Indicating area difficulty.

I'm aware of the skulls at the entrances but given the loading times being faced for entering an area just to check the number of skulls, then leave (more loading time)... Sure would be nice if you could see the difficulty of an area by a symbol next to the name before you enter it on the world map. Would certainly help new players exploring the map for the first time.

 

I think they were planning on that, Astrobia.

But, really, I don't think its necessary. There's a logic to scene difficulty. Scenes near roads and towns tend to be easier. Scenes farther out tend to be harder. Players will learn this as they play the game. An NPC near the start of the game can mention "stay on the roads" (even Edvard), or players can share the lore with each other.

I don't think people should be playing the game, deciding what type of scene to go into based on overland map markers. Gameplay should be a lot more organic than that IMO. Players should explore scenes, or go on advice by players or NPCs. That's RPing. I don't even like the in-scene skull markers for a lot of reasons, mind you. But even if they're there, my opinion is there's no reason to go beyond that.

 

Redfish I agree. Unfortunately that system is unreliable as I've seen 4 skull locations next to 1 skill locations while looking for a 2 skull location. It wouldn't be such a big deal except the whole idea of it being organic takes a back seat when every failed attempt to find one takes me out of the game for 5 minutes due to wasted load times. I mean ideally you'd have a skill you can use on the overland map to assess the hostility of the surrounding area (scouting or something)... But very few things is being done ideally and the best we can do in the short term is minimise the hassles of the current systems.

 

An excellent idea.