Jason, the map is huge but very samey, kind of worthless

pein · 2019-12-03 04:48:45

This was a thing from the beginning, I imagined the world full of mysteries, interesting stuff, you said things like "takes 34 years to travel all over it".

Sometimes I see interesting patterns, trees are in a line, 8-9 veins in a spot, tons of rabbits, but nothing really is like "I don't want to go back home, this land is so nice".

After like 100 hours into the game, players realize that travelling is not that fun, nothing really different.

Want could be changed that people feel some sort of connection to the map? Like albion online had an interesting map, where biomes were far away and different, but we got biomes and making them smaller or bigger doesn't really change much. Cities look the same cause they got the same resources around them, nothing really makes you prefer one over the other. No special resource or bonus to be somewhere than staying other places.

I like the recent map changes, the world is more interesting, it can have a few decent variations but nothing really catches me about a place.

I had the idea of sectors and others about islands, we need a bit of enclosed place, to control a bigger spot with ease but be open the same time.
Not sure what the solution would be. One specific resource only available in a limited territory? controlling territories alone with your family, giving advantages?
We need that certain feeling that "this place Is special!", that we want to come back and hold it for a long time. To make countries there, to find our way back, or to want to travel elsewhere for a different experience.

Lava · 2019-12-03 05:31:22

100 percent agree needs to be some variation with the map while also making it compact so players aren't spread out drastically as time goes on.

Gogo · 2019-12-03 06:23:12

Maybe islands and make the language specialists only ones who can travel by boat?

Spoonwood · 2019-12-03 08:52:49

Yes.

The map is also very samey with respect to temperature, and became so after the temperature overhaul. It got even more so since the topographic ring system introduction, since the biomes that cover more of the map all are the same temperature. And I imagine it's even more samey for players since the dropsy got introduced. I made a post about that here: https://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=8586 I really don't get how it's advantageous for so much of the map to have the same temperature, and every single Eve camp have the same temperature problem to the same degree. Other sci-fi games like RimWorld and Oxygen Not Included have more variety with respect to temperature.

And I've heard that traveling isn't fun since the dropsy got introduced.

Last edited by Spoonwood (2019-12-03 08:53:11)

DestinyCall · 2019-12-03 10:05:08

I feel like this is a very common issue with procedurally generated maps as a whole. Too much randomized variation doesn't mean endless variety - it means endless sameness.

There's an endless variety of different arrangements of the biome-specific resources in each biome, which does help different areas appear different. One swamp might have very few ponds and another swamp has tons of clay. But after you've seen a couple swamps, they all start to blur together. Even if you come across an interesting random pattern - like a cluster of valuable resources or an unexpectedly linear arrangement of trees, it has no real meaning or significance. It doesn't work very well as a landmark because if you can have ONE swamp with six ponds, you can have two or three or a dozen of them. If you search long enough, you will find another swamp that looks eerily familiar. Because there really isn't anything unique about it. It's all just randomness. And randomness repeats over and over, given enough time.

There are various ways to get around this. Minecraft is an excellent example of a game that tries to provide an infinite procedurally generated world that is able to have unique landmarks and interesting features. I think part of the answer is providing some "handmade" features or more unique zones. Back when we were trapped in the Rift, the walls of the box served as useful landmarks, because we knew they were unique. It is harder to make something like that in a true open world. But I think oceans, rivers, and mountain ranges could do the trick. A large enough body of water could serve as a hard boundary, effectively preventing travel in one direction, even though the world itself continues infinitely. Alternatively, impassable stony "mountains" or chasms could block movement across a large swath of land. People would live in the areas between these natural boarders, forming smaller regions within the endless map that are more clearly defined and unique from each other.

Another option would be regional variety. Currently, every jungle looks the same. Every desert looks the same. Every prairie looks the same. It would be pretty cool if these biomes came in different "flavors". Perhaps instead of all prairies being identical, some of them are heavily populated by rabbit burrows. While other ones are heavily planted with squash, beans, and corn. While yet others are filled with waving stalks of wheat, as far as the eye can see. The other resources are less common but still potentially present. But when you come to a new region of prairie, it could be dramatically different from the last one. Likewise, you could have some grasslands or areas within the grassland where trees grow very densely or dirt deposits are plentiful.

This already happens by random chance, but if these regions are actually designated, they can be tweaked to adjust how often they occur and add other biome-specific variations. For example, perhaps in densely forested areas, you can find wild mushrooms. They don't grow in other parts of the grassland, just the parts where lots of trees grow. Likewise, in the prairie, some spots are heavily populated by rabbits and only in these areas, you will sometimes encounter wild foxes, attracted by the rabbits. This would create distinction within a particular biome, so they are not as uniform and predictable.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-12-03 04:48:45

Jason, the map is huge but very samey, kind of worthless

#2 2019-12-03 05:31:22

Re: Jason, the map is huge but very samey, kind of worthless

#3 2019-12-03 06:23:12

Re: Jason, the map is huge but very samey, kind of worthless

#4 2019-12-03 08:52:49

Re: Jason, the map is huge but very samey, kind of worthless

#5 2019-12-03 10:05:08

Re: Jason, the map is huge but very samey, kind of worthless

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