Overland map feedback

My specialty, the overland map

1. The new camera:
Much, much better than before, just one thing: It is strange that I can walk around while looking up. Wouldn't it be better for the camera to automatically go back to a position to show the avatar when I begin to walk?

2. Lighting:
What happened to the warm lighting of the last release? I think it is cool to have a different color of the lighting during certain times of day, but even during sunsets the lighting seems odd... It is way too dark, so that I can hardly see my Avatar.



3. Nightsky: It looks great but the resolution could be a bit higher. Also, where is the moon? And I think the planets are rotating a bit fast...

 

I'll have to keep an eye out different times of the day. From what I could tell(and in my opinion), when the sun was at 12 o'clock, the shader's sun color was way too warm(yellow). I'd say the sun color needs to be a bit more to the white range than it is now.

 

i hate the overland map, i think it sucks, literly sucks the fun out of this game at times, i cant even tell where i'm going half the time

 

I completely agree with you Moonshadow. The feeling of travelling the overland map is similar to going on a 300 mile road trip with no one else in the car. SOTA's travel system needs to be scrapped or re envisioned.

I loved the Siege Perilous server on UO. I loved how resources worked, how limited travel was, and how hard skill gain was. There was no overland map on Siege.

 

This is not UO and it never will be. The overland map is a great feature and a nod to the old Ultima games.
With roving encounters and things happening on the overland map, it will be great exploring the world in this view.

 

If you can argue this is not Ultima Online then I can argue that this is not the original Ultima.

I must stop there because I do not find it productive to argue with someone with 1700 message counts that I have never once seen in game.

 

I'm here for the Single Player experience

 

Can either of you suggest something which could improve your experience with the overland map?

"it sucks" is feedback, true. Let us assume though it is here to stay, how can they make it better for you, can you provide additional feedback on that? Moonshadow, you said you can't tell where you are going half of the time, there is a compass and other maps to assist you in roaming around. I needed both of those in Ultima Online myself from time to time, so nothing new there. What can be done to better the experience for you?

 

My sentiments exactly .....

 

i really dont know what can be done to improve the overland map experience, like i said, it sucks the fun out of the game at times, maybe if it the travel were considerable faster it might help mitigate the frustration of a wrong turn, which is very easy in the dark, lights are pointless, its like they light up a single pixal. as is the overland map is nothing more than something i have to endure to get to where ever the 'fun' is and that don't jive with this monkey. players shouldnt be looking for a way to avoid a certain aspect of the game and thats exactly what i do and what many others do as well. how many have likely just logged out because of it?

 

My gripes with the overland map:

1) Walking on it is too slow. WAY too slow. I mean it's ridiculous.
2) When it's dark, I have to log out and do something else, because I can't see anything around me, and I get lost while walking reeeaaaaalllly slowly.
3) Roving encounters are a waste of my time. I'm level 60. I don't need to deal with a bunch of skeletons or wolf spiders. If you're going to force me into an encounter, make it something interesting.
4) The camera angles as of r18 are now weird. I want the camera centered lower. Now most of my view if I pan around is of the sky. I liked it much better in R17.
5) Mountains and trees flicker like they are from a fairy crystal palace.
6) Did I mention it's too slow?

I much prefer the idea of a persistent world map. I really don't see what the overland map provides for the player. The rallying cry here seems to persistently be, "It's here to stay, so get used to it!" That's too bad, because I really don't see its utility.

I would like more of a bird's eye 3d isometric view (similar to UO) as an optional viewing layout as well. The current views give me motion sickness, especially in sewers/mines.

 

Maybe Portalarium should indeed think about adding another "map-layer". You press a key and a paper map folds out, showing where you are.
Maybe Portalarium should even consider adding map markers even though Richard said that he did not want those in SotA. But it could be optional for those who do not want a hardcore experience.

Let's face it. When SotA will be "released" I think many gamers and even reviewers won't know what to do and where to go. So why not add something like in the Witcher 3 - as an option. In the Witcher 3 the locatiosn you have to go to are marked on the map and the compass shows you the direction where you have to go to in order to reach this location. In SotA we have runic names for places, no markers and no map. I fear that many will put the game away frustrated as they don't know what to do and where to go. Adding such an option would open the game for much more players. Those who want the hardcore experience can turn those things off. If you know where to go to on the overland map then it may not be as frustrating walking there as the chances to get lost are minimized.

As for the walking speed: The faster we move on the map the smaller the world feels and when roving encounters are introduced we might miss out on some of those.
Maybe roving encounters should not be delayed that much so that players will see what the overland map really has to offer besides walking from A to B and being pulled into a random fight.

 

And what kind of argument is this?
I am not going to talk to you because you have more posts Oo?
Then you will have a hard time here joining any discussion ^^

 

Running speed is too slow and it's way to dark at night.

 

...And you'd be both right, because SotA will be neither.

Ultima is an IP of Electronic Arts.

Shroud of the Avatar is an IP of Portalarium.

Two different game universes, two different companies. Deal with it, please!

The sooner we will stop using the world "Ultima" here, the more we will enjoy a completely different game.


SotA isn't even Elite nor Civilization nor Pong nor Grand Theft Auto nor Final Fantasy. Deal with it once and for all. You'll thank me.

 

1) love the overland graphics and experience of walking the map BUT
2) walking speed is too slow and
3) it's a little too difficult to see at night. I like the darkness/gloom but it's just a little too dark. Maybe a torch could cast a bigger sphere of light?
4) apart from walking speed, overland map seems better each release

 

I think that basically the nights are ok. BUT I think that there need to be lights in the houses on the overland map at night, so that you can see where the villages and cities are. Also it would be really cool to have glowing wisps here and there in the wilderness. This would not only add to the atmosphere but also help a bit with lighting. Maybe also a few lamppost on the roads that are lit up at night.

What bothers me are sunsets and sunrises. You can't see anthing anymore on the map. It looks really strange. Shouldn't the land be bathed in a warm orange light during sunset and sunrise? Instead it is black...

Just compare those two sunrises - just by lighting and coloration (not by graphical quality):

SotA (somewhat scary lighting):



The Witcher 3 (warm lighting):

 

The lighting has been wonky and inconsistent ever since the move to Unity 5 (not like it was great in Unity 4, but I digress...). Like the screenshots above, I've also filed many bugs where it's completely dark while it should be very well lit. I was only very briefly able to jump into R18 and also noticed the strange way the overland map overworld was lit. And the skybox texture is really low and could easily be bumped up by several factors, including the entire overworld ground texture.

 

Ideally, the warmth of the light would depend a bit on the temperature, region, and season, wouldn't it?

 

Ideally if we can get all that, absolutely. I did notice when I was recording some video feedback that the cold/winter biomes are much easier to see in due to the white textures and/or the lighting. Probably take another 4 hours for the video to finish though, 256k uploads I have to deal with here are very 2002.