Release 5 Impressions & Release 6 Revised

That is true. And in those same demos the in-instance footage was pretty dead too, but we all mentally filled in the blanks. Some of us filled in more on the overland view than others.

 

That's shocking to me. I have a very active imagination and I can't comprehend how anyone other than a very small percentage of misguided individuals could think that the overland map was going to have MORE functionality based on what we were shown. Because 1) they never said it would and 2) they never implied it would.

I don't even think this falls under the section of "don't lawyer me, bro". I think this is more like "the sky is blue, dude".

 

Well, yea. Even back when they were doing the demos, they were talking about things like fog of war, and I asked why something like fog of war when you can have it function as a play environment like the early Ultimas, U1-5, with darkness and so on? So I knew back then they weren't thinking in that direction and were just planning on it being a map.

 

If it's just a map then give me a map and I'll pick where in the world I want to be. Like Skyrim or Fable 3 or Final Fantasy 10. The moving a marker around and waiting for it on a map thing is silly. take it down to 1% of my game time if there isn't going to be expanded gameplay there.

 

well that is because it was implied because
1 this is a LB game
2 classic ultimas all had fully functional maps

 

Agreed. I personally like the look of the pop-up map and I like thinking about it as a map. The devs have a *massive* amount of town, dungeon, etc. content to create. Assuming nothing is going to pop out at me on the "world map" level and try to eat me (and I personally found all the overlands encounters in the early Ultimas to be quite tedious, and even more painful in the early Final Fantasy games), let me click on where I want to go and get on with the story.

 

I agree that those random encounters are tedious and boring.

But having mobs with ai and movement are bit different. You can run away dodge get on a ship hide blink enter a city or castle or blast them with cannons or spells from range. More options equals more fun and that makes the world feel more alive.

Sent from my GT-S5690M using Tapatalk 2

 

There are going to be PvP scenarios on the world map; they've discussed this -- for instance, quest-wise, in terms of going after a player who has contraband, and I'm sure there are larger scale scenarios that involve guild wars. It also helps the game for travel to take some time instead of being instant, since the passage of time is universal on the server.

I found the Final Fantasy games tedious too, but never the early Ultimas. Part of the games for me was always going out and exploring and adventuring and dealing with encounters; not just doing the story. I found it even fun when you were ambushed at camp, or had to deal with pirate ships. I wouldn't like it if they ended up making it work like Final Fantasy, where encounters were frequent and random, although the occasional ambush on the road isn't bad; for instance, we saw that with trolls guarding bridges in U5, and it worked well in other RPGs like Darklands.

They've also talked about NPC scenarios like passing gypsy caravans.

 

Think back to Ultima 5, because that is how I envisioned SotA to work. You had the overland view and the scene view, similar to what SotA will have.
You traveled across the world using the zoomed out world view. There monsters tried to attack you, you could make camp to rest and heal, you could explore new areas. There was a day/night cycle with limited vision and other elements. The overland map/view was used quite a bit in Ultima 5. For example to travel from Trinsic to Minoc and on your way you had the feeling of traveling across a large world, seeing monsters roaming around, engaging them, fleeing from them, camping if it got too dark. Maybe you saw an interesting forest on your way and went there to explore it, finding an old hut which you entered in scene view to explore it. You spent a lot of time on the overland map, although the story elements took place in the scene view.
I imagined that it would work the same way in SotA.
Think about having to travel from Valhold to Ardoris - you would spend a lot of time on the map, walking around. On your way you could encounter monsters, gypsies and maybe discover a place you haven't seen before. After a fight with a monster night sets in and you would have to hole up and camp to rest. Then the next morning a thunderstorm is raging and you discover a special place that only appears during thunderstorms and you enter this "scene" to explore it. -> This is how I thought the overland map of SotA would work. And RG said that they initially planned for the overland map to offer such functionality.
And with a realistic looking style, this would have been awesome. Roaming around in a zoomed out view of the world, walking through lush forests, seeing animals. Birds flying by, waves crashing to the shores and clouds drifting by as you journey to your destination. Monsters would be seen and would try to attack you. The clouds could change to dark and stormy clouds, it begins to rain, lightning comes crashing down... This is how I imagined wandering around on the world map would be like.

 

I never got that impression at all...I had a feeling you would travel and have quite a few abilities on the map but the majority of gameplay would be within the hex. It seems the farther along we go with these map threads the more it gets changed into something it wasn't.

 

RG even said himself that they initially planned to have such activites on the map:
http://ow.ly/wk3LD

And of course the majority of the action would take place in the hexes/scenes, but some activities like the ones I described would take place on the map to make travel interesting and immersive.

 

Can you guys squeeze in some key customization in the release schedule? the WASD is a pain...

my fingers would be eternally thankful

 

Agreed! The cannons made the ships in the early Ultimas so much fun.

 

I think you've hit on an important point about *how* random encounters are implemented. In many Final Fantasy games they're totally jarring; they hit with no warning, and the switch to the "battle screen" is major "immersion breaker." They almost ruin Final Fantasy VI, which is otherwise a truly brilliant game.

 

You people and your tomfoolery.

 

First I think the term "misguided individuals" is a bit insulting, second I found this interview with Richard Garriott in which he says that we would see monsters roaming around on the overland map and that we could choose to engage them or not, that there would be surprise attacks on the map and that there would be a day and night cycle on the overland map with scenes changing according to the time of day on the map and offering different situations like more dangerous monsters or different ressources (nightshade could only be found at night). Also a complete weather system was planned as well as dynamic encounters like gypsy wagons.

The interview is from the April, 12th 2013. All of this sounds to me like what the overland map of Ultima 4 or 5 was like and what I explained above about how I imagined the overland map of SotA to be.

The interview is in German and can be found here:
http://www.gamona.de/games/shroud-of-the-avatar-forsaken-virtues,interview-pc:article,2247731.html

 

I believe RG has cited he'd like to have ship combat in future episodes.

 

Quickly, key customization is already there.

Now back to the fighting once again about the overland map.

 

Sort of like Skies of Arcadia minus the skies? Ahh, the memories

 

And he also described while the KS that when we take a boat can have some encounters in the sea.