R7 Good

Played a little bit of R7. We're moving in the right direction.

1) The overland map is fine. I'm sure it will be fantastic in a few months. I didn't have any performance problems with it (maybe this was after a few patches were loaded into the game).

I can't see what all the fuss was about. It's an overland map, it represents what, 5% of the game? Oh well, development time well spent.

2) I thought the Graff Gem Mines was interesting. I couldn't figure out how to swim deeper though so I'm still kind of pissed about that. I thought for sure there was a way to do it, but there's nothing in the instructions so I either imagined it or it's inside baseball knowledge that only the cool kids know - either way it's frustrating.

3) It's still very difficult to move about inside small spaces (like houses) and that's frustrating too. My computer is handling the game "ok" but I'm going to need to upgrade and that's going to cost me some money. So it would be nice to know if someday the goal is to make movement MUCH smoother than it is right now (even for lower end computers).

It's unplayable right now from a movement and timing perspective. I'm only saying this so that it's a part of your internal conversations (devs). This is way below where the standard should be, but completely understandable and fine for pre-alpha.

4) This is the best lighting I think we've had yet (in the graf gem mines). The outside still needs some work - yes I know that you (devs) know this. One thing I'd like to see eventually is that the floating names go away in the dark.

5) Lastly I'd like to see the names of PC's unknown to other players just like it is for NPC's. Just put something like "Avatar" or "Adventure" until I tell someone my name.

That is all, keep up the great work!

 

The fuss is IMHO because in the classic Ultimas, the overland map was more like 25-50% of the game itself.. It is where you would see approaching enemy groups, attack and board pirate ships, cast spells, dig, rest, use quest items, blink over mountains, use air balloons with conjunction with wind direction, use the lunar alignment to gauge moongate travel, use the calender to find mandrake at just the right moment etc.

You see where I'm going? Oh and forgot horses.. all made in 1984.

 

That does actually help me understand much more.

So there are a few people that really enjoyed that part of the Ultima series and wanted to recapture it here via the overland map. Well, they got what they wanted - or atleast they will someday it appears. I'm not sure it's worth it, but to each their own.

 

Because all that stuff happens on the overland map, it's much easier to code and script. In time we can potentially have all that stuff in more in addition to the more modern elements of the 3D games. It could end up being a very cool blend of the approaches.

That's all speculation, of course. I'm just saying the potential is there.