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Cities in the Sky

During the last livestream when Steven and Jeff were talking about the Bird race, they mentioned that the bird race use to live in a city in the sky and only came down after being corrupted. This got me thinking: what if Intrepid made an expansion or something where we got to go up to those abandon cities? Not sure how we would get there, but I think it would be really neat to add a third dimension to the world (surface, underrealm, then the sky cities). The only problem I foresee is that the city would more than likely have been designed with flying in mind (since they were a flying bird race) and only a handful of us will ever have a flying mount. Guess we would have to make use of gliders and portal magic? No clue, but the idea has me stoked.
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Comments

  • Interesting idea.  

    We could use gliders or zip lines,  which would mean a constant battle for the high ground which would add a cool new dimension. 
  • I didn't even think of ziplines! And yeah, pvp would be interesting. Seeing someone get knocked back off the edge and fall a mile to their death will be hilarious to watch and sad to think about.
  • I personally wouldn't want any gliding or flying but when I heard that Sladeborne had a city in the sky I was like hmmmmmmmmmm there is a world up there too xD I sure want to explore ^^



    "SLADEBORNE: Used to be a really beautiful race “some time ago” but something caused their beauty to be inverted and turn into something else. They had a beautiful civilisation up in the clouds but came back down to “Verra” and can barely fly any more. They also may be responsible for the Caravans disappearing o.o…"

    ^ The bird race. A beautiful// probably a horribly poor neglected place now, with a history ruined from corruption. 

    What about all those creatures that didn't come back down? Danger hide amongst the clouds!

    I think a simple portal to the sky would work fine. I would prefer some kind of fantasy/God like creature to come down and scoop us up and ascend us to the world above to assist them in defending/reclaiming it. They've watched our civilisation regrow so they believe we can help them and save them for they have spent the time beyond the calamity kept in hiding. Perhaps they might be a future playable race o.O
     
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited October 2017
    It would be the castle for the rulers xD Cause those have dragons.
  • We do have air crafts, remember when they said there could be zeppelin routes between specific high stage nodes.
    Maybe that city is a story thing hidden behind some science node, you are going to have to discover the existence of the city and after that science the shit out of zeppelins to make them fly high enough to reach that city.
    Just a thought.
  • Either portals or maybe NPC mounts that will fly you up into the sky cities.

    Players getting the ability to fly is not what I am looking for and I believe it would not work too well with Intrepid Studios vision and ideas.

    Eg. why trade using caravans when you could stock up your inventory, fly over in a few minutes, rinse and repeat.
  • if its not in the ground then count me out unless is my black pyramid 
     
  • That sounds really cool! I would love a floating island or something like that. Maybe something like the island in Sonic 3 & Knuckles when it comes to the visuals(with better graphics though, obviously)?
  • If you have a dev quote for zeppelin routes, I would like to see it.
    Scientific metropolises can have fast travel, but I'm not aware of the devs stating what form of fast travel it would be.

    Seems highly unlikely that we would encounter sky cities, given the way the world is designed. Not impossible that we might discover floating islands. Some could have have dungeons.

    We have grappling hooks and a climbing skill.
    We should be able to reach floating islands even without flying vehicles or mounts.
  • This could be a new way of jumping puzzles! Miss a rock? Well someone's now collecting your rocks down where your body ended up at.
  • Hm, pretty decent idea. We already know that only Kings, Queens, and Mayors will have access to flying mounts, due to their ranking in Verra. However, the idea of a portal or some NPC mounts as stated before would work really well in a situation like this. Maybe uncorrupted sladeborne could show us a way to reach their lost cities?  

    Leaves so many possibilities open, but I would love to see it
  • I don't count on Intrepid ever giving us flying mounts; I think portals would be more likely. I just think it would be neat to get to explore the Sladebourne's (thank for @Diura for the name) home. I am a huge lover of lore.
  • +1 To The jumping \ climbing idea :smile:
  • How about Riders in the Sky?
  • Some hidden treasure in the underrealm could contain a legendary seed, that placed on the right spot would grow(with additional community effort, defending the young tree from monsters/watering/fertilize/increasing its magic growing power with artifacts) into a huge tree that reaches into the sky and players will be abel to climb up through a giant complex jumping puzzle and finaly reach the city in the clouds.

    Portals, flying mounts and other shortcuts are boring.
  • Uao said:
    Some hidden treasure in the underrealm could contain a legendary seed, that placed on the right spot would grow(with additional community effort, defending the young tree from monsters/watering/fertilize/increasing its magic growing power with artifacts) into a huge tree that reaches into the sky and players will be abel to climb up through a giant complex jumping puzzle and finaly reach the city in the clouds.

    Portals, flying mounts and other shortcuts are boring.
    I love this "Jack and the Bean Stalk" idea. It could be a GM event even. 
  • Uao said:
    Some hidden treasure in the underrealm could contain a legendary seed, that placed on the right spot would grow(with additional community effort, defending the young tree from monsters/watering/fertilize/increasing its magic growing power with artifacts) into a huge tree that reaches into the sky and players will be abel to climb up through a giant complex jumping puzzle and finaly reach the city in the clouds.

    Portals, flying mounts and other shortcuts are boring.
    There won't be a city.
    There could be dungeons on floating islands.
    And there could be some broken ruins strewn about.

  • @Dygz
    I'd prefer to leave this up to the devs and the addon idea they could come up with.

    If i spend 2 weeks to find the seed, find the spot where the seed belongs, do the community growing stuff, and spend 2 hours of jumping from branch to branch i'd be disappointed to just see some broken ruins. They already make underrealm and water nodes, so why couldn't they make a complete cloud node that could develop into a city?

    If they just make a npc that teleports you into the clouds, 1-2 dungeons and a broken ruin would be fine. But imo they could just scrap the whole idea if they go this way.

    Content in the sky is not confirmed at all, so how are you sure there couldn't be a city but dungeons and ruins? I dont know why you keep looking for strange arguments to disagree with me..
  • Dygz said:
    Uao said:
    Some hidden treasure in the underrealm could contain a legendary seed, that placed on the right spot would grow(with additional community effort, defending the young tree from monsters/watering/fertilize/increasing its magic growing power with artifacts) into a huge tree that reaches into the sky and players will be abel to climb up through a giant complex jumping puzzle and finaly reach the city in the clouds.

    Portals, flying mounts and other shortcuts are boring.
    There won't be a city.
    There could be dungeons on floating islands.
    And there could be some broken ruins strewn about.


    We know there is some sort of evidence of past civilization in the clouds because of what Steven and Jeff were talking about with the Sladebourne. Maybe it is all ruins now, but I imagine there are still parts in tact. There WERE definitely some sort of cities (or whatever the Sladebourne's equivalent is) up in the clouds and it would be cool if Intrepid allowed us to visit them someday.
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited October 2017
    Jeff said the Sladebourne had a beautiful civilization up in the clouds - he didn't say there was still evidence of that civilization up in the clouds.
    There might be evidence, in the form of dungeons and ruins.

    There were cities everywhere on Verra.
    The way the world works is that cities, towns and villages decay without player interaction, so we won't be visiting Sladebourne cities or towns or villages.
    There is the potential for ruins - just like the ruins we will find on the surface of Verra.
  • Yes, but how ruined will the ruins be? It is possible that some cities were kept in tact by magic or just by  being above the erosive rain and storms that affect the surface world. 
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited October 2017
    It is highly unlikely that some cities in the sky were kept in tact by magic.
    Same as on the surface. 
    Ruins in the sky would be on par with the ruins on the surface - at best.
  • Even so, that would leave the potential for possible expansions in the future. 
  • I would say for these city in the sky would require the game not to break their own rules but allowing people to fly...



    -the material will be expensive but possible to create.
    -Basket size 4/8
    -will require material from most of the professions like blacksmith, tailor, engineer, etc...

    so for the first part where it will not break the rules for flying mounts you have to plan your travel with the wind patterns in AoC and the flight will be that much slower than half your running speed.

    second once each peaces is crafted and completed you will have the materials to create one. It will take a group of 4 to carry all the material to the right area that will be your take off point. You will be assembling it and heating up the balloon so it will be time consuming. this could create meaningful Ground PvP.

    third and the most crucial part is so if you're using them to avoid PvP then you can if you manage to deal with the second part but landing and taking off takes time also the wind patterns will not always be in your favor. and for those kings of metropolis/castles with flying mounts have the power to combat the balloon in the sky creating meaningful combat due to destroyed expensive material making that king of that castle/metropolis a true enemy creating alliances to take them down.

    and last but not least is once you're done it will NOT DISAPPEAR you'll have to take it apart but it will be easier on the player to carry it all by themselves but that means repairs must be done so you can re-use it again.

    That's my opinion on how i see bringing flying to this game that will not break the rules of no fly mounts and maybe more can be added to make it more restricting.

    But that's just my opinion...
     
    they can do something simpler like green stock or zip-lines but what's the fun in that~

  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited October 2017
    Poisonz said:
    I would say for these city in the sky would require the game not to break their own rules but allowing people to fly...

    Who says ya gotta fly?   All Jack did was plant a bean and climbed the stalk!
    Cities/towns  have to be built.  Everything is in ruins when we arrive.  

    Magical bean stalks or trees with huge nests one of which might lead to a  dungeon would be interesting or mage stepping stones to a cave high up on the edge of a cliff.   
                         

  • CylverRayne but what's the fun in that :) I want it to be group thing to create such big things to get to these sky cities than just climb a magical bean stalk

    i want it slightly complex and fun to complete your objective not just find it and climb it~ 
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited October 2017
    Dygz said:
    It is highly unlikely that some cities in the sky were kept in tact by magic.
    Same as on the surface. 
    Ruins in the sky would be on par with the ruins on the surface - at best.
    Awww come on Dygz, let a man dream :smile: And why would it be unlikely? Who knows what Verra has in store for us? Only the devs, and since the world is high fantasy, there is a good chance a city could have been preserved by magic.
    Just think, a civilization who couldn't escape through the portals in time so they mustered all of their greatest magicians and put a force field around their city that allowed them to survive.
  • We know what the rules of Verra are.
    The best you could really hope for is that there are nodes on flying islands that players could level up to villages, towns or cities.
    Even the Tulnar won't have cities...until players build them.
  • I think what would be quite awesome would be a world event, ala the opening of the gates of Ahn Qiraj in WoW. Once Intrepid are ready to add a little more content into the game it could go a little like this:

    A Scientific Metropolis, through the research of the many learned men upon the council, have discovered the ancient city of the Sladeborne through observing the skies through their newly invented telescopes.

    This discovery lead to further research on ways to reach this forgotten capital. After many failed avenues of scientific exploration, they have come upon a scheme that augurs great success.

    This will require the collective efforts of the entire populace, dare we say even the entire server as news of the discovery and the endeavour to reach the fabled Sladeborne city in the sky reaches to all corners of Verra.

    This would then be a resource gathering effort (to build a big portal) that each person and guild could contribute to. There would be rewards for participation, and titles and cosmetics, costumes and other rewards for those who have participated the most, or who complete a quest chain during this time.

    Once complete, the portal is built, turned on and voila, an entirely new zone opens up. I kind of see it a little like Laputa (if anyone is familiar with the movies of Miyazaki), abandoned and parts in ruin, but others intact  - lots of opportunity for mystery and discovery.

    Something cool for the whole server to get behind, a memorable event in the life of the server and a way to provide some player agency to the addition of new content.

    It could even provide a little rivalry between servers, to see who would be the first. :)
  • ArchivedUserArchivedUser Guest
    edited October 2017
    I can go either way on flying cities. I think it would be super cool, I don't know if I would be interested in spending a lot of time there.

    As for travel to and from, I would be against NPC's with flying mounts, hot air balloons, or any access to fast travel and flight. I understand that certain members of society will have flying mounts, if they want to fly up there by themselves more power to them. I am also under the impression Scientific nodes could develop fast travel, if that included routes to possible cloud cities I would not be turned off by that.

    So far the most "reasonable" suggestion imo is a Beanstalk. Once planted and grown everyone will have access and anyone could chop it down. The beanstalk would be stationary and if there are floating cities I would hope they're not stationary, but maybe had a predictable path.

    As for dungeons/ruins/cities* I am not particularly hopeful.

    *read as nodes + player interaction = city
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