The intro area of ATitD is a newbie island in the style of EQ2, where you learn the skills and basic elements of crafting. As a tutorial it’s Ok, but you have to follow a checklist to ensure you make every component and harvest the right goods to meet the criteria to move on. The way you move on is interesting: you have to build a raft to escape the newbie island. As a hint or warning I can tell you *not* to bother building a loom (they give you a sail once you qualify to learn “raft making”). I have to also check the dates, but I think ATitD was the first possibly to use this idea of an instanced tutorial. If so, kudos to them on good design, since it’s something everyone else has now copied.
The UI is challenging. It’s mouse based movement like in Shadowbane, and I can’t yet find a way to play out of window (full screen). That said, you can get the hang of quickly enough and explore and craft. There are some buildings to visit optionally to see the kinds of housing you can have eventually. And there are “universities” you have to visit to learn the skills to make the next qualifying component you need to progress. There’s a series of statues on the road from where you first spawn that helps explains what to do and where to go.
Some things worth noting: you get to farm. Yes you could “farm” sort of via harvesters in SWG, and now you can actually throw seed and farm in LotRO, but ATitD was probably the first to use deformable terrain and timed growth. In the tutorial you have to grow flax. A small bed of flax spawns near where you “plant”, and graphics of flowers appear. Now, what’s cool is that you have to “weed” the plant once the graphics change (yellow flowers appear on the stalks). If you don’t do that, the flax goes to seed and won’t bloom. But then you can harvest seeds. You have to weed 3 times in order to eventually be able to harvest the flax. Likewise, you can harvest seeds 3 times, and at the end the flax-bed dries up and leaves another seed for you to gather. It’s all time dependant. So the challenge is to weed in time before the flax changes — otherwise you are stuck just with seed. And you have to harvest the seed also in time to gain the benefit of the plant producing three times. The models changes to indicate that timer, and it’s a modest challenge. Nice hook is all. This style of interdependent renewable resources I think is common in ATitD, and I want to see more.
All the resources in ATitD are timed, like in SWG, but not random. So a “node” of a certain kind of tree or plant is always there for players to harvest, but there’s a configurable timer for it to be re-harvested (allowing rares to be harder to get I bet). Another cool thing is that every plant model has a name and probably a use: every bush, tree, flower, even grass you can pick up. As you level and learn new skills you can use them in crafting. A nice design element — everything has a purpose, you just have to learn it.
A last thing I liked was there was always a mentor or GM around. There was always during the 3hrs and change it took to me to complete “level 1″ and become a “citizen of Egypt” some senior players zoning in asking if anyone needed help (usually just to find tar). It’s not a heavily populated game, but there was always at 5-6 people around while I played. More to come.
Polar Bears? I am so off this Island.
Recent Comments