Navigation through New Britannia

I agree and I've seen it myself but many were not.

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I don't think the cloth map idea was ever in an advanced enough state where people could look past the flaws.

Here's the thing - the paper cut out stuff was the problem because a lot of cheap games on XBLA and stuff came out using this style

in the last couple of years or so for certain aspects of their game - Dragon's Crown, a beautiful 2D art game uses it for example.

it's easy and inexpensive to do, but people are fixated on full 3D even if it doesn't look that good, it's perceived to be

"higher quality production values", and I can partly understand that, although it's kind of sad people don't appreciate straight up 2D art anymore.

 

Let's just hope its for the better - 2d had lots of potential with less work / more customizable ...

 

You have a point there, but unfortunately it seemed the response to the map was so overwhelmingly negative that they had to take action now rather than later. I think its probably better to do that then to invest more effort into the "new" map and possibly discover that response is not improving. By that time, it may be too late. I just agree with one of the posters above when they said, I hope the reverting back to the 3D demo style map ends up for the better!

 

I liked the pop-up map; it made me think of the Game of Thrones intro, and also (probably unintentionally) paid homage to "Mode 7" of the SNES.

I think what Starr and the devs noticed though was that people who hated the new map hated it more than than the people who liked the map liked it.

Agreed 110%. I find the idea that people were threatening legal action over design issues to be utterly insane.

 

I can appreciate 2D art just fine. I was the one advocating for a retro Ultima worldmap, after all. LOL.

I've never seen popup book art in a game. I didn't find it appealing.

I personally think a retro 2D map would be easiest and quickest (and coolest), but I'll take the 3D map over popup book art.

 

To threaten legal action or physical violence over money backed in a kickstarter is definitely insane. Note I said "backed", not "invested". Because it's not an investment. We are funding a project. In return, the developer gives us access to the final product and allows us to give feedback, and hopefully uses that feedback to deliver a product backers want to use.

 

Personally I was glad for either version of the map...I did like the one I saw in the original better but was willing to go with what you guys planed.

However, I'm not so keen in how you came out with this post. This post was about 3 to 4 weeks over due and it allowed the forums to bubble up with lots of derision.

I also think that by stating the class action law suit at the top of this announcement you painted some individuals (pretty sure we know who the most vocal were) as the bad guys. Even if they weren't the ones to actually threaten...people know who was vocal. I personally think that message should have been a public service announcement for "any" class action suits. That way there would be no finger pointing etc.

Maybe i read too much into that but that's the impression I got.

 

The current map look is definitely lame.

 

Thank you so much Darkstarr! This is the best news I've heard in weeks! No rush, the map is very important. I will wait for a quality game no problem!

You guys rock and roll!

 

For those threaten with class action law suit, can the dev refund their money and part ways with them? Not worth the hassle because at the end, the lawyers probably have the most to gain

 

No no no no no no no no no no no no no.

There's no way to fully express how dangerous of a precedent that would be.

It would undermine the entire funding model, not just for SotA but for any Kickstarter and Kickstarter-type project.

 

It's already happened
http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/22/w...arter-backer-decided-to-sue-why-he-was-right/

This guy was out 70 bucks and ended up putting the creator into bankruptcy.

 

Huh... interesting article with lots of interesting points. It will take me a while to fully wrap my head around that.

I'm sure we've all seen cool-looking Kickstarter projects -- even ones with working demos -- where someone is asking for a ton of money, but they don't seem to have the necessary experience to illustrate that they could *scale* their production. Getting a few prototypes working is one thing; being able to coordinate a production run is something else. A lot of hardware projects, in particular, seem to run into trouble at that point.

 

I am truly sorry to the developers for this unnecessary turn of events and so sorry for how that could have made you feel. I hate to see anyone hurt when we all have the common goal in mind, which is this awesome game.

I get passionate about things, but never for one second do I forget what you must be going through in producing this game with a community, and especially a very outspoken community at most times.

I was outspoken about the map and I am outspoken about our character looks, but I will never ever threaten or abuse you. I admire your fortitude, please hang in there with us. We will get this done.

I believe as with most things 'everything happens for a reason', and many times that reason isn't apparent at first, but so much can come out of it, like for example a more unified, closer community. It is perhaps a wake up call. Voicing opinions for the good of the game, but also trying to keep in mind they are opinions and can turn into awesome debates if we allow them to with an open mind. Then we just may get to see different ideas and possibilities that we couldn't imagine and that will allow us to create the most awesome game available.

I have learned so much during my time here. I find myself looking up things like cubemapping and lighting terminology lol which is new to me. So thank you community, and thank you, thank you Portalarium for this great opportunity to be part of this. Now let us all go kick butt. Watch out world, Shroud of The Avatar is coming.

 

Thank you Starr for this post!
First I would like to say that threatening you with a lawsuit is a no go and despite being one of the most vocal people speaking out against the cloth map I would never ever threaten anybody because of such a matter. Speaking out here in the forums vocally - yes. But threatening - no way!

I am so glad to hear that you plan to have a 3D map with lots of functionality in SotA! This is how I envisioned the game to be when you announced it and I am so looking forward to roaming around on this map. Thank you very, very much.
And my apologies for sometimes being a pain in the a... about this matter. The overland map is a very important part for me as I think it adds a lot to the immersion and atmosphere and can create a substitution for exploring a big world.

So thank you again for your patience and listening to us!

Just a few more questions: will we be able to hole up and camp on the overland map? To rest, manage our gear and skills? This would be very cool and reminiscent of the old Ultimas Or will we have to enter a scene and set up camp there in order to rest?

What about day/night cycles and weather on the overland map?

 

Thanks for the detailed post and letting us know your plans.

This post is the best news I've read in a long time. Its like Christmas, but without the socks
I'm really looking forward to everything you've covered.
I think this will be a big benefit to SotA.

Best of luck getting a system working well in Unity. There are a lot of items in the asset store. Some great, and some not so.....
I'm sure you have the ingenuity to find the components you need, and to build the best overland view there can be

 

For me, and I may have missed some earlier post but having the overland map dropped on me without any expectation of it & further to that there was no real explanation of what it was meant to be it came out of left field. I never put the map we've been shown Jigsaw map together with the overland map , all I saw was a cheap cardboard cutout. I still don't like the way it looked at all but I'm now seeing where you where headed. I'm relieved that the direction has changed and wish you the best with it. I however do like the look of the jigsaw map as a map.
I was being tempted to throw in the towel & sell my account but I also felt that the risk/chance of Owning a piece of Sota was just too valuable to me so I could never, even if Sota completely failed I still had to chance it.
The thought of legal action never crossed my mind & that is never where I'd go, I can not sue my brothers, love it or hate it we are in this together ...........to whatever end

 

As was mine... Though I support Portalarium's addressing the issue as long as it does not adversely impact more essential (IMHO) features or threaten the release of the game.

 

For me, this is sad news . I also fell in love with the cloth map. I see uncanny valleys coming...