Speed on overland map

That would be interesting but I would be weary of making that kind of skill too accessible lest everyone just take it by default. It would make some sense if woodsman/ranger/druid types that are accustomed to travel in the wilderness had a small movement bonus off road.

 

I agree with Ice Queen. I purposely do not explore as much as I would like simply due to the fact that trying to journey across the overland is SO PAINFUL! Aside from the paths being way too hard to see, even staying on the roads will result in lots of slow areas. And finding any road at night is impossible and more than painful. For that reason I will log off and not play if it's night during the game. Hat's off to those who think this is a fun way to play a game because to me, this is not fun. A fun game does not have restrictions on everything you do - it should be challenging but not restrictive. I think we will lose lots of players if traveling is this slow and ugly at launch. And I hope you all realize that it's not just the financial support of us here on the boards that will make the game successful and will actually allow there to be an Episode 2. We need all the players, no matter how much they pledge, to love this game - tell others about the game - and continue to play and support the initiative. I don't think that will happen if we keep adding restrictions to play time. (Slow Walking across the overland, Not having a clear path to get where you need to go, Sitting and waiting for the Zone to your home to happen, Having to farm something numerous times just to finally get a success no matter what your skill level is). If the direction of the game continues as it is, I will probably hang it up, take my losses, and walk away to support something else.

 

For people suddenly finding themselves moving slower this release are you certain it isn't because you're now encumbered due to not having certain passive skills anymore after the wipe?

 

I have stated several times earlier that the Travel Time on the Overland Map is too slow. How Slow? I also posted that in Release 17 the speed seemed acceptable, and almost perfect graphically. Since then it has not been. One of the biggest changes was that in Release 17 the Travel Speed was the same if on the path or in the woods or deep grass, basically everywhere. That makes one very, very big difference, especially traveling at night. Right now the speed is faster in Release 19 but only on the paths/roads. The issue for a player like myself is that I generally only have 2 -3 hours per day/night to play. So my concern is how much of that 2 - 3 hours am I going to spend walking the Overland Map and getting pulled into Random Encounters when I wanted to go to a certain location, as an example, mine Copper Ore. Based on the speed in Release 18, I estimated it would take approximately 6 minutes to go from Ardoris to Brightbone Pass. That does not include any time being drawn into random encounters. Even if I run out of those Encounters , you can add approximate 1 minute for each Encounter. So based on my example it might take 15 minutes or more going back and forth. Now I still have not included time from my House in Ardoris to the exit to the Overland Map. Add another 2 - 3 minutes for that coming and going I'm estimating travel time under Release 18 for the distance indicated earlier as approximately 20 minutes out of my 2 - 3 hours. That for me is a lot of wasted time. I can understand that for those who play 24/7 that the slower the time on the Overland Map the better. That is based on the fact that the travel time for someone who plays/gathers for 2 - 3 hours is the same as someone who gathers for 6 - 8 hours. 20 minutes out of 2 -3 hours is a lot different than 20 minutes out of 5 - 8 or more hours. Becoming Overweight may help to solve that problem but if pack animals etc. are added the problem would still exist. So I ask the question back to you. As a Casual Player who can only play 2 -3 hours per day/night how much time do you think is acceptable for me to waste considering I play the game for fun not for tedium? In summary, it does not matter how much time it takes to travel from one place to another. What matters is how many people will start saying that they used to play SOTA but it wasted too much of their time and it became more of a nuisance than fun.

 

Doesn't this imply that we would also need quest markers, breadcrumb trails etc.? If we need all players then we also need those players who are used to such handholding.

 

It is a Game. How do we know what the miles or kilometers are between the different areas. Even if one were to say it is 100 miles between one town and another. what difference would it make. If you wanted to be "So Called Realistic" then the era in which the game takes place had no automobiles, trains or planes. So walking 100 miles might take you 3 - 5 days. Since 1 hour is considered 1 day in the game does that mean that traveling 100 miles in the game should take 3 - 5 hours. In essence, going from Ardoris to PaxLair (hypothetically 100 mles) would take 3 - 5 hours? Is that reality enough or just who determines what is reality. If we get on a boat going from Hidden Vale to Novia is that a 1 day trip, 1 week trip or 1 month trip. Maybe we should say it is a month long trip and once you get on the boat you can play the game again in 30 - 31 hours. That would be reality. There would be no one left to play the game in a real life month but what the heck at least it was realistic. Then again we could have it so when avatars die they stay dead and you have to create a new avatar and start all over. Now that would be true realism. I'm being sarcastic but I do definitely understand the desires of many players to keep the game realistic as possible. I also however believe we need to keep as many people interested in the game, including all playing styles, those playing 2 hours a day and those playing 24 hours a day. If that means providing a switch to make it a players choice (fast or slow) how they travel on the Overland Map and whether they get pulled into random instances or not then it makes sense to do it, rather than risk losing players before the game even starts.

 

The realism could be achieved - at least somehow - if the day night cycle on the overland map would be sped up. If you are on the overland map days and nights go by faster than in scenes to imply that travel takes longer - problem with that is that in the online mode this does not work as the time of day needs to be the same for all players no matter if they are on the overland map or in a scene.

I hope that the devs consider introducing secrets for the overland map. Secrets that we discover when we walk near them and the slower we walk the higher the chance is that we can discover those secrets be it some treasure or a hidden scene etc.

 

I am rather left with a few impressions on the subject.

1: Some people are bugged into slow walking on the roads.
2: Some people have their monitor brightness lower than defaults?

Now I haven't fiddled with my video settings or monitor settings at night I can still see well enough to know where I am and where I'm going without a light source. Which tells me it's not just the game.

I also am quite happy with the travel speeds.. not because I enjoy being slow or maybe have more patience than some.. but I really can get to where I'm going. Even in the dark.. in fact I'm playing with night time right now. I just now went from Ardoris to PaxLair in about 3 minutes.. at night. How is that painfully slow given the size of the map?

 

Recall!!!!

 

Just for completion if someone else reads this topic but not that one, yes coconuts work on overland but its buggy: (and no the devs shouldn't spend any time fixing "mount" bugs when "mounts" are not in the game yet)
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/i-want-horses.33049/#post-386973

 

Oh, it's that time of the month again? ~Grabs popcorn~

Cut overland speed 1/3, fix roads, cut max zoom/lod 1/5, cut avatars size 1/10, wait for content to be available in every hex. Fixed.

 

Overland speed at the moment is simply a matter of getting from point A to point B but this will change. In the upcoming releases there will be encounters and roaming creatures that we will need to face and avoid. Also if they stick to their initial promises, when the map is complete, a "fog of war" may also cover the overland map.

If they speed it up then they will need to speed up the roaming creatures, random encounters and anything else that may end up being in place and with or without a fog of war, this will cut back on our reaction time to these events. I'm picturing a Benny Hill chase scene taking place if things are sped up too much.

Additionally the fact that the characters go at different speeds on different terrain makes sense and adds to the encounters and tactics used when trying to escape or avoid dangerous situations that will end up taking place. In the end I think that what they have now is fine. With the addition of horses later on this leaves room for faster travel.

 

Sorry If I disagree with you. I do not think the vision of the game should be changed to a watered down hand holding easy just another run of the mill instant gratification game. There are thousands of them that the IGF (instant gratification folk) can play and forget about. Lets not get this game ruined for some one who is gonna play it a week or a month then leave anyway.

 

Wanting to walk on the overhead map at speeds faster than turtle speed, is not hand holding. As someone said above, Release 17 it was just right, now it's unbearably slow to me. This subject has absolutely nothing to do with hand holding.

 

you are not walking slow as a turtle. It may SEEM that way to you but actually its a form of fast travel. You are moving about 500mph if you where walking inside the hex. So essentially if you where inside the hexes you where crossing over it would take you about 2 seconds to cross the entire scene.

 

The run speed is fine. If you stick the roads, you see it doesn't really take long at all to run around the map.

 

Agree with the general principle that it's hard to give something, then take it away.

However I strongly disagree with the premise that something has to suck NOW, and CONTINUE to suck in the future, because we MAY have an alternative mode of transport in the future that will suck LESS. The message is, "let it suck now so it sucks less later"? Please.

This is a game. I'm really not into self-deprivation and dev-imposed discipline. I want to play, not watch my avatar trudge across a map I already know by heart.

By the way, an easy solution re: horses is to let everybody walk relatively fast now, and just not increase the speed much, or any, when horses come. We don't have to walk slow now, just to speed up later.

(by the way, sometimes the speed is OK. Unfortunately I'm seeing inconsistent speeds including very slow speeds on the roads, sometimes. Other times, the speed is adequate.)

 

I don't think the actual issue is the amount of time it takes to get from one place to another. I think the speed on roads is fine, perhaps even 5-10% too fast. However, the *actual* issue seems to be the perception of slowness due to speed change between terrains.

Basically, stepping off the road into the forest (or in some places, just having a tree too close to the road) drops your travel speed by what appears to be half. Its only briefly, while you are in that rough terrain, but its noticeable (and when you expect to be traveling by road and suddenly are not, annoying). Its even more noticeable when you travel by road to somewhere and then want to explore offroad, which then seems to take so much longer to get anywhere.

Because its a perception issue, not an actual issue of time, then systems like Teleport spells, Sewers and Lunar Rifts will be an alternative, but will not affect the actual issue. The only thing that will do that would be to either remove (which I do not advocate) or dramatically reduce the terrain speed penalty.

I would ask that we play with this speed on the QA server, ranging anywhere from 10% to 25% reduction. My expectation is that the lower end will be a better play experience, but I would still want it to be a choice (spend 10% more time on travel so you can explore toward some mysterious area, or stay on the road and make better time). With only a slight change in speed, more people would be inclined to explore because it would not affect the players perception as dramatically as it does currently.

Thanks for providing us feedback and letting us voice our concerns, Chris!