Are you serious? I walk up to a glowing green curtain and suddenly, without any warning, I go from full health to dead and have to trek all the way back 1/4 of the way across the map to get my stuff?
That’s an absurd design decision from the early-2000s when no one knew any better. That’s the exact same sort of mechanic from the early days of Everquest 2 where you could just randomly die while crafting. That’s just an ABYSMAL design decision.
This is fundamental Game Design 101. You don’t put mechanics into a game that arbitrarily kill a PC without any kind of warning or messaging. And no, the fact that there’s a green light isn’t a warning. There are other places in the game that you’re supposed to interact with that glow, some of them being green. For all the player knows, it’s just a magical curtain that’s going to teleport them somewhere, or the entry to another area, or the entry for a dungeon.
If you’re hell-bent on killing a character to keep them inside a boundary or keep them away from areas you haven’t built/released yet (a ridiculously poor choice if you do it, but whatever), you should give the player a countdown that forces them to turn back and then if they don’t, sure, go ahead and kill them.
The Curse wall( aka Green Wall of Death) is mentioned in the cut scene after Conan rescues your character. He tells us then to avoid the wall and that we cannot cross it due to the bracelet we wear and cannot remove.
You are in the Exiled lands where you are a prisoner. There is a barrier around it. There used to be more barriers but as zones were opened up the barriers were “broken”. It isn’t a wall and if you take off your bracelet you can walk right through it. it only kills you if the bracelet is on.
If I’m not mistaken there is actual lore in the game that tells you this flat out.
Despite what Cattibria said you can take it off anytime you wish. It just hinders your ability to survive in the Exile lands.
It’s sort of a ‘make the mistake once, then never do it again’ mechanic. If you don’t know any better, you’ll wonder what the shimmering wall is.
If you’ve played games before, you’ll already have a sense that it’s either a physical force-field wall, or an insta-death wall.
It’s a weird, glowing, pulsating curtain. I don’t think it’s outlandish that such a strange magical phenomenon can kill a person.
It’s also not ‘artibrary’ in the least. The cursed bracelet is one of the most fundamental pieces of the ‘Exiled Lands’, the area where the game is set. Lore-wise, humans were forced to wear the bracelets and worked as slaves for hundreds of years until their revolt. And to beat the game, you have to successfully remove your bracelet through a ritual requiring unique magical items.
The Cursed Wall is one of the biggest part of the game. Everybody’s gotten killed by it. Sucks to lose your stuff, but it’s a rite of passage.
I said you can take it off anytime you wish. It just hinders your ability to survive…
That is 100% true. At any time you can hit the remove Bracelet button. Yes it does kill you. Which is a major hindrance to your ability to survive. Nothing I said wasn’t true. (I have 400 hours in the game)
When the game first came out in early access, I played for a few hours. Then I found myself at the wall. Stared at it for about a minute and then knowing full well it would kill me… I just had to touch it.
I also had to see when I first played. It’s kind of like sticking your tongue on a 9-volt battery. I was on a server and people were talking about a green wall and dying. I thought it was just talk. This was two weeks into early access. I found the wall and walked into it to see what would happen. I have been playing ever since. Never did that again.
One of the fun things about this game is learning through tough lessons. Things I learned not to do: do not walk into the green wall, do not jump into the Yog pit, do not dodge roll near a cliff, do not get into a duel on a bridge, do not go into that pool of green liquid in the dregs, do not forget to carry a full water skin or three… the list goes on and on.
I just want to add that I am happy a game punishes players with instant death for skipping dialogue.
Also note that in addition to Conan telling us, doesn’t the wall at the very beginning also tell us we can’t leave? Also isn’t there something about we can’t leave in the dialogue when you learn the “clap” emote or something?
So just in the first 15 min of game play there were three notices you can’t leave and hints or outright statements that if you try to leave you will die. I never even bothered to look for the wall because I was told numerous times we can’t leave.
I’ve been a game designer, product manager, and producer for online games for almost 20 years. I can say without a doubt that you’re making weak attempts at trying to justify poor game design. Rite of passage? Oh, please.
Taking it off with out getting the needed items to safely remove it results in death. They have to explore to find the lore. It is a good chunk of the game for SP and Coop. Until you can safely remove it. My advise is not to.
The cursed wall is THE ENTIRE PREMISE OF THE GAME. The more of the story you uncover the more you learn who put it there, why it is there, why you are there, and how to escape. the entire objective of the game if you adhere to the journey is to escape the exiled lands alive.
Sounds like you’re just bad at video games and bitter you haven’t produced anything noteworthy in your career and are raging over it.
What do you mean, "Cutscene or no, this is a bad “feature”. ?
For crominey’s sake, it’s in the lore and it’s a hell of a lot better than having some invisible wall you can just keep knocking your head against. Then also since we can climb, it would make even less sense to have terrain in the way.
Well as an “Experianced Game Designer” surley you reliesed what would happen if you touched such a poor game design mechanic, hell my little girl walked in the room while i was near it an told me not to go near it as it looked bad.
