Scale of the Overland Map

An overland map is a form of fast travel and has been in every game I have played that has one. Trying to make travel times on such a map "realistic" or longer is only going to be detrimental to gameplay and is self defeating in my opinion. =P

 

Regarding the control points and random encounters - love that!

What did the Stones sing... "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes... you might find... you get what you need."

That's what played in my head last time I got mauled by wolves trying to explore, hahaha.

 

I somewhat like that if you explore in the wrong area, it will be dangerous. I do wish that new players are given perhaps an early quest in Soltown for a safe initial quest. If they choose to wander off the beaten path to somewhere more dangerous, they may. But we don't want to scare all the new players away right away.

At launch, the beginning of the game will be handled differently. It looks like there will be actually be three different starting areas based upon a virtue choice you make.

 

Yea, I'm sure they have a lot more in store for how to bringing folks into the game, but I do have to say I love the lack of hand-holding I myself experienced. I was completely lost in Soltown when I first got there - no arrows, no exclamation points, no nothing to help me. I actually had to learn landmarks *gasp*. And after a few minutes, what seemed like the most confusing layout of a town that ever was conceived (without there being arrows or a mini-map with markers all over it, or whatever) was actually really simple. What does that say about me? Hahahaha.

But honestly, I find it sooo refreshing compared to other online games today. It reminds me of what life (and I mean real life) was like before GPS and cell phones and Google and all that. Do you remember actually having to remember the telephone numbers of people you called all the time? Haha. Or having to actually have someone explain landmarks while giving you directions on how to drive somewhere?

In another post, I mentioned that I thought I had an "empty glass waiting to be filled" - I meant something completely different in that post, but now I'm thinking it applies in a different way as well - perhaps my empty glass is also because I don't need to store anything in the brain matter because everything is automatic/done for me/follow the arrow/color/marker. Like, I forgot how to do anything more than just follow along.

Yea, I'll probably be whining for the conveniences like all the "quality of life features!" posts in every other MMO that tries to be different, but I hope not! If you ever see me talking about how this game needs a dungeon finder, please punch me in the face and call me Nancy, hahaha. Actually, I have no idea what that even means, but... yea, I hope I never do that.

Anyways... you mentioned a virtue choice at the very beginning... oh my, can't wait to see how that all evolves! Ethics and virtue choices - affecting where you start even ! Could have an impact on housing rush, right? Perhaps putting like-minded folks together (at least in terms of virtues).

 

I just want to re-engage this thread as I have deep concerns about the presentation of the overland map. I'm not going to try and get back the old paper map design which I loved (although it would be nice to be able to switch to it in the future). What I wanted to say after coming back from a hiatus is that this map is in dire need of re-consolidating the difference in scale of the various elements on the map, and also the depiction of said elements.

The main issue is the scale of foliage and trees and the various landscape features that make up the map terrain. In some cases in my experience with the map I felt like I should be able to jump over what looked like a tiny creek but which is actually a massive river in true scale. This is a result of the gigantic trees and plants all around me.

Others have made points about the total land area and how small it seems. Well if you reduce the extremity of the mountains and make elements like forests much smaller and more diagrammatic then you will remove some of that awkward sensation. I think of it like being Gulliver the giant in a land of tiny people. At least you know then that the overland map is a fictional construct and you don't get that uncanny sense of wanting to go somewhere you can't.

I understand this may be something that gets addressed later in the final stages of development, but I just wanted to check if it is something the devs are considering.

 

I like it the way it is. We just need more going on on the overland map like animals, monsters, NPCs, weather...

 

I'm still firmly convinced we should:

- reduce avatar size on the olm to 1/5th
- reduce avatar speed to 1/2th
- reduce max zoom to 1/3th

This way, without touching anything else, we'd perceive a larger yet more realistic map, with more room for scene entrances, without cutting too much into travel time.

 

Let me get this straight. People are complaining about not spending enough time wasted walking from point A to point B? What if we implement traffic jams and road blocks to slow you down?

For the LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THE UNIVERSE! Ignore anyone asking to have longer walk times added to the game. They serve no purpose other than to delay actual content and advancement.

Try doing the overland walks with your eyes closed if you really want an adventure. How about trying to do the overland walk on a Surface Tablet while you're actually walking? Perhaps do the walk only using two fingers on the mouse and/or keyboard and imagine they are your legs, no cheating on this one.

I like KBs idea, change the perception keep the actual time wasted similar.

 

The main reason I bumped this thread is that I wanted to communicate that it is not so much the size of the landmass that is the issue, but rather the visual communication of relative scale between objects. As far as I see it the traversal time is quite ok. I already hate the fact that we have loading screens every few minutes but that's another topic altogether.

 

Hmm, I could say the exact same things about scenes. Why do I have to walk from the entrance to a shop? Or why do I have to walk to an enemy?
There could just be a menu where you could choose what to do: Enter tavern. Enter shop. Engage enemy. Enter dungeon...

It's part of exploring! While exploring the world not every step something exciting has to happen.

 

I don't think overland travel should be instantaneous or overly fast. Traveling is a part of the game, getting from one place to another should be an experience that takes time and spreads the player base out a little more. At the same time, having a visual that looks like I am crawling at a snails pace and hardly moving would not be any fun either. I would need two things to be in place for overland travel to be interesting.

1 - Sensation of movement. I need to have the impression that I am moving and making progress, even if in reality it is moving slowly across the overall map. I find that, with a 'birds point of view', it is difficult if not impossible to provide this sensation. Bringing the viewpoint in closer to the character allows for this but causes players to become disoriented easier and lose their way. I'm not sure what a good solution to satisfy everyone would be but personally I like Katrina Beckers suggestion above.

2 - Travel needs to be interesting. I don't mind if it takes a while to get somewhere so long as there are interesting things along the way. Some ideas might be:

• A random dungeon or scene for no reason or plot purpose. I know we have some already and this is great, it gives us something to explore.
• Random encounters occasionally but varied and for a reason.
  • With fight encounters, we should see the creatures on the overland map chasing us and zoom to the encounter only if they catch us.
  • Also we could have travelling merchants but have it so that it will prompt us and ask if we want to enter the scene with them or just continue on our travels.
  • Rare - Campfires which might be bandits or travellers we could talk to and which may provide benefits like 1.5x Xp for the next hour or something along those lines but we don't know until we check out the campfires. Or we could choose to ignore the campfires completely.
  • Add your own ideas...

The point I am trying to make is that travel can be fun, it was in UO and in many of the Ultimas games prior to that. In these we needed to explore, learn the dangers and run or face them as we learned about our world. Getting from one place to another could be dangerous but it could also lead to interesting undiscovered adventures as well. Just walking from A to B though is not fun.

 

Oddly enough in several releases we've increased the speed you travel on the map because people were complaining it took too long to cross the map.

 

I think this is because there is nothing happening on the overland map yet aside from random encounters.