Coming soon: ESP Zones

Discussion regarding the various areas out there.
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Rias
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Coming soon: ESP Zones

Post by Rias »

I wanted to give a little advance warning that ESP Zones will soon (Actually Soon, not Soon(tm)) be a thing. There will be multiple zones that aren't linked with each other. So going out to, say, Valeria, could move you into the ESP zone that covers that region of the wilderness, which might not be connected back to Shadgard. There may also be some areas that do not have any ESP access, or "ESP dead zones." Mistral Lake and Shadgard will certainly be in different zones. The Einangrad area with the Library of Qamar and Stormholdt will likely be its own zone as well (not connected with Mistral/Shadgard).

I'm really excited for this, and I think it will give a better feeling of distance and separation as going out far away from one's home base can end up moving one out of communications with that base. To me that's an increased sense of travel and adventure and immersion, but I get that there will probably be some who aren't as keen on the idea. Feel free to give honest feedback, but please keep in mind that we will want the concept as well as the zone areas (and dead zones) to have enough time to get past initial reactions and allow players some time to get used to it via actual experience with the new system.

One particularly fun thing we can eventually segue into with this is to allow the temporary capture/sabotage/etc. of ESP sites to extend one's preferred zone, mess with an adversary's zone, black out a resource site before making an attack so they can't call for reinforcements, etc.
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Lexx416
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Re: Coming soon: ESP Zones

Post by Lexx416 »

Very excited for this! I've been hyped for Network Zones ever since you mentioned them, and I can't wait to see how it changes things up!
"You hear the Woses, the Wild Men of the Woods... Remnants of an older time they be, living few and secretly, wild and wary as beasts."
Serity
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Re: Coming soon: ESP Zones

Post by Serity »

I am excited about the idea of ESP zones, but at the same time I feel wary because I feel like it can get very frustrating very quickly if you're not certain which zone you are in or where people can hear you if the game does not clearly communicate that when 'changing areas'. It's also going to be very difficult for people to, for example, ask for an escort from the library to Shadgard for non-combat characters once the wilderness becomes actually properly dangerous, especially if they happen to log on at the library and can't have made arrangements ahead of time to return.
Last edited by Serity on Tue Aug 02, 2022 3:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Maina
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Re: Coming soon: ESP Zones

Post by Maina »

If nothing else, should make ESP spam much more manageable with chatting split across multiple zones. Looking forward to it.
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Rias
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Re: Coming soon: ESP Zones

Post by Rias »

P.S. One planned idea is to have it so two people can register each others' auras to essentially become "friends" (to use horrible modern lingo), and then when using the AURA or ESP command on its own, one can sense any of one's friends' auras that are currently present in the same zone. This would require both to have registered each other, to avoid unwanted ESP presence stalking by people you haven't registered back.
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Teri
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Re: Coming soon: ESP Zones

Post by Teri »

Neat. I am curious if there will be changes in regard to druidic commune in various zones/radius at some point, or in the context of being in different factions in the future.
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Firerose
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Re: Coming soon: ESP Zones

Post by Firerose »

I feel like a naysayer, but I have to admit that it worries me for people who might need help who are far away, new to the game, etc. Plus, I like the idea of everyone being able to talk regardless of location. It's telepathic, there are elements of arcana involved, therefore it seems like it'd make more sense to keep it global.
I've played games where there were no global channels or other ways of communicating, and it created more problems than it solved, unless you were lucky enough to get on something semi-global.
I'm sorry to be the negative one here. It's not something I'm looking forward to, but I often drag my feet on big changes like this. We'll see how I feel after it's been in for a while.
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Rias
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Re: Coming soon: ESP Zones

Post by Rias »

Thinking on the presence concept more:

- It might be good to have a "public" mode where you just show up to anyone who checks who else is attuned in the zone, and those who prefer it can switch to a private presence mode instead where only people they have approved can sense their presence.
- Mutual friends could get a brief ping (flare of the friend's color) when friends enter the same zone or entering a zone with friends present, and maybe a little winking-out of the aura when the friend leaves the zone.
- I feel like I had more ideas along this line, but I couldn't type fast enough to keep up with my thoughts. If anyone has more suggestions for stuff like this, please let me know!
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debaquila96
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Re: Coming soon: ESP Zones

Post by debaquila96 »

From my point of view, having different ESP zones is good as noone can intercept what someone from mistral or Shadgard say, but at the same moment, I don't find it good as someone new in one of the two towns may need help, say, find himself lost, and so on, and wishes to be helped from citizens of his same town.
For this reason, I would suggest another path:
The Shadgardian color for ESP zone, Amber, could become the default one.
The Mistral color will be another, same reason. To help newcomers.
The common ESP color, Gray, will be the one which will have ESP zones.
And here it comes my reason why I say what I say.
Let's say, that there will also be neutral players, ICly would be... citizens of each town who don't like fighting, and so on.
In my opinion, if they don't want to be forced to do war, they aren't obliged to do so.
So, everyone can tune to their desired ESP color, if we can call it like this, and express his political thought. If neutral, keep in the Shadgardian, or Mistral, zone and color. If wants to participate to the war, same thing he can join to the common zone.
I am sorry if my english isn't that good, it isn't my primary language.
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Lexx416
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Re: Coming soon: ESP Zones

Post by Lexx416 »

Rias wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 4:06 pm Thinking on the presence concept more:

- It might be good to have a "public" mode where you just show up to anyone who checks who else is attuned in the zone, and those who prefer it can switch to a private presence mode instead where only people they have approved can sense their presence.
- Mutual friends could get a brief ping (flare of the friend's color) when friends enter the same zone or entering a zone with friends present, and maybe a little winking-out of the aura when the friend leaves the zone.
- I feel like I had more ideas along this line, but I couldn't type fast enough to keep up with my thoughts. If anyone has more suggestions for stuff like this, please let me know!
I think it might be reasonable if Mutual Presences (people who are on each other's "list") could receive Aura Pulses from each other regardless of distance, so long as they're not in a total Pendant Dead Zone - I'd do that on top of the "area presence" mechanics as well, just because those seem neat.





Additionally, the concern about GM Merchant announcements came up on #GAME and assuming you don't have a workaround for that I think it'd be neat if there was some kind of Premium Service from the Twilight Eye for announcements. I would picture it as a message that goes out as GRAY on either all pendant regions or all regions adjacent to the home town the message is coming from (make it something you have to go up to the twilight eye to do) as well as the "home" town of the office in question. You could put it on a slight delay - maybe it takes a few minutes for the messages to broadcast to each region, and they don't broadcast simultaneously to simulate a physical runner going out, or the Twilight Eye doing Weird Twilight Things.

Log uses of this command for the GMs specifically, have an IC set of rules/bylaws/s&ps as to appropriate behavior, and have IC consequences for people that use the service to try to pretend to be someone they aren't (a merchant, another PC, Avery, etc.) - maybe the Twilight Eye has spooky-weird occult ways to block people from the network! Have it expensive (something to the tune of 5,000 riln) and be on a cooldown to discourage folks from spamming it.
"You hear the Woses, the Wild Men of the Woods... Remnants of an older time they be, living few and secretly, wild and wary as beasts."
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