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The Making of Elysium Mines

Discussion in 'Developer Work and Blog posts' started by Sea-Wolf, Nov 29, 2017.

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  1. Ancev

    Ancev Avatar

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    Don't you guys know? Mines are super safe! Mountain lions, rabid bats, poisonous and combustible pockets of deadly gas, pit falls for thousands of feet, cave ins, lack of oxygen, etc. But yeah...my guildmates have concerns as well.. as far as not being able to get enough gold and silver. The new refining skills should help a bit though.. woot!

    I spent a few hours in verdantis mines the last time I was there and didn't get much ore at all. Half the amount of what I would get in Elysium it seemed. Maybe the yield could be increased slightly if the ore nodes are going to be more spread out or sparse. Also, the granite nodes seem pretty worthless.. why would I waste my time with a granite node that only gives 1 granite most of the time? I've experienced this in Vertas Pass and other areas. Maybe the granite nodes have a rare chance to find a gem?

    Here's something cool that is mining and space related - https://phys.org/news/2017-02-year-old-microbes-mexican-nasa-scientist.html
     
  2. NEILMHK

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    In order to enhance cooking, as a competent chef, I have to go hard mining XD, although I really do not understand the relationship between the two, but why do we need to increase the difficulty? UO can dig mining everywhere, as long as carrying a pickaxe, all over the world are mines.
     
  3. LoneStranger

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    That's a design decision made four years ago, and isn't going to change. It's not worth getting riled up about.
     
  4. NEILMHK

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    For the future, for four years after the survival of players, there is no right and wrong, but increase the idea of gaining experience, it is very important. Has been like mining work to gain experience will eliminate the passion.
     
  5. LoneStranger

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    That's a grand idea. However, some game design decisions are used as the foundation for other decisions, or are so embedded in the system that they cannot easily be changed, or require a humongous amount of effort and time. SotA's used of resource nodes, as well as the experience pool system are two such ideas that have virtually zero percent chance of changing.
     
  6. Barugon

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    They already said (many times) that there will be no resources that are just free for the taking. There will always be some nearby mobs that you have to deal with.
     
  7. Ancev

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    I proposed an archaeology/anthropology type skill designed to increase XP through exploration in the world. Also I have an idea for dynamic mine shafts that would create more randomness in the mines.

    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/anthropology-archaeology-type-skill.99750/

    If this skill were implemented, as avatars wander through the world you'd have opportunities to discover insights and bits and pieces of lore. If the skill is successful you'd gain an adventure/producer xp bonus based on the rarity of the insight. This might break up some of the tedium of mining, mining, mining and it would also encourage players to explore the different areas of the mines.

    Basically each area of interest might have 5 potential insights that could be discovered, but you can only learn one of them at a time based on a time restriction (24hrs or whatever). So the next time you visit the mine you could come back to the same area and try to discover a new insight. When all of the insights are discovered you'd get a message indicating you've learned all you can from this area.

    The 'dynamic mine shaft' concept has to do with some of the shaft entrances you see in the game that are boarded up. Some of these closed off mine shafts could be explored - some of the shafts might have an entrance and exit providing an alternate route of travel in the mine, and others would be dead ends. The dynamic mine shafts would be randomized, so the next time you visit the mine their configuration might be different. Some of the shafts would have 'areas of interest' where you could use the above archaeology/anthropology skill.

    example:
    You enter the mine, and the mine instance has randomized 4 shafts in this order, based on a pool of options:

    [​IMG]
    The shaft entrances/exits will appear the same, but the contents and shaft connections will change based on a random interval. The next time you visit the mine, the shafts would be different. The numbers above represent the mine shaft openings/identifiers in the mine.
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2017
  8. Hazard

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    Great news, enjoyed the post-mortem-athon teaser with you both. The first shot on the thread reminds me very slightly of dual parts of the -Raiders- Well of Souls seq... now just fill it up with snakes and put a giant staff in that statue's hand. ;)

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2017
  9. LoneStranger

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    A few years back, a member (@languard ) created a random dungeon generator. The only difference from what you describe are the choices programmed for building it.

    https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/random-dungeon-generator.3460/

    At the time (I don't know if it's changed) there was a Unity limitation with loading the prefabs, which are really slow when not 'baked' into the scene. It may or may not be related to what Portalarium runs into loading the city scenes with all the houses.

    I think these things (or similar) are going to be in the game, it's just a matter of time and priority.
     
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  10. Sea-Wolf

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    Hey folks, here are some updated screenshots.

    Caverns
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Satyr Camp
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Lower Tunnels
    [​IMG]
     
  11. majoria70

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    Thank you for sharing. The scene is gorgeous. I just love the red pictures like hieroglyphic writing on the walls and red columns and that it looks significantly different from other scenes in the game imo. And in saying this I cannot be the only one thinking this but could you show us that there is ore in this scene too since this was a major mining area for this game?
     
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  12. Malimn

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    Hell is the area fixed yet on testing server so we can find out :)
     
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  13. FrostII

    FrostII Bug Hunter

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    Nice artwork, now where's the ore ?
     
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  14. Sea-Wolf

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    It should now be accessible.
     
  15. Sea-Wolf

    Sea-Wolf Avatar

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    lol I don't think screen capturing a single ore node group is going to put anyone's minds at ease. Other mines have just as many ore nodes, but the problem really seems to come down to the actual output/time from these nodes, which is not something I can get from a screenshot. Its live on the QA server if you want to test it for yourself.
     
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  16. Sea-Wolf

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    Also, something I should have mentioned from the beginning is that gold has been nerfed from these mines, as in it is gone, and has been replaced with copper. This was a decision made for overall game balancing, and has been a long time coming. Apparently there was never supposed to be any mine where you could mine both silver and gold. That doesn't mean that the gold ore count in other mines can't be adjusted to accommodate this change, but no matter what, its unlikely people will be able to rely solely on Elysium for ore anymore.

    In the meantime, if you have access to the QA serves, feel free to leave honest feedback about how long it takes you too gather ore from this mine compared to the original. Keep in mind its going to take awhile for everyone to adjust to these mines and to figure out where everything is.

    I'm also going to be talking with some of the other developers about our analytics benchmarks for this mine, and others, so that adjustments can be made where they need to be made.
     
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  17. oplek

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    I was wondering to what degree that was intentional. The topic seemed to be avoided publicly, so it came across as accidental, like the developers needed to be reminded that something was missing.
     
  18. Scoffer

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    I went in to test it on QA but the lighting is so bad on there at the moment you can't really see anything at all. Did find 3 nodes close to each other though.
    [​IMG]
     
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  19. Sea-Wolf

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    what the...

    Can you send QA report please? Include you're quality settings and hardware please.
     
  20. Sea-Wolf

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    Actually that may not be needed. You aren't the only one seeing this (now if only I could see it! >:/ )
     
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