The discovery of new Lunar Rifts!?

that seems like pretty deliberate wording. novia doesn't include the vale but new brit does.

 

Thanks Lum! That should make updates easy for me.

 

I can't remember who it was, but someone created an app for the lunar rifts that literally tells you exactly where they go. Which means all anyone really has to do is go to the app and read it, never knowing anything about how it works.

This is a shame for a number of reasons:
1. I was the first player to decode how the lunar rifts worked and the first to map out their patterns during pre-alpha. It was fun exploration and instead of making an app, I wrote an in-game book that kept all the information immerssive and fun.
2. It's another example of players taking cool features in the game and min/maxing them using the internet and modern technology. This is unfortunate because one of the byproducts of this is anyone not using the short cut is at a disadvantage.

My point is not to state the obvious, we're living in the information age and this is what happens - players ruin cool features. But instead to express some wonder as to why we haven't at least created some form of dynamic puzzle around these lunar rifts so that people can't use them by going to sotawiki or some other site, and instead they have to use their brains a little? I think the moondails are another good example of the cat being out of the bag. I understand that there's a balance to be had here, on the one hand we want players to use the lunar rifts (and they were not) but on the other hand we'd like to have cool puzzles for players to figure out. But in the case of the moon dials and the lunar rifts, these things are static and once you know what's going on (or worse you look at an app that tells you what's going on) the game is over.

Can we attempt to make these things slightly more dynamic and challenging?

 

Thank you LB!

 

What some people view as "Ruin", others view as Helpful. Just because you don't like it, or it does not meet with your standards does not mean it is the same for everyone. I have many, many players using the Lunar Rift Chronometer and thanking me for it. I took care to create lore about it, and integrate it within the game as much as I could. I also created books in-game about it, long long ago. The issue became the math in predicting when something would be open to where you want to go, not just where it's going now. This made it useful for when you are adventuring, you plan when you want to leave in order to get yourself to the gate in the right amount of time.

My Guildmate and I spent a long time on the math, and keeping it synced. I wrote stories that integrated in our player town. Yes, it does take some of the math away away but I challenge that what is current is EASY in any sense of the word.

I also like how you claim to be first to understand the Rifts. You may have been but how do you know for sure?

I ask you choose carefully thy words, friend.

 

Actually it is changing a bit, so that the destinations match the phases on the moon correctly.

 

Thank you for posting this. I honestly could not remember where the app was or who created it.

A few points:
1. Well done creating the app.
2. I'm sure you did work hard on that.
3. I don't doubt your good intentions or that many players appreciate the app in ways that I do not.
4. Nothing I wrote was meant to take away from any of that. I was simply voicing my strong displeasure with most 3rd party applications for this game, as well as the chosen design by Portalarium that either allows this to happen or out right encourages it.

What you have to understand is that even though some players may enjoy this greatly, it does impact the game in ways you may not have been intending. In my case, it's another example of the game being min/maxed in a way that does ruin the spirit of what would otherwise be a very cool feature to explore and discover.

I would personally rather the developers created a more dynamic puzzle that people could learn how to activate but never get the exact answer to the puzzle (that they would have to figure out on their own, or have someone with them that could do it). Yes, this would be inconvenient for some people, but it would preserve the spirit of exploration and discovery while promoting a more immerssive world detached from the internet.

I hope you understand my intent. I'm not trying to point my finger at you or your application. I'm trying to raise my hand and let the developers know that what is current is ruining a great opportunity for their game to be better for people like me.

 

First off, lets face it... trade routes were never really a thing anyway. With teleport/recall scrolls and relative ease to cross through control points, there wasn't much forcing localized economies.

Secondly, I think part of the biggest issue with new players not even knowing there was more than one virtue path to follow was the fact that they all start really far apart. Since travelling far distances is hard for newby players, this will help them learn about other virtue paths... especially if Arabella will be hinting at using the lunar rifts. I think this will really guide them a bit better.

Good move LB!

 

yes and if trade and trade routes come in and we have to travel to destinations on our caravans then we won't use the fast travel in those situations of course. Fast travel is for other times. This game needs all options for different situations. If travel on overworld has an incentive like getting our wares to a market in another region and x marks the spot to treasure hunting etc, then we will of course use it.
Secret maps showing of these things to be found in our world would be fun too.

 

Regional economies have been a long time goal. At no point in our development to date have they been "supported". The way we travel will continue to influence how difficult it will be to create meaningful regional economies in the future. So it's not that it doesn't matter, it most certainly does matter, it's just that the development team is attempting to allow for additional travel options now. We might see more changes to travel (control points, scrolls, boats, connections) in the future that restrict parts of what we can do right now - at least that's still my hope.

 

How does one "read" a lunar rift?

 

Moongates are Sweeet! Awesome move!
Super fun, especially since their functionality is gated by knowledge.

 

When I first discovered it, I wrote this book and published it in-game. That was many releases ago. You can see that I called them "moon gates".

Spoiler

Dear Reader,

As I write this, Novia is home to but three working portals. One in the Forsaken Vale, another in Longfall, and the last is located on the Perennial Coast. However, there are two more working portals that are known at this time. One is in the Hidden Vale, and the other on the Isle of Storms. These portals have the power to teleport those who enter across the world or even to other worlds. This book seeks to become a point of reference on where to find these portals (also known as Moon Gates) and how to use them once they're found!

I've cataloged each Moon Gate by location name, and provided a list of observations about where each will take you, if you know when to use it. Which now that you have this book you surely will.

Alas, many of the Moon Gates are in ruins presumably a byproduct of the cataclysm and those that remain are not fully functional. But all is not lost, as it appears that each of these portals is connected in some way to the other.

Solace Bridge holds the first Novian Moon Gate, and like all Moon Gates the path one takes when they enter is determined by the monthly phases of the moon.

New Moon (NO TRAVEL)
Waxing Crescent (Blood River)
First Quarter (NO TRAVEL)
Waxing Gibbous (Isle of Storms)
Full Moon (NO TRAVEL)
Waning Gibbous (NO TRAVEL)
Third Quarter (Highvale)
Waning Crescent (NO TRAVEL)

The second Novian Moon Gate is located in the small Forsaken Vale town of Highvale.

New Moon (NO TRAVEL)
Waxing Crescent (Blood River)
First Quarter (NO TRAVEL)
Waxing Gibbous (Solace Bridge)
Full Moon (NO TRAVEL)
Waning Gibbous (NO TRAVEL)
Third Quarter (Isle of Storms)
Waning Crescent (NO TRAVEL)

Last, the Longfall town of Blood River holds the third portal.

New Moon (NO TRAVEL)
Waxing Crescent (Isle of Storms)
First Quarter (NO TRAVEL)
Waxing Gibbous (Solace Bridge)
Full Moon (NO TRAVEL)
Waning Gibbous (NO TRAVEL)
Third Quarter (Highvale)
Waning Crescent (NO TRAVEL)

Across the sea, in the Hidden Vale is yet another portal. This one is in Owl's Head, and it seems permanently pointed towards Solace Bridge. Still there is one last portal on the Isle of Storms.

New Moon (Blood River)
Waxing Crescent (Blood River)
First Quarter (Blood River)
Waxing Gibbous (Solace Bridge)
Full Moon (Solace Bridge)
Waning Gibbous (Highvale)
Third Quarter (Highvale)
Waning Crescent (Highvale)

On the subject of frequency, each Moon Gate appears to be working on an approximate interval of 6 minutes New Britanian Time.

Be mindful of events that may change how these portals operate. I make no promises that the Moon Gates will always be as they are today. Now be off! Travel and explore with this knowledge.

No watchers, no spies, no riddles, no lies.

Baron Drocis Fondorlatos
Governor of Rats Nest

The book is no longer up to date and will not be very useful in today's game. But this should give you some idea of how it worked then and how it works now. Obviously as the game changes, so too do the lunar rifts.

 

Thank you Baron, that is a great write up but how are you supposed to "read" them without going through them? Is there a visual sign that will inform you of where the portal will take you if you walk through it? Or is the only way to "read" them to go through each one and jot down where it takes you?

 

Spoiler

Currently you have to try each one and jot down where it takes you. I believe Richard has been very aggressive at trying to get the dev team to make it so you can actually SEE where the portal leads. Perhaps that's one of the changes they're working on? We'll see.

 

There are two ways - the lore way and the easy way

Lore way:

Spoiler

When a rift is active, a lightning bolt illuminates a standing stone with a faint inscription of a moon upon it. Each phase of the moon is associated with a given virtue. This association should not be unknown to veteran players.

Easy way:

Spoiler

The rift itself has a tooltip hint which tells you where you are going.

Please note that rifts have behaved this way in New Britannia for some time - the only difference is now they will no longer be inactive.

 

This plus Chris's announcement last week..

 

Long time coming, but it would be nice if there was a way to force them to work the other 5/8s of the time, even if it comes at a cost. The cost could be virtue, gold, blood.. other stuff. Maybe forcing it to work would pvp flag you? I like the pvp flag option.

 

I personally would prefer the lore way.

 

Lunar rifts will always have an active destination in R43.