Boats

[Yolan]

Hey there Devs, any vague idea of your priority for boats?

Also, when boats (and later?, horse drawn carts, etc.) are brought in, will you restrict the current ease of teleportation in some way? For example, a 30 min + wait time on logging in other than where you logged out? I love being able to quickly port between my hearthfire and my village totem... but then, I know that if it were restricted it would further encourage trade networks, roads, etc.

The treeline is receeding, but I hope to see Brodgar grow much much bigger. Basically, I want to be able to send people on logging expeditions via boat! Sail down into some tributary, disembark, grab 10+ logs, and bring em back.

[Jackard]

will portage be possible with boats

[loftar]

We want to do it very soon. It is likely that we'll do it the next session or so, but it does pend Jorb drawing lots and lots of new leg sprites for the player. As for 10+ logs, my plan is that we add a rather simple rowing boat, that would be able to take maybe one or two objects of cargo, but I guess that's a mainly matter of what Jorb will want to draw. I mean, it's not like longships wouldn't be cool or so. :)

Portage will most likely be possible, as long as we're speaking a simple rowing boat. I know longships are supposed to be carriable, but I don't see one man doing the job alone, and implementing multi-person carrying would not be entirely simple.

As for teleportation, we'll likely restrict it quite a bit, but I'm not quite sure exactly how, yet. My current line of thought is to remove the RoB and the village totem as login points, and then maybe make it so that a player character remains in-game for another minute after one logs the client out (so as to discourage the most trivial of teleportation, and to eliminate the problem of thieves logging out the second they're spotted). That plan may be revised in parts or in whole, though, so if you've got a better idea, pray tell.

[sabinati]

As for teleportation, we'll likely restrict it quite a bit, but I'm not quite sure exactly how, yet. My current line of thought is to remove the RoB and the village totem as login points,

please don't do that. maybe you could implement a cooldown timer on login points? so you could only log in where you logged out unless it had been x amount of time (30 minutes or so? an hour?)

[57thDamned]

As for teleportation, we'll likely restrict it quite a bit, but I'm not quite sure exactly how, yet. My current line of thought is to remove the RoB and the village totem as login points, and then maybe make it so that a player character remains in-game for another minute after one logs the client out (so as to discourage the most trivial of teleportation, and to eliminate the problem of thieves logging out the second they're spotted). That plan may be revised in parts or in whole, though, so if you've got a better idea, pray tell.

This would destroy the actual game character and the trade. What about: You can't log out, as long as you are in a foreign claim or village.

Another idea would be fixed "teleporation-locations" on each grid, maybe 3-4, from which you can teleport to the RoB/Hearth/Idol. As long as you are in your own village or at your claim, you are free to teleport to the other locations. As soon as you are in wilderndess or in foreign claims, you have to find the teleporation-location, to get away.

[loftar]

so you could only log in where you logged out unless it had been x amount of time (30 minutes or so? an hour?)

I'd like to do that, very much, but it's hard. The basic problem is this: What happens if someone has built on the spot where you logged out?
a) You are then allowed to log in by your Hearth Fire: If so, all you'd need to do is carry something when you log out, which will be dropped where you stood, and you'll always be able to teleport back due to it being there.
b) The player is logged in at a "random nearby" position: This could be exploited by logging out next to a wall, then having someone else put up a couple of log cabin constructions to cover a large area, and then log in again and be "teleported" to the other side of the wall.
c) You'd be unable to log in at all for those next 30 minutes; which sucks. Especially if you happened to be carrying something.
d) The player would leave a "temporary hearth fire" or something after him for those thirty minutes, making it impossible to build anything there: It seems this could easily be used for griefing to block something with a completely unremovable object for thirty minutes.

[loftar]

This would destroy the actual game character and the trade.

I'm split, to be honest. I do like the idea of being able to log in by the RoB to do trade or such, but it's also true that it eliminates much of the need for roadbuilding (of which there was a lot before I added the various login points) and other ways of trade, like the rivers, which is a bit boring. It also has the problems related to building a Hearth Fire ten thousand miles away and then be able to go grief by the RoB, completely unafraid of crime scents. I also don't really like having the RoB as some kind of "official point of trade" -- it's too centralized for my taste.

[Potjeh]

I say yes to teleportation of characters, no to teleportation of items. Sure, you could still teleport equippables, but that'd really limit your trade options.

[Jackard]

I can understand the RoB removal, but what's the rationale for no longer being able to spawn at your own village?

One might even consider village totems more important than hearthfires. If it reaches the point where you want to cut down on teleportation even further, they should replace the hearthspawn.

[Colbear]

As for teleportation, we'll likely restrict it quite a bit, but I'm not quite sure exactly how, yet. My current line of thought is to remove the RoB and the village totem as login points, and then maybe make it so that a player character remains in-game for another minute after one logs the client out (so as to discourage the most trivial of teleportation, and to eliminate the problem of thieves logging out the second they're spotted). That plan may be revised in parts or in whole, though, so if you've got a better idea, pray tell.

So:

1. Can't log into rob or village totem. This means you can ONLY log into your hearth or where you last logged out. This means that you can't port items, and you can't port to trade. Users who live far away will be unable to trade with others.

2. Boars and foxes and other aggressive animals may kill you, because you are unconscious for less than a minute: if you log out as soon as you're unconscious and aggro ends, it'll reaggro you and hit you again, potentially preventing you from logging out fully.

3. Thieves cannot log out the second they're spotted -- nor can players who spot aggressive thieves, though I'm sure that apart from what happened to Coriander, thieves are more likely to run than to fight. This, however, may lead to more aggressive thieves, increasing the danger low-level characters experience.

4. Can't port to towns, so newbies are, basically, unable to join remote towns without an armed escort (hard, because those armed escort guys can't port to the rob, and would have to walk from town to ring, and then back, JUST to recruit a new player). Newbies will instead be largely forced to join up with a nearby town or go on their own. Right now, Brodgar town keeps this from being too terrible, but even then I don't like the difficulty of inviting newbies into your town if you're NOT camping the RoB. Medium/strong characters, of course, can just travel to the town to hearth there without getting killed.



I don't like this much: low-level characters have too many ways to accidentally die, including swimming (perhaps make swimming cost 10k or 15k, to prevent people from buying it without careful consideration), not wearing shoes in a forest, and those new "might kill you" mobs. And there's too many things working against them, to make the game unappealing to people who don't immediately have a group -- the LP at the beginning is difficult (why not start newbies at full change?), there's no tutorial, aggressive mobs quite close to RoB (this might be a short-term effect), etc.

You're removing two of the three spawn points (rob, hearth, town). This makes travel, and consequently trade, much more difficult.