The overland map MUST GO.

A couple minor points.. The dual map system in Ultima was dropped with Ultima VI.. so it wasn't the entire series.. but still a good portion of it. I'm actually finding SotA somewhat nostalgic in that regard.

Some articles out there have, rather erroneously claimed SotA was the spiritual successor to UO. At least I've seen one that did so which I thought was pretty lame. That someone writing for a magazine or online gaming site would pay so little attention.

I always thought it was clear from day 1 that SotA was the successor to the Ultima series and not just UO. It's always been how Richard and Portalarium has presented it. But after seeing it misrepresented in articles I can't entirely blame new people for having the wrong impression. We just need to set them straight.

 

Also, SotA seems mostly related to U4 in spirit, with its regards for the avatar and virtues, which was in the dual map mode era of the Ultima Series.

 

Exactly this. The current world mass (novia + hidden vale) feels too small by at least half the size. I said it in an other thread lately but will repeat it so it may be heared better. I was very "surprised" about the size of novia because I expected it bigger. Not huge but big. And it isn't huge nor big. I am an explorer and wanderer who enjoys the way to walk itself and its done in (less than) 30 mins from one corner of the map to the opposite. Just too small. I really hope that the devs will rethink this (not so small) issue.

 

I personally enjoy travelling over the overland map and believe it's only going to grow more enjoyable as they add roaming monsters to attack or run away from!

Also some sounds and animations will help.

Novia does feel a bit smaller than I hoped but then there's a lot of scenes they will be able to get into that space, so should be all fine. Not sure where all the player owned towns will go though???

 

i like the overland map. and i think it'll be much better when they add the gated travel.

 

The overland map MUST stay

 

Something to keep in mind is that the land is expected to double in size with each episode.

 

Where must the overland map "go?"

Kidding aside, I think it's a bit backwards. The overland map is kind of what UO had, we just never changed sizes. What the real problem/issue is the instanced towns. Instancing breaks immersion. But, we have Unity, so that's not going to go away.

 

RG said it was the spiritual successor. The SotA website "About" section says it is an MMO.

"Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues is a new type of third person fantasy RPG that combines a single player narrative with a sandbox MMO."

 

They got me on that MMO stuff too.

Thekickstarter said this:
Though Shroud of the Avatar won’t be a massively multiplayer online role playing game, it will be a multiplayer game.

So, there has been some redirection along the way.

 

Maybe he, and others, got the idea from Richard Garriott himself?

"I've often said that I do hope people see it as a spiritual successor," Garriott told me after I flat out asked him if it can be considered a sequel to UO.

"That focus on meaningful multiplayer is at the heart of Garriott's new game, Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, a spiritual successor to the EA-owned Ultima franchise."

At PAX South 2015, 2P and DVS Gaming had an amazing interview with Richard “Lord Brittish” Garriott--mastermind and creator behind Ultima and Ultima Online. After taking some time off, he is back at it again with his new game--Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues. He describes the game as the “spiritual successor to Ultima and Ultima Online”, which is extremely good news for fans of these classic games that really got the online gaming ball rolling years ago. This is a fantasy sandbox mmorpg, and yet so much more.

I mean, I could go on, pulling up various more websites where RG said it. If RG wants people to think it's the spiritual successor, he's done a good job in laying the groundwork.

 

If you think the subject is not worth discussing further, perhaps don't discuss it? If people want to discuss it, maybe they should have the chance?

I'm glad when new people post in here. They aren't going to dig up posts from a few months or more ago. They are writing their first impressions. Though we already have been around the game and see a lot of progress and progression, we may forget first impressions for new players.

I welcome new impressions, and I welcome new folks to the forum. Whether I agree or not.

Welcome newcomers, to the discussion!

 

At this stage in development even "new comers" should realize the over all design of the game won't change much from what they see... They should be a little more open minded and not expect the "same old, same old" experience as other games they're used to playing .... To simply say "get rid of something, it has to go" after many hours of work has already been spent on it, is simply not realistic... or constructive criticism...

They should have seen the chicken in the one room with a chair and a torch... They should have seen it in unity 4...

 

Maybe they are under the impression there is still room for discussion, and change, being that.... you know, the game is still in pre-alpha. They haven't had more than a year of reading forum posts, so how could they know it won't change at all?

And, is it true it won't change at all? Is the game about to hit beta? Every time I log in, it still says pre-alpha. Lots of speculation from folks in the forums. Some say they haven't bothered to change the name "pre-alpha." I personally don't think such a sharp development team would overlook that.

If people are new investors, I'm not so sure they are being unrealistic when they give feedback.

 

it may change, it may update, it may tweak, but it isn't leaving.

 

One of the reasons I've never been negative about the dual-scale map is because I think it helps immersion more than it harms it. Its good that it makes the world feel much larger -- and in fact, I'd like them to expand the scale of the map for that reason -- scenes have a limited amount of players at a time -- so the wilderness isn't crowded with people competing for the same resources -- the game is selective about the people you run into -- plus it allows town scenes to expand without changing the map.

Yes, having a continuous, single-scale map is more immersive in itself. But there are trade-offs. UO had a lot of issues with immersion due to single-scale.

 

not only that, but they plan on bumping up the size..of everything, in the overland map by 20% as well. hence why i cannot wait for gated travel. this game is going to be flipping gigantic, and that excites me. i know it doesn't equate to more/better content, but games have always felt too restrictive for me, skyrim was one of the first that didn't, in my opinion. if they had the ratio of land vs content skyrim did, then scale everything up to where they want it, it'll be fine.

 

I'd be perfectly happy with being shrunk down to the point where the trees are equivalent in size to the ones we see in the various hexes. That makes it take longer to get from point A to point B, makes fast-travel options more viable, and makes you feel more immersed in the game, especially with the new camera movement on the overland map.

 

in my personal opinion....... if so many new and old players are having concerns about the same thing the "dual scale map" and this topic has been beat to death so many times. it must be something that needs to be altered or adjusted.

With that being said I own a small business and if 50% of my customers are saying the same exact thing about something that is not up to par with their expectations. I would be quick to rethink what i'm doing and pay attention to what many people are saying could be better. The bottom line is that the success of this game will ultimately depend on the level of satisfaction the end users experiences.

I used to play Mortal Online and that game is very much similar to sota and with a programming staff of two people they are able to run a single non instanced map of the entire world. so if Mortal CAN do it so can we.

 

never gonna happen.

I've said this before, but its worth repeating. The overland map isn't a feature that can be turned on and off - its an integral part to the game's design, and has been there since day one of the kickstarter. You can't just take it out - that would require re-design of the game's mechanics and tech from the ground up.

Might as well have another kickstarter.