I am in the town when it grows/levels up

ArchivedUser

I was trying to find an answer in the forum, but either there is non or I'm just bad at it. Regardless I'm curious as to what happens when me and probably many people are in the town, village and it levels up. How are you guys handling that?

ArchivedUser

We haven't visually seen anything like that yet *cough* ... So, we'll have to wait until Alpha 1. Even so, many things are subject to change 

( which is why they'll be constantly testing )

So I'd assume that ... it'll change ... but not like an Instant-Pop-Up. I'd also assume that it'll have a " Magical-Change " to it ... to add some flare

• But Flare comes with Polish

EDIT: I'd also assume that it'll be a gradual-change and not a rapid-change

By ... " Magical-Change " .... I'm thinking of something like this

• 
• 
  
• ( only .. without the Whales )

Duly note that it'll be unfathomably hard to challenge the Visual Sharpness, Rich-Color-Depth and Sharp Animation-Quality, etc ... that's within these 2 Gifs ...

"Fantasia 2000" really is one of Disney's Finest .. if not THE best Animated Film ... maybe Fantasia from 1940

ArchivedUser

  Eragale said:

"Fantasia 2000" really is one of Disney's Finest .. if not THE best Animated Film ... maybe Fantasia from 1940

The black cauldron disagrees

ArchivedUser

matas439 said:

I was trying to find an answer in the forum, but either there is non or I'm just bad at it. Regardless I'm curious as to what happens when me and probably many people are in the town, village and it levels up. How are you guys handling that?

They have said they are aware of the issue and that the transition "will not be jarring." So don't worry about getting stuck in walls or under new buildings that magically appear. The transitions that have been seen in videos are placeholder and not indicative of what the live system will look like. Right now they basically click a button and the node "pops" to the size they want. There are sure to be the occasional bugs that pop up during testing where someone logs off in the bank, to log back in and find themselves stuck under the floor of a new place, but those will be addressed and fixed once generated.

ArchivedUser

Yeah that's how I imagine the visual part of it, but what about the structural part. The building size and layout will change as the settlement become a village and town respectively. Say I'm just chilling in a tent or whatever and *magic happens* and now I'm in a tavern or a building of sorts, like that part is quite complex when trying to work out in my head anyway.  

ArchivedUser

@nagash
I must admit ... i knew about that one, but i never seen it with such Rich Color like that - i still remember seeing that one on VHS too - loved it. I considered it a close tie ... but still 2nd-place tbh  ... but i think i  know why you TRULY consider that one as 1st place though  

ArchivedUser

Eragale said:

@nagash
I must admit ... i knew about that one, but i never seen it with such Rich Color like that - i still remember seeing that one on VHS too - loved it. I considered it a close tie ... but still 2nd-place tbh  ... but i think i  know why you TRULY consider that one as 1st place though  

I have no idea what you mean

ArchivedUser

They have mentioned possibly porting everyone in the area to a "safe" spot outside the affected area. So you are busy ERPing in your Goldshire themed inn and you will get a system message saying something like "There is a heavy feeling of transitional magic in the area!" or maybe something as bland as "Node transition incoming, all people in the area will be moved out of affected areas!" Time to put your pants back on before you end up on the viewing platform overlooking the node construction animation. Hell, they may add a cutscene transition that is mandatory for everyone in the area, and when your screen clears you are standing outside the gates of your new upgraded or downgraded node center. <Speculation disclaimer>

ArchivedUser

That's the kind of answer I was looking for, sort of a logical explanation of the process even if it's purely speculative. Been running out of media to consume regarding AOC.

ArchivedUser

@matas439 The best think i could say is that ... it'll be something worth mentioning in in testing phases. Even if i did know the answer to that, it'll be pushing the Boundaries of NDA ( until Alpha 1 and after that ) 

The only thing i can confirm is the Race plays a role in what the finishing result will look like - via Dwarves, Elves, Humans, Orcs and Tulnar

However, off the top of my head ...

• Players' Screen could get  "flushed"/ "washed" to where the Screen becomes blurred/ fuzzy to try an initiate a gradual Transition in Node Structure & Node Layout (?)
• Screen turns magically-bright, then fades back into view ? Almost like waking up from a Dream (idk)
• Node Strucures begins to Shift/ Morph/ alter ... similar to a Mirage, etcc
• ( maybe other kinds you'd like to think of ? Whatever it is, mention it. Lulz, it could even turn into a Poll and it'll be up to the Community to decide Xp )

Honestly, it'll ultimately depend on how much Polish they plan to do ... they most likely will ... don't see why they won't 

ArchivedUser

I, personally, wouldn't be mad at an insane clockwork upheaval kind of like "Dark City."  I mean they won't go that route, but it would be awesome if they did.

Now I want a steampunk AoC with nodes doing weird clockwork reconfigurations.

ArchivedUser

i always thought itd just happen like a scene change in a movie. one second its level one and the next its level 2 with new buildings all of a sudden

ArchivedUser

The easy way is for players within a certain distance of the city to be shown a cutscene of the city changing (all nearby mobs/creatures frozen), and players within what is now inaccessible terrain be moved into the nearest viable location. Mobs/NPCs would be moved to spawn points that are associated with the new town/city/etc.

The fun way is to rig each building to grow and expand (or be constructed by workers or something), with new ones rising from the ground on the outskirts. As the buildings change, players are pushed back forcibly with a backing up animation out of the space now occupied by a more advanced structure. NPCs would most likely move automatically.

The latter option is a lot more difficult to actually execute, but would be incredibly cool to see in action.

ArchivedUser

Maybe they should code it to fast walk every player's avatar to a local tavern during a node transition, where upon the avatar get blistering drunk all on it's own, the screen gets all blurry and distorted (they are drunk) and remains that way until the transition done?

ArchivedUser

It would be nice that with every bit of progress a new structure is slowyly build/added and upon the full level up we got the full thing.

ArchivedUser

Sort of what I was thinking, maybe at a certain progress percentage say 80% town could start new buildings, make it somewhat of a construction site and once it hits 100% those new buildings become accessible but that does seem like it would put a lot of stress on performance...

ArchivedUser

Yeah, well lets hope IS will do something really good for this

ArchivedUser

I vote for magical whales.

ArchivedUser

If your node is leveling up you get a splash screen of unicorns vomiting rainbows.  If your node is de-leveling you get a close up rear view of the troll that lives under the bridge voiding it's bowels.