@Site_Users,

We are excited to announce our plans for the future of exploring in Sylestia. The new style will first be available with Astryl's Vale. We will then revamp Viridian Meadows and Umbra Forest so that all of our content is on par with each other.

The Current System
Currently, zones are set up to be a series of steps. You start at step 1. You "Explore the Area" to trigger events based on your current step and then end up on a new step based on your actions. Eventually, you reach the end of the path and at that point you can just endlessly explore the zone by triggering a random battle/event. The path is very simple and inflexible.

In Dungeons, as those who have completed them know, they are stationary sets of steps with the same responses to the same triggers. So again, very simple, linear, inflexible paths.

What's Changing?
Basically, everything. Our new exploration system will create basically dungeons, as many games refer to them, for each and every zone.

Think of each zone as something like this:



Each coordinate has something tied to it. You will be able to travel North, South, East or West instead of just "Explore the Area". If you choose north, you will move north 1 block in the zone. If you then choose to move south, you will return to the place you just came from. If you are in the north-west corner of the map, you will only be able to travel East or South. Hopefully, this gives you an idea of how exploring will actually work.

Points of Interest
Each zone will contain many points of interest. Named, bosses, treasure chests, gathering nodes, special hidden vendors, etc, etc. Let's say you just entered a room with a named. This named is only available in this location and if you want to find him again, you must travel back to this location. All points of interest will have respawn timers. Meaning, if you defeat a named at 12:00pm... it might not be there again until 12:30pm. Respawn timers will vary depending on what the point of interest is.

All Zones Will Become Open World
In addition to the above, zones will also become open world. This means that what other users do affects you. Let's say I just defeated the named, Lord Bibblesworth, 5 minutes ago. If you enter his room searching for him, he won't be there because he has say, a 30 minute respawn timer. After 30ish minutes, he will respawn and be available for battling again.

This is how it will work for points of interest. Everything will have its own respawn timer and once one user consumes/defeats it, it will be unavailable to all users until it respawns. But do not worry, we will put in place certain mechanics to keep a handful of users from taking 90% of the spawns for certain points of interest.

The above idea has been revised.

We have decided that we will make all points of interest be on individual respawn timers. This means that other players will not affect your exploration. If you defeat Lord Bibblesworth, he will be unavailable to you until he respawns. This will not affect other players' Lord Bibblesworth.

This is how all points of interest will work.

However, we will add Raid Bosses to zones and they will be global. Raid Bosses will require multiple players to be defeated. Battling a Raid Boss will be a different style of battling compared to battling by yourself. Turns will calculate once per minute, not when you finish commanding your pets. Abilities such as Fairy Light will affect everyone's pets, not just your party. Additionally, you will be able to use Healing abilities and buffs on other player's pets, not just your own. There will be a special display to show all pets involved in the battle. We will also develop a raid chat feature so that all players participating in the battle can easily communicate. Downing these bosses will require teamwork and cooperation.

When a Raid Boss is defeated, all players who sufficiently contributed will receive rewards.

Lock In System
Once all of the available regions are using this new system, we will introduce the lock in system. This basically states that when you enter a zone, you are locked into that zone and cannot visit another place without first leaving. For example, let's say you're exploring Fungus Grove. You travel around a bit and your pets are beaten up pretty badly. You don't have any more consumables so you need to return to town. If you decide to do so, you must leave Fungus Grove. Leaving will reset your location within that zone to the entrance. So if you are deep inside Fungus Grove, leave, travel to Esior's Haven to restock, and then return to Fungus Grove you will be at the entrance.

The reasoning for the lock in system is to fix some current possible exploits, make exploring more realistic, and make some content (such as Dungeons) challenging in other ways than just "this boss hits harder". This will also increase the value of consumables which will be important when crafting is introduced. As many veteran players know, Potions are not all that valuable atm and you all probably have 1,000 stockpiled in your Inventory.

The lock in system will also make it interesting when other continents are introduced much later in game. Let's say you want to visit another continue to the east. In order to do so, you must travel to Esior's Haven, visit the dock, hop on a boat and begin traveling across the ocean. Once you make it, you'll now be in the new continent. If you wish to return to the original content, you must travel back across the ocean.

We feel this makes the game feel larger and more adventurous. We feel that this will make it more fun traveling around the world rather than just clicking a few buttons and poof.

Maps and Cartography
With the new system, we will also offer Maps. When you purchase a Map, that zone's map will become unlocked for you. While exploring within that zone, you'll be able to open the map and see your current location, the location of named spawn points, boss spawn points, treasures, etc.

Maps will most likely cost a little bit of diamonds and be account bound.

However, we are also working on the idea of cartography - where users will be able to buy or develop some sort of tools to be able to make their own maps and then trade them to other players however they wish.

Conclusion
That's basically as much as we've thought about so far. We hope you guys are as excited to read about this as we are to create it. We think this will be a huge advancement for Sylestia in the long run and cannot wait until all of the game's regions are developed in this manner.

And just to reiterate, Astryl's Vale will be developed with this system. The system will not be fully functional however until the first 2 regions can be revamped to the same system.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments about the new exploration system! We are very eager to hear what everyone has to say.

holy crap, this all sounds so amazing!!! I can't even imagine how much work you guys are putting into this game. the new zone structures will make this so much more realistic, and it's gonna be so much fun imagining my pets and myself exploring dimly lit hallways, taking a break now and then to regain our strength while one or the other keeps watch... thanks for all your hard work! I'm really eager to see how this gets implemented.

I-I don't like it... Reading about it almost made me cry. The lock-in system seems horrible. because if I need to go and heal them to 100% for a boss, I don't want to have to go through all of that again and have my pets beat up again before I can reach the boss. I love the sylestia exploration how it is. Sure i think sailing the ocean seems fun, but I like the 'Explore the Area' thing and love the sylestia exploring how it is. It's one of the only reasons I keep exploring.

This sounds awesome. Exploration is one of the reasons I've played RPGs for years, and being able to take a more active approach to it is nice.

I have to say.. not having any warm fuzzy feelings about this at all. If I want to Arena or do Daily Quests I have to ruin my exploration progress in a zone? ._. What about doing other things on the site such as breeding, equipping or leveling up my pets? Is that going to count as me leaving?

Having played many an MMO I also dislike the shared spawns idea. This tends to lead to people figuring out when things respawn and tirelessly spawn camping them. I really don't see how a system can be put in place to stop that. Especially if people just sit next to the spawn and wait for it to come back all the time as happens in MMOs.

@Creativity,

This is why we have consumables. Just simply bring some Potions with you to heal your pets outside of combat.

Crafting will also offer ways to create even more powerful consumables.

I love this. It's adding a new challenge, which I love. I'm excited!

@Krinadon,

But as Zelly had said, what if we want to do dailies or stuff like that? We will ruin our progress and need to start again. Zelly had covered a lot of the things. Like the spawn things. Someone would need to wait days maybe even weeks to kill a boss and complete a quest because sylestia is getting bigger and bigger so it just... can't work.

@Zelly,

No, breeding, changing equipment, or spending level up points will not affect exploring.

Also, 'leaving' a zone is not as dire as some of you are assuming. It's not like you'll lose hours of progress. Traveling will also not be like it is now. You will be able to travel multiple spaces at a time without encountering a single issue. Zones will not be like ridiculously large.

I imagine it won't take long at all for you to reach a specific location in a zone after returning. Maybe 5 minutes?

As far as the spawn timer, there are many right and wrong ways with dealing with it. We will do our best to make it as fair and fun for all. We will see how things turn out and adjust accordingly.

I don't mind taking the time to put a map together I don't like the idea of having to pay (real money in game gold I'm OK with) for the privilege of having a map of the area. I real big on keeping games free.