiates have it from start, but Rangers do not.

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GreatEmerald
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Unread postby GreatEmerald » 30 Dec 2012, 18:04

How about "They're all the same" option? :D In all cases you need to be of sufficiently high level for the spell to be truly useful.

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Konfuzius
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Unread postby Konfuzius » 31 Dec 2012, 01:48

I didn't play MM 4-5 (yet) but I really liked the way how TCC made it. You know, that you must be master in order to join a guild so you can get some good spells. Alternatively, some kind of guild quest as a requirement would be a cool thing too.

I don't really like the idea of "failing" anyway, because in the end you always have the power spell of save and loading.

Edit: Oh and I think you still should only be able to teleport yourself to towns where you drank from the fountain.

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Unread postby Bones_xa » 31 Dec 2012, 03:12

I'll say MM6 because you don't even have to be master or even expert to learn it. Even though you can't choose the town at low level its still useful for quickly getting back to the fountain in center of town.
Also isn't it level 12 required for MM6, not 10?

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tolich
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Unread postby tolich » 31 Dec 2012, 09:09

Bones_xa wrote:Also isn't it level 12 required for MM6, not 10?
There's 10% per skill level of success (if no enemies around and other requirements are OK). So level 10 makes it 100% successful.

I'd say that the idea of 'drunk from the fountain' doesn't differ much from 'cleansed the altar'. There's a point you must activate. And sometimes (in MM7) it's activated automatically. Nothing more.

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Arret
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Unread postby Arret » 01 Jan 2013, 20:00

The drinking from the fountain and cleaning the stones are the same mechanic, but I left MM9 as a different option because of how it works at expert level, which is also different than the expert level version of MM6.

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Unread postby GreatEmerald » 01 Jan 2013, 20:58

Bones_xa wrote:Even though you can't choose the town at low level its still useful for quickly getting back to the fountain in center of town.
That's an equivalent of taking a luxury cab to get to an adjacent street. You could do it, and it may be faster, but it's just not worth the price.

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Arret
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Unread postby Arret » 01 Jan 2013, 23:57

There are plenty of uses of the spell at expert level:

In MM9, casting it at expert level to get across town is definitely not a waste due to it being cheap to cast at expert level and the cities being so big, especially when you include the outside zones. In addition, due to slowly the boat schedule works, it can be used quite often to portal from Isle of Ashes to Thorgard, and sometimes from Lindisfarne to Thronheim.

In MM6 it has use at expert, just not as much:

1) Quick return from dungeons to tavern/temple (take 2 potions and cast)
2) White Cap, walk to Castle Stone (to pick up Cleric promotion or King of Thieves) from Free Haven and portal to the main city without climbing mountains/dealing with harpies.
3) Getting back from obscure places (Eel Infested Waters, Kreigspire)

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tolich
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Re: Town Portal Mechanics

Unread postby tolich » 05 Jan 2013, 08:49

Arret wrote:Must be expert level elemental to learn spell.
tolich wrote:And novice spirit. Yes, Initiates have it from start, but Rangers do not.
Oops, Novice Light, so Initiates can fail learning this spell as well.

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Re: Town Portal Mechanics

Unread postby GreatEmerald » 05 Jan 2013, 13:19

tolich wrote:Oops, Novice Light, so Initiates can fail learning this spell as well.
"Initiates"?

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Re: Town Portal Mechanics

Unread postby tolich » 05 Jan 2013, 18:50

GreatEmerald wrote:"Initiates"?
Perhaps, I just fail to get your joke or sarcasm, but 'Initiates' and 'Fighters' are two starting classes.

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Re: Town Portal Mechanics

Unread postby GreatEmerald » 06 Jan 2013, 09:43

tolich wrote:Perhaps, I just fail to get your joke or sarcasm, but 'Initiates' and 'Fighters' are two starting classes.
Oh, you're talking about MM9, right?

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Re: Town Portal Mechanics

Unread postby tolich » 06 Jan 2013, 10:47

GreatEmerald wrote:Oh, you're talking about MM9, right?
Exactly.

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Unread postby GreatEmerald » 06 Jan 2013, 11:53

Yea, things get confusing when it's a poll on every MM game out there :D


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