The state of Novia and future expansions

Hello!

I just saw a picture of the new world map and I must say I am excited to see some new land and cities. One thing I miss from UO and being a newb was being able to run to the Minoc forge or the Britian forge to try and get some gear. Smiths would normally hang out there - various skill levels. Would be nice to have some cool forge that also had some crafting incentives and would also bring people + crafters together. This is just part of what I would like to see in Episode 2 though. Not exactly trying to ruin everyone's crafting stations - but would like to see everyone come together rather than be confined to their own town.

Ok this one may be a stretch - but Novia right now is a map for means of traveling from one town to another. Not much else to it - but it would be cool if there were resources to gather, which would attract players to the world map. This may not be exactly the way to do it, but something like this would be nice once performance issues get hammered out a bit.. Also the rivers - bridges - water - islands - could serve a purpose. I read about boats and thought that was a great idea, being able to CONTROL a boat.. not like Sea of Thieves control but at least to move around the water. I see this similar to the "mount" sytem. Also make the boats exclusive so other players have to ask to hitch a ride. No teleporting in was done in ice island if I recall correctly..

Anyways - The rivers could also serve a purpose for the boats as well. I know this may mean editing the map further - however it would be cool for that water and routes to have a purpose. Also - with these ideas being said - I love the map the way it is, but would be cool to see expansion on the left, top, right, and bottom of novia as well. I understand there's still 4 episodes to do so but.. yeah!

Also - player visibility of towns on the world map - to see what towns are bustling - and what towns are not. Maybe some loud chatter - more lights turn on at night - whatever it may be. I didn't want this to be long so I will just leave this as is. Also, how am I supposed to kill a bunch of dragons with a weapon - if it breaks in 2 weeks to make a dragon slayer sword?

My 2 cents anyways..

-Draylock
Bone Thrones N' Harmony

 

I personally like the Overworld Map. As a compromise between an open world and having a full-on MMORPG, it serves a good purpose. I agree that it would be great if it were something other than getting from A to B. Encounters were a bridge to that. And some of the ideas you have, if they could be made into "encounters'" would be cool, and would likely make the Overworld more palatable to people as a thing that enhances the game by brining you places.

Aside from that, I always thought there was a game to be had in the Overworld, but then it would completely destroy the need for scenes if we could do everything on the Overworld.

 

yeah, there's a couple of problems - with Redfish's guide, I see what the issue with the games so called fast travel system (moongates/lunar rifts whatever). They're not fast. It might take me up to an hour to wait for the moongate to cycle when I can be somewhere in like 1 minute. I know it's tied to the whole moon thing which is tied to earth real time, but it effectively makes them kinda useless.

 

I look at it as options to do the same thing, sort of how there are generally 2-3 shortcuts on your computer to accomplish the same task (e.g., cut/paste).

 

@draylock

Yea, I was disappointed for instance when the Civilization games adopted a hex system with rivers in the middle, because it meant that travelling rivers with boats was written out as a possibility in the game.

When it was first revealed that SotA maps were going to be based on hexes, I had the same kind of disappointment. But there's no reason now why we couldn't have river travel, the game isn't really strict about being hex based anymore, and I see no reason why we couldn't sent a boat down the many rivers of Novia.

 

Me either. The rivers could have a current that would make it faster than going around the middle. Lotta towns with ports... And a new shipyard port thing would be cool.

 

Im very curious also how exactly will this work even a 100 durability sword with great stats dies in a short amount of time ... so whats the point of having an empowered (leveled) dragon slayer sword with 10 durability ? with extra dmg stats vs dragons ? ......unless maybe we can salvage that weapon when it reaches its end , and get an essence that contains said levels and can be applied on a new weapon....

 

Lunar rifts let you bypass encumbrance limits though don't they?

I mean, generally I see OW travel as fast travel because its pretty quick. The OW is also a good "lobby area" for running into people, and would be moreso with camping, or this would be true if more people logged into multiplayer. The main annoyance with the OW now is control points, and mainly because it doesn't feel like they have a purpose right now. More load screens also aren't fun, but reducing load time for the OW map helps. Then, we'll get mounts (stretch goal), which will let us do the OW quicker. And we have scrolls, which are extreme fast travel.

But the lunar rifts have their purposes. They also seem they could be good meeting points, like people agree to meet at a certain time when a lunar rift opens up.

 

I think 95% of the complaints would disappear if the rifts were moved to the OW map.

 

Blunderbuss fights from hot air balloons on the overmap.