Map Size Fixes

[JohnCarver]

Greetings Salemites,
We have been having more and more design sessions regarding Map Size. Frankly, there are a lot of mechanics and 'problems' with the existing map. That being said, we are very committed to trying to 'make it work' and as such have a few 'solutions'. Please understand that just about any solution to this problem comes with a bit of collateral damage. That being said, I figured I would share with you where we are and get the feedback of the community before we press further down any one avenue.

Please use this thread as a place to discuss 'solutions' to the problem of the map being too big. As well as cast your vote on your preferred solutions we have.



Solution #1: Disable a % of the Map.
This is ugly, but seems doable. These map tiles wouldn't be 'nuked' per-se but they would be inaccessible. This means players who settled outside of the new map size borders would need to be handled on a case by case basis to ensure they are not stuck as well as some level of consideration and compensation for bases that are now inaccessible.

Solution #2: Disable Churches Darkness Pushes and shrink darkness.
Some may remember that before churches settling in the darkness was only an option for those who wanted to live, and survive under the constant threat of drain. We could return to these times where the world exists beyond the darkness to the size that it is, but players would be generally unable to live, function, and develop in these lands.

Solution #3: Carriages
Carriage houses, player built, that allow for fast travel between two locations. This is quite obviously the most amount of work, and comes with a wealth of 'issues'. So if you do vote this, or wish to debate it, please just pretend we know what we are doing and will 'resolve' general exploits in such a system. The idea is that players who have been to Point B, would have an option to build a semi-expensive structure that would allow their return upon building the link'd structure @ point A.

[cannibalkirby]

Carriages and player fast travel is going to snowball xD I do hope these things get implemented if it is really a landslide like I'm expecting

[Xsardi]

I must be silly, but why you need to change it?

[JohnCarver]

I must be silly, but why you need to change it?

There are too many mechanics that we cannot implement when it is possible for players to be more than 12 hours 'wander' distance from one another. We consider it much more reasonable that it is possible to reach a players base in 2-3 hours travel time.

[Feone]

Disabling a part of the map is a great way to lose a lot of players.
Removing the anti-drain will have a similar effect, except it'll screw over the people settling there more slowly.

If you're going to go with a solution that'll screw up bases like that you may as well wipe the map completely and do it for everyone evenly.


That being said I believe carriage houses are the best solution to this.
If I recall correctly there was a thread about these a while back that worked out a pretty decent trade system using these. While not perfect it still beat the Boston system. (pre-stalls, will have to see how these factor in.)

To go with this it'd be great if stalls would be buildable locally. To create incentive to make locally accessible marketplaces, taxable by the town they are in perhaps.

[Procne]

Assuming that at the end of development there will be large influx of players I think we will need the large map

[Potjeh]

Do nothing, because of this:

'Localized' things are not going to be a providence thing. I'm also not convinced on all these benefits of 'neighbors'.

But seriously, screwing some people out of bases they invested months into and "compensating" them with some trinkets is hideously unfair. Either reset the whole world, or don't reset anyone.

[JohnCarver]

Localizing players for perceived neighbor interaction that will never happen is hardly the issue. The issue is that very few, if any, will run the distances necessary to bring justice to a criminal who squats himself on the edge of the world. The only players who I will take seriously who say "do nothing" will be those who have either summoned a character 10+ hours from boston or Challenge Authority on a town 10+ hours from Boston. Other than that, they would be asking to not fix a broken system that they themselves do not use, which would be why they do not see it is broken.

[cannibalkirby]

no need to bash the guy xD he just threw out some options and he's letting us vote, so vote up that player transport!

[Necrobane]

Definetly not 1. 2 seems OK, darkness must be hardcore location, but 3 is awesomest, if you add this nicely.