What do you think about a seasonal Land Bridge between continents?

Hello, thanks for stopping by.

I had a thought looking at the map, how cool would it be to introduce a land bridge to the upper or lower parts the world during winter seasons occasionally? This can be an event where it is tied to activities within other nodes before a winter season such as killing a world boss that only comes around under certain rare circumstances or some other phenomenon to trigger it. Normal trade can take place between each continents nodes via the sea routes that can either be established and protected by various player organizations in game. However, only for a limited time in the winter season of Ashes would the northern or southern oceans freeze and solidify (Maybe not fully) to allow for land travel between the continents.

This could allow for caravans that may potentially hold more valuables than ships to cross Continents. A caravan travelling through an unexplored part of frozen seawater could mean that it may fall through the ice and be lost to the sea. Blinding snow storms could make travel impossible, or give visual cover to help lose pursuers. Sea Monsters beneath the frozen waves may be able to influence the environment around you if you are unlucky enough to run across one in your voyage. Moving icebergs could allow for unique visual and encounter opportunities.

A good real world example of this would probably be the Alaskan Siberian Land bridge that formed in Earth's recent Ice Age, which allowed for native peoples from the northern Asia Pacific territories to migrate over into the America's a long time ago.

What do you guys think?

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

AlwaysAFK

Hopefully this image will maybe help visualize what I am talking about here.

akabear

Interesting idea, could be something in limited areas

Dygz

Haha. Sounds kinda fun.

Savic Prosperity

honestly this sounds cool, could be a pain to implement into the game meaningfully since it would be on the tips but worth a shot of an idea imo
the possibilities of additional activities to occur due to an ice over would be pretty cool, makes me think that the bodies of water on the land could also shrink during summer to open up new stuff too in relation to how they discussed the seasonal system

Sathrago

Savic wrote: »

honestly this sounds cool, could be a pain to implement into the game meaningfully since it would be on the tips but worth a shot of an idea imo
the possibilities of additional activities to occur due to an ice over would be pretty cool, makes me think that the bodies of water on the land could also shrink during summer to open up new stuff too in relation to how they discussed the seasonal system

They could also do the reverse, instead of an ice-over, maybe the moon or moons have reached a seasonal distance away from the planet, causing a major low tide that reveals the land bridge and valuable oceanic resources to fight over in addition to the land route now being open.

Savic Prosperity

Sathrago wrote: »

Savic wrote: »

honestly this sounds cool, could be a pain to implement into the game meaningfully since it would be on the tips but worth a shot of an idea imo
the possibilities of additional activities to occur due to an ice over would be pretty cool, makes me think that the bodies of water on the land could also shrink during summer to open up new stuff too in relation to how they discussed the seasonal system

They could also do the reverse, instead of an ice-over, maybe the moon or moons have reached a seasonal distance away from the planet, causing a major low tide that reveals the land bridge and valuable oceanic resources to fight over in addition to the land route now being open.

ohhh they dont usually mention the moon but that could totally be a very cool thing to base stuff off of as well since it is a very easy way to show something is happening in the world by making it appear differently than usual

i cant wait till the core systems are done and we can get to fun event ideas lol

Sengarden

Aren’t these land bridges typically formed across relatively short divisions of land? I’ll have to take another look at the new map, but the vast majority of the continents / islands seem to be pretty far apart when you consider the scale of the illustration. Large land bridges are typically the result of an ice age, which then slowly melt over time as the climate warms, like any other iceberg. Correct? Unless we plan to have an ice age every winter, I don’t see this making complete sense. But I do like the direction you’re thinking in.

DrMiller

I could see something like this within continental travel as well, like ice melting on mountain clearing a path, Forests clearing during certain seasons, underground rivers going dry, or desert sands shifting revealing a road.

tautau

They have mentioned that there are multiple moons, at least three. It is possible that they all line up and cause an unusually low tide, thus opening routes across what is normally water.

But then we would also have to assume we would have unusually HIGH tides, flooding low lying areas and damaging ports, perhaps flooding some settled areas and damaging freeholds, docks and cities.

Sathrago

Here's another idea they could use. Ancient ruins of a massive bridge, so long and wide it bridges two entire continents. A true marvel and testament to the beings that we would call ancestors/predecessors. The ancients built it for seasonal greeting or some other ritual like meet up, once a month the bridge rises from the oceans and brings up with it a very un-maintained bridge full of mystery, rewards and danger.

Dolyem

If its seasonal I would say only if there is a sufficient amount of time between seasons, say 3 to 4 weeks.

Diamaht

Is this a sneaky way to avoid the Ocean Flags?

AlwaysAFK

Diamaht wrote: »

Is this a sneaky way to avoid the Ocean Flags?

While that may be interesting, I think the concept of having a temporary land form with Ocean Flagging PvP rules in play is much more compelling than possibly having those rules subverted by this, haha.

Dolyem wrote: »

If its seasonal I would say only if there is a sufficient amount of time between seasons, say 3 to 4 weeks.

I agree! This only works out in the event that the season lasts long enough for it to be a meaningful choice and also simultaneously that the other seasons are long enough that this can be looked forward to.

Sathrago wrote: »

Here's another idea they could use. Ancient ruins of a massive bridge, so long and wide it bridges two entire continents. A true marvel and testament to the beings that we would call ancestors/predecessors. The ancients built it for seasonal greeting or some other ritual like meet up, once a month the bridge rises from the oceans and brings up with it a very un-maintained bridge full of mystery, rewards and danger.

Also a neat idea!

DrMiller wrote: »

I could see something like this within continental travel as well, like ice melting on mountain clearing a path, Forests clearing during certain seasons, underground rivers going dry, or desert sands shifting revealing a road.

That is the idea. If this could be done between continents, this could be done within continents to varying effects.

Sengarden wrote: »

Aren’t these land bridges typically formed across relatively short divisions of land? I’ll have to take another look at the new map, but the vast majority of the continents / islands seem to be pretty far apart when you consider the scale of the illustration. Large land bridges are typically the result of an ice age, which then slowly melt over time as the climate warms, like any other iceberg. Correct? Unless we plan to have an ice age every winter, I don’t see this making complete sense. But I do like the direction you’re thinking in.

This is the initial apprehension I had to the idea as well. However, the closer you find yourself to either pole in the winter seasons, the more likely it is that you will be able to find a temporary land bridge formed by the freezing of the surrounding waters. I believe a show called Ice Road Truckers illustrated what this is like. The Arctic Circle used to freeze pretty solid yearly and it was possible for foot travel across the bergs that would form. While I don't see anything akin to a pole in Ashes world, I don't necessarily see why it wouldn't be at least possible.

On a side note, this land bridge doesn't have to come around 'every' winter. It could be a non sequential winter event that happens only once every 2 or three winters, but that could be up to interpretation. Maybe this could be set up in advance by clearing an ocean world boss in the fall before the winter seasons. I would think that ocean currents exist here, but what if they are churned by this world boss? What would happen if they stop churning until the respawn in the spring?

Ironhope

No.
Just no.

BaSkA_9x2

I'm not sure about a bridge connecting continents, but definitely would like to see frozen bodies of water and icebergs with Ice elementals or other mobs of that nature.

Asgerr

It would be cool, but then the seasons need to last longer than the current projected timeframe.

Otherwise there'd be nothing interesting about it if it just pops up every other week or so.

Sathrago

Diamaht wrote: »

Is this a sneaky way to avoid the Ocean Flags?

i mean, steven just recently said there will be plenty of ways to avoid ocean flagging. flight paths, science node teleportation, and i forget the rest.

AlwaysAFK

Ironhope wrote: »

No.
Just no.

I mean, why not?

BaSkA13 wrote: »

I'm not sure about a bridge connecting continents, but definitely would like to see frozen bodies of water and icebergs with Ice elementals or other mobs of that nature.

I agree, the aesthetic is really cool to think about. Maybe a bridge doesn't have to be active in every winter season, but Icebergs randomly careening through the ocean around the winter seasons (definitely not summer seasons) to serve as an obstacle or an opportunity on the ocean would be cool to take advantage of.

Asgerr wrote: »

It would be cool, but then the seasons need to last longer than the current projected timeframe.

Otherwise there'd be nothing interesting about it if it just pops up every other week or so.

I agree, making it not show up during every winter season would probably be the way to go with this if changing the length of seasons is out of the question. Potentially tying it to a trigger like a world boss dying before the winter season rolls around might be good too if it can be gated behind node advancement.

tautau

If there were such an occasional bridge, if I was planning to attack caravans, it would be easy to just go sit at the bridge and wait.

Sathrago

tautau wrote: »

If there were such an occasional bridge, if I was planning to attack caravans, it would be easy to just go sit at the bridge and wait.

Doesnt that sound fun? The normal bonus to selling they would get by risking a boat caravan they now can do on land.

Child Item