Exploration: Part 1 - Public Testing Round 2!

[Archaed 2,280]

4 hours ago, Spacy said:

Question:   The treasure maps are obviously generated from the map dumps.  Are these new mini-map dumps generated at the moment of generating the map, or are they just the most recent map dumps?  Based on comments made in the thread, people seam to think both.  As we have all seen deeds come, terraform and pave, then go away 3 months later, I can see it being an issue, abet a rare one.

The moment of generating the map, I had this concern too, so I asked and it was answered 

[Tukodama 316]

Will we be able to mail maps or will they transferred by trade only?

[Hailiah 443]

Do maps decay?

[Wulfmaer 413]

4 minutes ago, Hailiah said:

Do maps decay?

I came across some that somebody had dropped on the central steppe that had taken damage, so looks like they do.

[kochinac 1,395]

Ok, I've finally got the 96ql map and was determent to finish it. So after a good couple of hours of riding from one end of the server to the other, it was quite fun actually, but still not sure the reward was worth it...

Overall it wasn't unsolvable, I've managed to find a place to dig after several tries every time. I guess I had enormous luck with clues, the tower was on edge of the desert instead of in the middle of birch forest where I doubt I would find it easy, 2 map clues had clear enough locations to spot them on the map, and also 2 archaeology clues I managed to find mostly by shapes on the map, didn't even need archaeology but to assure myself I'm on right track. It was unclear to me at first what exactly is a settlement on the map, that tower drawing?

I have been ambushed by attacks on every clue, and attacks are brutal, I would recommend toning them down a bit. So after 3-5 hours of wondering this is my reward:

https://imgur.com/VIwDvEt    (how on earth do you embed a picture in the post, Imgur link without an extension won't pass, and can't find anywhere the one with an extension?) nevermind

 

so, 69 copper of upkeep is nice, few chess pieces ofc,  fillers are 90ql, ok I guess but meh... 3 sleep powder meh, can buy them, alcohol meh, I guess are more worth for glass jugs(btw glassmaking anytime soon? :3) even 1/12 of rare bone is meh for 96ql map as rares are meh to me, would prefer supreme one, even it has to be divided in smaller bits, definitely disappointed that wasn't guaranteed something unique from the lot. I really don't have time to test several clues as difficult as this to see if it was just bad luck with loot this time.

But overall was fun, just still not sure if it would be worth the effort until I know for what I have a chance and how big that chance is. I really do hope that chance for supreme bone is included and not just rare ones...

 

[elentari 2,660]

Honestly I think this is a good reward but could be improved a bit. Also possible you might have been unlucky with the loot table?

 

However when I look at copper chips or a rare strange bone fragment and then contrast it with leather...yeah that filler trash shouldn't even be in 90 ql maps. Just saying. High end maps and clues should lead to high end loot  

[kochinac 1,395]

17 minutes ago, elentari said:

Honestly I think this is a good reward but could be improved a bit. Also possible you might have been unlucky with the loot table?

 

However when I look at copper chips or a rare strange bone fragment and then contrast it with leather...yeah that filler trash shouldn't even be in 90 ql maps. Just saying. High end maps and clues should lead to high end loot  

yeah, it's not that bad, but it's not super ultra great either, i hope it's the luck from loot table, if this is the worst i can live with it. Main thing i wanted to point out is, i have over 90 in almost every skill, i don't want treasure to provide me with something i can obtain easier otherwise, from chasing treasure map that i have not so significant chance to obtain on live to be good ql i really expect something unobtainable or hardly obtainable otherwise, it's treasure ffs.

And no way in hell i'm dragging back with me over 60kg of ropes, even 90ql 🤣 

[Skatyna 443]

deleted

Edited June 7, 2022 by Skatyna

[Finnn 3,321]

In case treasure asks for finding a tower and it happens to be on rock surface, there's no hint for the player to activate a shovel and "dig for treasure" on rock tile... 

There's some wogic for this.. and lack of hints how to proceed once reaching the target, the clue is underneath x tower there's treasure.. but reaching it and surface mining does nothing, nobody tried that?

[TheTrickster 2,287]

30 minutes ago, Finnn said:

In case treasure asks for finding a tower and it happens to be on rock surface, there's no hint for the player to activate a shovel and "dig for treasure" on rock tile... 

There's some wogic for this.. and lack of hints how to proceed once reaching the target, the clue is underneath x tower there's treasure.. but reaching it and surface mining does nothing, nobody tried that?

I haven't, but perhaps a dig a dirt from nearby and drop it where you want to dig for treasure?  A shame to be defacing the landscape, though.  

 

I would say this is a bug that should be fixed - logically, who could bury a treasure chest in live rock?

[Lisimba 779]

23 minutes ago, TheTrickster said:

I would say this is a bug that should be fixed - logically, who could bury a treasure chest in live rock?

 

You can bury monster corpses the size of houses on rock tiles, so a treasure chest should be doable.

 

I guess the rock tiles aren't as smooth as they look.

[Finnn 3,321]

6 hours ago, TheTrickster said:

I haven't, but perhaps a dig a dirt from nearby and drop it where you want to dig for treasure?  A shame to be defacing the landscape, though.  

 

I would say this is a bug that should be fixed - logically, who could bury a treasure chest in live rock?

it's not actual digging, it's right click - "dig for treasure" while having activated shovel.. and a timer.... it just makes no sense to be a thing on solid rock

 

--edit

it works... anyway.. on rock surface, activate shovel, and same action works.. but there's no feedback or anything in the game hinting you what to do

Edited June 8, 2022 by Finnn

[TheTrickster 2,287]

4 hours ago, Finnn said:

it works... anyway.. on rock surface, activate shovel, and same action works.. but there's no feedback or anything in the game hinting you what to do

Ah, I mistook what you were saying.  Maybe it should either not spawn on rock, or work with a pick as well (on rock), to prevent confusion.

 

A Wurm shovel is a pretty versatile tool.  It can even butcher a chicken carcass.  😁

[Finnn 3,321]

2 minutes ago, TheTrickster said:

Ah, I mistook what you were saying.  Maybe it should either not spawn on rock, or work with a pick as well (on rock), to prevent confusion.

 

A Wurm shovel is a pretty versatile tool.  It can even butcher a chicken carcass.  😁

the way I see this action is .. like tracking.. it does no terrain change at all, it's just with action timer and requires specific active tool, but the game itself lacks any hint for this to be requirement, and for some reason several people in ca-help kept suggesting digging up dirt and dropping it at the location of the tower.. to then dig.. which is not needed to be done at all; once I learned that the shovel have to be active tool, the option showed up, and it's literally event action timer, no change done to the game world(besides replacing the map clue with new map chest)

[Tukodama 316]

On 6/5/2022 at 7:01 PM, Shydow said:

The "hints" that involve a disbanded deed, are worthless. Unless you've lived on a server and meticulously mapped and cataloged every deed that has ever existed, you won't get anything from them. Requiring a player to do archaeology to get a chance at a hint at the direction of an abandoned deed, is far too reliant on RNG to be useful in finding the location. Again, a different method of getting a direction and / or a distance is required.

 

This is where I get stuck and my search ends.  I have been on Melody 6 months or so and my arch skill is around 12, so not only would it take me many, many hours to raise my arch skill to discover the name of a disbanded deed, in most cases I wouldn't have the first clue where to start looking (other than the huge hint circle ofc).

[TheTrickster 2,287]

2 hours ago, Finnn said:

the way I see this action is .. like tracking.. it does no terrain change at all, it's just with action timer and requires specific active tool, but the game itself lacks any hint for this to be requirement, and for some reason several people in ca-help kept suggesting digging up dirt and dropping it at the location of the tower.. to then dig.. which is not needed to be done at all; once I learned that the shovel have to be active tool, the option showed up, and it's literally event action timer, no change done to the game world(besides replacing the map clue with new map chest)

Yep.. I thought (and it was my misreading) that you meant that the "Dig for Treasure" wasn't appearing on rock - hence the suggestion.  I can only assume others made the same mistake I did.  

Perhaps "dig for treasure" should be like examine; always available - except only always available when you have a map and anything to dig with* in inventory.  Or maybe it should be the map that is activated, and an inventory check is made when you attempt to dig for treasure.

 

* I believe that we should be able to dig with any RL usable tool for it - spade ("shovel" in Wurm), pickaxe, axes, trowel, swords etc (swords and shields actually were used when necessary as spades and shovels respectively).  Longer timers for less-apt tools would be fine.

[TheTrickster 2,287]

24 minutes ago, Tukodama said:

 

This is where I get stuck and my search ends.  I have been on Melody 6 months or so and my arch skill is around 12, so not only would it take me many, many hours to raise my arch skill to discover the name of a disbanded deed, in most cases I wouldn't have the first clue where to start looking (other than the huge hint circle ofc).

Yes, this should not be linked to Arch skill at all.

[elentari 2,660]

4 hours ago, Tukodama said:

This is where I get stuck and my search ends.  I have been on Melody 6 months or so and my arch skill is around 12, so not only would it take me many, many hours to raise my arch skill to discover the name of a disbanded deed, in most cases I wouldn't have the first clue where to start looking (other than the huge hint circle ofc).

I am in the same spot. I've been wasting a few hours today stuck on a clue because guess what? I can't find a ruins of a deed on Deliverance.

 

It doesn't even show up on Niarja! 

 

No one knows where it was no one has any map of it. Probably even predates in game maps lol. And this a 14 ql MAP! 14! What great reward will come out of this map. 77 arch , 3 hours wasted and stuck. 

These types of clues should be totally removed from the update. 

Edited June 9, 2022 by elentari

[Tukodama 316]

6 hours ago, elentari said:

I am in the same spot. I've been wasting a few hours today stuck on a clue because guess what? I can't find a ruins of a deed on Deliverance.

 

It doesn't even show up on Niarja! 

 

No one knows where it was no one has any map of it. Probably even predates in game maps lol. And this a 14 ql MAP! 14! What great reward will come out of this map. 77 arch , 3 hours wasted and stuck. 

These types of clues should be totally removed from the update. 

Edited 6 hours ago by elentari

 

Wow if you are stuck like this, imagine how a new or returning player coming back to the game for the exploration update is feeling.  I am not sure what other types of clues could replace the abandoned deed clues, but at the very least these clues need some tweaking.  

[Lisimba 779]

9 minutes ago, Tukodama said:

 

Wow if you are stuck like this, imagine how a new or returning player coming back to the game for the exploration update is feeling.  I am not sure what other types of clues could replace the abandoned deed clues, but at the very least these clues need some tweaking.  

 

Maybe you should get multiple clue types at the same time, at least for easier maps? If you get both an archaeology clue and a pointer to a guard tower (and maybe a third one), you're only stuck if you can't do any of them. This would also add the option to have clues based on other skills without requiring everyone to have those skills.

[elentari 2,660]

I am sorry I wasn't patient enough to screenshot the area but I will post a screenshot of the map dump of where I eventually found the treasure cache. 

 

https://imgur.com/a/rURHAtU

 

Not sure if it's clear from the image but there aren't any landmarks there, it is a rugged mountainous and hilly area that doesn't have any active deeds and you don't have any terrain difference, no clay tiles, no sand to give you a clue where to dig. 

 

I simply got lucky.  After a few hours. Luck isn't a skill. Being lucky means some players will waste 5 hours of their life on a map, some will waste 30 minutes. Those with 5 hours wasted won't engage with the content at this rate for these types of "clues" while the lucky ones will say it's a great update. The issue here is evident. 

 

In addition I want to say that even NOW I have no idea what the black spots on maps are. Are they smudges? Because they serve more to make it less readable than to actually guide you. They grey maps are terrible especially when in a context of what I had in this particular case. Now I've travelled across Deli quite a lot, I can't say I know it like the back of my hand but I can navigate it most of the time without opening any maps, simply by using my memory. 

 

However I cannot begin to imagine how these maps will be on servers like Xanadu or Indy. I would hesitate to even do a 99 ql map on those servers if these are the clues for a chest. 

[Rudie 1,480]

The random splotches on maps do nothing but confuse people. Are they tar? peat? moss? nope, none of those, why are they there?

[Synjor 466]

They're ink splotches. They're just there to add difficulty

[elentari 2,660]

These maps already feel difficult. And why add difficulty to low ql maps in the first place?

 

One rule of game design is that "entry level content" for any new thing you make should be easy and understandable. You don't throw difficulty in the first few minutes of a player interacting with something. 

 

Imagine if you were playing monopoly and before you even rolled the die you had to pay 200$ in tax. Or if you were just starting WoW for the first time and a level 60 mob killed you on your first lvl 1 quest. 

 

My point is low lvl maps should be low difficulty. I can kinda understand ink splotches on high lvl maps since the rewards are better. Just saying. 

[MissDakota 0]

I saw some have put pics of maps on here, and a map of the server,  where are you getting those maps of the server showing the landscape ?