Let's Talk Exploration

[Hjormel]

• Ruins = History etc/ loot

• Other settlements = new enemy / trade / etc etc

• Dungeons = loot / end game

• other islands = by this they can cover large part of the maps and well, give us new land ( than they need to fix big boats)

[kasimirtlw]

You know how you actually start each game hunting down the bushes wild silkweet and the little flowers to get good resources. How you can see the complete map . would it not be better to have an actually fog of war and a scout class. he/she removes the fog of war , looks for hidden buildings, and brings back plants he find on his searches. now that the wood cost for ladders is gone he schould be able to build ladders bij himself to go up or down a level or just make it an innate ability of the class. As tool to make him a walking stick made at the carpenter

The hidden building part could add quest to the map
or just needed to find those pesky goblins.
he could spot animals for the herder
he could spot minerals in the rocks

[Hjormel]

I see some good stuff in this post, like the wanderstick the FoW, IT’S an intresting concept with all this FoW // Unknown // Black Land things,

[Domino]

@[quote=“kasimirtlw, post:1, topic:26295”]
The hidden building part could add quest to the map
or just needed to find those pesky goblins.
he could spot animals for the herder
he could spot minerals in the rocks
[/quote]

I like the idea, usually I have to keep 20 plus hearthling behind walls, so an explorer class to see what will/won’t kill me? Im in! better than blindingly going into the wilderness.

would it be a 2nd tier or 1st tier, like how a mason is needed for a potter, would a explorer be a beginner or would we have to craft an item (I.E. a walking stick) with a certain workshop exp? I like the idea, just curious how far you thought it through… sorry if that sounded brash.

[TurtleSquish]

Hey @kasimirtlw your suggestion is a good one, the idea is discussed extensively in the post “Let’s Talk Exploration”

@allie has confirmed that she is thinking seriously about fog of war.

[Geokhan]

I think it would be cool, if the fog of war was an actually fog that hung over the landscape. blurring out things that were far away. Just imagine a group of goblin marauders pouring out of the tree line in the early morning mist. (probably too GPU intensive) *This was the best I could do quickly with Paint

[Hjormel]

hahaha, lovley job there matey.

[AaronD]

Photorealistic grafics here. Holy ****!

[Sweet]

I’m a fan of classic AoE fog of war as well as the two states in League of Legends (which simplifies a lot of these concepts). Overall I agree that there is a better experience that can be created from updating vision within Stonehearth.

[Hjormel]

but than we’d need like direct-control, and if we get direct control id love to get formation for my warriors…

[coasterspaul]

I always had Hearthlings place ladders across the map to push back the fog of war. It worked alright.

[YetiChow]

I’ve found that sending individual footmen out to explore with attack or move flags works well enough. Thanks to their speed boost at level 1, they make ideal explorers IMO, since they can defend themselves or outrun most enemies, and they can be individually controlled and told to move or wait somewhere for reinforcements (e.g. if one finds an enemy camp, you can have them guard outside its aggro range while you call the others over.)

[Hjormel]

ye thats what i been doing also, but id love to have some more idividual control, maybe be able to do like shieldwall, spearwall, make em go in formation etc.

(im a big total war player, and age of empires… age of mytholgy… player… . i think you got my drift’ )

[malley]

@TurtleSquish

There are three major problems ( from how I see it)

I agree with Problem #1 completely : ).
Problem #2 is more debatable, is Stonehearth a game where you should take over a hearthling in an FPS mode or with complete control like Rimworld? We aren’t sure, but we are asking ourselves stuff like that : ).
Problem #3 is a little grey… I’m not sure what you mean, but if you’re just talking about not having enough things to explore and look at - we all agree. We also actually already have systems which would allow us to create more content (like the goblin or orc encounters)- the issue is literally time required for us to make stuff, and other problems which need solving first. Rest assured, we will eventually add more and more different story arcs : ).

@Aviex

Unknown is pitch black, you have NO CLUE AT ALL what is out there.

Out of Range is land that has been explored but currently there are no unit there to see what’s going on. A goblin encampment could have spawned and you don’t know cause clearly you’re not there to see it.

Visible Range is pretty self explanatory, you see everything. Any units moving, any and all action in the area(basically what the default is now).

I love this notion of fog of war, but is that 100% what stonehearth needs? I’m not so sure, maybe there could be a better way to do it? Maybe not, but even if we go with this, what kind of literal visual do we want to represent it? It is definitely being discussed thoroughly by us here : ).

[TurtleSquish]

@malley what do you think about the idea of implementing nodes (like those promised in Kickstarter?)

[malley]

I’m not sure what the nodes thing you are talking about. Got a link?

[TurtleSquish]

In the original Kickstarter videos they talked about having nodes which are like interactable quests throughout the world. Once interacted with, the quest/ event would spawn in.

I’ll try and get a link for that video.

Edit: so I found the link on Kickstarter but for some reason the discourse isn’t allowing me to post it. The video is easy to get to, just go to the Kickstarter and watch the only video on it. turns out my memory failed me. The idea I was taking about were called modules not nodes.

[jomaxro]

Here’s the video:

[BarbeQ]

This is the first time, I saw this video. But now I want this Cthulhu-look-alike in game.

Imagine: it’s a dark and misty night. All is calm, the Hearthlings are sleeping in their beds. But there is this strange, unsettling feeling. In a near lake, small ripples start to cross the water. They grow larger and soon, bubbles start to emerge. A giant shadow rises from the depth. And the HE comes to the surface…

And me is sitting infront of the screen: "oh my god, he’s so cute! Can I have him as a pet?

[Aviex]

Titans are planned end game bosses in game if I remember correctly. Though I think they’re still ways away off from being added.

@malley

I love this notion of fog of war, but is that 100% what stonehearth needs? I’m not so sure, maybe there could be a better way to do it? Maybe not, but even if we go with this, what kind of literal visual do we want to represent it? It is definitely being discussed thoroughly by us here : ).

@malley Depends what role the player is supposed to fill in the grand scheme of the game. Are we the overseeing god that controls the Hearthlings actions? Are we more of a “King” or “Mayor” to these hearthlings that tells them important tasks to be done but let’s them manage themselves outside of that? If we’re a god why can we only control the hearthlings and not all creatures of the world?

I believe it makes sense to add some sort of fog of war to the game because we technically shouldn’t know what’s out in the world. We are only living vicariously through our Hearthlings in this game, we should see what they can see and experience the game like they do. There could be changes based on the gameplay, perhaps on peaceful mode the entirety of the map is revealed because you’re not at risk of being attacked so it’d make sense normal hearthlings would go out exploring. Whereas in normal or hard mode there’s monsters afoot, only trained “professionals” should be out in the wilderness.

All-in-all it’s up to you guys on what you do, and I’m sure it’ll be amazing regardless. I continued to be surprised with the decisions made by you all and I look forward to many more surprises to come!