In the expansion, would it be time to revive "dead towns"?

[Shultz]

There are some deserted towns in Dereth that needs to accommodate the crowds of people pouring into the game when the Expansion arrives.

There's Edelbar, Tufa, Colier and several Undead Towns scattered all across the map, including one between Zaikhal and Danby's Outpost.

So when we start getting tons of people into the game, to prevent overcrowding in any single town, spreading them out to new, resurrected towns would be a good idea.

And did I mention Forts Witshire and Aimaru? They're worthy of becoming resettled towns once again.

Please tell me, what do you think of reviving the ghost towns?

[Silifi Of Death]

Edelbar? Aimaru?

Fort Witshire? That's not even a town, it's full of hollow minions now.

[Shultz]

Edelbar is west of Holtburg. In 6 PY, Tumeroks sacked the town. By the way, the Casino is just west of Edelbar.

Fort Aimaru is north of Shoushi/Hebian-To

and Witshire is somewhere in the plains west of Cragstone.


Of course they may be full of monsters but in the future, Lore can indicate that we drive the monsters out of there and retake the establishments.

[Shultz]

Hey, we could sure use some towns on the Dereth mainland (even despite the new Viamontian towns on an island).

After all, the towns that are Undead today may be close to some key spawning areas and can be utilized for quests and items that can't be gotten anywhere else.

[GKusnick]

Last I checked (which was yesterday), Tufa is still a fully functional, live town with Town Criers, merchants, a meeting hall, and a bindstone. No Undead invasion there that I'm aware of.

By my count there are 36 functional towns in Osteth, four in the Dires, and eight more on the various islands. That seems like plenty to me. Why don't we wait to see how fast the existing towns fill up before we start removing quest content from places like Colier.

[Schubaal]

What GK said =P there are already enough towns to support almost 1000 people in game AND in town at the same time without any unusual lag issues.

[cstanleytech]

Actually I rather they just nuke and destroy the majority of the towns and enlarge 4 or 5 towns into real cities.

[Schubaal]

No, bad idea... AC2 has a variety of towns, but because of Craft 2.0 putting crafting on 6 towns only, there has been massive lag in towns for players.

[cstanleytech]

There is the marketplace for the crafting so I do not think this change would create more lag since not many people hang out in the towns currently.
Besides none of the current towns are not very inviting to newbs since they are so empty so a major redesign might work out for the better.

[Shultz]

Greg, did you know a Shadow Spire crashed there back in September 2000? You can still see destroyed structures.

Arwic has been rebuilt, so Tufa deserves a rebuild, too.

And I'm sure we can keep the portal to Colier Mines even when Colier is reestablished.

In fact, NPCs can probably inhabit the top 2 floors of Colier Mines but the rest of it stay overrun by critters, kinda like Xarabydun.

Therefore, we can still fight the Old Baron of Colier for the Amulet, even if there'll be a new, living one.


Schubaal:

I read somewhere that Turbine will be conducting a more aggressive Advertising Campaign to get new players to play the Expansion so we will need to prepare the land for this.

Also, I'm sure they'll do something about ill-visited towns so there's an incentive to go there instead of Hebian, Holtburg, and other, more popular towns all the time (as well as the Marketplace).

That will help reduce lag and even give the game more variety, which will be all the more reason to stay in AC.

[Kieoto]

The Undergroud City needs some work.

[Silifi Of Death]

...Just burn the Marketplace. BURN IT.

Or put pookie in it, fill the rooms with Drusge Seraph Mystics for all I care.

The Marketplace needs to die.

It is the epicenter of all evil, the worst thing to happen to AC... ever.

Put crafting bonuses in towns and remove portal storms from towns also.

Interconnect the Arenas and remove any restrictions on them (including the "must be PK/L" req)

Have all archmages sell plats. That is a must.

Make storebought armor equal or even better than loot armor, raise costs if you must.

Remove the vendor sellcaps.

[Shultz]

Kieoto (Kyoto) is right.

Underground City on the Isle of Tears should have a revamp.

It's accessible via Subway so why don't we see some improvements?

[Zero_Washu]

There are some deserted towns in Dereth that needs to accommodate the crowds of people pouring into the game when the Expansion arrives.

I think your imagination is running away from you. There will be no crowds pouring into the game when the expansion hits. AC, if they are lucky, will be lucky to see a 10% population bump. The expansion is only going to protect their current subscriber base.

AC has no real name recognition among most MMORPG players and with those of which it has recognition the majority don't think favorably of it. This of course discounts those who play AC. So where do you think these mythical new players will come from?


As for the towns. As someone else said, DESTROY them. Most are pointless, let alone useless, after the level range of mobs was remapped.

Things that could improve the usage of towns, including dead ones.

1. All towns should have the same buy and sell rates.
2. All towns should have archmages that buy and sell all components, leaving out plats.
3. Move a lifestone to the center of each town if not already done.
4. Add up to two new city portals from each town to facilitate movement.
5. Remove marketplace.

[Hidalgo]

I personally like the idea of leveling most of the towns and making some huge cities, as they are towns in this game compared to other MMORPG's are pretty bland, and since they are almost all alike, what's the point of going to most of them? There needs to be cities and a reason to go to them.

[Yinchi]

I always try to think positive about AC, I have played for 5 years, I love the game in spite of it's flaws and where it is headed.

However, Zero is right. No matter how they market the game, the AC expansion pack is directed towards the existing player base, not towards new players.

I talked with a lot of old players who had thought to return, the new level cap completely turned them off. Another leveling treadmill is not enticing to anyone but those who are already extreme levels, those are the ones who will benefit. There is no inducement to reroll which was what we really needed. Then we would have rerolls to hunt and teach the new players. Now the developers time is spent between 1-275, not 1-126.

Now if old players are turned off by the extreme of levels, what is there to entice new players to this game? Word of mouth is important in selling games, as much or more than advertising. What is there in the expansion pack that we would want to tell new players about, what is there that we, as players could say, that would encourage them to buy this game? That we will reroll to hunt with them, that there will be massive content for lowers? New players would already know this is an old game.

The reason we don't need more towns, although I would like to see the beauty of Tufa return, the towns are dead now. They will come alive again with the pack, there WILL be new players. Then they will die again as those players level. The population of towns are thin now, we don't need them thinner.

[DadgaSilverhand]

Comparing the lore with Ac and Ac2.

Underground City will be overrunned by drudges.

Lyntelthrope vanished left no ruins, possible under the water.

Dryreach? ongoing siege by tumeroks, but it is fated to be overtaken by Drudges which that area will be known as Drudge Citadel (aka Mad Crone Range) and will have a last battle will somehow occur with Tremendous Monoguas the last of it kind and left huge parts of bones and large skull.

Kehan and Millstone hadnt been built yet, even Cavendo. but i am assume that they (good npc Viamonts) will built that town somehow to show how friendly to Aluvians, Gharu, and Sho. somehow to have an accessable routes to New Viamont Island? also, Whitebay created on the part of Linvak.

somehow Buruns and Tumeroks will began to show dislike and will have story arc of a new war after this expansion come out and migration from Marrae Lassel to Vesayain Islands, new home for Tumeroks.

but the question is still burning when o played Ac2, where is Lake Artefun in this Ac Dm? i think it is somewhere south-east of Rithwic. how did the flooding begin to happen?

yeah, we do need connections between Ac and Ac2. dead towns? who knows, only Turbine Teams have some planned for them.