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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
World size speculation
Is it too early to compare this game's World size? How big is it going to be? I currently play Elder Scrolls Online and find that it is insanely big, if it wasn't for the way shrines I think it will take literally 30-60 minutes to travel from 1 end to the other, my head hurts just thinking about the public dungeons and combining with the insane amount of landmass in that game. It takes around if not more 60gigs of space in my hard drive.
Anyways, I heard AoC is not going to use fast travel, other than I heard somewhere that maybe the "mage" metropolis can have a teleportation device that can transit you to another metropolis with a device but don't take my word for it. For us peasants, were going to be walking from 1 end to the other or even swimming which will decrease the travel time further (just remembered my WoW days when I use to quest underwater) my toon was slower than a turtle only to get ganked just before I was about to reach my last quest item and return it back to the quest giver.
Although for this type of game with heavy emphasis on pvp nodes , it better be very big. I mean if you take Cyrodiil in elder scrolls online, the distances between the keeps are respectable. But I'm betting that were going to have many more "nodes" to work with than the amount of keeps in ESO. And without fast travel , which I think is a good thing for PvP, I prefer insanely huge maps. Because distances matter, it creates strategy and preparation.
Anyways, I heard AoC is not going to use fast travel, other than I heard somewhere that maybe the "mage" metropolis can have a teleportation device that can transit you to another metropolis with a device but don't take my word for it. For us peasants, were going to be walking from 1 end to the other or even swimming which will decrease the travel time further (just remembered my WoW days when I use to quest underwater) my toon was slower than a turtle only to get ganked just before I was about to reach my last quest item and return it back to the quest giver.
Although for this type of game with heavy emphasis on pvp nodes , it better be very big. I mean if you take Cyrodiil in elder scrolls online, the distances between the keeps are respectable. But I'm betting that were going to have many more "nodes" to work with than the amount of keeps in ESO. And without fast travel , which I think is a good thing for PvP, I prefer insanely huge maps. Because distances matter, it creates strategy and preparation.
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Now if we take into factor that only '5' nodes can be established at any given point in time, depending on where they are located and how bunched up they are. This could set the pace for where you might be able to get to in terms of that "Faster Travel", my speculation is since '5' can be established and now we have '5' races Being the Elf,Human,Orc,Dwarf and Underealm I'm gonna take a bet and say the starting are for those 5 races depending on which subrace gets the most population that's where each of our nodes will be placed /At launch that is/ after those initial nodes are taken down who knows where they could pop up next to allow us to travel to.
Aswell the team talks alot about 'exploring' nooks and crannies and all that sort! When we're factoring in the size of the map are we just considering the 'over'realm ((That being everything that isn't the underealm or the Ocean")) just from point "A" to point "B" or are we going to factor in the caves we delve into and the mountains we climb? I think this map holds alot more depth than alot of us give it credit for. In the stream today they told us that they're pretty much doing all the areas by hand so we can be sure that everywhere we'll won't be a persistent case of "Deja Vu"
We know that, Kings/queens/mayors/lords of fortresses have access to a flying mount only for the amount of time that they hold that position of power. That's pretty fast I would assume, outrun certain ground mounts while in the air and capable of bypassing certain terrain for ease of access map! And they also spoke about maybe 'legendary mounts' that are on certain timers or something that players can grab and use to fly for maybe limited amounts of time. This is a subject I can't wait to here more about personally.
When they also addressed the early access reward for certain kickstarters, they said they might turn off node activation even as they explore and start to explore and level. Some early players might decide to go really really far from the portal and when the nodes are finally turned on, the node they activate would be on a different location from any of the portals.
In the stream today, this mentioned the node is around 5km across (2.5km radius). Assuming that's the size the metropolis becomes, add in the node's area of influence, and the possible huge number of nodes, we'd have a pretty huge world.
Good question though, I think they mentioned during today's they were still "in discussion" about that size.
"In Discussion" will soon become the trademark/copyright word for Ashes of Creation. lol
I'm an Altoholic. We are many. We are I.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/142465168
(Video of Metropolis starts at 48 mins in)
IIRC, in the docgotgame q&a, a question was brought up about the possibility of choosing the starting portal instead of being race-defined for friends who want to be together but be different races, and they said they will probably consider that. The portals are really, really far from each other that will take a massive amount of time just to travel to another one without fast travel which they didn't want to implement.
In the most recent stream, they mentioned that the node would be about 5km across (2.5km radius), just the actual node and not including its area of influence. That size, plus the area of influence, plus possible number of nodes would likely make for a huge world.
It's good to think your playing in a area that's designed for your enjoyment, with obstacles in the way and challenges to complete, mobs to keep away from and passageways to follow. Terrain should have levels of complexity. I also don't like the feeling I'm traveling in circles unless I'm harvesting resources.
I would prefer they scope for massive....but build small for release.
They can always fill out the map as time allows.
While i agree with your point i think the fact that only X (Number ) Developments of a certain stage can exist at once you would need to start with enough nodes to support that. So medium then grow it as times goes on.
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I love this, I had to look up the translation, but it's perfect!
But as doford mentioned, massive expanses of mostly empty landscape can be a big negative. Star Wars Galaxies had areas like that - there weren't even mobs wandering around - it was bleak nowhereland that just felt 'unfinished'.
Minor-node sites like small outposts/camps/forts that players could build-destroy-rebuild that generated their own limited structured content progression would both spread players out and create a sense of exploration - remoteness but with activity near and tied to it, not just space for the sake of space to make distance between major Nodes larger.
From the various websites it appears that approximately two acres* of arable land is required to sustain a family of four - This takes into account that not all the land is cropland but also has footpaths, tool sheds, small animal pens and yards, as well as some of it lying fallow due to crop rotation.
Should Intrepid merely wish to give the <em>impression</em> that farming is feeding the cities they could infer the population is being fed on half that, or one-quarter acre per person.
Speculate a population density of as little is 50 per sq mile and a 5 mile wide metropolis comes out to just under 1000 people not counting the population of the farms and freeholds or even the players. This could easily add another 250 or more. 400 to 500 acres, or 200 to 250 football pitches, will need to be available just to give an impression of sustainability.
Hunting and fishing would help relieve some of the pressure from plowing under land (after clearing it of forests?) and could make those areas sought after as much as cropland.
But also note that not only do the city centers have to be fed but also the surrounding countryside which would dictate that as the nodes' ZOI grows the arable land around it would need to expand as well.
All this comes at the expense of questing area - Farm lands could be threatened by simple predators (making for low level content) but for the most part there would not enough of a risk/reward for mid- to high level players to trouble with.
In order to provide that mid- to high level content away from civilization there should be land that remains wild (forests, mountains, deserts, etc). Large areas that have no nodes but are places where the wild things are and continue to be.
TL:DR - The world could prove to be so large that the majority of the players will never see most of all there is to see.
* - Two acres comes out to ~295ft ( ~90m) per side of a perfect square. Think of it as widening and making roughly square either a US football (hand-egg) field or a football pitch. Sprinkle in some trees and rocks as well as maybe a stream wandering alongside or even through the fields.
TL:DR – The world could prove to be so large that the majority of the players will never see most of all there is to see.
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This, would be the ultimate dream.
Think of how amazing it would be if every time you log on, you know that you can see somewhere that you have never seen before. Striking out in one direction, by foot or by sea, means you are *moving* with intent, and new adventures lie ahead - rather than traversing the world and always coming back to the same place every night - because it's just not possible! This would make regional markets and economies much more interesting as well.
Here's hoping!
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Yes. This kind of goes back to the travel question.
I can feel the need to go on an epic adventure would require time and maybe many days, to feel genuinely epic and vast in scale.
No fast travel helps with that.
But what of all the people that maybe have 1 hour to spend a night.
What if they cant join their team mates for 3-4 days, because life got in the way.
I just dont know how you square that circle.
If you say, limted time players should stick with limited time players.....how do they cope with the vast distances ?
And do you really want to fragment the community into the time rich vs time poor.