World Map

Roads were faster in the short time I got to test them. You could only "walk" in the terrain, but keeping on the roads you could "run" as well.
You could see it both by speed but also by graphics.

Didn't have enough time to think about whether terrains were different from each other.

 

yes, the ability to get lost while exploring is one of the big things I love... but there also needs to be the ability to have a compass or something small to help you find your way back to a familiar location... we have both... from a design standpoint there is still lots of room for improvement, but those 2 goals out of a list of many have at least been met. the rotational camera was an important thing to finally open up for us to use.

 

Please, please, please, get rid of those translated names of scenes. Or give me option to turn translations off. I can read runic.

 

I understand the need for the overland map in an instancing game. And I don't mind wandering the map to get from one place to another.

I think the map is beautiful.

But the newness of the map wears off very quickly. As soon as players explore a bit and get to know the locations on the map, and the cool graphics have been seen a few times, they will tire quickly of having this truly boring delay in the game. Players want to play. They don't want to get bogged down in a swamp (no pun intended).

Slow speed is more annoying than immersive IMO. I can see the other side. But increasing travel speed will, on balance, ADD to the general population's enjoyment of the game, and ability to play it.

 

Its almost being out in the car in the countryside on route to a village. You can't wait to get there, the views out the car window are amazing..........when you find yourself stuck behind a tractor going 10mph, the views soon wear off and you soon get very frustrated that you can't get to your destination faster.

 

... the key is to try to even enjoy the WAY to a destination not just reaching it .

 

... the key is to play the game, not watch your pixels trudge along in territory you've seen a hundred times before, where nothing can happen except delay.

 

I'm not asking for instant travel here......the speed in R11 was absolutely fine. I would just like to see something that feels closer to that speed and maybe a 'little' slower going through rough terrain.

 

Well then, doesn't that seem like something should happen then instead of nothing?

If that were the case why have the map just give a drop down menu to move.

 

Like I said, I understand the need for the map. My posts have been strictly about speed.

That said, I'd be even happier with a gating/recall system. You nature lovers could choose to walk the map, and us efficiency folks could zip-zap from place to place quickly. Everybody wins.

 

The map is looking fantastic and I'm loving it. What a long way they've come from the paper map that first came out.

As for map movement speed: I think it is just right. Once they add weather, more sounds, and more encounters to engage or evade, the map will be more entertaining to move on. As other posters have said..if you're flying around the map too quickly, it breaks the illusion of traveling a great distance. Traveling from coast to coast should take some time and not be done in mere seconds.

 

It may be nice to be able zip zap around but it would be game breaking, it is nice to have no problems that slow you down but it would be like saying why fight, why not have a button that finishes it for you. That way those that like effeciency can zip through combat.

Not everything that goes into the game can be beneficial to the character it has to have items that a) slow you down, inconvenience you. b) challenge you. I don't mean inconvenience just for the sake of inconvenience I mean like adding encounters for traveling and time for that travel to occur.

 

Trudging through a swamp that I've seen 100 times is not a challenge. It does not immerse me.

It annoys me. It is a pure inconvenience. It adds nothing.

All in favor of adding encounters. So by all means let us get to those encounters sooner.

OR give us flying carpets. Or a steampunk blimp. I would pay serious bucks for that in the add-on store.

 

I guess what it comes down to, a swamp isn't supposed to make you happy or convenience you. It adds an area that you have to conscously decide to go through....or not. Hence a part of the game.

 

Oh so you're going for realism. I see.

In that case let's make the characters all sleep. We can't function without sleep after all.

Also, we must all oil and sharpen our weapons. And go to the bathroom. Where are the outhouses? Please add them to the game.

And we must build our houses, not just plop them down just because we own the deed.

Point is, the entire game is FULL of shortcuts that detract from realism. But we need to make the map slower? *pounds head into desk*

 

hmmm i do like the idea of outhouses though.... I vote we get the ability to craft them as decorations that we can put on our lots... with working door to go in and out and sit inside....

 

Moongates are in place for fast travel (teleportation to a distant/inaccessible location). Travel on foot through the map is meant to take longer (current speeds seem appropriate or a bit faster than what they should be - still pretty reasonable). Different speeds on different terrain attempt to keep in perspective the difficulty to walk/travel on such terrain (swamp, forest, etc).

These are all parts of the immersion element playing on the background. Please remember, this is still very early and things can change but keep in mind that the current travel speeds are in place based on that vision. Of course, voicing one's opinion is always a plus. Keep it up!

 

Well...you went off on your tangent...but it doesn't really affect what I said.

It isn't about realism...it is about a game function. Everyone wants everything to be fun and with out inconveinance. However that isn't a good way to make game....why have map travel and gate travel if it is so fast to travel by map?

 

Yeah I agree with Espada and the rest about the slower travel. While the over world map does increase our travel speed across the vast land it should still feel like a vast land.

Although there is still validity to the point people are making about slow travel. If we are traveling slow just for the sake of giving the illusion the world is big, then some people are going to get rather impatient. I cannot fault the people for getting impatient because I too get antsy (especially when there is no zone command).

Perhaps there is a solution that doesn't require speeding up the character. If there was some kind of secondary visual that keeps track of distance, perhaps a hand held tool that we could optionally use like a sextant. The changing coordinates would be something that are changing while we move. So can see our Avatar moving, and our sextant moving as well... maybe the two changing stimulus might provide the psychological effect that we are making more progress while we move across the map reducing the feeling of impatience. It might have to count decimal places though (even if the decmal points aren't real location changes)... it needs to be constantly changing as we walk to give the impression we are moving.

That's just an idea, but maybe there is another way to create multiple progression stimuli without ruining immersion with a bunch of junk on our display.

EDIT: I'm getting the picture of something with two fictitious decimal places where at least one of them moves really fast similar to a stopwatch to really give the brain feedback.

Maybe it could count miles traveled instead. If people get an idea of the distance that is being traveled then maybe the overland map will be more intuitive to a new player and less of a shock. Maybe a little scale at the bottom right of the screen showing the distance per centimeter, or per hex or whatever, and it could count down the kilometers by the one hundredth place.

 

I would like to add, I hate crossing the bridges in the over land map. They make me want to jump ...... please make them easier to cross lol.