Overland Map Poll [UNOFFICIAL]

Imagine you're watching a movie like Lord of the Rings, and suddenly it turns into a cartoon.


then, at the next scene, it's back to realistic looking stuff again.

 

Well in LOTR - they actually did show maps overlaid with the photography a few times.

Also in Indiana Jones they had cartoony planes flying over maps a few times...

 

At least those games had a coherent artistic style and not something that completely breaks the game in two, ripping you out from an immersive world onto a cardboard map-board game. This is not what has been shown and teased during the Kickstarter campaign...
What is the next thing they will secretly change? Taking out the story and quests?

 

That's not what I told you to imagine.

and even so, with Indiana Jones, that's a movie. They only have so long to do things. The map works there. Also, back then, I don't think they'd have made a convincing model of the plane flying around the world.


SotA's current map now makes the outer world exploration more like a chore/board game than a regular RPG. People will just hurredly click to the next hex to go to without giving it much care, thus making the dual scale maps basically a moot point.

 

"R5 Announcement : After studying forum discussions, we have decided to completely remove story and quests from the game.

Lord British hath decreed it thus ! If thou dost disagree, there is a red moongate that awaits you at the end of the hall. "

You've hit the nail on the head Lord Darkmoon !

 

In the version I was shown, the overworld map looked fully navigable. You walked around and explored. In the map version, you point and click and wait for the game to pick a route.

To me, that radically changes the dynamics.

And yes I know it wasn't actually going to be the world. But it was "a" world. Something explorable, with a version of my character. Sure, in the end, it was a way to get from one hex to another, but you were doing it in a different way, that was less (forgive the use of this word) immersion breaking.

Dynamics aside, this decision changes the "feel" of the game a great deal as well. I don't feel like I'm exploring the world. I feel like I'm choosing a place on a map. It feels like a board game or a strategy game.

And, as I said before, if they had not teased us with the other (better imo) version, it wouldn't be such a big deal. But they did, so it has a much bigger impact.

Also, consider how many people have complained about the idea of dual scale movement to begin with. If the previous version was difficult for them to swallow, it just became a much bigger pill.

 

People pledged for this game knowing from the very beginning it would be dual scale. So, if you don't like dual scale in a game, this probably wasn't the game for you to begin with.

That is very well articulated. I can see that. I understand now where the detractors like yourself are coming from.

Tri scale maps - Map Style, Overland 3D and First Person 3D.... Why not !!!

 

I can't argue with that! I never had a problem with dual scale, but to me this version isn't dual "scale" at all. It's something completely different and it's a change I have no love for.

 

Exactly. And if the retro look is what SotA is after, they nailed it. No problem with that, if that's what it's billed as. But innovative is not how I would describe what I'm seeing and the goals they are striving to attain.

Totally disagree on that. I loved the game (PC version). In fact, I'm playing a 2nd time to get more achievements. Talk about immersive. There were times I literally gasped and jumped. The mental institution had me on complete edge the entire time, and had me almost believing what it must have been like to be in such a place, trying to put me in the shoes of being insane myself. That is immersion. The graphics weren't as important to me, but I think they did a great job - you cannot even begin to compare SotA graphics as matching or exceeding those in Thief. The finished product won't either.

Well you just described SotA, because I saw countless complaints about how plastic and shiny players looked. I have seen that myself and thought, what the...??

 

If it's going to be a map--and I was disappointed by this, but could see it working--it should really *be* a map, i.e. you should be able to see ALL of it, from the start--or at least pan over all of it, seeing all the spaces where fog of war/fog of exploration have covered. I could see this as being a neat thing a la UO cartography, where players who've seen more of the world could theoretically mark your map for you, telling you the location of a thing (or set an awful trap for you, sending you into the middle of a PVP zone and telling you it's a secret ore cache )

As far as entering hexes, I'd guess that if you double-click a hex, you should probably just start pathfinding toward that hex from wherever you are, enter it when you get there, single click moves you around the map without pathfinding? An ADOM-style > or < or somesuch hotkey to "drop into" whatever hex you're currently on?

There's this weird philosophical issue, also: A and B both start at the gates of Owl's Head. One faces north, the other south. A starts running toward Lord Enmar's place; B starts a beeline for Kingsport. B is going to probably arrive first, right, despite the map indicating that the distance is something like eight to ten times as far. This would be less weird if both A and B didn't exist within the same general system of time. It's like a scary SotA version of Zeno's Paradox, and I guess there's no way around it? But for some reason that'd bother me a lot less if the map didn't LOOK like a paper map, bringing all this "paper map" baggage to it.

 

Actually I think they really improved this in R4. It's got a ways to go but the hair looks better already. Did you check the water out tho ? That was kind of ... jello-like

 

My initial impression was that the hair was better too. Still chunky, but not so shiny.

 

Difference of opinion here, I guess. You do know the entire Thief development team was fired after this game came out though.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/thief-dev-cuts-27-jobs-one-week-after-release/1100-6418106/

 

Yes, it was truly uh, Ken Doll like in R2

 

Can soeone put a screenshot up of the current map?? I can't do the release since I am awayon deployment and would like to see what everyone is seeing.

 

You can see the schism in all it's glory here https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...uss-the-overworld-map.8530/page-8#post-150851

page one has most of the screenshots between the styles.

 

Only if he's dev+. I'm not at home or I'd snap a shot myself. Though a video would highlight it much better.

 

Yeah, can't see the dev+ stuff

 

Can't see videos either, limited bandwidth on ship.

 

If nobody has done it by the time I can play tonight (which will be a few hours), I'll snap a shot and post it here.