overland map - speed changes

I do like that being on the road is faster. This is a good mechanic imho.

That being said, the penalty for moving off the road is too sudden, and too much of a reduction.

My thoughts around this:
> with this, re-enable dash, blink, sprint etc. movement skills on the overland map
> widen the area considered "road" a few pixels on each side
> have a buffer zone as you enter different terrain types that is a gradual slow down from the road speed
> make the road speed slightly faster than the current move speed in live
> give us a skill, maybe in subterfuge, that raises overland offroad movement speed

 

I'd just like to know what exactly the reasoning was behind increasing the level of boredom while walking on the already boring overworld map ?

 

Haven't we been through these changes a few months back? I seem to remember that there were many negative posts on the forums complaining about the slow down effect on the overland map. The slowdown effect was then taken away and most people were happy. Now they bring it back.

 

At this point, I just toggle auto run and browse the forum until I need to make a turn.

 

I am guessing it is to "encourage" players to use the control points instead of running around. A lot of the "long way" paths are off road.

 

I understand the desire to compromise on this. However, to me it goes a lot deeper. First we have been over this in many earlier releases and it got nothing but negative comments on the slowdown on the Overland Map. But again what the players say seems to matter little. Second, There are towns and Instances that are not on major paths. Do these towns and instances get punished for not having a major road with slow downs. As an example the Shore area and mountain north of Britany has several towns along the shore and around the mountain. If they are going to continue with this slowdown nonsense should not each of these town have a path going to it. How about a path to many of the instances in the same area. From the Road north of Serpent Spine Foothills to Ulfheim or any other number of Instances. And this is just one small area of the map. Third , your suggestions are good alternatives, but who is going to do all the programming for all those changes or adding all the new paths? Could not programming time be spent better on changing the existing instances to look different from 3 or 4 others or fixing bugs or improving the targeting system that even after 6 months is broke for half the player base. In another post we were told they were reviewing it. I guess they have and decided to just let it go since several patches have occurred and they either have not touched it or have tweeked it so little it is not even noticeable. Why this desire to keep us in one area of the map for the entire time we play the game just makes me shake my head. I have no idea who this game is being designed for any more.

 

If you only look at the speed changes then I could see why there would be a negative reaction. On the other hand, it adds opportunity for interesting choices which is really what make games fun and challenging.

• Random encounters can be reduced on the road, giving players a chance to risk an encounter if they go off-road.
  
• Those of you who just auto-walk on the main map will be surprised when you're pulled into an aggressive encounter.
  
• Those of you who think walking on the overworld is boring, well, have fun with the encounters.
• Terrain speed differences have been in a lot of Ultimas, so it's nothing new. I can remember making terrain movement decisions in Ultima 5 to avoid mobs and reduce food consumption.
  
• Towns off the path are off the path. If you selected a town out in the middle of nowhere you probably picked it because it was out in the middle of nowhere. Not every town in real life is on the main path. Perhaps if it is deemed too much of a burden then some kind of path with a speed between roads and plains could be introduced and sprout off the main thoroughfares.
  
• People have discussed how the passes and control points are useless since they can be avoided. Well now there is more of a disadvantage to walking the long way and perhaps more people will decide that the paths are less time consuming or less risky.
• As has been said above by @RadioMan, perhaps this is an opportunity to add purpose to existing skills, or add new skills. We could have speed reduction mitigation and encounter avoidance. Maybe we can roll to find out if we get the option to ignore whatever it was that caught our eye.
  
• Gives more purpose to horses or other quick travel mechanics. Teleport and Recall will become more valuable.
• If movement between regions in the game is slowed, it gives more importance to the regional economies.
  
• ... I'm sure I could put down a few more bullet points if I kept at it.

 

personally I like the idea of having the speed changes, just needs tweaking as compared to how it is in QA right now.

I have seen such logic in many other games, and it can work quite well.

I also expect them adding it back is related to the upcoming overworld encounter potentials that you can see and possibly avoid, instead of getting sucked in as you do now.

@Gamician As for programming resources, and what should be done first, that is an entirely different can of worms. I never implied 'do this first' or anything. Just sharing ideas that I felt were cool around the concept for variable speed of map traversal.

I dunno what their count in Jira is, but I am sure it is a big number. =)

 

Again it seems this is another change that encourages the player to tab out and do something else while playing.
Don't see why it was necessary.
The aggressive encounters are not 'fun' nor 'rewarding' and just really force a player sit to sit through two more load screens - again encouraging tabbing out and doing something else while playing.

 

This. Remove combat encounters from the road, significantly increase them off-road. I am all for the speed reduction if something like this is the desired outcome. It's good feedback to let you know you are in danger.

This. I trained dash to be able to run faster. Let me run faster plz thx.

 

If you're going all in on roads, then you might consider that people/creatures make their own in RL. If people keep walking through a forest, a path is created. Once the farmers decide they like that path better, they chop down some trees and a dirt road starts to form. Eventually the Romans build a road across it and go kill your village.

Point being, check your heat maps. If everyone is cutting a corner, that should eventually become the road.

 

If it sounded like I was being negative on your idea, I'm sorry, that was not my intention. I thought your ideas were good ideas and would be far better than what we have now. My frustration is that we keep changing the same things over and over again without finally coming up with a solution.

 

Well, IF load times were't that awfull, i would agree that skipping control point would be less advantegeous. How is it now, i doubt it.

 

Load times will get better. Not sure how much better, but I know they will get an optimization pass at some point.

 

Yeah, point is: they should not add some unecessary "nerf" without giving it a counter-measure. That will just kill people's desire to play more.

 

Maybe so, but speed reduction is a thing and it will not go away. It might be better to get people used to it early so that they can appreciate the ways to mitigate it later. Honestly, I don't see it being a big deal, but I do understand people hate change.

 

Invalid point. I don't hate change. I hate being "punished" in a stage that the game is already too punishing - or having degraded experience. I'm not asking to the mechanics go away, instead to be implemented when the time is right.

 

Then we'll have to disagree. I think the time is fine for it.

 

There is one problem I still have with this, and it's that in heavily forested areas (like southeast of Brittany), it is hard to see the path under the trees. There needs to be a bit wider edge beyond the roads to account for obstacles like trees obscuring the path.

I only recently realized the reason I had hardly seen any encounters for the past few months was because I never tried to stick to the path.