Game Design About invisible barriers

If you want a player to behave a certain way, incentivise them to do so, or make your intended way of playing the path of least resistance. What you do not want to do is put a barrier block.

Sometimes this may not be possible, but always at least try; Im sure you will be able to come up with something great. Invisible barriers are cheap, feel like bs to players, ruin immersion and throw out all built up consistency.

(Im a bit mald, sorry)

 

Barriers around the jungle, Nesaak, rymek, the silent expanse, and the tutorial area are there to prevent the player for performing skips. They're also around the map border to prevent the player from leaving the boundaries of the world.

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Often they are a necessary evil, because can't just make a mountain too treacherous to cross to prevent you from skipping The Great Bridge, or too challenging to scale to prevent you from hopping from Rymek to the Silent Expanse.

 

- Gating off the world border is a given of course ;)
- Barriers around the silent expanse make sense
- Gating off the jungle to force great bridge traversal is something I dont personally like but its ok
- Barriers from Rymek to Wynn plains are unnecessary if there are any; especially since there are paths through that barrier anyway ("To chime and bell, to solitude, I bid thee farewell", also the mines below)
- Barriers from Nesaak to Lusuco are unnecessary if there are any
- I think there are barriers around the pigman ravines which are unnecessary exept for the area thats part of creeper infiltration
- Gavel being mostly blocked to the ocean side feels like a remnant from years ago, please add some more tunnels :)
- Not being able to pass over the Llevigar gate is cringe if thats still a thing
- Ternaves prison is a big barrier block
- There are barriers in bobs tomb around the staicase downwards
- The barriers in the lost avo city discovery are the weirdest thing ever
- Theres a cave in gavel thats a tower near the dark forest if i remember, and the whole tower is covered in barriers for no good reason
- etc.

Often times when I do a quest, I find some way outside the regular area and reach spots where I look out over the edge of the copy pasted quest area onto the far flatlands. I also found multiple spots where you can exit the map and get offmap due to weird barrier placements/holes. I cant be bothered to report all of it, theres so much barrier related stuff thats messed up Id have to write a whole bible length book

 

I also dont quite understand what you mean by sequence breaking in some cases. If by that you mean the Lutho quests, that makes sense. If you mean the barriers between Wynn and the Rymek mesa, for example, then it doesnt. A level 1 player can literally walk to Ahmsord so I dont see it. Its not like you can gain exp in those higher lvl areas anyway.

 

The Silent Expanse stuff is understandable, same with the world border barriers. Those are needed. Forcing the Great Bridge crossing, I don't like it but it makes sense lol.

But I don't get the stuff around the Pigmen Ravines, Rymek/Wynn Plains, and other areas that aren't quest-locked or similar. All that just seems unnecessary, especially considering that there are already ways to get from the Wynn Plains to the Rymek Mesa easily, like Stonefriend mentioned. Wynn is an open-world game for a reason, so I don't see why the mountains should have barriers while the tunnels and things don't. If you're so worried about the player performing skips by crossing the mountains, why are there so many ways to do it anyway? It's not like the game a huge quest either, you aren't "skipping" anything by going to a higher level area. You still have to level up to do anything there, so what's the harm? You can't gain XP in higher level areas than you, you probably can't kill the mobs there, so what's the point of blocking it off? They're called open-world games for a reason. It isn't even a "sequence break", it's just harmless exploration. I just don't get the point of all these needless barriers.

 

Going from Rymek to Void Valley is a sequence break

 

I mean, they said they were fine with the Silent Expanse stuff. It's the other barriers they had a problem with.

 

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I spent more than 5 minutes on this so Im 99.9% sure this is accurate

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Barriers that can be removed:
- Most of Pigman Ravines barriers
- Dernel/Troms barrier
- The two barrier "mandibles" around the towers at the Great Bridge
- Ternaves/Rymek barrier
- Ternaves prison barrier
- Desert/Ocean barrier

 

As I said in the message you replied to, I agree that the barriers around the Silent Expanse borders are needed. It's the other barriers around places that aren't quest-locked (or similar) that are the issues, in my opinion.

Also, if you're so worried about "sequence breaking", hence all the barriers, why can you run ahead of Aledar and get to Lutho the second you start that stage of the quest? Why have barriers on the Rymek/Ternaves border when there's a tunnel you can use to get through anyway? The abundance of barriers don't actually solve many of the supposed issues with breaking sequence, and mostly only end up serving to be annoying., which is part of the reason I think that a lot of them could be removed. Obviously, the barriers around the border of the SE are needed so you can't go there before the quest, along with map borders and such. But it feels like there's so many barrier walls that just don't serve any purpose at all.

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This is a great representation of it, thanks for taking the time to make it.
Agreed with Pigman Ravines, desert/ocean border, and the "mandibles" (lol), there's like no point to having them lmao. Same with Ternaves/Rymek barrier, especially since there's a way through it anyway, they kinda serve no purpose lol.
Why does the Ternaves prison barrier go up so. darn. high!

The Dernal/Troms barrier is also something I'd like to see removed. Having the only way to the Dernal Jungle be the Iboju Village is alright, but like, what does that add to the actual gameplay? It would just make things easier if you could cross the mountains as a secondary option to get to the Dernal Jungle.

 

Hey, thank you :) Im gonna make a Gavel map later too probably, maybe also ocean but I doubt theres anything there so eh.

 

Ok I did it =)

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Sorry I had to cut it in half, it was slightly above the file size limit...
If you want more options:
https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/wynncrafts-barriers.316540/#post-3658152

 

New list of barriers that can be removed:
- The two blobs at Royal Fruma Gate
- The Qira Hive barriers
- Most, if not all, of the Gavel/Ocean border
- That oval shaped barrier east of Korac Quarry thats part of the "From the Mountains" quest
- There are barriers that cut too far into the map imo, for example north-west of Olux, or north-east of the Molten Heights
- There are barriers on top of builds which almost reach to the build limit. I assume these are so people dont scale the builds and hit their head on the height limit border, but Id argue that wouldnt be a big deal and actually adding these giant blobs on top is way worse. Ozoths Spire is an example of this, or also the big blobs in the Molten Heights.
- The barrier around the cave thats a tower just a bit north of the Forgery is extremely cringe

 

Agreed with all of these and especially the height limit thing. You can already hit your head on the barrier roof by just flying on an archetype that can go that high - which is everything except archer lmao.

 

theres a cave in the sky islands with barriers around the top too, imo stopping you from skipping most of a cave is a fair use

I've always assumed there's some way of clipping through the roof of the map from high terrain that these are made to block

 

You cant clip through the roof, trust me I tried xD

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I agree since this barrier doesnt result in a barrier block pillar in the middle of the map :)

 

My thoughts (half of them are just agreeing with others) on every barrier location, running from the image of map barriers:

• Mt. Wynn barriers are not needed, really. And, honestly, I think it would be cool to allow the player to do Arachnid's Ascent through an alternate route if they climb the physical Mt. Wynn and get to the top that way. Would be an interesting way to reward creative problem solving.
• What are those barriers on the grind spot spikes (near Mt. Wynn) even for?
• I'd suggest removing all the mountain barriers in the Jungle, Tundra, and Ravines. (Except for barriers that directly block you from SE or Fruma, obviously they need to stay there.) No point to them. Great Bridge is kind of a joke anyway, not a serious challenge IMO. You can get through it with no issues if you just use a horse, or movement spells.
• Qira Hive barriers should go down.
• That weird barrier pillar at the peninsula house (the super out-of-the-way World Event house) should not be there, I guess?
• The Rymek barriers should be removed.
• That weird prison thing (on the Rymek mountain foothills) is just... what? What is it? Why is it there? Why is it blocked by barriers? Please. Please give that some work. It feels like foreshadowing but what is going to go in there?
• Ocean-Gavel barriers should be removed.
  
• From the Mountains Ridge should not have barriers.
• Random barrier spots indicated in Desert should be removed, I guess? What are they for?
• There's a couple caves which have barriers around them. Mesquis Tower is one which shouldn't. Don't know about the others, but the only use for the barriers, in my opinion, is to directly block you from the end-point of a cave - don't encase an entire cave in confusing barriers. (I'll also take this point to complain about the barriers in Burning Delve+the Elephelk cave in CotL. Those two caves are intertwined, which is cool. What is not so cool is all the random barriers that serve to block you from moving, as well as actually interacting with the two caves in a cool and unique way. Remove, pls.)
• Ozoth's Spire shouldn't have barriers.
• These two areas, I don't quite understand what the barriers for them are. Explain pls?

 

Mesquis tower has barriers so you can't teleport to the end

 

The barriers:

Screenshot #1:
- The bottom barrier is the Uth rune shrine in Aldorei
- The top barrier is the bandit camp from
the "Fallen Delivery" quest

Screenshot #2:
- The one standalone pillar is the "Canyon Housing" secret discovery
- The ones in the Molten Heights serve no purpose
- The barrier circle at the top is part of the "The Hidden City" quest, its the house where you meet Ardulf

The pillar in Almuj is a house used in the "A Sandy Scandal" quest

The pillar in the desert is the "Desert Royal Residence" secret discovery

 

Bandit camp and Uth shrine should not have barriers. Uth shrine maybe, I know it's a combat challenge but having a barrier pillar randomly there seems annoying.
Canyon Housing SD unfortunately needs the barrier, as otherwise you don't actually do the SD's puzzle mechanic. I did run into that house while mountaineering in the Canyon once, maaaaybe it would be good to have climbing the mountain as an alt route... but eh. That's not important.
Remove those purposeless MH barriers, then.
Barriering Ardulf's house is fine, it's typical to barrier quest areas that are on the main map.
Barriering the Sandy Scandal house is probably unfine, I don't see a need. On the other hand, Sandy Scandal itself needs an update. Also, it needs to not gate the bank.
Barriering Desert Royal Residence is annoying, but on the other hand, DRR already has serious problems with being able to get inside before completing the desert discoveries. Desert Royal Residence may have been my first discovery cutscene ever, certainly one of my first, and before any other Almuj discs. I didn't get the XP or completion for it though, I don't think.

 

The barriers there aren't a 'pillar', they are there to prevent from escaping until a minute after the boss is summoned. Which is... strange, but whatever.
About Desert Royal Residence, I am confused about what you are saying. It's an Ultimate Discovery and therefore requires all Desert Secret Discoveries. What do you mean, exactly, by "may have been my first discovery cutscene ever, certainly one of my first, and before any other Almuj discs." You say you didn't get the XP, but you're not meant to enter there before completing all of the Desert SD's, nor is it meant to be a secret. It's in the middle of the main desert path. Almost nobody is gonna miss it on their way.

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If you mean the Thesead area Bandit Camp, then I understand the barriers as they prevent you from skipping into Thesead that way before A Marauder's Dues. I believe they removed the boulder that blocks the other way into Thesead from the West, so you should be able to enter Thesead without A Marauder's Dues, the barriers are simply there to make sure AMD blocks off one of the paths. (And you can still enter from the East.)