Player owned town portals

I like the idea of portals backfiring. I am not sure if we should be putting lunar rifts in the POT's though. I think they are supposed to be somewhat rare, even before POT's where introduced. I also agree that there should be a boat or a coach possibly to the nearest town, but to just one town, not multiple. The portals between player owned towns that adjoin each other would be simply as effective as loading in and out of the overland map so it is of little consequence to have them or not. I am hesitant about portals that can cover distances that can affect trade, be it regional or global.

 

Seeing that portals are relics that already exist, these should have a pre-defined destination depending on where they sit and where they originally took people. (like in the original games) Owned towns if they exist on the map somewhere specific would have a preexisting portal near it that leads to where it leads. Thus, selecting where you want your town might be in part due to where such a portal leads.

I am not a fan of expedited travel for convenience. Such things take away from immersion and make the world feel much smaller. Adventuring in places far away from your home should feel as such and take real time to return to. (Nix the insta home ports plz!) For instance, as you fight, your gear begins to degrade. Out in the stix, there should not be alot of places to get your gear repaired. Certainly not something you can carry beyond a sharpening stone, unless you have camp followers or a squire etc. Bought rations and potable water/wine would soon be replaced by hunted food and natural water sources. I realize I am asking for alot but you get the idea.

 

Yes fast travel is something we will not see much of at all i believe.

 

I like your style! I agree with much of what you have said. I would like the game to make people think, and plan ahead, just as you said. If you do not, you suffer the consequences. I sure hope this game is not just one big easy chatroom. The point you made about the portals being relics I believe would be a valid one, and they should be in place on the map before any towns where ever created, and they would be built around them.

 

That is why I think that average waiting time for passage should be somewhat longer than average travelling time on the map. Yet I also think that portals connecting towns over far distance could be great for connecting community and events could be planned around times when they activate the connection.

 

I expected Lunar Rifts to be near major cities and allow one to "zone" to specific parts of the map stitching the world together. I know if I lived in the SE and wanted to go to the NW I'd want a faster method than walking. Exploring/travelling is well and good, but I appreciate at least the ability to travel between major hubs - and also my home(s).




Long ago the Lunar Rifts were used to effortlessly travel through the world. As their names might imply, the Lunar Rifts were controlled by the two moons. They were considered to be almost holy ground and small villages and ornate temples frequently sprung up around them. Due to the powerful magic nature of these ancient rifts, the earth and stone around them for a hundred feet or more was more stable and protected through the eons. The result was that many of these Rifts are actually on plateaus left behind as the earth around them was eroded away.
At some point on the very edge of recorded history, something terrible happened and the Lunar Rifts changed. Instead of being an efficient and reliable travel method, many of them became erratic. Sometimes they worked fine, other times they were inert, and worse yet, other times they became portals that allowed the darkest of creatures to enter into the world. These creatures quickly destroyed the villages and temples that had sprung up around the rifts.

 

Connected player owned towns should only occur if the towns are next to each other hex to hex. You just don't have to go to the overworld map to enter the next town/hex.

 

I would hope that POT's do not become the framework for a mass transit system. While that kind of tool would benefit very casual play and large and popular POT's, it would cripple regional trade and regional community.

We need to have a game where you never know what you might find when you explore. If most POT's are boring and untravelled because it's just easier to go to the places you know about, and easier to trade where you're comfortable, then people will minimize the game to avoid risks and change.

I think POT's having portals of any kind is a horrible idea.

 

I also am not a fan of portals overall.

 

I like your goal for the community, but in my opinion the possible trade exploit outweighs this. I would suggest possibly using a major hub lunar rift for these events.

 

this is my fear also. Some portals, as TEK has mentioned, would be only for side by side hexes, eliminating the double load time basically with a single load time from hex to hex.

 

I hope to see Lunar Rifts removed from the game so you Have to travel the roads.
We can access all the places that we had to have Lunar rifts to get to.

 

Portals or not portals, I fervently hope one thing will be absolutely, diamond-grade clear to everyone.

With the progression of the game, players will inevitably gravitate around major centers. Be them craft/trade hubs, social/event hubs, large population housing agglomerates, quests/PVE high-yield areas, whatever.

In no way, shape or form we should imagine a world where every POT will be populated, used and "desired" at the same level. Active, bustling cities will have clear avalanche effects: the more people stay in a place, the more will be further attracted, and the more will reside there. Either NPC or POTs, high-gravity areas will always be player magnets, no matter what.

By converse, some remote, poorly placed, unlucky (maybe after you place your holdfast, a huge metropolis is added next-hex and you're practically obliterated), inactive towns will see fewer and fewer activities, and I Cassandra-like predict many of them turn into ghostly remains of forgotten settlements.

Portals might help spread the load (if placed wisely, so to help the less-urbanized underdog areas), or just polarize migration streams even more. Concentration will happen regardless of means of transportation. I dare say that without portals to move around freely, players will stay within familiar, populated areas even more.

Mark my words: regular players are lazy and they want, they crave commodity. Don't even hope that the (silly) hardcore elitism that permeates our forum, will turn them into tireless walkers.

It simply won't happen.

 

I agree with you Lord-Galiwyn, creating the fast travel makes people only want to go through the content as fast as they can and miss out on what it truly would have been like in Britannia.
There would be coaches and horses but each would still have to travel overland and\or sea. I dislike the random encounters as they are now but understand that this is a work in progress.
I do like the port to home so that you can quit for the night, but then you should have to travel back to where you were.

 

Thank you for your honest opinion I understand that people are lazy, and I have issues with that. I do not think games should be watered down just because people are to lazy to play them, in my opinion, there are many other games for the casual gamer. Lets have this one be in the spirit of the Ultima series as intended, with no hand holding. I do believe the game is intended to be regional in concept, with markets, with people, and so and so forth. It is why they make the overland choke points dangerous, so only the brave will cross them. I cannot forsee them after so much effort was put into a game design to only have it bypassed by later add on towns with world portals. It makes no sense and would break the game.

 

I'm in the same camp as you, agree with this, and hope it will work out.

OTOH, what is a game good for, if it's empty and deserted, devoid of any brave soul... as well as of any other kind of player?

"No hand holding" is a double-edged mantra. Let's not abuse of it.

 

Understanding that you get bored with content, I can see your point of view. I however do not feel the same way about it. Back on to a question I have for you. How would you counter exploitation of portals from Player Owned Towns that could transport goods and services by bypassing the choke points and content that non player owned towns members do not have, or even NPC towns for that matter. Except for the few with Lunar Rifts of course.

 

This does not mean of course that we should not push for better content and such. I really do think its important to try to keep the player base happy. I like Budner s Idea about the random PvP scenarios. That is a great idea for pvp and spontaneous action. In the future there will be gypsy wagons and content that you will be able to interact with. I am not sure if that is episode one or not though. But there are things in the works to spice up travel.

 

I like the runestones from Darkfall. I also think that Wizards should be the ONLY people with he skill to operate one.

 

Thanks for you input . Hopefully yes by episode 2 we will have horses and boats! I don't like the port home either, but I would support a camping ability, which has been discussed in the past.