Skull Markers at Entrance to scenes.

I have another problem with those markers: They disrupt the flow of the game in a strange way and encourage grinding.

I am looking at this from another perspective: Let's say we play Ultima 7. We walk around in the world, explore and want to follow the story. Suddenly there is this area with a three-skull-marker. So it is a dangerous area. Now, what do I do? I would like to explore further, follow the story but this marker is stopping me as I have to consider if I m good enough to enter the area. So what do I do? I need to rescue someone on the other side, it is urgent. But am I good enough? So I begin to grind in order to be certain to be strong enough to best the monsters in the area. I neglect the story and go into grinding-mode, because the marker encourages me to do so. My flow of the game is disrupted and I feel forced to do something I despise in games - grinding...

 

Hmm, I vote to keep the skulls. Toggle them if it isn't too difficult and enough players (more than just one) insist. ;-)

I dislike hand holding as much as the next player. But I'm not sure how 5 skulls on a pole is actually holding my hand. It says there are some serious mobs in this area, but not what mobs or where they are or how many. In fact the only thing that 5 skulls on a pole tells me is that if I'm an inexperienced player, to get the heck out of here - which, I guess, if what they are for.

Today, death in the game has no associated penalty, but one day it will. I can't think of anything more off-putting to a new player than stumbling into scene after scene only to killed, loosing all of my hard earned stuff, and then it being too difficult to go back in and try to reclaim it all. Unless you're the kind of player who enjoys looting the corpses of the inexperienced, I can't see what the problem is with the difficulty markers?

 

Actually I've found the skull markers to be a bit misleading. I was just in a three skull area and I was cleaning everything up pretty easily, yet in some two skull areas my backside was about to be handed to me.

I suppose it depends on how you play and what skill you play with still, so don't take the skulls overly seriously.

 

What if I have to do a quest in the area to advance the story? Should I then not enter the area?
I can't help myself but those markers are an indicator that screams grinding MMORPG. There are "mobs" in the area. The word alone gives me the shivers. It is an MMO term. So are all areas in the game just in the game to fight monsters? Is this the sole purpose of the areas? Those skulls suggest so. They say "there are dangerous monsters in this area" and thus reduce the areas in the game to monster slashing/grinding areas. Not very Ultima-like and not very single-player-like...

 

So you're exploring the world and you see a group of trolls down the road.. it's a dangerous road.. now you have to stop and consider whether or not you're strong enough to take on a bunch of trolls.. so what do you do? I don't see how one indicator of danger is any more encouraging of grinding as any other.

 

It tells me of the danger before I can experience it myself and decide for myself what I do. I see the skull markers and think that I am not good enough before I can see the real danger for myself.
It is such a "gamey" element that for me shows that SotA moves away more and more from being a simulated world and becomes more and more a gamey world in which MMO-players get all their indicators and information they need for power gaming. But those elements destroy immersion.

 

Good point. Why visit an area at all? I guess we visit areas because we need to generate loot/experience or because we wish to pursue some quest. OK, some of us also enter an area out of idle curiosity too, but let's ignore that.

In the latter case, then a high difficulty marker would make me more on my guard, but not much more than I would be in any new area. As has been said already, difficulty markers are somewhat subjective. I still have to seek the objective of my quest in that scene and difficulty makers are no help at all in this respect. Therefore I can't see how this is hand-holding.

In the former case, where I'm looking to build up a new character or add new skills to a existing character (am I allowed to refer to this as grinding?) then I'd definitely seek our the lower difficulty areas. But I'd only call the difficulty markers as hand-holding to new players. Experienced players will know the best scenes for grinding anyway.

In either case, I can't see the problem with difficulty markers.

 

I'm not quite at theme park stage yet. At a theme park when the rides break down they don't eat the visitors.

 

Honestly I enter scenes and don't pay attention to them, probably because they are off to the side out of sight when entering. I figure out level of difficulty by exploring and seeing the strength of the mobs in person. If I die a few times too quickly, I might look at the skulls

Its only instant gratification if you the player choose to use it. My experience in game is that using this feature is otherwise quite optional.

 

I support the OP, I would like to see a toggle.. BUT ONLY IF every scene is updated with proper markers, as some are still unmarkered..

For the record, I often miss what level a zone is, I actually go into it and try it out (since you can run through almost any zone anyway, no prob) and if things are too easy or hard, it is then that I bother to look at an entrance/exit for a marker (even if I notice it in the first place, the marker is only a guideline, and I've found levels of varying strength in almost every zone).. so I guess it does not bother me either way, except that is, when a zone doesn't have a marker and I went looking for one.

To decide not to enter a site based merely on a marker post is not very becoming of an adventurous type imo. Play the game!

 

Please KEEP THE SKULL MARKERS ........

 

Yeah I think they were a good idea. If I was really in Novia and I wanted to warn people about the level of impending disaster you were going to walk into, that is as good as a way as any I would use!

 

The skulls are not hand holding. It's fine not to give the player information but if you're taking that approach then you need to make things intuitive and they need to make sense. In other words it needs to be obvious that the area you are entering is a lot more dangerous than other areas because the creatures look more monstrous or are obviously more deadly.

SotA doesn't have that. Wolves, spiders, and skeletons in one zone look and act much like the wolvers, spiders, and skeletons in another even if they have much higher hitpoints. For the most part the only difference is the damage they do. Many of the environments also look similar.

It's not intuitive and that is why we have skull posts.

 

Why do we have Skull markers?

To warn fellow travelers of the dangers in the land they are about to enter. Locals all know about the dangers of the area but those that travel in the area from other cities might not, so every so often a group of do-gooders (them law abiding things) like to go around and put up warning to those unfamiliar with the area. Sometimes though, a group of not-so-good-doers go around and have fun by removing said warnings. A never-ending battle, that.

Why is it a skull?

Being as not everyone could read though, they came up with a method on which even the uneducated was sure to know the dangers of an area. A human head on a pole was thought of as a fairly clear means on which to communicate danger. As any person of any intelligence should be about to deduct a place that decorates its gate with a human head is not likely to be a friendly, cheerful place with flower fields and rainbows.

It is only the outlanders that complain about these things as they can only think all things are meant for them. When it isn't. They can benefit from the warnings of it but whether they chose to heed it is total up to them. They're outlanders, after all. Not like we'd care about them.

Works for me. YMMV.

 

Well, I learned quite quickly that Small<(normal)<Large<Obsidian<Ferocious be it spider, wolf, or bear... Anyway I think skull amrkers are good guide for new players but they quite discourage them from exploring world at their own pace. To me it is same as with the runic translations... I actually think that toggles help very little in multiplayer. They are good for singleplayer, but who in their right mind would PvP with nameplates and hp stats off? Who would spend hours learning runic when everyone else is reading it in English anyway... Sometimes I think you need to force bit of hardship on players so they will find game challenging. That is what makes fun in it, overcoming a challenge with friends... or yourself. If things are either too easy or impossible the game becomes boring quickly. And it is even more boring if the game tells you from the start do nto go there it is too easy/hard for you, do not bother.

 

I think this game has more to be concerned about then MARKERS lol ...... as far as boring due to too easy/hard? How about the combat boring you to tears?

 

I like and use the markers all the time. I just wish they were present in every area. And I certainly don't feel I am being 'coddled' at all by having them. They are useful to many. Toggling them off / on could be a solution - but removing them? Absolutely not. We all have different playing styles so let's try to have the game enjoyable for everyone.

 

I disagree. Give WOW a few plays if you haven't. That game is much more clearly set up as theme parks. I don't see that nearly so much here.