New POT Questions Based on Latest Update on POT's

You can only attach your POT to another POT if the owner agrees to it, i think its more likely that we will see NPC towns with many suburbs.

 

Both town owners have to agree to be connected.

 

If city exits start leading to other cities rather than the world map, we'll have to get an 'exit to world map' command that we can use anytime just to keep from getting frustrated as we navigate, (or rely too heavily on compass UI), both of which Richard Garriott has stated he doesn't want in his Ultimate RPG, and I think, for good reason.

I still feel that every scene needs to be properly represented on the world map:

--Maybe each building on the city icon could link into a different suburb of the town shown on the overland map. So if Ardoris has suburbs, the city hex will have a building added to it to represent each additional town. We can hover our mouse over the buildings to see what PoTs are joined to Ardoris in this way. If this is doable, then I'm okay with each PoT not having it's own Hex on the map, because at least they will be represented!

 

That is exactly what i am hoping for with our cluster, so clicking on a building could take you to my scene, another takes you to PaxLair main, and boats take you to the island scenes.

 

I like that idea, as long as folks that didn't want to be would not be forced to do so.

 

Yes, well, just standing in the hex should bring up the enter button for the default 'main city', and the clickable buildings would only need to be for the 'suburbs'. I like that idea. It should limit how many cities can reasonably link to one hex too, because only so many buildings can fit on one hex.

Wait, you mean Devs are letting city owners choose to hide their cities inside other cities? That seems a little shady, doesn't it? What sort of magic is this? Hiding entire cities..

 

We've already got it in the form of clickable boats on the over land, so it seems viable to me. So much detail is lost on the overland, so added functionality there would be good. Just shrink the scale of overland cities/buildings down, to get a more detailed view of each attached town.

The three+ little village-type houses that represent towns seems like a first pass implementation anyway.

 

Ummm because it's not a city but a borough of a city. Think New York City, with Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island.
On the world map they show up as NYC <g>

 

With that example, I'd expect to see a building representing each 'borough' on the world map, within the Hex it resides. Why should anyone's city be hidden from view? It doesn't feel less like a borough if it has a building representing it on the Hex that it lives in.

If cities within cities is how all the big cities in the map work, then I guess I'll get use to it. Let the PoT owners decide if they want the overland access, fine. This feels like it could be giving large groups advantages over others by being able to hide certain homes off the map. Therefore, I hope there will be plenty of nested NPC towns that work the same way for people to choose from, if this is to be a regular feature. Let it be consistent across all aspects of game-play, not just a special nuance for PoTs.

I'm still not sure how I'll feel about navigating a world filled with nested cities I can't see on the world map. But if they are expected to work well, put them everywhere so we can get used to them.

 

That was not the context nor the wording though.

Unfortunately three different threads has been merged there so the topic is a mess, and my feedback though said to be addressed in a later fix has so far been lost in the Jira maelstrom.

 

Miracle, once again, great points. Themo, thanks for some clarity.

It occurs to me there is a possibility to exploit with nested towns with no overland icon or entrance. Let's say town X is nested inside of town Y. Town Y is "private" [which we are told can happen to an extent - at least players can be banned.] So town X with guild $ goes and declares guild war on Guild #. All of guild $ lives in town X. But guild # can't get to them because town Y (that is peaceful) has banned everyone from guild #. So guild $ can come and go as they please with no fear of reprisal outside their door as no opposing players can get to them. If however there is an icon on the world map as has been suggested above, with direct entrance to said town, then even connecting to another town does not truly "nest" it, and the exploit cannot happen.

In short, single building icons on the overland to represent each PoT suburb of a large town seems to be the logical way to go.

 

You are banned from multiplayer, but you get placed into a single player instance instead. So theoreticlly you can still get to the adjacent towns.

 

And bans are limited in nature, I believe the number is 10.

 

So here's the other thing:

If a nested town requires going through the parent town to go in, but can go straight out, then the pursuers may never cross paths with the defenders.. I should think it might be important in certain gameplay aspects for all normal zoning to work 'both ways' with no regular one-way zoning. Special magic spells or lunar rifts might work one-way, but they wouldn't work all the time.

 

Just chasing the rabbit here, but would this mean that all 10 of the banned guildies get dumped into a single player instance and then recombined into multi-player when they enter to enemy nested town? If so it seems complex, if not, the exploit remains.

 

I'm not sure what tech has been built. But from a design perspective I would say that each gets dumped into a single player instance temporarily. Because they are playing multiplayer I would expect them to be put into a multiplayer instance.

On similar topic, if you are in a guild war with another guild then I would expect that it requires consent between the two parties or at least I would expect it to be that way, So why would one guild want to ban someone from a town owned by the other side. Granted people could jump into other towns that might be friends with one of the guilds, but if exploits like this or others were used to benefit one side or the other as a guild leader I would say stop it or I would just stop the war.

 

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/pot-ban-test.32829/
"
Attempt zone to Winfield who is in PaxLair, loads 50% tells me im banned, loads 50% tells me im banned then sends to me to the main menu.

Log in on single player, deco is back and i can run around the town as usual.

"

 

Personally I don't like PvP and don't expect to get involved in any guild wars anyway ... but if you can't see why there could be a problem with this and that no guild would use such an exploit you must not have been around for the first implementation of PvP here in SotA where as I sat by the gate in a PvP area with combatants fighting in the distance, two of our community members took great joy in killing my character 26 times as I sat there and respawned. The mentality to hunt/grief those who will not fight back is not lacking in this community - great as it is, there are always some. And so if guild warfare can be conducted in such a way that one side will have an unfair advantage there will be those who use it. Yes, the offended guild can quit the war, but probably not before reputation is lost.

I am simply suggesting a screen door. It does not have to be foolproof protection, but let's not invite exploitation.

Again, though, everything is solved with the above suggested ideas of each town having an icon on the overland map.

 

The only problem I have with being connected is this. who will go through a town of merchants and most everything an adventurers needs what are the odds they will go to the next. so if you bought a town to be a merchant hub but have to be connected to another POT that has Overland access then the money you spent is completely wasted.

 

Well, in general, a PoT is only as interesting as the owner and inhabitants make it. Many of the smaller PoTs are meant to be basically private, and won't make provisions to entice visitors.

While, a big crafting nexus in a smaller PoT attached to a bigger one may draw folk from afar for shopping,