Area Expansion Poll

[jaycol]

   I would have to go with small villages as already mentioned or at lest some ming camps,  A new city would be nice to. But I think it would be best for now, to improve the areas we have to play in a little bit more.  Some trading post and taverns to rest at along the road ways.

[yolantha]

I'd love to see any extension. Isn't there an ladder leading nowhere in the sewers? And a small chamber with a closed door where the dark rogues reside? Or a room we cannot enter in Brado's cellar? Don't tell us before what it will be. I want a surprise! But as we have to vote - I took the stone labyrinths though at second thought the expansion of Ojaveda might be more suitable for rp. Too late ...

[neko kyouran]

As a general opinion of mine, I'd say whatever it is you do, do whatever on the first level, since that is the level that is currently most developed, and once that level is complete, move on to the others.

[Parallo]

I don't agree with adding new areas before completing existing ones. Imagine that then we would have a fraction of every city eventually and then it would have to grow as they all expanded and that would be a tad more stressful, particularly if the devs working on it originally were long gone when it came time to complete it. I'd still have to say small towns though as my number one. It just doesn't seem right having such vast expanses of, well, nothingness.

[Jeraphon]

It just doesn't seem right having such vast expanses of, well, nothingness.

They're just roads. While I agree they shouldn't be featureless, I don't think there should be something at every corner going "look at me, I'm a feature!" I kinda like the way things are set up now: there are features tucked out of the way on certain roads (ruins, burial well) or in the EBD (like the pond with the dock or the dead trees) that are a graphical reward for exploring.

Still, smaller towns will not so much make the roads less interesting...as make more roads.

[Parallo]

I just figure it would break up the monotony. The sort of tavern Thom mentioned would be nice or a farm house even. Small villages is just the closest thing to describing what I reckon we should have. Basically more destinations. Really we may as well just have two cardinal directions; Ojaward and Doorsward. Some more paths branching off them and leading elsewhere would be awesome.

[Xordan]

They're just roads. While I agree they shouldn't be featureless, I don't think there should be something at every corner going "look at me, I'm a feature!" I kinda like the way things are set up now: there are features tucked out of the way on certain roads (ruins, burial well) or in the EBD (like the pond with the dock or the dead trees) that are a graphical reward for exploring.

Still, smaller towns will not so much make the roads less interesting...as make more roads.

Well, atm going into the 'terrain' areas feels a bit like "Well, I've left the good bits of PS now". In WoW for example, there's no large expanses of nothing where you can't very quickly get to a 'little feature' place. There's always something small to look at within a few minutes walk, or at worst some very pretty scenery. Thus there's never any feeling that you've left the 'good bits' of the game, it's all equally as good. That's something we need to aim for.

(See this map. I would estimate that land area to be the distance between hydlaa and ojaveda... There's 14 'small' areas, one major city and lots and lots of little bits of stuff spread around. Every single one of their maps is like this, although the 'major' feature varies in size.)

[Velh Krome]

I dont know WoW, but I know that walking to Oja means having a journey through "Nothing". I start in Hydlaa and arrive in Oja, in between theres nothing but .. yes, just walking with barely nothing of interest.
A little shack here and there, a farm now and then to take a rest, occasions to meet people.. well, at the moment its still like "Harns" or "Kadas" as the places to be. Thats why I voted "Small Villages"! Give us reasons to take journeys not (almost) only for quest-reasons or to buy an armor once.
Of course my fingers twitch when thinking of "Stone Labyrinth", but imagining to have those huge holes filled between Hydlaa and Oja, and even more between Hydlaa and the Fortress sort of convinces me at once.

[Duraza]

I'd still even say new area because I get way more excited over them when they appear. Of course any extension would excite me right now  However, if no to the Stone Labyrinths I'd definately go with smaller villages to kind of give us an idea about how those kind of things would be treated ingame. Its like of course it would be nice to be able to be in a completed Oja but we can still kinda fill in those blanks using rp and probably be right. We couldn't do the same with an area never to be in the game so we are almost forced to semi-ignore them. We know they are there somewhere but almost act as if their not because we can't say we know how they are going to work.

[Pizzasgood]

You people are either wusses, or have lived in the city too long.  There's absolutely no reason to have any tavern-like things between BD, Oja, and Hydlaa.  Think about it:  How long does it actually take to go between BD, Hydlaa, or Oja?  You can get between them in under a half hour.  I walk further just to get to my bank and Radio Shack!  Now, if it were a two or three hour walk between cities, I could understand an inn or two between them.  But as it is, the only thing that would really make much sense is a small trading post situated in the middle, so that people can meet halfway.  But it's really not that far.  Besides, I like having lots of nice peaceful countryside, without much going on.  It's more realistic, and it jives better with Planeshift's "take it slow" mentality than having filler all over the place.

I do agree that there should be a little more evidence of civilization out there though, but not because it's a vast expanse of nothingness.  The opposite, actually.  The area is mostly empty, sure, but it's so small of a distance that I don't see it being empty at all.  There ought to be farms and homes out there surrounding both cities, thinning out near the midpoint.  Barren areas like we have now would be between things that are very far away, in the areas where the farms and surrounding civilization have thinned out almost completely.  If there were a three hour walk between Hydlaa and Oja, the "expanse" we have now would be a nice example of what to stick in the middle, except it would need to be larger and have an occasional house (maybe two per current area, so four if you doubled the size, etc.)

To clarify, yes, I do want big areas of nothingness, bigger than we have now.  I just want them where they make sense:  between places that are actually a long ways apart.


I voted for Stone Labyrinths, by the way.  I wanted to vote for the DR, but that's not as important to the game as a whole yet.  The way I see it, the order should go something like this:
Stone Labyrinths
Expand Oja
Add some small other places
Expand Hydlaa
Add a new place (any would do)
Expand DR somewhat

Then cycle through adding a place, expanding a place, and adding little things.  Since the DR and the Labyrinths are supposed to be tremendously large, they'd actually become their own "realms" and contain their own cities and such, so rather than "expanding" them, you'd eventually be adding new places the same as you would to Yliakum.


When I ignore the game as a whole, the places I want most are bigger DR and Klyros town, followed by Kran town and Stone Labyrinths, then Talad's temple, the Xacha observatory (I think I heard about such a thing), and small places.  Then the rest of the raffle can get their home towns, preferably starting with the Xacha and Nolthrir.

[Raa]

I voted for smaller villages, mainly because I'd like to see economic expanses and new areas and places to see and different things to try out. Travelling's fun.

[Dajoji]

I would love to see more of the DR citadel. It could offer a great opportunity for better RPing death and its effects.

[Erisnas]

I would say that you should first expand the DR enough that it isn't so linear.  You currently take one path and thats it.  I wouldn't say add more features to it but have other ways to get around.  After that I would say to the same thing to the living world.  We an equivalent of a city opposite hydlaa between Oja and the BD.  In theory it would be much like a square or diamond (depending on where the layout of the city is) that would allow you to go around hydlaa, take a shortcut to the BD, or explore the large area that it would open up between the cities.  Now until then I would vote for small villages or something of the sort.  Personally what I think would work best is when a new village is added have it out of the way and add just a small bit of space to the map border.  That way as the features grow the maps slowly do as well, to a point.

[Under the moon]

Replace the hills around the roads with scattered farms (no need to level the hills). After all, the Dome is meant to be the 'breadbasket' of the realm, and every square inch of avalible land would be used for making food, or planted in textile crops.

Farms is not on the list, though.

[Jeraphon]

You can get between them in under a half hour.  I walk further just to get to my bank and Radio Shack!  Now, if it were a two or three hour walk between cities, I could understand an inn or two between them.

Consider that time moves more quickly in PS. Yes, you can get there in under a half hour real time. But in game time, it's about four times as much.