The discovery of new Lunar Rifts!?

Avatars,

Lunar Rifts are mysterious objects that were and still are intended to be a method of fast travel for those willing to learn the mysteries of their operation. We had placed only four of these (the first in the Isle of Storms leading to the wider world of Novia, and the other three at the points of entry in Novia in Solace Bridge, Blood River, and Highvale), holding the others for future uses to be determined.

However, with only four Lunar Rifts being operational, it’s now my opinion that there are too few, and since they only can be used to travel to each other 3/8ths of the time, they are virtually never used at the moment. I would like them to be a worthy reward for those who learn how to use their unique connection to the lunar remnants to travel quickly across Novia.

To make Lunar Rifts more useful and generally better understood, a couple of changes are being made. First, we are explicitly reminding new players (via reminders from Arabella, who can be found in more places) that you can use Lunar Rifts to easily cross over to begin other Paths of the quests of virtue. Second, we are adding five additional rifts across all of New Britannia, placed strategically so that they can be used to connect far-flung areas of the world, but only to those who can read the rift’s “road map”.

I am aware this will impact trade routes and other issues, but I feel this is the right move for the totality of the game. Let me know what you think of this direction!

- Richard “Lord British” Garriott

 

One word - Woot!

 

LOVE IT!

 

I fully support this decision!

What are your thoughts on having certain celestial alignments trigger "rift events", where the rift takes you to a special location that doesn't happen but say, 1 out of 144 times (or once per release)?

Something like a special "Chaos Dungeon" that is changed each release so that each time you go, the instance is different, with different mobs, loot, and circumstances?

Or perhaps a special city, where you meet NPCs who send you on quests back in New Britannia, but you can't complete the quests until the next alignment when you are allowed to return to the city?

Thoughts?

 

Sounds great to me, @Lord British .... Can we expect to see them in R43 ?

 

As the co-inventor of the Lunar Rift Chronometer, I am wondering if the "roadmap" is changing, or are the rifts just filling out the other 5 spots?

I Love This Change!

 

I too love it. The way the game has evolved calls for travel options. If we see arabella more perhaps it is a holographic form of her sometimes to make sense out of her appearance by rifts.

Also I like the thought that we learn the secrets of the rifts in various ways.

Perhaps clues throughout the world our Avatar gains knowledge found in our travels.

Like rune combinations to rifts and other mysteries appear in a fished up travel bag or message in a bottle.

Perhaps keys to rifts are achievement rewards too and see my signature for achievement link. I really hope we get this as an interesting system too

edited

 

Keep them out of NPC towns and only in adventure zones like the current 3 is my only suggestion.

 

How will this affect future episodes? I had expected that the five extra times would connect to Lunar Rifts that could be discovered in the lands of Episodes 2-5. Since those will already be used, will the only method of accessing the additional lands be via boat?

Honestly, travel is already far too easy. I'll wait to see *where* these new Lunar Rifts are located, but I can't imagine anywhere that will make it worth using a new rift instead of just running from one of the old ones.

 

I assume these extra rifts will move when new episodes comes

 

I have no problem with more lunar rifts ; it just seems its fairly easy to get around now as it is unless you're encumbered... whether because travel is relatively quick, or because its easy to teleport around to people on your friends list. And carry limits are so lax -- especially with the proper skills, such as Heavy Lifter, and wearing the Belt of the Ox -- that its possible to carry an obscene amount of weight and not get encumbered.

I'm not sure exactly how the new rifts will work, but if they're fairly easy to navigate and use as fast travel, I'm thinking it might make sense to re-evaluate the other forms of fast travel, travel speed on the map, or the carry limit. Especially as Chris is promising that load times will go down -- and if they do, that will take out a lot of annoyances in the game.

I could even see using the rifts as a more direct means of travel, for example by a player holding some object (orb, or what have you) as he passes through, which lets him go to a specific place that is not part of the normal lunar rift network.

 

IMO, the biggest issue right now is that too many of the phases do not have destinations, as LB said only 3/8 basically AND since you are standing at one, 2/8, so waiting 30 or 45 minutes for it to recycle around is not worth using it because I can run there in less time. With an added 5 destinations, the ability to use the rifts will be more often and I think players will investigate them more, much like in UO.

For example, perhaps I can't get to Blood River for another 40 minutes but something up the coast is available in 10-15, that might be worth the wait.

 

i think scene loads are the issue. if i want to go from northwood to xenos

running is three scene loads: norhwood, overworld, xenos

if xenos is a rift destination, four scene loads: northwood, overworld, whichever nearby town has a rift (and then wait for the right phase), xenos

if northwood is a rift destination, four scene loads: northwood (and then wait for the right phase), whichever town near xenos has a rift , overworld, xenos

if they both have rifts that's great! ...but not going to be the case for most trips people want to take.

even without the extra scene loads, waiting for the right phase is likely to take more time than running.

 

I hope due care has been made to avoid making the current rich richer and the current poor poorer.

For example, if there were new rifts being placed anywhere near the four major population centers (Britanny, Owl's Head, Solace/Ardoris, and Eylisum/Etceter) then the impact is going to expand those regions influence when what we really need to be doing is expanding other regions influence.

Norgard, Drachvald, Verdantis...these are the areas of the world that are forsaken. It's not just fast travel though, it's also the lack of infrastructure (places to grind and the turn around and sell goods).

When you look at the other areas that I've listed, they have mines, they have blacksmiths that pay more for junk than other places, they have very easy (non-control point) travel already. Arie to Eylisum to Etceter is one of the great crimes of the map design, making it incredibly advantageous both economically and travel time wise to get from one to the other.

I'm not a fan of fast travel, but I understand why you're doing this. Still I feel that the real reason these lunar rifts have not been used is that there's no real reason to use them. What can you get in Blood River that you can't get in High Vale that you can't get in Solace Bridge? I suppose one answer to that is High Vale has a blacksmith and some recipes where (I believe) the others do not. Control points remain trivial things to run through and instead of being choke points are actually just grind machines for high level groups. All of this should change.

Ideally, what I wish you would've announced was the coming implementation of region resources. Cotton that could only be found/grown in Verdantis. Mushrooms that could only be found in the mines of Norgard. Withered Oak that blossomed rarely in the depths of the Drachvald mountains during the night. These would be resources that players could use in crafting and would provide reason to travel to distant lands (not by fast travel). I would hope that fast travel might be impacted by control points, and when a control points were owned by NPC's, the fast travel routes would shut down.

I know announcement is only a small piece of the puzzle, but I hope you consider explaining more of how this fits into more meaningful economic and choice driven travel in the future.

 

Yes! ~Time Lord~

 

Yes, we're getting them hooked up today for R43.

The latter... where they were currently "dead" they will now take you to new destinations. This will reflect in the visual FX for the lunar rift as well so if you know how to "read" them you can see which is currently the active destination.

 

I say yes this is a good idea. 8 locations for 8 forsaken virtues maybe? Hmmmm.

Also, I would hope this a preliminary step toward the "quick" travel when there are thousands of players instead of 100's. By that, I mean I hope moongate travel will be the replacement for Teleport scrolls. I totally understand the need for these fast travel scrolls when there are few players in a "testing" environment, but when we launch and the great onrush of players join, the teleport scrolls will be bad for business. At least by moongate travel there is a bit of a throttle.

Thank you, this is just my opinion. I'll step off the soap-box now.

 

Trade routes? Is this a thing nowadays? With Friends and Teleport Scrolls i do not walk more then 3 Minutes to reach any destination

 

Yes! ~TL~

 

Kingsport and the hidden vale are forsaken with this announcement. Our lunar rift is once forgotten again @Lord British , @Lum the Mad