Settlement Portals Feedback

[Cherno]

Running long distances are both boring and a waste of valuable playing time. Of the three, I must agree with most of my fellow concerned posters that choice "C" would be the least problematic. But, leaving well enough alone, in fact making more portals available in more places, would be my first choice.

[torak101]

Personally I never like the idea of portals floating out in the middle of nowhere.
I would go for A or C if the building/dungeon enterance was in or very nere the town.
Give people a reason to go to towns.

[StabA]

My vote is B, or a B/C combo.

[Lin Mei]

Plan C, and meeting halls sounds good.

[Ayatollah]

Plan C

[Rebel Yell]

Why not both Vendors in the settlements and C? It looks like the explore first before you can portal somewhere has gone away so make everybody happy with both systems.

[Shidoshi]

Plan C the more pack space the better, I know we are talking about making the gems stackable, but if your route calls for 3 portals thats 3 less spaces.

Besides, who really said they were ugly anyways, Kwip?

[She-Nyyx]

Best option: Leave the portals and work on content/gameplay and other stuff. The looks of them don't bother me any. :D

But if moving the portals will improve gameplay (by reducing lag or such) then ...

Option C: takes less room (4 school mage with 1 pack just for DI's) and people are familiar with the system so it would be easy to use.

For questing tho, I kinda like the gem idea of Option B. Easily accessable and they can eliminate two sometimes 3 portal drops per quest and a couple of people I quest with are still on
DIAL-UP :rolleyes:

[Lutieus]

As long as it's still possible to tie to settlement portals, whether in the open or summoned by gem, I don't care.

[XviiX]

well....this would eliminate all possibility of moving around on darktide, that just isnt right
I have to buy a gem in a town, some that I never even have any desire to goto
or
I have to buy a gem from a vendor and that means a ton of running thru somewhat hostile space
or
run to a building that is camped by someone or multiple someones

what was the reason for the change again? what is wrong with the current setup?

[ramallama]

I think this game is getting too 'soft'. There needs to be some 'penalty' for using village portals. So having to run to the village or bum a portal off someone else would add some new flavor to the game.

Also it would be cool to start asking people, who do you have gems to, or who as a portal to podunkville etc.

It would make the game much more interesting to have village gems somewhat scarce.

[Todoshi]

Just to provide some more feedback about the recent changes. I already voted on this, and said, if they have to go, use C, but if it were for me, leave it as it is.
Now with all the changes made, and AC is an old game, it should not change too much anymore, or too deep down in the core (and a new server is no reason to reduce all of AC to **** so that some new players might show up), but we now have good people leaving, and settlements take their place in the complaints.
So I voice their opinion here, because things need to change to the better, and you wanted feedback.
So first of all, dont lie to us, they are not ugly, you wanted changes, then say so, and ask the players, they play and deal with it, not the devs on a daily basis.
Then there are so many ways to do this better and people get the impression you dont even really try. One option would be to replace the portals with stones that when clicked portal you to the settlement. That way you could remove the (supposedly ugly) portals and replace them with stone rings or other sorts of landscape architecture. Something to talk about and admire - but no, we reduce it to money again and made it gems that have to be purchased. Which take more pack space and can be bought in towns, the first idea to run to the settlement and buy there was ridiculous.
Or take up the idea mentioned here, build something into the town halls, they are empty, so make them used again or delete them, they might be ugly, might annoy a dev or two (Ask around maybe in the office), take server space and are useless anyway.
Guys, after 4 years, the exploration time is over! We dont need or want portals in dires (some with dungeons or LS ties is ok as it is), but to stage quests, do temple runs or shop, I dont need to spend more time as it is in boring, newbie areas and run my feet dry

Sorry for the rant in here, but when I see friends leave over the last crappy patches, I get upset. Prices go up, game quality goes down

[Osrik]

I like the idea of A but am not sure that the game is ready for it yet. With the number of quest and other dungeons currenly in non-level appropriate areas removing the settlement portals as a way to get around could make many dungeons and quest inaccessable to the level of characters they are designed for.

Personally I would favour going for B now with the option of removing the town vendors and switching to A only once you have ensured that all quest dungeons are reachable by characters of the levels they are designed for without using the settlement portals.

Personally I do not see the point in C. The portals may look a little ugly, but they also only cover a tiny part of the landscape. I think the time required to move them all into a dungeon could be better used elsewhere. Also I love the idea of being able to hand a gem to my home settlement to anyone I invite to visit my house so am hoping one of the solutions that involve gems is chosen.

[RTA_FF]

While I don’t find the housing portals as ugly as say … the Meeting Halls, if they offend someone’s sensibilities, I would suggest the following as a modification of Plan C:

Why not ask Nuhmidura to conjure a new portal type? As she has found a way to create new lifestones, surely she is adept and could find the secret to new portals? Such a portal would be approached and a drop down menu provided from which to chose destinations.

This would have the benefit of avoiding the Third Party Applications that detect all the portals.

Yes, an idea stolen from Horizons, but not wholly foreign to AC. A stationary portal above ground that provided multiple destinations is certainly not so far from the random portals that Asheron summoned to bring us to Dereth.

If we are locked in to the choices Ibn has listed:

Plan A:
Why would I run to the middle of no where to buy a gem? This game involves exploring yes, but the slow pace of even 350 run is not going to inspire me to run around and buy housing portal gems.

Plan B:
Why do I want my friends to have to pay to come visit me? Or, if I want to hunt some place, why do I have to find another Third Party program to tell me which town sells which gem to which area of the map?

Plan C:
I don’t need another dungeon to download and navigate through. I would use the Bronze Statue Dungeons conveniently in the middle of town or the Meeting Halls, these little used blights on the landscape.

[CherWind]

I like the ideo of having the settlements in a dungeon off the landscape. However I think having a dungeon that is full of portals might be a bit of a download. Perhaps having NPC's that either sell gems or better yet.. you talk to the Vendor for that area and they respond with a list of available portals, you @tell them "settlement name" and they will Summon a portal to that area in front of them automatically. That portal could be tiable/summonable/recallable. So you do not have mulitple portals in one area causing lag, only those that have been requested by using the NPC.
I don't know if this is possible but I thought it might be a good idea. :D

[Evoker II]

Plan C plz or stay how it is

Save you guys the most amount of work as possible. To be honest I never thought this was a big deal. Was there really that big of an uprising to prioritize settlement portals as one of the big "To do" things on the list?

[Jack Sparrow]

BBBBBBB
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[Sabresiberian]

Leave them alone; other than that, I prefer they be put in their own VERY SIMPLE dungeons (plan C) that can be tied to and summoned.

[Fel]

Plan C my first choice:rolleyes: , but also an option to buy gems to settlements .... like you already have with some towns!
:D

[ielchupa]

Please do us a favor and keep the portals!

A game is saposed to be fun! not waste a hour running to-from a destination!

[gaandar]

1st: C :)

2nd: B

3rd: A :(

[Ehran]

Hmm... I have to say that of all the solutions presented, I like the idea of being able to buy the gems at towns and the settlements....

That being said though, I have two things I'd like to bring up (forgive me if they were mentioned earlier in the thread, I did not have a chance to read all 300 replies).

We have seen that we can have NPCs or objects teleport us when used - (Larry the Bunnymaster and the hookable portal for examples). Would it be possible to use this dynamic instead of the standard portal dynamic? From what I have seen, groups of doors and the like create less lag than groups of portals. If, instead of portals, there were pedestals that teleported a person to the appropriate settlement when used, might that solve some of the problems?

With the above, I think the gem sellers are still a good idea, since it would allow mules and such easy access to the settlement.

Perhaps the NPC 'vendor' in the settlements could be an object as well, thus helping to preserve the character of the settlements which might be ruined by having an actual vendor loitering around the settlement all the time.

Just a few thoughts,

-Ehran

[Arch Magi]

On a somewhat related topic ...

"The hookable portal from the Temple of Ixir Zi will no longer be able to be hooked on non-mansion housing. Existing portals hooked on non-mansions will remain where they are, but once they are unhooked you will only be able to re-hook them on a mansion. This portal will also look correct when hooked, although you will need to rehook it to see that change."

Personally, I hope you make it so that this portal DOES NOT work after the patch. I hope that you disable this item, and set up an NPC in town whereby if you give him the portal, he will give you a FUNCTIONAL one.

This will prevent all the peope who are running around hooking them on everything that ISN'T a mansion to now have a nice decoration, but NOT a functional portal.

If you are going to remove housing portals, remove this EXPLOITED one, and give Mansion owners a perk. BTW, I do not, nor will I ever own a Mansion or be in a guild that has a mansion. I am just saying this as it is the "right thing to do".

[MisatoX]

just leave them the way they are

i've been playing this game for over four years, running from place to place is not fun anymore. short runs, the way it is now, are fine.

[Frieze]

Jack Sparrow, did you know you probably shouldn't vote twice?! Especially not if you are going to post the same thing you did before (http://forums.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4242&perpage=15&pagenumber=26), except in bold!

[_AbBaNdOn]

C

The ONLY good thing that would have come from settlement gems would be access to Sawato and its surroundings.

Im incredibly angry this was even a focus of dev time, there are a lot of REALLY good idea's floating around out there and some things that just freaking need fixed like auto targeting, cycling of corpses, dead casting, etc etc.

[Tinestram]

No changes, please.

But if you must change, please go with C.

Any other change gives an advantage to professional house hunters.

[Kitoko]

townhalls are hardly used, put them there. put a path under the stairs or something, why add another dungeon.


kit

[Arch Magi]

Plan C

I would suggest adding alcoves to the Town Halls and put the portals in the alcove.

BUT, if you can, why not make it so that you can justify the 6 skill credits for specializing Item magic and make a few new spells. Like:

Fashion portal recall gem I & II. Level 6 spell. Makes a gem of either your primary or secondary portal tie. These gems can ONLY be used by people who have Item Magic SPECIALIZED. When used, they act just like a "portal recall gem".

Fashion portal summon gem I & II. Level 7 spell. Makes a gem of either your primary or secondary portal tie. These gems can ONLY be used by people who have Item Magic SPECIALIZED. When used, they act just like a "summon portal gem".

[Ardham]

My vote would be C but let me expand on your ideas a little.


Currently we have subway, new subway, the old starter-town run portals etc... In the middle of towns we have meeting halls and the statue dungeons as well as arcanum reps and wedding planners in some towns...


Why not improve things a bit. Derethians are notorious for "changing the landscape" each month and living thru disasters and finding a better solution to common problems.


My suggestion is, if you're trying to move some lag off the servers by moving the portals that you incorporate a central transit hub why not expand it further.

Make use of the existing statue in the middle of town as the portal to the new hubs and remove the dias door from the statue so it's always open.

The new central hub would have all towns in it, the portal to all housing areas that would include the apartments.

When you enter the hub you are in the SAME hub as all cities. It could even have a lifestone if you really wanted to be helpful. One dungeon for all means you can dedicate a server to managing it with say Marketplace. Already we've seen evidence that servers can handle this kind of behavior. And already AC has been handling people using Subway all this time.

Be sure that there are no jump requirements, and if you want to restrict access to the "harder" areas you could easily do it by level reqs... 10th for capitols, 35th for harder towns like Teth/Ayan/etc.

The central hub could have a master mage in it for each racial type and remove those from the landscape as well... You could also move the Arcanum and Wedding planners out of the towns and into the hub.

You can also have a portal to rentable meeting halls and restrict access to a particular monarchy when rented for a period of time (say 2 hrs and then auto boot everyone in the meeting hall out to the hub drop). The meeting halls would be the same meeting halls we currently have but re-done for a cool new use.

You can have a central link to all wedding locations as well and stop selling invitations... If you really wanted to you could introduce themed wedding chappels (small rooms with SHO/GAR/ALU style).

This would effectively retire all the housing portals, subway could be remade into something more deadly or enjoyable with a story line change causing a collapse on the existing portals or whatever with Asheron saving the day yet again by creating the central hub.

And you'd offload the large collection of portals from the landscape and remove some dungeons that no longer seem to be used for anything other than a portal jump to another town.

[_DOT_1_2_3_4_5_]

C .. I do not have room for even stackable gems and would never just buy one to explore... the portals give me that choice

[Alltu_Tru]

of the 3, I would go with B... but...

I like the idea of a modified C, have dungeon, but also have gems for getting friends together without all of them having to go to the dungeon or you having to lose a tie that you might not want to lose just to tie to your own settlement.

[MimsterofMT]

I have little space in my packs currently and having to carry gems takes even more room and burden.

why are you all changing the existing housing portals? just LAG?

I like option C if you MUST change the way it is.

Mimster

[D X Mage]

C

[Kossuth]

Definitely not C. I keep several monarchy tinker/crafter and mule characters in my house and use the portals as a convenient and easy transport route.

They have absolutely zero chance of getting through a dungeon.

B would be good but I can live with A.

Just NOT C! :D

PS: Anyone who says they don't have space for a single stack in their pack is being at best disingenuous. I run heavily stocked mages and before a loot run have half of my entire main pack clear despite having a LOT of quest items - what sort of strange characters are you playing!

[Rakulp]

Greetings,

They have absolutely zero chance of getting through a dungeon.

I don't think anybody is proposing a dungeon with critters in it, like the existing subs.

If Turbine feels they are so ugly that they are a pox to this great land of ours, the Town Halls or a temple that leads down to an open dungeon area with the portals will earn them the Good Housekeeping seal of approval! :)

[Morgeneshg]

C - it is easiest to give people directions on how to get to your house than it is to meet them to give them a gem (most times.)

[Jack Sparrow]

BBBBBBBBBBBB
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Is that loud enough for you Frieze? :D

[reevenatural]

ok lets use the dungeon in town, or even the less used meeting halls.

and on the subject of exploits, if u can TRADE or give the gems, wouldn't having a large discrepancy in pricing just add another BOT item in MP. example 5k fo gem in settlement, 20k in the town, BOT sells all day long for 10-20k.(buying stacks of twenty for most desired {quest}settlement portals.

[TTF]

You could, of course, make us all happy by combining b and c :D

[Ashida Kim]

I would deffinately be all for Choice C. Since thise will make the meeting halls somewhat useful again, you may even want to expand on it. If people want gems as well, add a vendor in here. Add a couple more mana pools for those buff bot babies and for mana elixir crafters. You might even have the lifestone right outside the meeting hall and have the town portal drop come out there as well. In addition, I would suggest moving the meeting hall into town as well.

Will add one other note since I have heard some stuff about it in the rumor mill:

If you are thinking about adding something akin to the forge systems of AC2, and/or something foe PK's to fight over, this would be the perfect place to put them.

[Ibn]

Thank you all for your valuable feedback on this issue.

After reading your feedback and discussing the issue a great deal internally, we came to a decision yesterday.

Option C seemed to have the strongest backing in this thread, unfortunately when we considered the amount of work required to hand-place each of the portals in a new location, we realized that it wasn't feasible at this time.

Option B also had support, but not as much as option C or a "write-in" candidate -- make no changes.

In the end, we have decided to back off the changes entirely and leave the settlement hubs as they are for the time being. The changes are being moved from "In Development" to "In Concept" as we have not permanently ruled out option C or option B. We've simply ruled them out for the near future.

This information will also be in the April Letter to the Players.