Re: CF: Map integration (was Dtabb land)

["Mark Wedel" <mark@icp.siemens.com>]

On Jan 19,  7:53pm, Christian Stieber wrote:
> Subject: Re: CF: Map integration (was Dtabb land)
> Mark Wedel (mark@icp.siemens.com) wrote:

> It probably depends on the map --- it can be an advantage, too.  For
> example, I didn't connect Grey Island via the ship as the map
> designers suggested, since that makes it too easy to reach the place.
> Instead I've put a "mini quest" into the main maps (Navar city) --- you
> have to find grey island first. I just considered grey island to be
> a hidden kingdom.

 This is certainly true - some hidden islands or just other islands can make
sense.

 But at somepoint down the road (who knows when), the world will be one
effectively huge map (broken into smaller pieces for managability) - the point
being to go from navar city to dtabb land, you would hop on a ship and then
move east for 100 spaces or something.

 When that happens, these islands will need to be put someplace on the world.
 Now it may very well be the case that it would be highly unlikely for someone
to wonder accross them randomly (and as such, clues in the tavern may be
given), but the point is at that time, all these islands need to then be set
down someplace in the world.

>
> I guess I'll have to redesign the mini quest, though --- too many
> people come from other servers and they never stumble across the new
> mini quest because they don't know it's there :-(

 One problem with crossfire - it can be difficult to know about the quests, and
can be tiring trying to interrogate people to find out information.

>
> Also, "integration" often isn't desired at all --- for example, why
> should everybody in some town talk about some _secret_ place where
> ugly things are happening? Or why should there be "go left for the
> secret lab" signs? :-)

 True.  This is part of better integration in some of the maps.  For example,
there could be records in the oldcity from the past about some mysterious
island someplace or whatever else.

 Having people in the tavern actually talk about the stuff makes things easier,
and with no one path in the quests, it is sort of needed (in the above example,
if a person ever did the oldcity quest, they would never know about that
mysterious island.)  That could perhaps be removed some with multiple clues in
various places.


> This is even true for a set of maps --- if you kill the great master of
> something, why should he have a map with him that tells where to use
> that key he has? He knows it --- and he won't tell you. Maybe he even
> has his secret treasure chamber way across the world, in some dungeon
> that might look disconnected at first, because there is no "get the
> key from the great master of something" sign.

 Certainly true.  One of the things ultima did was having various pieces of
something that need to be picked up from various places - you need these gems
or these items to do something.  Doing this in crossfire could be useful in
that some of the apparantly meaningless dungeons right now could be given some
deeper meaning (a component of the larger quest)


-- 

-- Mark Wedel
mark@pyramid.com
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