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This is what I originally expected the Alik'r Desert to look like in-game.
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Turelus✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭I do wish the zones had been a bit bigger. One thing I think SWTOR got right was making the big planets feel big, especially Tattooine, the vast empty desert whilst barren gave you the feeling you were on a vast empty barren planet.@Turelus - EU PC Megaserver
"Don't count on others for help. In the end each of us is in this alone. The survivors are those who know how to look out for themselves."1 -
Nestor✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭I have lived in a desert for almost 30 years. Dunes are a feature in some areas of some Deserts. Sure, the Sahara is vast sand dunes, but surrounding it is a larger desert that has some vegetation and other features.
They are not empty by a long stretch. In fact the Alikir zone is a barren wasteland compared to say, the Mojave, Sonoran and other deserts in the SW USA. Sand Dunes are indicative of getting no rain at all, or a very minor amount in a specific area.Enjoy the game, life is what you really want to be worried about.
PakKat "Everything was going well, until I died"
Gary Gravestink "I am glad you died, I needed the help"2 -
LennoxPoodle✭✭✭I have lived in a desert for almost 30 years. Dunes are a feature in some areas of some Deserts. Sure, the Sahara is vast sand dunes, but surrounding it is a larger desert that has some vegetation and other features.
They are not empty by a long stretch. In fact the Alikir zone is a barren wasteland compared to say, the Mojave, Sonoran and other deserts in the SW USA. Sand Dunes are indicative of getting no rain at all, or a very minor amount in a specific area.
There are deserts which are extremely empty on this planet. The best examples are the Antarctica dry valleys (no dunes there though, just lots of grey rock) and the Atacama. Both have some live in them, buts almost entirely microscopic (mostly archae as far as I know) and dormant all of the time. But I guess Alik'r is meant to be like Sahara or the Arabian deserts.
I too would have liked it to be larger. In essence I'd like them to use distance in place of the sight and movement blockers (mostly mountains) in other zones. In the ends ways would be longer, but not that much, because you can move straight from a to b.0 -
SirAxen✭✭✭✭✭I do kinda wish that some zones had a few less wayshrines though. Then again, I'm mostly a roleplayer and like exploration/lore/atmosphere above all else.0 -
Katahdin✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭I do kinda wish that some zones had a few less wayshrines though. Then again, I'm mostly a roleplayer and like exploration/lore/atmosphere above all else.
You know you have a choice not to use them right?
I sometimes run across the map when I feel like seeing the scenery.
But when I've got 20-30 survey maps to gather, I want the closest route possible.
I'd rather not advocate to remove a choice players have when I can choose to alter my own gameplay to suit my mood at the time.Beta tester November 20130 -
Sylvermynx✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Every zone in eso is 'full'. It is disappointing I agree. But thats how most mmos are. Most players aren't looking for a expansive world to explore because that would be too boring.. I guess.
I am, but only if I have a quicker way to travel than on foot, being blocked by things, constantly.
Most "casual" players seem to like flying, but they don't tend to post on forums, too much, so they either don't get given it, or they eventually have it taken away again, if they do.
Then, when they do have it taken away, they finally make the effort to complain vociferously, by which time it's deemed too late and the deed is done.
Then, if they keep on complaining, there might be a half-hearted compromise, whereby it is reintroduced, as long as you are prepared to give the devs your first born...
I don't know why anyone over the age of 20 tolerates this kind of trolling and manipulation, especially from the kind of people who try to do it (who most people wouldn't spit on, if they were on fire), but there you go.
Wow. You said it brother. That was the bottom line for me when I left WoW. They took flying away "except in old content" - and then on top of that, the new content was total crap.
Actually, I would tend to think those around 20 are more likely to tolerate it. I had a really hard time letting go of WoW - it was my first MMO, I really loved it for years, my entire family and many friends played, and "lived" in my guilds. But - I stood my ground.... I played the PTS when they took flying away (first time I was able to download the PTS - actually had enough bw right then for some reason) - and they got my feedback. They didn't care. So I quit paying for 7 accounts. And I never played WoW again.
That's sort of what happened with RIFT as well.Edited by Sylvermynx on June 21, 2019 1:31AM0 -
Aurie✭✭✭✭✭
✭Sylvermynx wrote: »
I was introduced to the Rub' al Khali by one of the favorite books of my life - The Eight, by Katharine Neville.
Thank you, I've just added it to my Kindle library. Sounds like my kind of book, although I find myself more often in Ancient Egypt.
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Aurie✭✭✭✭✭
✭This is where flying in games comes in.
Then you can make big distances between things and have a real feeling of openness, freedom, space and grandeur, without driving people (who are actually trying to get somewhere) crazy.
While people are stuck on the ground and loading screens are a thing, you have to keep the distances less huge, sadly.
Flying mounts in Vanguard were quite a thing, and the best part was the massively long and really quite hard questline to acquire one. The next best part was the fabulous views of the world as you flew over it.
Yup, but all those small zones with loading screens in ESO wouldn't really work
Back on topic, Alik'r is my favourite zone in ESO. I like that it has a variety of desert scenery, ranging from sand dunes to rocky outcrops to oases, with everything in between.....and the ruins fit in just perfectly. The whole place is just steeped in atmosphere
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Edited by Aurie on June 21, 2019 12:34AM0 -
Sylvermynx✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Sylvermynx wrote: »
I was introduced to the Rub' al Khali by one of the favorite books of my life - The Eight, by Katharine Neville.
Thank you, I've just added it to my Kindle library. Sounds like my kind of book, although I find myself more often in Ancient Egypt.
Oh, me too! Because I'm a frustrated Egyptologist.... with a preferred leaning toward El-Amarna.1 -
Darkhorse1975✭✭✭✭✭phaneub17_ESO wrote: »Its like driving through Kansas and all you see are fields of wheat or corn for miles, you go stir crazy when nothing changes for hours.
I concur, I grew up in Kansas...and yes, it made me crazy!Master Craftsman!0 -
Jayman1000✭✭✭✭✭
✭Waffennacht wrote: »But wouldn't that be a lot of work on the servers for no real reason other than atmosphere.
Plus people already hate long rides
I don't think a grand empty desert zone would be a lot more work on the servers than a zone stuffed to the brim with stuff? Your second point is most likely on par though. It seems most players want easy fast content = overland.0 -
Minyassa✭✭✭✭✭
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Just sheer nothing for miles. I had this grand vision of emptiness for the zone when I first heard of it before actually getting there. I had thought the zone would be this vast empty desert of rolling dunes with player hubs scattered around, and it would take you like 10 to 15 real minutes of riding to span the distance, with some quest content in between like a pillaged caravan or a sunken cavern. Instead the Alik'r is very rocky and full of ruins and towns and mines and just, really full.
By the way this screenshot was from when I got out of bounds in Anequina, hence why there's nothing there.
That's really pretty.
I want it as a housing option. Just a huge expanse of empty desert around a housing zone where we can plop tents, build a garden oasis, etc.1 -
Sylvermynx✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭@ArchMikem - finally remembered what your pic reminds me of: Flecker's "Hassan":
... we shall go
Always a little further;
... But in the dreams men dream along the way,
They find the Golden Road to Samarkand.
Such a wonderful poem - it has a part in a book that I read again and again: Elizabeth Goudge's Pilgrim's Inn. I read it ever year to get into the holiday spirit after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. Most don't read her any more - after all, her books are set just after WWII for the most part.... but then.... I was born not long after, and I have a real fondness for her works, and those of Ngaio Marsh.0 -
srfrogg23✭✭✭✭✭
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Just sheer nothing for miles. I had this grand vision of emptiness for the zone when I first heard of it before actually getting there. I had thought the zone would be this vast empty desert of rolling dunes with player hubs scattered around, and it would take you like 10 to 15 real minutes of riding to span the distance, with some quest content in between like a pillaged caravan or a sunken cavern. Instead the Alik'r is very rocky and full of ruins and towns and mines and just, really full.
By the way this screenshot was from when I got out of bounds in Anequina, hence why there's nothing there.
Looks desert-y. Probably boring as hell, though. All that... nothing.0 -
SirAxen✭✭✭✭✭I do kinda wish that some zones had a few less wayshrines though. Then again, I'm mostly a roleplayer and like exploration/lore/atmosphere above all else.
You know you have a choice not to use them right?
I sometimes run across the map when I feel like seeing the scenery.
But when I've got 20-30 survey maps to gather, I want the closest route possible.
I'd rather not advocate to remove a choice players have when I can choose to alter my own gameplay to suit my mood at the time.
For sure. I wasn't advocating, just saying if I had the choice that would be my preference. It isn't any skin off my nose either way.0 -
Dr_Ganknstein✭✭✭✭✭
✭Best solution to this would to be to never invest any points into mount speed. Problems solved. Next.1 -
Jeremy✭✭✭✭✭
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Just sheer nothing for miles. I had this grand vision of emptiness for the zone when I first heard of it before actually getting there. I had thought the zone would be this vast empty desert of rolling dunes with player hubs scattered around, and it would take you like 10 to 15 real minutes of riding to span the distance, with some quest content in between like a pillaged caravan or a sunken cavern. Instead the Alik'r is very rocky and full of ruins and towns and mines and just, really full.
By the way this screenshot was from when I got out of bounds in Anequina, hence why there's nothing there.
I agree with the sentiment. I miss the old days when zones were vast and atmospheric. I would have preferred developers work on ways to make long journeys more fun and involving instead of simply skip over them with a way point every few meters. But I doubt this newer generation would deal with it.
I still remember watching the "Angry Joe" review when this game was first released and listening to him complain about how the game had too much running across long stretches of terrain - even though there is literally like a way point on this game every few minutes....
So I can just imagine the complaints doing this would get.Edited by Jeremy on June 24, 2019 7:50PM0 -
Illuvatarr✭✭✭✭✭Seems like some folks here haven’t been to the Sahara Desert or even the Yuma Desert in SW Arizona. It looks exactly like what op is describing.0
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Red_Feather✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭I think it ruins the game for the sake of mimicking the crappiness of earth.
A real authentic gameplay experience would be the desert in Black Desert which most people ignore because it sucks so much.0 -
Dreyloch✭✭✭✭✭
Just sheer nothing for miles. I had this grand vision of emptiness for the zone when I first heard of it before actually getting there. I had thought the zone would be this vast empty desert of rolling dunes with player hubs scattered around, and it would take you like 10 to 15 real minutes of riding to span the distance, with some quest content in between like a pillaged caravan or a sunken cavern. Instead the Alik'r is very rocky and full of ruins and towns and mines and just, really full.
By the way this screenshot was from when I got out of bounds in Anequina, hence why there's nothing there.
Knocked out of bounds eh? Wouldn't happen to do with that Mushroom cloud on the left horizon would it? LOL"The fear of Death, is often worse than death itself"0
