Feedback for Island of Storms and Blood River Massacre

So, I just finished the Island of Storms and Blood River Massacre and wanted to give some feedback about those scenes.

I really like them!

The Island of Storms looks beautiful and the conversation with the gypsy is very Ultima-like (still I would love to have another UI for conversations instead of an MMO chat window).
Just a few things:

1. The island is very beautiful aside from THE GRASS AND PLANTS!!! I know I said it many times but I have to say it again: The grass does look strange and the animations where everything swings in some mysterious wind simultaneously ist really strange. Speedtree grass and plants would look SO MUCH better!
2. I think it would be cool to hear some strange, mystical, surreal sounds while on the Island of Storms.
3. This is just a thought that came to my mind: When looking at the artwork for the Island there is a mirror seen. So I was wondering if the original plan was to create the character at this mirror? I could imagine arriving at the island as a ghost then having to choose the appearance and name at the mirror before talking to the gypsy. I think that this would make for an interesting approach to create a character.

Blood River Massacre:
SotA actually begins to feel like a game with this scene. You can interact with so many things and the scene looks really good (aside from the grass ).
That the fire is not always creating light and is not making any sound is a bug I think
There are a few animals missing outside of the town - or have they fled due to the attack?

All in all I really like the new beginning of the game and those new scenes

 

How do you get to the Island of Storms?

 

Creating a new character

 

That was indeed the plan but we were unable to get it to work that way this release.

 

Cool, so this is still something that is considered for the future?

 

That makes a lot of sense if it is your soul which travels to New Britannia Your body is lying on the floor next to your computer back on earth Um..hope nothing happens to it while you are gone (Presumably, you will be returning to it someday...after Episode 5 )

 

The Island of Storms is an excellent start of the game. I'm impressed, love it. Finally Ultima feeling comes back - thank you

 

Add some color to the clouds, like you're in a nebula and it will look more like Stephen's beautiful concept art.

But that makes me wonder...do we see the Island of Storms in the sky from Novia? When on the Island, we can see Novia and the other celestial bodies, especially the broken moon.

 

There is potentially a huge difficulty spike for beginners at Blood River if they arrive at night. They will not know how to use a torch or a light spell, or how to change the brightness settings, so they could potentially miss a great deal if they arrive at the wrong time. I'd like to suggest holding the time at Blood River (and Solace Bridge) during this opening sequence at midday, then transitioning to the correct time on exit from that scene.

 

Bummer. I guess that I won't see it until the next wipe.

 

...unless you have access to the QA server. What happens in QA stays in QA.

 

I'd rather they fix the lighting issues, or at least hope they'll be improved/enhanced by launch. Add more physical lights to the town to work better with how their lighting model works if that's what it takes. The new user experience could also instruct players on how to equip torches (or other light sources) in addition to training them how to fight.

Your workaround can work but it highlights an issue with persistent world states for scenes. I know they want the tech to be able to switch between scene states as story-based event triggers them. But it seems odd that a new player enters a town that is on fire, while in the rest of the world, there are hundreds of other players walking around doing business at Blood River in another scene state. I would think that, in general, scene states are global for everyone to maintain scene persistence. It would only fork because of branching stories based on user choices but those would be permanent and persistent for everyone that took the same path.

 

so how do we complete quest without wiping out character. How on earth can a new char survive Etceter mine?

 

My friend just joined the game and is stuck at blood river massacre, he phoned me for help but I've obviously never been there! Any pointers?

 

I had a version mismatch. I forced a reload and found Blood River.
Sorry Warmcat can't help. There is a Lunar Rift to Owls head in old player version, perhaps it is the same for new players.

 

You need to talk to two NPCs: Fingers (who is scavenging dead bodies), and Edvard, who is standing down by the gate. Edvard won't open the gate to let you leave until you get the dagger from Fingers, and Fingers won't give up the dagger unless you trade him for another object, which you have to find somewhere in town.

 

It would be cool if we would arrive at the Blood River Massacre scene during dawn, but I understand the problem with the persistent world.

This brings up a new question: This would mean that certain scenes cannot have certain atmospheres, right? For example arriving at a mountain pass when the sun is bathing everything in a red light during dawn or arriving at a menacing tower during night... (for the offline mode this would be possible I think by just changing the time of day and weather when arriving at the scene)

This again brings up another question: I would think that certain events take place only at certain times. So for us to experience those events we would have to wait in real time until the right time... Might bring up some problems for those players which don't have that much time to spend in the game... (For the offline mode this could be solved by adding the option to rest/sleep in order to advance time - hint, hint)...

 

I've just had a little run round the Isle of Storms.
It is really pretty - but the water feature is currently super creepy, as the ripples ooze out from under the ground in a flat sheet, and disappear into a rock at the waterfall. Hopefully this is one of the items that will eventually get polish
And Arabella could be a bit more talkative after determining my path, doubtless some newbies will not understand her comment about travelling through the rift and might need more direction (head up the hill, into the ring of stones, and touch the rift twice - or similar).
I definitely prefer this as a starting point prior to Solace Bridge!

 

after hearing the rundown on the current World Tour (I can barely survive as is) I will recreate after I complete it....cannot wait.