post-summer overworld feedback

Hi yall... Back again with some feedback at the latest version iteration.

Big concern - I still cannot get into the avatar movement and overall gameplay on the overworld map. My main issue is I don't think the current method of the Avatar(s) existence, role, and look is not appropriate for that particular area of the game.

For so long, this game had a very, very rudimentary overworld by design. It is obviously the effect of the very early game development, something which I have no other experience with. So not understanding really how this all gets made, Sota has no previous blueprint game engine that it is being copied from as just about everything including the game engine itself is highly built from scratch afaik/understand. That said I still don't understand what Sota's direction will be concerning the overworld map at this point in time. The dev's initially stated the OW was simply a travel map and was going to have some basic interactive elements.

I don't think they nailed the Avatar avatar on the OW at this point. Something makes him look way to big in relation to the other scale of the world.

Please can we see some more denser forests than what we are currently seeing? Talking Fangorn Forest here. In order to show mountains at such scale and then show individual trees so huge in comparison is beyon comprehension in my mind.

I still don't get the art style for the OW in general although some terrain looks better than others.

Borders/edges are still not defined well enough, what if we could actually have some sort of thin but easy to see (high contrast) outline of the different planes of walking?

I think things like wagons would look more appropriately scaled as travel 'icons', on the OW map.

When one (myself) looks at the exploration environment of the OW at a glance, for example, I think it really gives the impression that that is the actual game world when it is really the travel world.
At the end of the day I think there is work to be done here, or maybe I just don't get it.

cheers

 

The problem I think is that it should be more then just a travel mode...it should have some things you can do and when you enter a zone you can do more....but to just go from point a to point b seems like a waste in my opinion.

 

A neat picture of a overworld type painting.

 

The overland map does need much more elements.
Not only wandering monsters but also ambient creatures like birds flying around, deer hopping around, a whale coming up in the ocean etc.
Then we need interesting roving encounters. Traveling merchants, NPCs, gypsies etc. Also monster encounters.
There should be windows popping up when we discover a hidden or random encounter/event with a description of the event and some decisions we can make (for example engage the enemy, try to flee or try to hide etc.)
Next we need to be able to discover secrets on the map. According to the time of day and the weather we could discover secret scenes or a treasure or something else interesting.
Weather should be visible on the overland map, too, so that we know what kind of weather we have in the scenes.
Also we need to be able to make camp on the map. This would create a small, very atmospheric scene with a campfire where we can manage our gear, deck and skills or just make some camp and music with friends. In single player offline mode the camp could be used to advance time (with a chance for an ambush).

The overland map should NOT be just a means to travel from point A to point B!

 

Well to be fair it is also a backdrop for plastering PoT's on....they add to it I guess....at least it just isn't empty now.

 

Amen brotha.
I would like to see the occasional ship as well moving acrossa bay or off of the coast slightly.
Additional things - fog horns if there is fog. low altitude clouds and more weather patterns.
I hope they implement a Blink spell, also. That would really help players to travel distance that would otherwise be much more difficult to travel, eg if you had no horses or food costs were high.
I assume they are still going to implement food costs for distance travelling.

 

Great ideas above.

Ships, deer, balloons, birds, etc. would all go a long way in bringing the overland map to life.