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The New Overland Map - A Prettier Way to Kill Immersion

Discussion in 'Release 7 Feedback' started by prospereau, Jun 26, 2014.

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  1. Sir Cabirus

    Sir Cabirus Avatar

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    I just reread my posting and I think it is a little bit too raw and only one side of a coin. My messages are usually short - just a try to hide my terrible knowledge of the English language :D

    I'm a fan of the canceled cloth map view and the loading screen using the 3D map incommodes me more as it did with the cloth map. BUT I have to admit that the 3D map has much potential - I appreciate the work and I'm starting to like it :)

    @Chris: Thank you for all your explanations. I'm very happy with your work, the work of all the other devs and the progress of the game. I know SoTA will be a great game and a must have for all true Ultima fans.
     
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  2. adrazz

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    Totally agreed if this map system stays in place then I wont play
     
  3. mrrockitt

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    Agree on both sides, the map is not really good for immersion right now although that will improve I'm sure as future random encounters will make travel on it much more exciting.
    But mostly I'm perfectly happy to stick with it due to Chris' words above that using the map allows them to "crank out quality content in the fastest way", it's worth keeping it for that!
     
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  4. Oakwind

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    thank you...
    I like these guys ideas too.


    .



    [​IMG]
     
  5. adrazz

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    Love this, brilliant stuff!
     
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  6. Lord_Darkmoon

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    We had a paper/cloth look for the map and the feedback was not very positive ;)

    But they should change the movement on the map, to allow for more freedom.
     
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  7. AndiZ275

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    I have to highly disagree with the OP. When I look at the RPGs I played with and without overland maps, in most cases I prefered the games with the map (newest example: The awesome Wasteland 2; but also fantastic games like Baldurs Gate, etc.). It was never "immersion breaking" for me, since I got the feeling that my party is travelling in a much bigger world (and I always think about the Indiana Jones Trilogy, where Indy is travelling on a cloth map :)). And the RPGs I liked without an overland map were mostly games, that were limited to a specific area, like Gothic 1 and 2. And even those games allowed in many cases to quick travel on an overland map.

    For me it's much more immersion breaking to pretend the existence of a huge world, where you can reach each point in five minutes or through dozens of instant teleporters, like most MMOs do.

    To make it short I like the new overland map version from R7 and hope, that it will improve over the next releases.
     
  8. Minoc

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    I only have a few minutes spare this weekend, and logged in just to see the map.
    I am very impressed.

    Love the way its heading, and think it looks great.

    And an extra special thanks to Chris for jumping into the thread ! :)

    SotA gets so much better every release. Keep up the great work ;)
     
  9. mrrockitt

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    Agreed, it worked well in Baldurs Gate.

    Actually I liked the 2-D version better as it was a bit clearer and places did not hide behind mountains! :)
     
  10. Lord_Darkmoon

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    Don't know if it is planned, but a function to rotate the map would help in such cases.
     
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  11. mrrockitt

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    I'm sure it is and certainly would :)
     
  12. Lord-Galiwyn

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    The overland map seems to have a small problem.
    I f i use the /home connad and go say northshire, when i walk out of Northshire, the map puts me outside the last place i was in, NOT Northshire. possible place holder problem, or bug
     
  13. jiirc

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    The more I move around the world using zone or home commands, or even crashing, the more I realize that there is a problem with how they track the avatar's position. It's almost like they aren't updating the avatar's position when zone or home are used. Granted zoning was never intended for player use and home is brand new, with a small amount of development time and probably should be considered proof of concept.
     
  14. Floors

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    It's pretty funny because the previous over world map was based on this and everyone hated it.

    I think people are just having a hard time realizing this is not intended to be a final map.

    We already slowed the development of the over world map down by a lot by demanding it be in 3D, so I think people should just chill out for a couple months and see what it evolves into. If it's still like this by R9, then yes.

    And by this I mean slow movement, no encounters and placeholder graphics.
     
  15. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    This issue has been resolved. We're likely going to do one more patch but not sure if that will make it in or not.
     
  16. Lord-Galiwyn

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    If you are in a Party in the Oveland map the Party Leader gets a LArge PLaceholder, so you can follow them around the map.
    \TY
     
  17. pedamimi

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    Hate the overland map, hate all the load times. I still believe a seamless world is the way to go for most RPers. To me the game just looks like a very old. outdated video game. It is however still early in the process, and I just keep hoping things will get better.
     
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  18. Karrolanth

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    They already did a 180 on the map concept - it's highly likely this version is staying and will be greatly improved over time.

    Personally I wouldn't let the map turn me off the game, but it's your decision. May I suggest coming back in a few releases and seeing how things have changed?
     
  19. Sunsanvil

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    With regard to the OPs sentiment, yea, sure, but there is no way the very foundation of the entire game is ever going to change.....so lets focus on trying to make the most of it.

    New map is a massive move in the right direction, but it is of course extremely early in its development. Specific suggestions I would like to give Chris (while we hopefully still have his ear):

    - Don't allow so much zoom out. I know, if I dont want to zoom out I can just choose not to, but I really feel it shouldn't be possible at this play level. We need it to feel less like a map (despite the persistence of that name) and more like a second level of game play. Might even be easier to dev as such. As far as I am concerned there could still be a static, 2D map the player can pull out showing the whole world (akin to the cloth map of old) but that should have no interactivity (other than maybe the ability to take notes).

    - Of course for the above to make any sense the detail level will have to be taken up a fair bit. I know there are many fleshing outs to come (mini toons instead of banners cant come soon enough) but if you were to focus on making a more zoomed in nominal view look good as you flesh it out, it may well pay dividends in the long run.

    - Please let us roam freely, either with WASD or better yet a mouse driven arrow system like U6/U7, not center-of-hex-to-center-of-hex. Even if its "meaningless" in terms of the underlying structure, it would "feel" sooooo much more like game-play, exploring, and adventuring, and less like an elaborate fast-travel screen.
     
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  20. Svahn

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    I think this new overland map is many many times better than the previous cloth style map was.
    Congratulations team - nice progress!
     
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