SureAI Forums covering SureAI game titles.

[Hazzmat]

It was quite simple actually....
The only things you need is a teleport stone and a teleport spell from your desired location which you can learn from the priest of said settlement. After that just activate the spell and voila

[Xagul]

After all, fast travelling would be an option if you would add more realism to it, e.g.:
- travelling from a caravansary
- renting a horse or even a carriage
- travelling together with other people
Just clicking on the desired location is lame.
I liked the way it was solved with Drakensang. you had fast travelling, you could imagine what's going on and from time to time there were events on the road (a pack a wolves, a gang of robbers etc.)
And if you do not want to bother yourself with that, teleporting is a good compromise.

[Hazzmat]

I agree. Just clicking on a location is a really cheap option to get away. Skyrim had carriages but you didn't need them as fast travel was still in the game. Fast travel also breaks away the mystery of the game world as you can go anywhere whenever you want instead of exploring the game world gradually.
Another suggestion for the team: I really enjoyed the quest In the Underworld. It was a really special experience for me and probably for others players too. I felt like the main characters from The Fellowship of the Ring who were traveling for days long through Moria with no end in sight. All those abandoned quarters where the Dwarved used to live really made you desperate for combat because you were supposed to talk to them but all you see is ancient ruins, it was really surreal. Something similar should definitely be present in Project 5.

[Topken]

Not sure if I mentioned this in my last post but I really like the way The Lost Spires added depth to Oblivion without making it a you have to save the world kinda thing. They had massive dungeons as well and they were nice. So if you could talk with them and maybe do some things together for Project 5 it would be a match made in heaven I would say.

[Crosshair]

They had massive dungeons as well and they were nice.

A huge dungeon is currently in progress.


btw. don't miss the expiration of the countdown on our homepage today!

[snoozy]

I agree. Just clicking on a location is a really cheap option to get away. Skyrim had carriages but you didn't need them as fast travel was still in the game. Fast travel also breaks away the mystery of the game world as you can go anywhere whenever you want instead of exploring the game world gradually.

Disabling Fast Travel is fine, but I feel it has nothing to do with exploring the game's world. You cannot break the mystery of the game world if the developers create caves and dungeons in the middle of nowhere, which they did, so you're even given a reason to go out and explore the mysterious world besides that it's a fantasy world unlike reality, which reminds me of my Morrowind days :p

Even with Fast Travel enabled, I explored every corner of the game which is how I found most Easter eggs before I knew they were Easter eggs.

Disabling fast Travel should be for those who want deep immersion, who want to ride a horse or carriage to travel city to city, but I never got used to riding horses, the controls are funny and for me as long as time passes when I fast travel, that doesn't break immersion.

Fast Travel is a clever mechanic used in games so people don't quit because of repetitive game-play. Who wants to stop to kill weak low level monsters and beasts over and over again? Crabs? No way unless they can level you up! I know walking along the roads in Nehrim are almost always safe, aside from scripted events so you'll be going along the road to avoid weak creatures that will annoy you run run run run.

You can go with creating portal areas all over the world as in Nehrim, but they'll need no stones or magical spell. That would be easier for me. I'm talking about Divine Divinity. They did something interesting. The portal areas can't be used without a password, which is an ancient scroll you need to find for every race as each number of portals belong to a certain race, like the Human portals are enabled only with the human scroll, Elven Portals near them are enabled through getting the Elven scroll etc, etc. Btw, So that way only you're allowed to use them and say those portal area are ancient and forgotten, so you're the only one to take advantage of them. I loved that game, I'm replaying it right now. DD has so much story-telling and is quite a challenge too!

Also adding Portal stones like in DD would be really neat. I know you guys are better at making your own ideas, so just keep doing what you're doing!

Peace~

[badgesareus]

I don't object to the way that portal travel worked in Nehrim (to buy the teleport spell or find the rune for each portal). What bothered me is that there weren't more portal locations, especially to areas where I traveled often such as Treomar and Stonefield, and only one in all of Southrealm until the Seagate portal was added.

[Nicolas Samuel]

Well, you definitely got a point there - If the world is interesting enough, the players will explore it by themselves. Still, I think, alot of players miss out on a lot of content because they use fast travel on every occasion.
We will definitely include more portals. This is something a lot of players criticized and we will change that.

[Xagul]

Thank you so much, Latiro! To me, that' the main problem of the young gamer generation today: They are afraid of "missing something in an area", they don't want to explore because it might be worth exploring. It's all about quests, points and eastereggs. Face it: Some games are not designed to farm quests, items, gold, achievements or whatsoever alone but have an emphasizing on game design and game play (that's what Oblivion/Nehrim/Skyim is after all: a role-play game).
Therefore, I think including some more portals is a good thing as long as it supports the storyline. The rest of the world should be left to be explored by the gamer.

[snoozy]

Thank you so much, Latiro! To me, that' the main problem of the young gamer generation today: They are afraid of "missing something in an area", they don't want to explore because it might be worth exploring. It's all about quests, points and eastereggs. Face it: Some games are not designed to farm quests, items, gold, achievements or whatsoever alone but have an emphasizing on game design and game play (that's what Oblivion/Nehrim/Skyim is after all: a role-play game).
Therefore, I think including some more portals is a good thing as long as it supports the storyline. The rest of the world should be left to be explored by the gamer.

That doesn't make sense, you said they don't want to explore because it's worth exploring? I think you messed up, I don't think people will ignore an area of interest. I understand you next part, though I think you're talking about the MMO crowd, so I've never played an MMO before. I agree about role-playing games and story that immerse you, though only Nehrim was able to capture me and take me in so deep lmao Not many games can do thatr anymore since developers try to add in the addiction aspect to keep players playing over and over again.

[Hazzmat]

Just crossed my mind: you should totally put some kind of arena in the game. It would be a welcome feature in Enderal as it was not present in Skyrim. The bounty quests should also return I really liked the concept, a quick and fun quest to earn some gold and possibly more.

[Starac]

Big empty map doesn't make sense. Smaller map with interesting story, quests and good RPG elements is the way to go. Look at New Vegas.

Also unique atmosphere is very important, aka Stalker or Vampire The Bloodlines Masquerade.

[Crosshair]

Important request to EVERYONE


When you post a message here, please distinguish between your personal wishes and elementary things which you think are important for an exciting and immersive gameplay, independently from personal favors; do only post stuff that would, in your opinion, benefit the gaming experience of every player.
This is not the place to leave a proposal to implement any stuff which would adapt the game more to your very own wishes. A topic for special wishes will be created soon, please do not hesitate to leave proposals matching your own taste there. Thank you.

[badgesareus]

Surprise me! I want to stumble upon the unexpected. That was what I really enjoyed about Nehrim, I was often surprised. A good example was the Underground journey to the Star People, every time I thought I must be near the end, it changed and continued. Or something as simple as prowling in Gervasius's basement and finding a nautilus, or the serving tray that was also a magic shield! Maybe I click on a bed to sleep, and a spider crawls out.

Please don't reuse dungeon plans. I liked Nehrim because it had many hand-crafted, different dungeons. However, there were a few where the same dungeon was cloned, such as the lava caves which was used 2 or 3 times; I knew already where to go.

Reward long, challenging side quests with something really good that I will want to keep, not just another piece of loot to sell. And it is fun to have to interact with things I find, not just look at the value and stats. For example, in Skyrim when you have go to the inventory to turn and examine each "claw" to see the code on it. To become immersed with armor, weapons, etc., maybe I have to examine (in the inventory) the hilt of a dagger to see the "Zarg" hallmark, thus I learn that it has a soul-trap ability.

[Hazzmat]

Important:


When you post a message here, please distinguish between your personal wishes and elementary things which you think are important for an exciting and immersive gameplay, independently from personal favors; do only post stuff that would, in your opinion, benefit the gaming experience of every player.
This is not the place to leave a proposal to implement any stuff which would adapt the game more to your very own wishes. A topic for special wishes will be created soon, please do not hesitate to leave proposals matching your own taste there. Thank you.

I'm sorry but I fail how to see that my message was a personal wish. The Arena and the bounty quests were present in Nehrim so what's wrong with what I'm saying? I do believe these are important for an exciting and immersive gameplay as it is kind of breather from for instance the main quest. Exciting: fun things to do outside the main quest, immersive: make you believe the world is real and people are having trouble bandits etc

[Crosshair]

Important:


When you post a message here, please distinguish between your personal wishes and elementary things which you think are important for an exciting and immersive gameplay, independently from personal favors; do only post stuff that would, in your opinion, benefit the gaming experience of every player.
This is not the place to leave a proposal to implement any stuff which would adapt the game more to your very own wishes. A topic for special wishes will be created soon, please do not hesitate to leave proposals matching your own taste there. Thank you.

I'm sorry but I fail how to see that my message was a personal wish. The Arena and the bounty quests were present in Nehrim so what's wrong with what I'm saying? I do believe these are important for an exciting and immersive gameplay as it is kind of breather from for instance the main quest. Exciting: fun things to do outside the main quest, immersive: make you believe the world is real and people are having trouble bandits etc

That message did not affect you or your posts. It is only meant as a request to any user here; my apologies if my message was that unclear.

[badgesareus]

I was also rather confused by the distinction between personal wishes and elementary things. As an "end user" of the mod, everything I wish for is important -- to me. Perhaps you could give some examples of personal wishes and elementary things to better understand the difference. I've never been a game developer, so I need to walk a mile in your shoes (I don't know if you have that same expression in German!).

[Crosshair]

Okay, I'll try to explain that better. Let's say, some user posts a messsage here which says that he would like to see something like a spell that makes your character turn into a carrot, just because he wants such content for himself and not primarily as a benefit to every player's playing experience.
I am trying to avoid something like that, by the simple reason that it is really obvious that the majority would dislike it. So, with personal wishes I mean that very special (crazy) stuff that the majority obviously maybe won't like, things that you actually only want for yourself, completely regardless to other gamers.

Please note also that my message was NOT a rection to one special post. I just want to keep this thread in the right direction.


Edit: changed the part "would likely not dislike it" to "would dislike it."

[Josephus]

First off: A spell which turns you into a carrot could be hilarious, maybe in a sidequest where you have to slay a gigantic rabbit. SureAI has already proven they can create a very serious, atmospheric main plot; while convenently surprise with funny parts, as

[+]

in a sidequest where you'd have to save one man's pig; the king of the star people; the star man who was trapped for hundred of years

I consider two things important for Enderal (on the technical side):

1.) It should be a PC-game. This sounds trivial at first, but Skyrim suffered immensely under it's console origin. Although Oblivions user interface was unconvenient for the same reason (still much better than Skyrim's) the rest of the game felt good on PC (Of course battle was boring, but that is generelly a TES-problem). Skyrim however constantly produces the feeling it wants to be played on a xbox360-controller. The most obvious things in this direction is every existing interface in Skyrim and two-handed battle; but it is also about many tiny things, I often even could'nt name, which cause an "inheimish" feeling.
2.) It should outplay Skyrim technically. Yeah, i know, somebody will accuse me a graphic whore; but that is not what I mean. A bad game that looks good is still bad, but a good game that looks bad is frustrating, because it is wasting potential. And Enderal will most likely be amazing with regards to content.
High-Res-Textures are maybe the number one on the list of necessary improvements (Besides the "cost/result"-ratio is very good here), furthermore are the new light- and shadoweffects of Skyrim ridiculous for 2011. Especially annoying are the hard and pixelated shadows. The Level-of-Detail is also atrocious.

There seem to be already (more or less) solutions for a few upper points, will you implement them?
Main Menu ---> SkyUI
Are the other menues even changeable?
Textures ---> different texturepacks. Probably you would do many yourself.
Light/Shadow ---> ENB-Series. Most users overdo it, but capable hands could create wonderful things. (Of course it is still in development, so implementing it not until next year or so could help stability)
LOD ---> I don't know how to fix that, but apparently you did? (The Enderal Screenshot with the far draw distance)

On question at last: The XP-sytem of Nehrim is already confirmed. Will the world again be subdivided into places of different levels (for instance "level 7-14")?

[badgesareus]

If possible, I would like to play Enderal directly from my computer without having to use Steam, as I must for Skyrim.