I recently found a post by Cz on another AO news site that included two maps comparing the old whompa system to the new one that will be going in with the next patch. I have to say that I really disagree with the implementation.
Take Last Ditch, for example. When I was just a wee adventurer starting out in the big mean world of Anarchy Online, I used to get missions in Last Ditch all the time. I'd load up on a couple missions out in that area, a few in Holes in the Wall that I'd finish off on the way, and I'd just make a day of it. Whomp over to Newland from Athen, Borealis from Newland, scan on my way out of the city, and then take a nice romp through the countryside, occasionally stopping to deal with a rollerrat that just wouldn't give up. It was slightly dangerous, I died a couple times in my early days, but you know, there's a risk involved with traveling, that's all there is to it. Last Ditch was this somewhat remote bastion, removed from the hustle and bustle of the more populous cities of the north.
But then the whompa was added. I'm not saying that it was really wrong to do so, I mean, Last Ditch has as much right as the next town to have a bustling population, but the whompa, in my opinion, really killed its character.
I see that there are two new whompas that are going to be added in this patch, one in Wailing Wastes, and one in Bliss. Now, Wailing Wastes has always been one of my favorite places. It's this vast, unhospitable desert seperating Athen Shire and Mort, one of the more dangerous zones in the world. There's not much alive there, you don't even see much wildlife running around, and what you do see are generally scorpoids which aren't over lively to begin with anyway. The outposts located in the north are quite removed, and again have a bit of a charm in that way. I don't consider Wailing Wastes to be an overly-populated area, perhaps one that was at one time, but has since been abandoned due to increasing problems with local wildlife attacking travelers, and was thusly abandoned. I really don't believe that a whompa fits in that area.
And finally Bliss. This is kind of another Last Ditch to me. Located somewhat out of the way along The Longest Road, a path that not everyone would be going past due to TLR's dead end nature, not only is it an oasis in the desert, it's an oasis from civilization, for those of us who prefer to be out in the wilderness in relative privacy, to take in the sights and watch the suns set over the desert, looking out towards the salt flats. I suppose a whompa out here may go with the area a little better than it would in wailing wastes, but again, I still don't think they go hand-in-hand.
Convenience is one thing. Being able to get from Athen to Tir in a couple minutes rather than having to run the circuit across Aegean is a nice thing, it lets us get from major population centers easily, and it fits in with the setting of each of the cities. However, my fear is that the changes to the whompa system are going to all but destroy the traveling spirit of the citizens. With the changes to team missions, you have inadvertantly caused a severe cutback in hunting parties, many of the old hunting grounds are now all but deserted, it's somewhat rare to come across a fellow traveler while heading to a mission, and I fear that the new whompas will further this. Even in the future, not everything is simple and painless. Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither was Athen, nor Omni-1.
I'd respectfully ask for those who are involved in the redesign of the whompa system to take a moment to think about whether these whompas really fit in with the character of the area they're to be installed in, and whether they fit in well with your vision.