Dismiss Notice
This Section is READ ONLY - All Posts Are Archived

The New Overland Map - A Prettier Way to Kill Immersion

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

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Joviex

    Joviex Avatar

    Messages:
    1,506
    Likes Received:
    3,122
    Trophy Points:
    125
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Burbank, CA
    Yes. Excellent work.

    Thank you for listening to the massive outcry over many months, that anyone could have been a part of to voice their opinion prior to you guys re-designing it to be in line with the original pitch.

    The majority of us do appreciate it, even when some of us =o do not always say it exactly thus.

    Cheers.
     
  2. redfish

    redfish Avatar

    Messages:
    11,366
    Likes Received:
    27,673
    Trophy Points:
    165

    Traveling from scene to scene through portals just as much jars immersion. In fact, I'm really not fond of the new gateways they put in some scenes to mark the exit. It kills all subtlety, imo.

    From an immersion point of view, there are advantages and disadvantages to a dual-scale map. The disadvantages are obvious. But as I've expressed before, though, I was disappointed that as the Ultima series switched to single-scale, the world seemed to get smaller and smaller. I think the overland map will end up feeling much more alive when they start to incorporate things like weather and random encounters. I personally think it would feel better if the range of vision were more limited, so it felt less like a map and more like a landscape. Seeing a town on the other side of a forest or mountain range is a bit strange.
     
  3. Floors

    Floors Avatar

    Messages:
    4,265
    Likes Received:
    6,621
    Trophy Points:
    165
    It's kinda funny considering the fanbase is mainly made up of fans of 1980s and late 1990's pc games, but everyone's entitled to their opinions.

    This world will be so much larger than a seamless world would be. It would be nice if we could watch something, or get some stats or something interesting while the game loads instead of a jpg. Would be cool to watch video of someone else's game for a few seconds or friends for example.
     
  4. Doppelganger [MGT]

    Doppelganger [MGT] Avatar

    Messages:
    495
    Likes Received:
    1,199
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Tampa Bay, FL

    I really think you're onto something here! Perhaps something similar to Skyrim, where you get an image and a little historical tidbit about the land or its inhabitants. It would be cool to get a couple quick lines of Brittanian lore or "did you know" facts during load screens, rather than just the wallpaper thing.
     
  5. Karrolanth

    Karrolanth Avatar

    Messages:
    482
    Likes Received:
    1,616
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Gender:
    Female
    Location:
    The True North

    This would be great - I'm not keen on going from using the keys for movement to having to click where I want to go, and then back to using the keys. Hopefully this sort of movement is planned for the future. :)
     
  6. Oakwind

    Oakwind Avatar

    Messages:
    269
    Likes Received:
    536
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Gender:
    Male
    I like this map too.


    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
     
  7. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

    Messages:
    2,470
    Likes Received:
    27,551
    Trophy Points:
    190
    Gender:
    Male
    I'll try to improve this for R8.
     
  8. Karrolanth

    Karrolanth Avatar

    Messages:
    482
    Likes Received:
    1,616
    Trophy Points:
    43
    Gender:
    Female
    Location:
    The True North
    You're my favourite Dev today, Chris! ;) Thank you so much, that would be wonderful.

    DarkStarr mentioned that we might see animated Avatars on the map for R8 as well, do you think that's likely to make it in? (I like the new look of the 'flag', but I'm interested to see what a mini-me is going to look like. :) )
     
  9. Myrcello

    Myrcello Avatar

    Messages:
    2,662
    Likes Received:
    9,176
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    I hope you can decide as a player if you walk the hole way from town a to b within the 3D hexes or the overeorld map.

    I mean if you have persistant hexes and the important hex locations why not let us travel from hex to hex until we reach a persistant hex.



    Sort of everquest 1 type.
    They did not have seamless world but it did feel like a world.

    The more you will try ways to keep us within the world the better.

    Maybe let the hexes with roads on it be connected.
    So if you follow main roads you can stay in the 3d world.
    It just loads thr next hex with road and not the map.
     
    Svahn likes this.
  10. Lord_Darkmoon

    Lord_Darkmoon Avatar

    Messages:
    4,350
    Likes Received:
    14,680
    Trophy Points:
    153
    This would be cool. Please change the movement to something like in Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir or like in your RTX demo. This would give much more freedom to exploring the world.

    Even the movement in the Kickstarter videos (or the Rooster Teeth video) seemed to be more responsive and more natural.

    But would you be ok with the fact that you would essentially walk through the same scenes over and over again? Image walking from Estgard to Ardoris which would be a very long way and you would walk through the same four or five types of scenes that are randomly loaded and this for a very long time. Do you think this would be better than wandering around on the overland map?
     
  11. Myrcello

    Myrcello Avatar

    Messages:
    2,662
    Likes Received:
    9,176
    Trophy Points:
    153
    Gender:
    Male
    My first experience i have so far is with the current versions :

    You mainly click on the persistent location on the map - the towns, the dungeons.
    I did click on a random area just for interest - probably will do it mainly to gather resources at the moment.


    I do not have a reason to click on the random hexes to be honest. Gathering resources is the main motivation.
    So i am looking forward to what motivation they will provide us to run around and click on random hexes.

    The reason for me to walk through a random hex would be to get from POI A to POI B . (Point of Interest)
    But i have a over world map. So why should I. Yes. I am confused.

    But i did not find motivation a lot at the current state. I know they will find some more in the future.

    Am i correct?

    What would your motivation be to go to a random hex?
     
  12. Lord_Darkmoon

    Lord_Darkmoon Avatar

    Messages:
    4,350
    Likes Received:
    14,680
    Trophy Points:
    153
    I don't know if it will work that way or if it is planned but for example if you see some deer on a hex and you go there, you could enter the scene and hunt the deer. If an NPC or some wagon is on a hex, you enter it if you want to find out who is there. Also there could be some special events happening in scenes that are indicated somehow, maybe by some sparkling effect or when a hex is on fire etc. Or maybe there is some ruin or tower appearing that was not there the first time you were in this area. Or a meteor crashed from the sky...

    So at least for me the overland map is the main mode of transportation. I view it as a zoomed out version of the world and I will enter a hex either if it is a POI or if something is on it, NPC, "effect" etc. Or just out of curiosity to explore a bit.
     
    Lord Trady of Blix likes this.
  13. Floors

    Floors Avatar

    Messages:
    4,265
    Likes Received:
    6,621
    Trophy Points:
    165

    Well we'll also have functioning moon gates as well. But we'll need to have a map we can access from our backpack or whatever when we lunar rift to a place we don't know where we are.
     
  14. mike11

    mike11 Avatar

    Messages:
    1,588
    Likes Received:
    1,562
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    By comparison the trees on the current map are around 1000-2000 feet tall... Nearly half as tall as the mountain peaks!!

    I don't know if anyone else has a problem with this but I think they should try to change to a complete forest style of look in the future..

    What do you guys think?
     
    herradam likes this.
  15. Doppelganger [MGT]

    Doppelganger [MGT] Avatar

    Messages:
    495
    Likes Received:
    1,199
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Tampa Bay, FL
    ^ Speaking of trees, this ones pretty messed up lookin...

    [​IMG]
     
  16. herradam

    herradam Avatar

    Messages:
    392
    Likes Received:
    737
    Trophy Points:
    43

    I think if forests were represented as one complete area that your avatar could enter as a scene it would greatly improve the immersive aspect over the current hex scene. It would give more meaning to geographical features.
     
    Kaisa likes this.
  17. Isaiah

    Isaiah Avatar

    Messages:
    6,887
    Likes Received:
    8,359
    Trophy Points:
    165
    Gender:
    Male
    Yes that tree has a little bit of a problem.
     
    Doppelganger likes this.
  18. Wagram

    Wagram Avatar

    Messages:
    1,128
    Likes Received:
    878
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Well as everything is supposed to be subject to change why have they stuck with the Overland map its completely out of place in an MMO they are ok for single player RPG's because you only have to put up with it for about 40 hours to complete the Quest storyline.
    Who in there right mind is going to indulge in years of instance scene loading for 5 years until the story ends.
    If they fill all the hex with a scene you would need to go through 32000 loading screen just to visit them all.
    I understand they are trying to the best they can with the overland map but it's a futile project that will never keep players immersed in an MMO world.
    3D isometric view world map would be the best way to go.
     
  19. Lord_Darkmoon

    Lord_Darkmoon Avatar

    Messages:
    4,350
    Likes Received:
    14,680
    Trophy Points:
    153
    But isn't it a 3D isometric world map we are getting now?
     
    Kaisa and Joviex like this.
  20. Wagram

    Wagram Avatar

    Messages:
    1,128
    Likes Received:
    878
    Trophy Points:
    113
    More a 3d overlay map you can't do anything on it except open an instance, just a fancy way to use instancing instead of a dropdown list were you choose which to enter
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.