First off, before I start off, I’d like to thank all those out there that set up portal networks that made travel more convenient for everyone.
Now, this all comes from my experience from running through portals looking for a place or a shop. People’s views/experience can differ as they have different amounts of playtime to get used to the networks and/or the place they’re located in has different accessibilities by the multiple networks we have.
So, I know there’s some competition between the network owners since, well, in a sense, as a owner of the network you want more people to use yours. I get that. But, also as a person using the networks, I find myself thinking it would’ve been much more easier to find places and navigate if they were much better interconnected, instead of having to go through a number of vaguely named player portals to get to a different network, as not all player portals are connected with multiple networks. A pain in the ass when you’re looking for a shop that turns out to be only connected to one network that you have to go through a number of portals to find.
This would also help making the networks more whole in a structure point of view. For example, I’ll talk about the main networks I’ve been using to get around.
First off, the TNT network. Everything connects to the TNT Megahub, it connects to all the permanent planets, it’s easy to use, great. IF you know where to look. Sov planets on two sides on the lower floor. Good, easy to find. Malls and hubs on the other two walls. Alright. Portals to each planet in the inner ring. Nice. Random player portals on the upper floors that lead everywhere. Uhh… Okay? It’s not a bad thing. But most the times I find i only start using those portals After I spend from half an hour up to multiple hours trying to find a place, then after getting there, I find there’s a direct portal here, under a vaguely named sign. Sure, it’s a personal portal, so people can name them whatever they want. But Because the portals there lead everywhere and anywhere, it ends up harder to go somewhere finding a portal from the numerous random portals up there. And yes, i’ve looked through the sign names before I started my hours long trip through a different route.
Another problem is the half the times the planet portals in the middle don’t really help you. Sure, it drops you off at that planet. Where does it drop me off? I don’t know, it can be a portal hub of sorts, or it can be some really random place that doesn’t even have much portals to somewhere on that planet… or It can have 0 portals at all!
Take a look at this portal for example.
Look familiar? This is where you end up if you go through the portal marked ‘Antar VI’. Half the portals there lead to a place… on a different planet. Not helpful when usually the reason you use those portals with planet names is to get to the planet so you can find a loctation on that planet. The other half are player portals, which leads to limited places. So to find something on this planet, more than likely I’ll either have to go blindly running through those player portals hoping I can get to my destination indirectly by finding a portal to a different network, or at least close enough so that I can grapple swing to wherever my waypoint leads.
Another portal with this problem would be Gellis, as it drops you off the block museum, with not much portal options.
Or you can also end up here…
Welcome to Kada I, where you are greeted by a portal to Gyosha mall, which is located on… surprise! Gyosha Ophin. Alternatively, you can go through the 4 other portals here, that either leads you to one of the three ash, sand or silt/clay farm, or to somewhere on Sorissi. You want to go somewhere on this planet other than the three farms? How about this nice slide here?
That’s it. Literally it. You can’t get out of this area. Like why is this portal even there then? Just so it drops you off at Kada I and say ‘I’ve done my job bringing you to this planet, now go walk at a snail’s pace to wherever you’re looking to go’? Portals like these lead me to looking for other networks like…
Portal Seekers network hubs, or the Guardian’s compass hubs.
Now, these are more ‘planetary friendly’. They have more connections to locations on that planet. I guess it helps that you only need a 1x2 portal to connect since there’s a hub on that planet, and for those that don’t participate in hunts often, keeping a large/multiple portals can be a major burden, making the option to connect to either of these more favorable.
“why don’t you just use them in the first place then?”
Well, there’s the problem of them being harder to get to, especially if you’re on a different planet. Like I said, literally everywhere is linked to TNT megahub, it’s easy to find your way back there if you get lost.
PS hubs, you have to go through player portals and make your way along the chain of portals to get the the hub on the planet you’re looking to get to. Compass hubs, while VERY convenient at finding places since it literally tells you the direction and distance of the portal exit, you pretty much have to find it by going through player portals on that planet, or hope the TNT planetary portals drop you off at one.
Which is why I’m saying I hope for a more ‘cooperative’ network. Imagine going through the planetary portal at the megahub, and it drops you off at a PS planetary hub, where there’s portals leading to places on that planet, or a portal to the planet’s compass hub if you can’t find the portal you’re looking for, so you can go after the waypoint with direction/distance portals. People wouldn’t have to worry about getting isolated as simply connecting to the planetary PS hub will still mean you get connected to the entire network, and those that want a more direct access can open portals at the megahub.
“what about other networks, like Ultima, or Eden’s?”
This doesn’t have to be limited to TNT or PS, rather it would make things even better if all the networks are connected to each other. I only didn’t mention the other networks cause I don’t have much experience with them, cause running through random portals looking for shops I’m trying to get to rarely made me go through those networks.
Again, I know there’s competition between the networks, but I’d like to hear people’s thoughts on this, or any idea that might make navigating easier. Who knows, we may get even more awesome networks in the future.
But I believe many hub managers don’t want to do it that way. Compass Hubs don’t have self-serve portal tokens, in order to make sure everything is organized. So it is more work.
had the mini hub/compass hub up and running on lamblis. Self serve and simple explanation of how it worked.