There Will Be Consequences

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by oplek, Aug 18, 2020.

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  1. Dartan Obscuro

    Dartan Obscuro Avatar

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    Wouldn't it be cool if some scenes had a "health" bar which would cause the whole scene to swap out. I'm thinking something like a happy enchanted forest with white unicorns, wisps, fluffy bunnies and rainbows. If groups repeatedly slaughter everything in there then it would flip to a corrupted forest with nightmares, reapers, spiders and dense gloomy fog. And then of course it could be flipped back.
     
  2. Astirian

    Astirian Avatar

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    This. Is absolutely fantastic.
     
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  3. Sorgin Txakal

    Sorgin Txakal Avatar

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    Just had a great chat in SotA Discord yesterday, that were related to this thread and also the one about paying for hostile spawns in NPC towns ( https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...-spawn-creatures-in-pots.164628/#post-1298774 ) and wanted to share some thoughts from it here:


    From the common understanding based on release 57 notes (https://sotawiki.net/sota/Release_57), sieges were made optional as a part of a large initiative to reduce loading screens on players. In this respect, I would say it was successful, but a side effect was that player owned towns were lessened for it in terms of immersion into the living game itself and a feeling of consequences and for actions in the world. Based on conversations I have had, it doesn't seem like people are opposed to the idea of sieges themselves, but there are also groups of players who don't really want to be "hindered" in any way and view anything that is a road block between them and the most efficient means of getting from point A to point B as a bad thing, regardless of considerations of immersion or realized consequences of their in game/lore actions - understanding that the developers have to try to meet the demands of both sides of the fence, compromises tend to be something less than desirable for both sides.

    With the changes to town teleporters and with the soon inclusion of mounts, I believe that the player base that requests the most efficient travel means and mechanisms of minimizing loading screens have been served quite well, and I am hoping that the developers can focus a bit more time in the episode 2 roll-out and beyond on adding more immersion content via expanding on the POT and dungeon systems.


    One way that was considered was similar to this topic, but with devotionals as the mechanism for upgrading POT sieges that take place inside the city itself instead of outside it - below are some of the brainstorming thoughts from the conversation:

    • "as an answer to the call for raid-level bosses, perhaps giant or rare super boss monsters could attack NPC cities. Something that takes the cities NPC guard's continual support and no less than a full party of 12 AL 100+ characters to overcome, if not multiple parties working on concert to protect the city. Cultists could summon some kind of Demon Lord or something well in excess of the demons we make tea out of."

    • A simple thing like having a devotional increases the chance a random hostile NPC cultist in town

    • The biggest problem with [sieges] was there are just to many of them. I think it still looks [the case] in that front.

    • A random wandering cultist in town from time to time to kill would be no big deal - but there would be concerns with people feeling that their houses or vendors were blocked for excessive amounts of time

    • Perhaps the more devotionals and the more people who use devotionals in that town, could increase the chances of a spawn as well as the chance of a full blown siege with the named cultists invading the POT - with devotional use being a rare trigger for the spawn of cultists in town. Could even use it as a system to increase immersion, the warning signs will be like random non-hostile NPC cultists just handing around the devotionals protesting or something lol

    • "Right now, in Eve Online, a key star system in the galactic trade pipeline is having its fate being decided by the players. " In reality, this means the 3 largest coalitions in the game are wreaking havoc in space they don't fly in - so a concern is that making a city open pvp during a siege and/or having them be too frequent will make said area a place that can be more easily trolled and/or controlled by the actions of large guilds.

    • "So not suggesting that players battle with each other over the control over a town, but if a player owned town was physically invaded by NPCs, forcing players to defeat the siege if they wanted it to end early or for a greater sense of immersion in their town, I think that could be a good way to make the actions of players and the towns they inhabit feel more real. Little things too like NPC cultists could hang around a town that has lost its last siege by the devotionals - NPC non hostile cultists, cultists sympathizers, or mad raving doomsayers hanging around for a week could be the result of losing the sieges."

    • "Well I can't say I agree that hostile NPCs should appear in towns, but that's just me wanting to peacefully farm"

    • "I wish they limited it to one devotional in each town. A siege should be related to the devotional you have after all"

    • "large battles should ideal not be in places where is a lot of player decorations [due to latency issues]"

    • Devotionals should be the key - devotionals could work like dungeon spawners and could be upgraded with COTOs past the base feature to function as potential town hostile cultist spawners when activated. POTs could put the appropriate amount of NPC guards and caretakers near the devotionals to keep the odd spawning cultists at bay, but randomly the devotional use by players, and if it was so leveled, would result in mob of cultists spawned based on the devotional that triggered it.
     
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  4. devilronin

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    sieges would have to be integrated into the towns theyre attacking to make this possible, and making the shops unusable that have been attacked, aerie has the the room for an army. and no respawn for the enemy, you miss your chance to get a kill or credit for the boss quest, wait for the next one.
     
  5. Sorgin Txakal

    Sorgin Txakal Avatar

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    That would be a desired goal, yes. I, as well as many others it seems, view the current siege mechanic as a good start, but something that could be iterated on with full immersion and integration into NPC cities at least, if not POTs, the desired future state.

    This is why sieges would need to be rarer and ideally directly caused by a player's actions within the town i.e. frequency of use of in town Devotionals as a trigger for the siege and scale of it.
     
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  6. Ragnarr Lodbrok

    Ragnarr Lodbrok Avatar

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    I agree, the only things we find that we miss out on is our Bunny Slipper rewards and Fish Mask.... Now that is what I would really miss out on! NOT!

    SoTA is still in Beta.. Nothing is polished but the rusty forks and knives.
     
  7. Burne

    Burne Avatar

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    personally as a new player you should fix your current quest system before adding more.

    such as...
    1. its a pain in the butt to use a map thats not accurately fixed on your character.
    2. half the time it switches to unavail... even if ive explored the zone... maybe add a fog of war instead??

    My mom usually plays games along side me (lol) and she was having extreme difficulty finding npcs or available quests with the whole.. have to click all the words across the bottom until it triggers something, then try and read the journal scribbles, cant highlight an area on the map where it would be or anything simpler. yea she quit after a few days. likes the decorating tho. but its not enough to keep her into it.

    i was able to do the main 3 quest lines, but got burnt out on the oracle one.. why bother for a village deed that costs a couple dollars more to upgrade to a non bound one.. than buying one directly from the store. dont rly see a benefit of doing the quests.. the xp.. meh. the experience? what the struggle of finding places.. and having to try and resort to google, or in game and accidently triggering hostile players..
     
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  8. Anpu

    Anpu Avatar

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    The maps are a separate system that possibly some day will be implemented.
     
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