The Overworld: now feels totally pointless.

I'm sorry to be negative at this time of increased optimism for the game, not just after a new release but in general. But having been in R57 for just over an hour, I now find the Overworld map to be totally pointless. In fact I now find it irritating.

I've been a fan and passionate defender of the Overworld's purpose and longer term potential, but it is now a frustrating run-around and a waste of time. I ran to Ardoris from Britanny via the now wide-open and toothless Eastreach Gap. I realised I'd forgotten something, ran back to Britanny and ran back again to Ardoris. It hit me then and there that this had just been a complete waste of time.

Previously moving on the Overworld map has been something of a challenge via the regional Passes. It made the world feel bigger and I got a sense I was venturing forth when I travelled from one region to another.
It made each region feel like a Region, complimented by their own culture and graphic style. Now, this running back and forth across the map has shrunk the world to next to nothing and made it meaningless. Moving around on it doesn't feel like I'm on a continent any longer and it wasn't immersive or attractive to do. The journey required no thought or preparation, provided no risk, value or fun.

At this point I thought why did I bother? I may as well have used a teleport scroll and saved myself a couple of minutes. Furthermore I then looked around the wider Overworld map from where I stood and realised that Midmaer, The Perenial Coast, South Paladis, Quel, Elysium, etc are all now just irritating short jogs away on a meaningless digital playing surface. They don't feel like places any more and they don't have that 'sense of place' now.

For me, I'd now just as well have a list of gaming instances to click on and transition into. I guess that's the rune book. I was previously 'mildly' opposed to this idea because of my concerns regarding the damage it would do to the regional economy and the future potential for instanced fun on the overworld. Now, for me, they may as well introduce it. It won't hurt anything that's left.

I was excited all day to play, in fact I was watching the clock. Now I can't be bothered. I'm a bit shocked by how much this change has impacted my sense of of immersion and interest in playing SOTA totally unexpectedly.

I've not yet had a chance to experience any of the other new additions, which I'm sure are fun, but for me SOTA doesn't feel like a holistic vibrant world right now, more a series of loosely linked isolated vignettes of moderate fun and I am quite sure and sad to say I probably have better options.

 

Cool story, bro. You know you can still enter those scenes, right?

What's confusing to me is why they decided to both open the passes AND include global banking, simultaneously.

 

Honestly I have never run through passes since I learned that if you simply logged out and started on the world map you would always be placed on the east side on a east/west pass and the south side of a south/north pass. The only exception to this was the dracvauld (I believe that's the one with graff gem and spite) region. So really all it did was a quality of life improvement by saving me 2 loads and a 20 second wait to logout

 

actually, i find i'm less likely to just teleport now, and i wasn't THAT big on doing it to begin with.

 

I like it much better the way that it is now compared to before. It's not challenging or interesting to run through a pass for the millionth time sandwiched between two loading screens.

Imo a happy medium would have been to add some kind of quest in each of the passes where you find a secret bypass or do something for the mysterious mage, and after completing the task you can bypass the scene on the overworld.

I'm good with this though and don't really feel like it makes anything less meaningful.

 

All I ever did was race from one end of the passes to the other end inside the scenes anyway. This only saves me time. I am in favor of the change.

 

OP, you still entirely have an option to use the old method. Knock yourself out and load up EVERY pass and run over every overworld spawn.

I don’t see the problem, your style of play is still supported.

A wise man once said, “have fun bro”

 

I sympathize with you, but for me the result is the opposite. Instead of recalling from Aerie to the S Mart Factorium, then teleporting up to New Britannia Market, I'll be running.

The times that I did run through the scene passes, it was more of a "Ah.... I guess I'll go for it, I've got nothing else going on" moment. The rest of the time it was teleport anywhere that is blocked by a pass.

But more important than my feelings is the new players. The game already has an intense learning curve. Super intense. I spend a lot of time answering questions, and "I'm totally lost" is not uncommon when I find a new player out in the wild. I think this will be one more barrier to retention removed.

I also think that within a week you will see A LOT more people on the worldmap. Give it a second, you might find that it changes the entire social dynamic of the game, and makes it so we don't hear "Why is this game so empty" from any new player that decides to try it.

 

Past Adv lv 80 those forced scenes are just a nuisance anyway. I welcome the change. As for local economies, don't think that was ever successfully implemented, think the idea was lacking since the beggining, first because server population overall is "low", and then you'd just use friend list teleporters to bypass most of the scenes anyway...

 

To increase the resale value of the lots of Jaanaford?

 

I feels like to me that whatever premise the Control Points were supposed to have to them either has not panned out, or hasn't been fully implemented/thought out. As it was, there wasn't a whole lot to "control". By and large, I believe that people simply ran through the scene as a forced time sink when going from a region of the map to another. This of course has been limited in effect via Teleport/"Friends" List as well.

The second part of the Control Point scenes are the Control Points themselves which serve no purpose than as a spawner to my knowledge. It's not as if it required the point to be converted to the player's benefit to continue onward (which I believe was likely the original premise which if fully fleshed out would play into guilds and guild wars and so forth).

So as of now, Control Point scenes are in very significant need to a rework to give them purpose in the game again.

I don't mind them being open the way they are now because they were just an extra area to load and run through. They need a purpose again other than that.

 

My personal opinion is I really liked this change. Anything that slows me down from doing what I want to be doing is dull, non productive and sometimes leads to me taking a break early or calling it a night and hoping when I get on, someone will be where I want to go and I can teleport to them. I just personally dont understand anything that is a time sink. For me, time sinks are not fun, watching my crafting progress bar is not fun, walking around the world map and going through load screens is not fun. They are just irritants to me trying to reach my goal. If I was to ever make a game, I would never put in time sinks. I remember when I started there was no que for crafting, had to do it all one at a time BUT, it also had no progress bars. It was much faster back then to craft 20 things then it is now even with all the extra clicks.

Now, this is just my opinion because I do not understand the logic behind why they added the progress bar to crafting creating a time sink and I want action, not to watch progress bars. Less time crafting and traveling = more time in action and having fun for me. Maybe someone can give me some knowledge and insight into why someone would add time sinks? I should make a thread with a poll on it and get some others perspectives about this.

 

For me, the Overworld suddenly has meaning. I can use it to get from one place to another instead of teleporting. I love the change. And if I feel like a challenge or collecting resources in a control point, I am free to indulge myself. What a great feeling!

 

This is how I feel, and it is a great feeling!

I found myself only going somewhere if I had a Teleport friend close, but with this change, I find myself out running all over on the Overworld. It has become easy to just travel instead of wait for a Teleport friend.

What a great statement, the Overworld actually has meaning now! Agree 100% what a great change!

 

Agreed. Now that CP's are out of the way, I'm using the overworld map a lot more.

 

yesterday, after getting my gorgeous dress out from the bank i spent some time just running around, it was WONDERFUL! teleport to friend is annoying! Went to Aerie, bypassed the siege (yay!) and ran thru a BUNCH of NPCs while laughing maniacally! cracked my guild up. I love the changes. the load screen are cut in half at least. Nothing is gained by a couple more load screens! and for new players (prays to get more of those) it is a godsend!
just my 2cents.

Witcheypoo

 

This is now my official song for the overland map. (Specifically the Freedom chorus)

Also RIP and thank you for all the beautiful songs. <3

 

Global Banking was more of a DB search speed issue.

Queries that created the nested access were old dog slow.

 

Yeah sorry Steevo, I've never used it as much as I do now. My scrolls are going stale in my bag, it's great! I'm doing it in conjunction with the rifts. I still think there should be an in-game timer device you can use.

 

LOL, this is all good news, I don't 'want' folks to feel the overworld is pointless The fact that many don't and some in fact use it more now is reassuring to me and good to hear.