Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place 5+ days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Instead of family summon, do this
Marzzo
Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Family summon brings 10000 problems. Instead, why not have a summoning stone in towns you can build with other players. This way you work towards an epic goal, and it is more immersive to summon your friends. The game will be massive, and the scale is epic. Dont ruin it with meaningless loading screens and teleports everywhere. Make summoning unique.
Also, this system cant be exploited as easily as family summon.
What do you think, should a village lvl 3 node have the option to build a summoning stone
Also, this system cant be exploited as easily as family summon.
What do you think, should a village lvl 3 node have the option to build a summoning stone
6
Comments
I would like to see a hearthstone on a long cooldown. We won't have flying mounts, we won't have summons, we won't have quick travel....so after a long journey of roaming or raiding, I REALLY do not want to have to run back 20-30 minutes to get home.
It could actually be exploited far WORSE than the family summon.
Once every node has a summoning stone, you've essentially just unlocked fast-travel to anywhere.
This gets my vote.
Actually really like this idea, and it feels way more immersive and realistic then; "my alt is my wife so i can teleport across the world for free..."
This will actually foster community, promote the node develop system and integrally tie into the overarching mechanics of the game. It is something players will instinctively and immediately want to work towards...
This being said I would say that the construction of these stones should be veeeerry expensive and not be buildable in every city only few and far between
Either that, or as other users have suggested, take all forms of summoning and teleportation completely out of the game (other then that achieved via the scientific nodes) this in all honesty would be my preferred option, I really dont like the family summoning system.
I see having a hearthstone being a problem as well as it takes people who are loaded with materials out of the equation of journeying back to town and the risk of getting ganked.
I would like a return home auto-pilot feature though so I can multi task and watch some Netflix while I'm going back to town.
I don't really like the family summon thing and I agree it could be exploited. Also it's not fixing the core issue (a group of people getting together to do content) unless it's the family.
I think the idea of a summoning stone could work if: (1) it's not directly next to a point of interest (a node, dungeon, etc). Make the user travel ~2 mins to get where they need, (2) it has some guards so people don't get ganked on loading screen, and (3) it has a 1-2 hour CD... this is a long enough CD to minimize zerging issues while still helping people group together.
Good ideas in your last paragraph above!
Another reason to not marry your alt would come with the roleplaying, right? There are some things that are more fun to role play with another person than just by yourself. I'm sure there will be some of That roleplaying in apartments and the freehold wheat field.
Family summons fosters community more than some anon stone rubbing in the center square.
Family summons allows players TO FORM LONG TERM GROUPS (aka community ties) in order to summon. The nature of this will promote strong camaraderie. A rock you rub on in town doesn't do this.
I agree but I also think that to promote a social game where new players will want to join their friends who are already playing, they need something (well they don't need it, but I see them caving on it). Especially when you consider that there will be no zone levels and low level players can in principle find things to do in any node/zone. I like the summoning stone with a de-buff that can't be removed preventing further summons for 24h or something. Hell, make it that only family can summon you from the stones.
I think the spirit of the post is to restrict the location to which summons can occur. You don't want people parachuting reinforcement, so spatially restricting where summons can occur is a great idea imo and I think will need to be implemented to some capacity anyways.
In this game, we don't need a summon to any location at all. Physically move to get to anywhere we want to go. From there a return home would be nice. To imply that the game would be any less social because of a lack of summoning options is silly. You want to play with your friends? Travel.....ONE time to get to their node.
In reality I dont really care about RPing at all; that is not to say I dont deeply care about immersion in the wider universe I just dont find interest in actively RPing my character in RP narratives created by players, also I dont want my teleport to be dependent on another person being online or at the location which I want them to be.
I can guarantee that I for one will 100% exploit the family summon, marry my alts and position them in capital cities to allow for instant summoning across the world, its not speculative or hypothetical, im literally saying if they put that system in going to exploit the hell out of it.
and I guaraaaanteee, that thousands will do the same, in reality the majority of people dont care about rp sadly, and will exploit the family summon in order to fast-travel around the world... just as I will if its in-game.
The idea of limiting the summon to a location is good, but it could be improved. Maybe if the family summon was only at a "Family Hearth" which would be built in a house in one of the family members homes. As a way of bringing family members back home if they wander too far from home.
I just want this family summon crap to be nerfed into the ground or removed. Any sensible idea that nerfs it has my vote.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
This is potentially the best idea I have seen that is not massively abusable.
Allow each family to designate a player house as its "home", with some limited functionality akin to a guild hall, and make that the only place a family member can be summoned to.
With this, I would even happily have it so that one player could summon the entire family at once, or select individual members.
There is still limited scope for abuse with this, but it is far, far less than being able to summon a family member to a location out in the world.
Ditto... Mounts are enough. Id rather see the epicness of the enemy army riding towards me on mounts over the horizon, then just all teleporting in at some glowing object in a random place in the world
It's not one time though, your friend got online 2 hours before you and moved to a different location in the world. You want to play with them, are you going to spend 20 min walking to them? Every day you want to play? Like I said, I'm also a fan of just not having fast travel but I understand the argument for them and I do think they need to be considered. If anything wanting to 'return home' to me is why I wouldn't want any fast travel in the game, that's the stuff that can be more easily abused. Wanting to fast travel to a friend with limited play time is frankly one of the only valid reasons I can think of for having any form of fast travel.
I do love @Vhaeyne 's addition to the idea that you have 1 designated location but I do think that the ability to blueprint plop a freehold anywhere in the world is actually more freedom than having the location in 1 node. So I'd rather have 1 node be designated the 'home node' and you can only summon to that node. Freeholds can be placed close to dungeons for example and would be counter to the spatial restriction.
Edit: by one node I mean the literal city/settlement/metro that is the hub of that node.
Imaging wanting to play with your friends, but you simply cant, you are too far away from them. Big move
Every single one
You know what you should have to do when you want to play with friends. Hold W the entire time. That's it. You are never going to be in a position to where you are far enough that the game needs a system as broken as a teleport to be in the game.
There is something a lot of people don't even consider when they think family summoning is a good idea. When you start the game you are going to get a free teleport to one of the many alters in the world. So you are literally never going to be that far away from close friends at any point.
Without fast travel that breaks up premade guilds and makes the world fresher. Which completely stops zergs in the world before the game has a chance to mature.
It would be stupid even if it had a month long cooldown. I doubt the current iteration has anything close to that.
U.S. East
Plan Ahead.
As in, an email that says 'Let's play Saturday PM 2:00 CST, move your toon to the city hall of Yuyuville and don't be late.'
Just like the good old times of getting a D&D game organised
You guys late I'll break your fucking kneecaps. xD
U.S. East
Gods you sound like my DM
If something can be abused, it will be, and this mechanic will be abused constantly.
So what can be done to fix these issues?
1. You aren't able to summon family members if you are in a party that has non-family members? This would not work since people would just leave the party and still coordinate the summoning without being in a party.
2. Making the summon a long and visible process to other players? I think this is one of the best alternatives. By giving other players a visual cue if someone is being summoned will diminish the tactical advantage that this summon mechanic can give. A sound cue might also be necessary since seeing a visual effect of the summoning indoors might be impossible. Furthermore, the summon mechanic should summon 1 family member at a time with time between each family member, so that a horde of enemy players can't just suddenly appear.
3. Giving summoned family members a debuff for a short duration? This would also diminish the tactical combat value of the family summon, if it's with a combination of the 2nd suggestion. As the family summon mechanic should only be used as a tool for friends to gather together for their play session, it should make it almost impossible to be used as a tool to gain a combat/tactical advantage. By giving debuffs to summoned players, the summon can't be used to rescue players or to gain sudden numbers advantage.
4. Placing summoning stones in key locations? This would make it so that there are fewer ways to abuse the mechanic, but it could still be used to gain an advantage by itself. This idea could be combined with other suggestions. On a personal note, I found it cool to see a summoning/teleportation device in the city center in the first season of Sword Art Online. As others suggested, it could be integrated into the node progression and be buildable by the mayor. There could be quests that are unlocked with node progression that allows players to discover more summoning stones across the node. This would make it so that in the early game, the summoning feature has fewer opportunities to be used, but more in the later stages. These summoning stones would increase the leveling time of nodes compared to the system that was mentioned. The negative effect would be griefing. Some people might purposely camp near summoning stones to take advantage of their limited time vulnerability. Of course, this is somewhat preventable with the corruption system.
I also believe that once a player has been summoned once, there should be a long cooldown period to be summoned again. For example, this prevents abusing the teleportation for fast travel, where family members would be scattered across the map in key locations, giving an advantage to some members for completing quests.
Sure it's a video game, but it still feels stupid.
Imagine calling people that dont wait for you to log in "friends".
The carry weight threshold would permit you to bring your own armor/weapons/consumables, but would restrict the player from abusing the summon to transport traded goods across the map. The restriction on trading functions the same way, while allowing trading between members of the family so that you can outfit your party for adventure. Intrepid could simply patch the weight of an item if abuse becomes prevalent. What this also accomplishes is ensuring that players are not bringing armor for sale, because then they would not have their own equipment equipped. It also ensures that players are using the summon hub as a meeting point only and would not permit tactical use by allowing summoning into a field of combat. A penalty for changing families ensures players do not enter into a family lightly, and also creates community pressure toward guild loyalty.
I think that the system is important to allow players with different schedules to play independently without feeling as though they are creating problems for their group, but still allow the group to meet up easily when everyone logs on. Punishing the more active players feels bad, just as punishing the community by permitting abuse of the family summon system feels bad.
Just spitballing here.