The Lost Vale

Last night, after R51 launched, there were at least 20-25 people waiting on the Lost Vale portal to appear. It was boring as heck, and made fun by a trivia game started by @Kor. That passed the time, but unfortunately, no portal appeared. @Kor even proposed sacrificing himself to the gods in order to make the portal appear. When that did not happen, I suggested we kill him to see if the portal would open. Unfortunately, no one agreed.

I went to bed at around 2 a.m. I know another guildie who claims he waited six hours before going to sleep (after falling asleep waiting for two hours, and then waking up).

Logging in this morning I was hopeful I would see the portal and...I DID! I jumped in immediately. I spent about 10 minutes walking around and getting into the first area when I teamed up with other guildies who were in another instance (including the six-hour patient one who came on at that moment as well - in fact he entered my instance). But teaming had the negative affect of taking me to my party's instance. I zone into the entrance and then immediately zone out to Novia.

The portal was gone. I lost my chance to return to the Lost Vale.

I am here to say this is GOOD game design (well, mechanically, I should not load into the zone then immediately get loaded out - that's a bit wonky and players should not have to go through two load screens to figure this out). I say this because it is good to know that players will be locked out of the zone if the portal disappears - which is as it should be. It will prevent people just rotating in and out to keep their instance going for endless farming.

It is, however, great to know that somehow someone will get into the Lost Vale...and not leave for endless amounts of hours. Sounds like we have a challenge in the making.

Edit: I will post the times here to confirm a 28-hour cycle for the Portal (note that time runs from Portal's first appearance). ALSO, I am updating to New Britannia Time (U.S. Central Time)

1) 2/23/2018 at 7:00 a.m. NBT. Closed at 8:00 a.m. NBT.
2) 2/24/2018 at 11:00 a.m. NBT. Closed at 12:00 p.m. NBT.
3) 2/25/2018 at 3:00 p.m. NBT. Closed at 4:00 p.m. NBT.
4) 2/26/2018 at 7:00 p.m. NBT. Closed at 8:00 p.m. NBT.
5) 2/27/2018 at 11:00 p.m. NBT. Closes at 12:00 a.m. NBT.
6) 2/28/2018 at 3:00 a.m. NBT. Closes at 4:00 a.m. NBT.
7) 3/1/2018 at 7:00 a.m. NBT. Closes at 8:00 a.m. NBT.
8) 3/2/2018 at 11:00 a.m. NBT. Closes at 12:00 p.m. NBT.
9) 3/3/2018 at 3:00 p.m. NBT. Closes at 4:00 p.m. NBT.
10) 3/4/2018 at 7:00 p.m. NBT. Closes at 8:00 p.m. NBT.
11) 3/5/2018 at 11:00 p.m. NBT. Closes at 12:00 a.m. NBT.

NEW UPDATES DUE TO POTENTIAL CHANGES FROM PATCHES:
3/1/2018 at 3:00 a.m. NBT. Closes at 4:00 a.m. NBT.
3/2/2018 at 7:00 a.m. NBT. Closes at 8:00 p.m. NBT.
3/3/2018 at 11:00 p.m. NBT. Closes at 12:00 p.m. NBT.
3/4/2018 at 3:00 p.m. NBT. Closes at 4:00 p.m. NBT.
3/5/2018 at 7:00 p.m. NBT. Closes at 8:00 a.m. NBT.
3/6/2018 at 11:00 p.m. NBT. Closes at 12:00 p.m. NBT.
3/7/2018 at 3:00 a.m. NBT. Closes at 4:00 a.m. NBT.

Thanks to @Rada Torment for updating times, and for further updates due to a potential problem with patching screwing up the schedule. Please confirm.

 

Off tpoic... I have an old heavy armor set of yours. It's bronze used to belong to William Serenite. Nice armor btw.

 

@Duke William of Serenite, thoughts?

 

I don't recall an old heavy armor set that I ever had since I always mage, but, meh.

 

I wonder where the entrance is at all...

I like the idea with the restricted access, but i dont even know where to look for it. At least i didnt found a hint in the release notes.

 

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I believe it is static, and located on the road to Nightshade Pass from the Brittany side.

 

Thank You, i will look for it

 

As a reference point: One appeared at approximately 8:00 a.m. EST on 2/23/2018. It lasted until 9:00 a.m. EST.

 

I was wondering why there were so many people sitting around on the over world map when I passed by.

 

Show the same kindness and please give it to a helpless new player. They are usually wearing that brown shirt running around looking lost. That is if you dont need it anymore.

 

Brown sackcloth of humility?

 

The lost vale showed itself just now - the area is not for the faint of heart

 

The Lost Vale isn't so lost any more

 

The next one appeared at approximately 12:00 p.m. EST on 2/24/2018. It lasted until 1:00 p.m. EST.

 

If the +4 hours a day pattern persists... how long until the webpage is made? Plan your excursions to the Lost Vale.

 

What is the astrological alignment to look for up in the sky to see if it is opening?

 

I'm not sure it's tied to the astronomy in that way. If it is a 28 hour cycle, then it appears once per New Brittanian month. (NB months are 28 days, one NB day is one real hour.) There does not appear to be any alignments that occur every 28 hours.

One possibility is that there are 12 constellations that cycle across the sky, one per month. The portal may appear when each constellation crosses a certain point in the sky.

 

OK, I thought it would be cool if you could while you were outside be able to look up in the sky and see something really noticeable from anywhere in novia that let's you know if you hurry you can make it to the portal. Would be nice compared to having to check on a website.

 

I should be in game for it tomorrow. I'll try and see if anything appears to be an indicator. Though, if there is something, I suspect it will take a few instances to really spot a pattern. @Bowen Bloodgood might have some ideas, he's the real expert in astronomy.

 

*poof*

Apart from that I haven't really looked into it.. yet, but if it's an alignment then it's predictable and if we're to take the language at face value then there's more than one.