The Spice Road Makes Zero Sense

[silverpheonix]

It should not take less time to sail from Aerelith to Sibayad than it takes to get from Sibayad Town to the Sibayad docks. Sure, Sibayad has a fountain of youth. Who cares when you're starving to death because your main food supply is either spoiling in the desert heat or getting eaten alive by gigantic lizards?

[LivelyParticle]

Also a door to the potential Underdark on said spice road shouldn't insta-kill you for trying to open it.

This also makes zero sense.

Area Name: Sibayad (Shallow Caverns)
Area ResRef: ir_sibdark07

[PowerWord Rage]

I think, perhaps it's worth considering putting a one-way teleportation from Sibayad Town to the Dock?
This will still make running through the Spice Road for new adventurers relevant but largely diminish the fatigue from having to run from the Town to the Dock all the time therefore, discouraging players to actually dock at Sibayad ( Especially Jewel of Aziza )

It will also make gathering for Voyages at Sibayad much more likely since you're not going to like spending around 30minutes to travel from Sibayad town to the Dock, before the sailing even begins.

[In Sorrow We Trust]

Also a door to the potential Underdark on said spice road shouldn't insta-kill you for trying to open it.

This also makes zero sense.

Area Name: Sibayad (Shallow Caverns)
Area ResRef: ir_sibdark07

yeah that's someone's quarter

[Eira]

There is a portal destination near the docks on the distant shores side, that most people who sail on the Jewel are aware of.

[D4wN]

It doesn't take all that long with a few haste spells and invisibility to run to the town in my opinion. I didn't find it super annoying when I've had to do it a few times.

[silverpheonix]

It doesn't take all that long with a few haste spells and invisibility to run to the town in my opinion. I didn't find it super annoying when I've had to do it a few times.

I ran, hasted and invisible, from Sibayad while a group set sail from Crow's Nest. The sailing group beat me to the docks and met me on the Spice Road after they had taken a detour to board a ship and grab a side ley. That's just silly.

[Old Lies Die Harder]

There is also something to be said for respect of player time. What does this area add to the player experience, and what does it cost?

The spice road is quite frustrating because it is a further expansion of the design philosophy that has been pushing large, empty, largely featureless areas between the cities. There are few objects of visual interest in these spaces, they are too large to effectively or naturally cause players to come across one another, and they necessitate hasting and running through the area to accomplish things in a timely manner.

I understand it is to be a large, vast desert, but that sort of feel is well accomplished by the Lost Desert areas, all of which have interesting landmarks whereas things like the spice road do not.

If this were a movie, traversing the spice road would be a portion covered by a montage. The design of these areas make it a main plot point, which is a shame because there is little to do in these areas but beat on mobs that serve to slow the journey down by being relatively unthreatening tarpits.

It takes a lot of time to traverse this road, and it is very much a chore rather than enriching experience.

[Irongron]

In regard to the sailing distance, the time taken to sail to Skal and Sibayad is obviously far less than it should logically be, I think that true for a lot of sailing.

With the Sibayad areas it's a mix of small and large, With the Spice Road I really wanted to create a vast expanse that would be extremely demanding to travel the one time one needed to, so that the eventual arrival would be a significant achievement. Personally I do really enjoy it, but understand that it's not to everyone's tastes.

I tried to avoid the need for repeated journeys by keeping dungeons/points of interest at either end, and having both a destination and source portal near the docks. I did want those spaced out though, as given the status of Sibayad and the UD transition I envisioned quite a lot of PvP.

With the road areas themselves there are over a hundred rare encounter things dotted around, but not on the road itself; I left that mainly for PC bandits

Aside from optional writ work though, I do think a single character only ever needs to travel the road once?

[Definately Not A Mimic]

I enjoyed the Spice Road though I am glad it isn't needed to be traveled every single trip. Some days you just don't have time for that. The only negative I had was one zone had zero resources, and one other had only one. These are crazy minute nitpicks considering how many other resources there are along the road and below. It simply gives no reason to roam off the road in those two spots.

[Edens_Fall]

My first time traveling the spice road was pretty epic. It reminded me of mad max, which I adore. I do think the expanse of the road and surrounding areas has a lot of potential for Arelith lore landmarks , future updates, and plotlines. A DM could do so much with just the spice road alone story wise. So yeah, while it might seem bothersome now, just think of what can be done and work towards those goals.

Underdark raiders on the highway. Mainland invasion starting at the docks and marching across the desert to crush the town of vile evil. Holy orders crusading across the sands to free the lands. Those are just ideas players can do. Imagine what the DMs can pull off. I'm pretty excited to see how thing go.