Hi all,



one of the drawbacks of the Queen update is that it's much harder to take part in Royal Continent gameplay - especially islands - if you are based deep in the Outlands.



On the other hand, the long travel times are needed to limit the power projection of high end alliances and keep distances impactful for the in-game economy.



We went to the drawing board and asked us the following question:



Is there a system that gives Outland players easier access to the Royal Continent without making it easier for them to project their power across the whole Outlands and without harming the in-game economy?



We believe that we found an answer to that.



Here is the concept: (note that some details have been left out for clarity)



From your home in the Outlands (which could be a hideout or one of the Outland cities) you can naked fast travel to any Royal city. This is pretty similar to the current "fast travel" via /suicide. However, the key difference will be that you won't lose your home binding if you do that. Instead, you will get a "debuff" that says: "If you use an Outland portal, you will lose your home". You'll also get the same debuff if you /suicide and pick a Royal city as your respawn location. This debuff still discourages deep Outland players to naked fast travel to the Royals and then harrass the low Outlands through a portal - as they'd lose their home this way, the same way as it is right now. However, as long as you actually do not use an Outland portal, you can carry out your duties in the Royals - such as tending to your island, trading, blue/yellow/red zone gameplay, etc. - normall. Once you are done, you can access any fast travel point in one of the cities. These fast travel points will then have the option for you to naked fast travel back to your home in the Outlands. Doing so will remove the above mentioned debuff, so once you are back in your Outland home, your situation is exactly the same as when you left.



As a quick fix , we will partially implement these travel options by changing how the last city respawn works in conjunction with /suicide. In an upcoming patch, you will not lose your home if you /suicide and pick last city as a respawn point. In addition to that, you'll allow you to make an Outland city your home, while at the same time no longer having Outland cities count as "last cities". If you pick the last city respawn option, you'll always end up in the Royals. You'll get the debuff that says "you will lose your home binding if you use a portal". That debuff will be removed if you die or /suicide and do NOT pick last city as your respawn option. If you pick last city as your respawn option, it will stay.



Now, if and when the above system is properly implemented, there is a nice extension to it that would however most likely be added at a later stage. We could allow you to use the "hideout travel system" without to manually store your gear in a chest first. Instead, that gear would automatically be stored in the associated bank chest and you'd have the option to immediately put on that gear with one click once you travel back. This way, you could have a gear set for your character at your hideout and a gear set for your character in the Royals and easily switch back and forth. Mechanically, it's the same as using the reworked /suicide command, practically, however, it will drastically improve quality of life. Eventually, such a gear set system could be expanded to allow you to save pre-configured loadouts such that you can easily equip them provided that your chest is adequately stocked.



We are looking forward to your feedback.