Ocean Spaces

[Wanderer]

Bit confused here.  I accidentally entered a deep water space trying to get a boat back to continent 1.  My own fault, I misunderstood something.

However, I started apparently in the third chunk, on land against the second chunk.  Which means... I can't leave easily.

Was this intentional, and I'm open to suggestions (though by the time someone reads this I'll probably have escaped by just flying for the first chunk).

[x4000]

Yes, it's intentional -- in fact when you first send your canoe into the water tiles it warns you not to jump out if you're not well equipped, etc.  Deep sea diving is dangerous.

[Wanderer]

Hm, good to know.  Well alrighty then.   Platforms + Storm Dash is your friend.

[Martyn van Buren]

This reminds me --- are you thinking of ever adding islands and other reasons to go deep into the sea other than travel? 

Actually, considering that you can get off the boat in water, there's no reason we couldn't have islands like the one on Toll's server (is it still there?) be a regular feature and just defined as part of the continent they're next to.  It would make the maps a little more interesting.

[x4000]

Islands already exist -- even if you don't just consider ocean shallows to be islands.  But they tend not to show up until continent 2 or 3, and not even then.

In terms of adding more to ocean exploration: yes, definitely, that's something I want to do.  Having some guardian power scrolls that let you "discover" new islands that are part of older continents strikes me as particularly interesting.

[Martyn van Buren]

Oh, cool!  I keep starting new worlds and haven't actually finished a continent in single-player; I thought the one in Toll's server was a bit of pre-continent geography that got cut off by the update.  Anyway, great!  The scroll idea sounds very interesting too.

[Misery]

So, is there an actual POINT to these spaces right now?  (in terms of the content once you jump into one)

Currently, I have to say it's pretty much the only gripe with the game I've been able to find, is that the ocean sections honestly seem really badly designed, unless there's some huge element I'm completely missing.   It seems though that characters are utterly unable to swim?    No vertical movement, and...... yeah.   I ended up getting up to go get a drink while waiting for my guy to die from tiny fish, because there seriously wasnt any point in doing otherwise;   couldnt just exit to the left or right, because BOTH sides (in a zone that was in the middle of a string of 5) had huge walls that just went straight up to the surface.  On top of one of those walls is where my guy spawned ()

Tried floating up on boxes, but the need to shoot idiotic fish kept blowing them up (and actually placing them seems a bit..... overly quirky).    There doesnt seem to even be anything IN the ocean areas whatsoever to check out.    Literally the ONLY things that happened were, got to ocean space to look for item that the encyclopedia said was found there (and wanted to try out the water-breathe enchant), dropped down, explored bottom REALLY SLOWLY for like 10 minutes, found a whale (which promptly just hovered in one spot that I couldnt really get to in order to attack), which just spat fish for the next 10 minutes before I got tired of it and gave up.

The one point where I DID reach the surface, the box placing was too quirky (seriously, boxes/platforms need to have more horizontal range; they seem pointless right now if you're NOT trying to place them vertically, because they're GOING to get stuck on each other)  and regardless of what I did my guy kept stacking them ON each other as opposed to dropping it forward so I could make a bridge;  caused me to have to leap back into the water due to one of those worm things.




This game is SO freaking great otherwise, but these areas..... I'm sorry, they kinda suck, lol.    Though if there's some entire game mechanic I'm missing that I'm supposed to use here, do let me know.....

At the moment, just REALLY hoping there arent any important items that are ONLY found here, since I really dont want to do that again.


I will say though, my godawful gamepad doesnt help.   Cant use mouse controls with this one (physical issue), and this bloody controller is a nightmare.... never buying another Logitech product again after this thing, haha.

[x4000]

At the moment, there's nothing that you can get only from ocean tiles that you can't get somewhere else (like ocean shallows).  For the moment they are mostly a very dangerous, very dead and empty sort of place that you can explore if you wish, as noted.

For the barrenness of it and the high vertical walls, both are actually bugs that crept in during the weeks prior to 1.0.  Technically they are more logic errors than actually bugs, but you get the gist -- they weren't intended to work that way.  One of my things to do for the next week or two is to fix those bugs so that more is actually down there and so that you don't have to ride to the surface in the main ocean areas in particular.  But then there also needs to be more of interest in them in general.

Right now you can go in there for some hardcore enemies if you wish, but other than that you could think of them as "remainder space" for the moment.  We'll do more with them soon!

[Bluddy]

Chris did you see my suggestion in Mantis to use spell recoil for moving around ocean spaces? What do you think of that idea?

[mrhanman]

Doesn't storm fist already do this?

[Bluddy]

Oh I haven't gotten around to trying that. OK then.

[mrhanman]

I take no credit for the discovery. I read it here, though I can't remember who mentioned it.

[LintMan]

Oceans become a lot more manageable once you get some of the mobility boosting spells or enchants.  In addition to Storm Fist, Lesser Teleport also works very well: just keep casting it straight up.  Stuff like Ride the Lightning or the double jump enchant will also help.

[Misery]

At the moment, there's nothing that you can get only from ocean tiles that you can't get somewhere else (like ocean shallows).  For the moment they are mostly a very dangerous, very dead and empty sort of place that you can explore if you wish, as noted.

For the barrenness of it and the high vertical walls, both are actually bugs that crept in during the weeks prior to 1.0.  Technically they are more logic errors than actually bugs, but you get the gist -- they weren't intended to work that way.  One of my things to do for the next week or two is to fix those bugs so that more is actually down there and so that you don't have to ride to the surface in the main ocean areas in particular.  But then there also needs to be more of interest in them in general.

Right now you can go in there for some hardcore enemies if you wish, but other than that you could think of them as "remainder space" for the moment.  We'll do more with them soon!

That makes alot more sense.

I was wondering why a game that has so much STUFF in pretty much every area would have a space that's just so blank and barren!

And I'll try the teleport thing when dealing with water, that sounds like a good idea.

[freykin]

Another thing that helps is if you place some boxes or platforms, they will rise to the surface, so you can ride them on up. There is also a good swimmer enchant, which I have yet to get, that is supposed to make water navigation easier.

<--- has spent far too much time in the ocean shallows.