Transitions

Some transitions can be a pain to activate. Most notable is Horaxona's pedestal, which can take even up to a minute if you're unlucky. I understand it feels more complete to put them at the exact location they're supposed to be, but if it makes it much harder to go through them, it actually takes away from immersion; as in "my PC apparently doesn't know how to take a step in that direction". After all, it's still an ugly blue square that doesn't integrate well with the environment, so let's at least make them easily accessible.

In case of Horaxona, I'd get rid of the pedestal altogether and make the transition more regular or, preferably, make the use of pedestal itself function as the trigger. It really obstructs the transition as it's right in the middle of it, which the engine seems to put a lot of focus on when determining whether or not it's been activated. Coupled with the troublesome shape, it's just too much.


Another thing is their general location, size and visibility. The search for exit out of the pyramid area, if you don't remember where it was, can be frustrating as hell - the PC is banging blindly on the walls, looking for a way to the plainly open space the desert is supposed to be. The same goes for many other areas, where, if you want to move in a certain direction, you need to find the exact spot on the ground to do it. It's just silly and makes those highly-intelligent wizards look somewhat retarded.
Bridges in DR are potentially troublesome too, because they often don't display unless you mouse over them from a very close distance, so it's understandable some might ignore them as dead ends. They're also quite easy to misclick.

But it's especially those large, open spaces that need attention in this regard. There are some indicators in certain areas, such as the crystal in one of Deathwater Island's areas, but in others there are not - and you're playing a guessing game if this clearly open space is mechanically open or not. If it's an open area, let's make it open to walk through as well.

I have found the transition at the pedastal is much easier to use if you click on the farthest part of it from your PC (not the closest). It seems like the game prefers you to have to travel s couple steps to trigger it. If you are standing on top of it, its tricky, but if you click on the opposite side, it should work.

Another DR transition that's a pixel-hunt.... the path going from the fortress to cremetoria island.  It's placed over a curved bit of ground, and doesn't show up unless you hover the cursor over the very edge of the one corner.... it's a huge pain at times.

This takes me back to BOTH Crideas and myself underwater during the event... I could see on the mini-map both of us circle that watery area (the one outside the Bronze Dragons lair) two (maybe three) times looking for the "exit".. It was even shouted out in the chat window.... in the end I found it by chance hidden under some sand and then walked BACK through it to stand at the spot so Crideas (and then Skywatcher! ) could home in on me to exit the place... .... ..


I quite like the big "stand-up blocks" that move outwards from the Vale... there are plenty of other places those could be implemented (like the exit doors out of Calithia or K'rath Scrar)..... some of the best transitions are those for walking around Macedone, you just can't miss those massive doors !

Those "big box" placeable/door-like transitions are VERY nice.  Easy to click on, easy to spot with tab-highlighting, totaly unobtrusive when not highlighted.

@dave: Thanks for the tip!

A big YES for more box-ey transitions. It's such a big difference from those areas with obscure transitions, that it literally feels like a different game to me - one clearly tells you what you see, one puts you in a "walking blind" mode.

What really bugs me sometimes is that many openings don't go anywhere, while many do - and my PCs can't see past the few tiles to determine which is which.
"Oh, a road! *walks... bam!* Well, damn - another wall of nothing I couldn't see."