Owl's Head Moongate Returns - blah

I realize we're still testing, but the return of the Owl's Head moongate was disappointing. It seems to me that we should be restricting travel based on planetary alignment and even that should be limited.

I'm hopeful that future releases will produce this kind of compelling game play and moongates will not be the end all be all to easy and casual travel.

On the same note, I'm interested to know why "zoning to another player" appears to be restricted to 15 minutes at a time? I like the move in this direction, but I can't understand how this could be considered a good mechanic at launch.

Zoning to another player fits into the lore how? Zoning to another player makes the game more immerssive how? Again, I'm hopeful this will be further limited if not completely removed by launch.

 

Zoning into another player will become a teleportation spell requiting reagents and a longer cooldown.

 

Kingsport, Hidden Vale to Ardoris, Novia. Owls Head, Hidden Vale to Solace Bridge, Novia.

Mechanically they are both identical - they are teleporters. One is just dressed as a ferry. The other is dressed as a moongate.

 

That's a good point. I'm looking for that to evolve though. I don't want people to count on that moongate always being available or always going to where they want it to go to. This fits with the lore, and it makes for more compelling (though sometimes challenging) gameplay.

 

If I recall correctly they did the phases of the moon = destination thing in UO. Then they decided it wasn't a great idea so they changed it early on. Probably because it means people sit there at the moongate waiting for their destination to appear like you'd sit at a station platform waiting for a train. Not a fun experience - just frustrating.

The first time around they obviously realized there were some flaws with the design. I would HOPE if they were going to try the same thing again they look at why it was ditched previously and try to make something that works better and is more fun.

 

Yeah, I'm hoping the return of the moongate is to prepare for some future test of the lunar rifts based on celestial mechanics introduced in this release. Ultimately, that's their goal anyways. Perhaps they'll get it into R19.

 

Have an ancient analog / magical computer at the site which will enable you to calculate the time of the moongate's return. Assuming that is , that you do know how to use it

 

Well, the Darkstarr moondial is supposedly for things like this.

I also recall the devs thinking about some complicated in-lore way to "cheat" a moongate and make it point to a different destination that it should. Let's see how this all ties together.

 

Why not make moongates only available at night. . when the Moon is out? They are Moongates after all. .also put them in open pvp areas

 

and runes?

 

With the new celestial mechanics in R18, the planetary bodies, including the moon, can now be seen during the day too

I started doing a timelapse for a single Britannian night to show their motion, but it looks like I'll need a lot more than that. What's the idle timeout on the overworld?