Adding New Portals to Community Patch

[Flix 5,167]

Looking for feedback - where do you wish there were portals in Ancaria?

 

Strictly speaking these will be ports unlocked by Ship Captain NPC's, since the limit of portals is already reached, not to mention we can't add the static portals to the map. This is why Ascaron added Hot Air Balloons instead of new portals to Ice and Blood.

What makes this really worthwhile is an upcoming change to the code that allows ship ports to be accessed from the main map, just like portals. In essence, every unlocked port becomes just like a portal. You won't have to visit a captain to travel to other ports; you can get there from wherever you are.

Since ports will function like portals I'm working on a new icon (subject to change).

Here is a map with all ports shown.

Here is a map with all ports and portals, to give a better sense of where there are gaps (if any).

This is the current list of new portals:

Tyr Lysia:

Forgotten Gardens - Home to a bygone Seraphim sisterhood

Noriath Temple - Isolated spiritual enclave

Bluestonbury - Quiet town on the Bluestone Lake

Artamark:

Black Oaks - The largest market in Artamark

Skook's Corner - The DeMordrey seat of power

Orcish Byway - Town on the border of the Human and Orc realms

Lakeview Tavern - Peaceful retreat near the Bottomless Lake

Nor Plat:

Schlun'Zum - Ancient home of the Nur-Trak clan

Dragon Sea Islands:

North Seraphim Island - Ruins northeast of Seraphim Tower

Blackhammer's Camp (North Island) - Camp of the human resistance fighters

Swamp:

Sethiaz - A settlement of the Nameless Cult

Sar'Thaz - Village of Lizard people

Desert:

Dar Al Badja - A troubled archaelogical excavation site

Tharum - The largest oasis in the Bengaresh Desert

Rajab - Town in southern Bengaresh

Dyr Lain:

Eloeth-Sun - A recent settlement of human refugees

Logaeiar - Deserted, crumbling ruins

Wastelands:

Wastelands Camp - Camp near the Great Machine entrance

Blood Forest:

Halko's Manor - Zombie residence

 

[Androdion 898]

A portal in the southernmost part of the Jungle region would be cool, somewhere near the resurrection monolith before Kral's temple. Another one at the top of the waterfalls in the Elven region, east of Bluestonbury's. I can see a few more possibilities, with my pov being to close the gap between wide open areas. If you still need to activate the portal either way it means that you need to travel that distance at least once, but doing several runs on the game should be a lot smoother with a wider distribution of portals. It becomes much more interesting to come back later to those areas and do side-quests for instance. Just a thought, I don't know what your endgame is with these changes.

[Flix 5,167]

Yeah, you would have to visit the location at least once to unlock the "portal" via a captain/mage/travel agent, but once unlocked, they (and all ships/balloons) would act like portals. You would be able to just click them from the main map instead of having to track down another captain to take you there.

 

The goal being to reduce long walks and multiple teleports in order to revisit interesting places.

 

Libi's Pratfall and South Jungle are a good ideas.

[Androdion 898]

Well, if that's the case then I'd say:

 

- North of Sloedorf, somewhere above the semicircle of five resurrection monoliths (there's a huge blank area there).

- East in the Human region, near Bloodclaw's lair (you'd get five portals covering that whole area).

- Probably one more on Christmas Island, opposite to the one there is (so that you don't have to cover the entire island each and every time).

 

That's my two cents.

[Flix 5,167]

>"North of Sloedorf, somewhere above the semicircle of five resurrection monoliths (there's a huge blank area there)."

Yeah! I tried putting one near Benny's Corn Circles, but I had some major glitches. I could try a little more north, near the Old Dwarven Pass...

[gogoblender 3,206]

 

Looking for feedback - where do you wish there were portals in Ancaria?

 

Strictly speaking these will be ports unlocked by Ship Captain NPC's, since the limit of portals is already reached, not to mention we can't add the static portals to the map. This is why Ascaron added Hot Air Balloons instead of new portals to Ice and Blood.

What makes this really worthwhile is an upcoming change to the code that allows ship ports to be accessed from the main map, just like portals. In essence, every unlocked port becomes just like a portal. You won't have to visit a captain to travel to other ports; you can get there from wherever you are.

Since ports will function like portals I'm working on a new icon (subject to change).

Here is a map with all ports shown.

Here is a map with all ports and portals, to give a better sense of where there are gaps (if any).

This is the current list of new portals:

Tyr Lysia:

Forgotten Gardens - Home to a bygone Seraphim sisterhood

Noriath Temple - Isolated spiritual enclave

Bluestonbury - Quiet town on the Bluestone Lake

Artamark:

Black Oaks - The largest market in Artamark

Skook's Corner - The DeMordrey seat of power

Orcish Byway - Town on the border of the Human and Orc realms

Lakeview Tavern - Peaceful retreat near the Bottomless Lake

Nor Plat:

Schlun'Zum - Ancient home of the Nur-Trak clan

Dragon Sea Islands:

North Seraphim Island - Ruins northeast of Seraphim Tower

Blackhammer's Camp (North Island) - Camp of the human resistance fighters

Swamp:

Sethiaz - A settlement of the Nameless Cult

Sar'Thaz - Village of Lizard people

Desert:

Dar Al Badja - A troubled archaelogical excavation site

Tharum - The largest oasis in the Bengaresh Desert

Rajab - Town in southern Bengaresh

Dyr Lain:

Eloeth-Sun - A recent settlement of human refugees

Logaeiar - Deserted, crumbling ruins

Wastelands:

Wastelands Camp - Camp near the Great Machine entrance

Blood Forest:

Halko's Manor - Zombie residence

Thanks Flix for your long-awaited portals. Ancarians have never had it better!

gogo

[Flix 5,167]

I added one more to the list, making a total of 20.  The final travel agent can be found in the Old Dwarven Pass in northern Tyr Lysia.

[Androdion 898]

Cool! Everything is setting up nicely for release. 

[Hooyaah 2,972]

Flix, this appears to be most comprehensive indeed. I was wondering if it would be possible to make the existing portals beneath the Seraphim Island area function so that one could transport below ground from above and vice-versa.

[Flix 5,167]

1 hour ago, Hooyaah said:

Flix, this appears to be most comprehensive indeed. I was wondering if it would be possible to make the existing portals beneath the Seraphim Island area function so that one could transport below ground from above and vice-versa.

It's done.  See CM 1.60 HIGHLIGHTS: GENERAL AND CODE CHANGES