Map Size Fixes

[Potjeh]

Yeah, because the current darkness map is way too large scale. The default should be dark, and if you run into light you can know for certain that there is a settlement in the area, and you can simply follow the light to find it. It's basically just increasing the range where you can detect settlements a good deal beyond where you can actually see them on the minimap.

[MarpTarpton]

You realize, I hope, that all of these suggestions are to solve the problem of a map that's too large? A problem that is only occurring in this iteration of the game and that for every subsequent world generation/server/what have you, it will no longer be a problem. With that being said, why would the Darkness mechanic receive an overhaul for a problem so finite as that it will never happen again? The darkness is supposed to be something you don't go into by design. To spread that everywhere is changing more than what's necessary and outside the scope of this thread as it brings about more issues than what it solves.

[Potjeh]

Because frankly the current darkness distribution sucks. If you're not supposed to go there, you might as well not have it and just put the edge of the map there. If you are supposed to go there, then base locations near it's border are straight up superior to locations along the coast. I mean, sure, you can park a hunting alt there and deliver argopelters and whatnot to your coastal base via Providence, but IMO the game needs less reasons to use alts.

[lachlaan]

The easier way to look at the issue is by just systematically tacking the aspects of it, no? I don't see the need for a poll if you've got the majority of the concepts figure out.

Problem 1 : It takes too long to get to enemy bases in order to apply fun mechanics and mechanics that help equalize PvP etc.

Time taken to get from A to B = Max distance A and B can be apart, divided by the speed you can travel between points.

So at best you can either shrink the max distance or increase the speed.

Shrinking the distance would require some work relocating bases that would now be out of bounds, and quite a bit of work at that since I assume a major chunk of main towns are somewhere out of bounds. Takes 5 hours of A.D.D. riddled horse riding in a zigzag to reach the darkness edge in any cardinal direction, so if you're going for a max 3-4 hour trip in any which way, you'd have to slice .. what .. 40% of the distance in any cardinal direction save for east, which would make a remaining map of around a third the total size now? Half? Whatever it is, that's a bit of work, so if that's your arbitrarily chosen choice, you need to commit to putting in the work to relocate people, and figure out the criteria that you'll take into consideration when doing so, like letting people select spots on their own perhaps for natural resource accessibility, and manual copying of big'ol'mines.

Speeding up travel in the manual sense is a no go, as John already said horses (and I'd assume any other form of direct travel) are as fast as they're going to get, so that leaves weirder mechanics like a carriage system or teleportation waypoints in general, which would only serve to clutter towns around said waypoints for utility, or otherwise have them clutter away from the waypoints for the sake of perceived safety.

In the end, of the situation we need to get used to for future iterations of map gen is a smaller map, then I think people will never be able to emulate normal exploration regardless of waypoints or carriage systems. It still takes just as long to manually walk the map if you can get to a few central points faster, you just have the possibility to do it in more sessions as you won't have to invest the walk to the starting point each time you start exploring. So imo if you're gonna rip the bandaid off, warn us, figure out how to do it to everyone's liking and do it.

[MarpTarpton]

So imo if you're gonna rip the bandaid off, warn us, figure out how to do it to everyone's liking and do it.

An excellent summary of where we are now Figuring out how to do it to everyone's liking is the point of this, but it's becoming clear that pleasing everyone won't be possible, so if anything at this stage we may have to settle with options most people like best.

[Potjeh]

Could you please explain to me how is the design goal for darkness to be a place you don't want to go, if argopelters are the best poultry and provide the best H&G inspirational right after march hares, which are also found in the darkness? And weren't you planning on giving desirable loot to the new darkness creatures we're supposed to get in the next patch?

[MarpTarpton]

Could you please explain to me how is the design goal for darkness to be a place you don't want to go, if argopelters are the best poultry and provide the best H&G inspirational right after march hares, which are also found in the darkness? And weren't you planning on giving desirable loot to the new darkness creatures we're supposed to get in the next patch?

Maybe I misspoke. My understanding is that the Darkness should be dangerous and a threat to the lives of characters. Nice place to visit, shouldn't want to live there. Except it isn't nice. It drains your humours. Herbs are more rare. It's dark and full of terrors.

Poultry is seen as more of an high-tier game system and so too are argopelters, so that fits in having to go venture into the danger zone to gather the mats. You would totally want to go to the Darkness for these and other reasons, just like you totally want to encounter witchcraft in the game. But when the **** hits the fan, the argos are beating your ass and the curses are flying, chances are you will no longer be as thrilled to stick around such things. I apologize for any confusion in my earlier sentiments.

[Potjeh]

But if darkness is a place you want to go for some of the best resources, you still have the problem of base locations close to darkness being superior to the ones far from it. It's an issue related to this:

This way we don't have to pretend that new players are going to immediately realize the dangers of not hoofing it several hours from their wilderness spawn locations (which makes no sense to begin with)

How are new players supposed to know to settle near the darkness? Is the goal to make it so you have to settle away from darkness at start and then resettle closer to it when you get your humors high enough? Because moving bases is frustrating, especially with the new purity system.

[Thor]

Maybe one could use inspirational points for fast travel? "Fast travel east 20 map tiles, cost 40 000 inspirational points". Out of the box lol.

[MarpTarpton]

Potjeh, seriously. This is not about Darkness. This is about map size, the solution to which cannot be found in any of this discussion about the Darkness mechanics. I'd love to talk to you about this in another thread about Darkness mechanics being overhauled. Or a PM. Or smoke signals.

It's a pity JK Rowling has Floo Powder under copyright.