Travel and explore Cairn

[eisprinzessin]

Table of Contents

• Open world design
• World map
• Riftgates (Portals)
• Movement speed
• No mounts

[eisprinzessin]

In Grim Dawn's open world the players have more control over the pace of their progress. [1, 2] Most of the above-ground world is seamless and actually a large, connected expanse of land that makes geographic sense. [3]

Titan Quest was basically a long, linear corridor. A lot of the area in each terrain region was taken up by boundaries and unplayable area. In Grim Dawn, it is a larger open space where most terrain regions are almost completely comprised of playable area.

With a wider, more open space, you could spend a huge amount of time exploring an entire area or race across it in a relatively short time since you don't have to follow a long, winding, linear path. [4]

To ensure a better flow for the world and reduce potential to get completely lost, each area is somewhat self-contained. Instead of being a wide-open world where areas just sort of flow into one another, areas are mostly enclosed with a few choke-points that lead out into further areas. This helps to make it more obvious when you're transitioning from one area to another. [5]

Grim Dawn is paced out more by increasing difficulty than the length of world you need run through. [2] So, sheer walking distance is less of a factor now and character level / player ability are more so. [1] If you ever feel you've out-leveled an area, it is very easy to proceed to the next area of challenge. [6]

However, if you run ahead to higher level areas, there will be a minimum enemy level, so that the world doesn't completely scale with you and you can encounter enemies too high level to safely take on (although you're welcome to unsafely take them on). [7] The developers also want to color-code regions, to give players a clear idea of how tough an area they're entering relative to their level. [8]

To gain entrance to some higher-level areas, you'll do things like gather resources to repair bridges or defeat enemy checkpoints. You can attempt to do this as soon as you manage to get the resources or are able to overcome the enemies guarding the entrance. [7] There are some parts of the world that are impassable due to fields of aetherfire (at least, until you have built up enough resistance), other places have elemental-like anomalies that can manifest and attack the player. [9]

Eventually some quests will take you back to familiar areas at higher level. [10]
__________________

1. Some general suggestions Jan 2011
2. external Reddit IAmA May 2012
3. external Reddit IAmA May 2012
4. State of the Game Address Mar 2012
5. Pondering: how open is too open? Apr 2012
6. Difficulty levels. Aug 2010
7. external Reddit IAmA May 2012
8. Pondering: how open is too open? May 2012
9. Show us your Desktop! Aug 2010
10. external Bigger penalties for dying Nov 2009

[eisprinzessin]

A big, more detailed world map is key to creating a believable and intriguing sense of place. [1] It stimulates the imagination and drive for exploration where you can see far off, cool-looking areas on the map that you want to get to but aren't necessarily sure whether it is even possible and aren't sure what you might find there. A lot of older games were like this where they'd have cool semi-hidden locations (not even hidden really but just areas that the main story didn't direct you to) that weren't even part of the story but you might stumble upon them if you ventured off to the right spot on the map. Often the only way to really find them was to look for places on the map that seemed sort of unique and then travel there.

Most modern RPGs feel like they are designed so that the player is intended to find all the locations in the world. But it is important to create optional content because even for the portion of the audience that never finds it, it plays a role in creating the "magic" of the game. Part of this magic is feeling like a game is more than just a carefully scripted series of events that designers intended for you to see and that you may find things in a game that most people don't. Whether this is true or not doesn't matter, it's all about creating the right perception. [2]

Grim Dawn will have a much improved world map this time around that shows region names and is integrated with both the quest and riftgate systems. [2, 3, 4]
_________

1. World Map Mar 2012
2. Portal system Jul 2010
3. Pondering: how open is too open? Aug 2010
4. suggestion: world map May 2011

[eisprinzessin]

Grim Dawn is meant to be a little more like a compressed MMO world where there are a lot of unique locations that you may want to revisit at different points in the game but the riftgates are there so that you don't have to do a lot of monotonous running. [1] Riftgate is the name for teleport portals / waypoints - they've been made far more frequent than in Titan Quest because you should be able to easily revisit and replay areas you enjoy. [2] Once you found a riftgate in game you will be able to see it on the world map. [1]

Due to the much more extensive system of riftgates, Grim Dawn got rid of Titan Quest's respawn shrines. [3] When you return to the game or die, you will appear in town and can then take the riftgate closest to your last location or wherever you want to go. [3, 4] This will better enable people to get to regions of the world they want to replay and is a better fit for Grim Dawn's more open-world layout. [5]

Players are able to create a riftgate, so that they can teleport to any known riftgate and return to this one later. [6, 7]

A newly developed system allows the engine to randomly place riftgates to different regions, some extra-dimensional realms. [8]
_________

1. Portal system Jul 2010
2. Level Paths and Dynamic Barriers May 2012
3. Some questions... Feb 2011
4. Some questions... Feb 2011
5. Race and Class Questions Jan 2012
6. Few suggestions I like to see in these types of games Jan 2010
7. Software Patching Jun 2010
8. external Reddit IAmA May 2012

[eisprinzessin]

The movement feels very good in Grim Dawn. [1] In Titan Quest the movement speed was set with the expectation that players would be able to find +% movement speed greaves almost immediately. Unfortunately the way loot drops were configured didn't support this and if the odds worked against you it could be a long time before you got +speed items. [2] For Grim Dawn the base speed has been set at a more optimal level. [3]

The terrain does not slow movement – neither water or mud nor slopes. [4]
_________

1. movement speed May 2010
2. movement speed Apr 2010
3. my ramblings on TQ Oct 2010
4. Movement Speed impacted by Slope Sep 2010

[eisprinzessin]

Mounts require a lot of extra work even if they are only for transportation. To actually enable people to fight from them would be a huge undertaking. [1]

Non-combat mounts would be much, much easier but they would still require some tech, a high-detail model, and another animation set. Crate would have to sacrifice a large monster or boss enemy in order to make the model.

Depending on what we made it could be more or less difficult to make it look good in motion. Horses, in particular, are difficult to do well because people know what a horse should look like moving and long-bodied, four-legged creatures are tough to make look good taking sharp turns.

What purpose would mounts serve? This isn't a gigantic MMO world with lots of distance between points of interest / groups of enemies. More so, there are riftgates for covering those distances. Combat mounts are out of the question and adding non-combat mounts seems like it wouldn't serve much purpose other than to aggravate players who had to constantly get on and off them every 5 seconds to engage enemies. [2]
_________

1. Grim Dawn looking good Jun 2010
2. Grim Dawn looking good Jun 2010