Deep North expectations

[mister_Haladriel]

It's just my expectations and thoughts being exited about new biome.

1. Unique challenge
What challenge of the Deep North will be? I see recurring theme of end-game biomes that they have some sort of unique, almost uncounterable challenge. Mist, lava and fire, but what will be in Deep North? Cold is not the problem ever since we are able to craft frost resistance mead. So it will be extra-cold that will freeze us even in winter clothing? Does not seem so, because in Ashlands you are fine without any sort of hazmat or thermal suit. I guess there will be some sort of dangerous blizzard, that will have unique enemies, or extra wind force that will blow us away, or there will be flying icicles that will hurt us and buildings (DS 2 Frozen Wastes flashbacks). I am intrigued what new harsh challenge devs will throw at us to overcome.

2. Enemies
Devs told that Deep North will be the same difficulty as the Ashlands, so they are beatable somewhat on equal level of gear. But i hope that frozen landscape will be different from eternal fiery battlefield. I imagine that main enemies would be much less frequent, but all of them will be like minibosses. Like snow trolls, mammothes (mammothi?) and other large stuff. And the boss will be Jotun or something of this category, and fighting it will give Shadow of The Colossus vibes.
Of course there will be some smaller enemies, more like fauna. I hope there will be tameable reindeer or some analog for it.

3. New transport
As the trailer suggests, you can enter the Deep North on your regular ship (which makes Ashlands' new ship a bit more useless...), i guess there will be another type of transport. Maybe, if Deep North has the same huge landmass logic as the Ashlands, it will be new ground transport. Maybe it will be sleigh with reindeer? Or special saddle which allows us to harness tamed animals into carts and maybe new type of ground transport. Will see, but i really wish for that kind of saddle or overall ability to do that (yes i want my wolf or boar chariot :D ).

4. Unrealistic expectations
From the start i loved seafaring so much in this game, i even put Valheim with Sea of Thieves on the same level of quality sea time. And i know this is unreasonable, but i so want some sot of a steamboat. Even unreasonably expensive to build and upkeep, even if it requires surtling cores and sap as a fuel, have small storage and mediocre speed. This world already has magic machinery, whole not-so-noric-lore-friendly biome of Mistlands, why not give us a steamboat? Pleeeease...? With nice ice-crushing possibilites perhaps?
And another thing very unrealistic to expect - some form of arial transportation. Airship, flying mount, long distance glider, anything that allows us to conquer the air. It will be cool though, with almost any trade-off.
Or even cooler - some sort of mobile base. There is a mod that adds special type of raft which you can build upon. Imagine even small version of this in vanilla? Just a big raft where you can build chests, some sort of little house and repair stations. Would be neat and usefull, and simple trade-off for this kind of luxary is speed and maneuvarability. Or make this on the wheels and be tugged by loxes, like Haldor and Hildir have. Sounds cool too, eh?

5. Inbetween update
As always, between major updates we have one or two smaller updates. There was Hearth&Home and Mountain Overhaul between Plains and Mistlands, there was Quests for Hildir between Mistlands and Ashlands, and we already have the Bog Witch. So there is some place still for something, and i wish for some sort of Combat Overhaul.
This inbetweener may fix wrinkle that been haunting all of us - vertical combat. Most games have not this problem with missing the hit when enemy being 1mm higher or lower than your's weapon hitbox. They fix it with a bit of weapon hitbox trickery (making them bigger vertically) or just allowing character to bend up and down a bit. Last thing will be easily achievable by adding some sort of camera tracking or simply adding a target lock. Fighting system is so souls-like inspired, so why not to add a target lock even for mouse and keyboard? And change spear attack from vertical thrust to horizontal, because spears (ironically) is super closed ranged, that's a bit sad.
Also this "Combat Oberhaul" may fix another "problem" i have - weapon diversity and progression. I agree with devs on how they see their game, when they doesn't nerf something to oblivion (looking at you, Abiotic Factor and your illogical jetpack nerf). But i feel a bit sad, that cool weapons like crossbows, twin daggers, two-handed sword, claws and twin axes are locked in way too high biomes, Maybe add more "simple" variants of them? Or when older weapon types left to decay in chests for very specific occurances.
Like wooden crossbow from fine or core wood, than iron crossbow, and than mistlands crossbow. Or even left wooden crossbow be, because of his immence force. Two-hander, which you can craft from bronze or iron, and then silver. Twin daggers which you can make from the begging. Like some sort of "unarmed" skill weapons, like cestus in Dark Souls, so you can be brawler from the beggining, and not waiting 'till Mountain just to find yourself never using such weapon because you don't want to "respec" for a weapon you have no skill points in, and then find out that more relevant version of this weapon is nonexistent. Also harpoon is sad and lonely, with no upgrades and left to be forgotten after catching some serpents...
Magic is a whole different beast. It is powerfull and cool, there is some sense to lock it in Mistlands. This kind of weapons of mass-destruction, summoning powers and stuff are feeling like end-game power, so i have almost no problem with it. Almost.
As with unarmed combat and crossbows, it would be pretty nice to have some sort of "brute" or "primitive" magic with one-use items and wands or staffs with low charge count, so you can at least seek more magic power. This primitive magic can be anything - healing stuff of greydwarf shaman, simple low-damage frieball or lightning from something craftable with thunderstone and other such low-tier, pretty cumbersome magic, and discovery of much reliable eitr-based magic will be a relief and bring a feeling of upgrade.
I really wish for such update so newcomers to Valheim could experience almost all of it's weapon dieversity glory and expand on already existing mechanics.

So this is my thoughts that i share here, interesting to hear what another dwellers, warriors and craftsmen of Valheim think about Deep North or possible inbetween update. Cheers!

[bacon]

extreme cold is the most obvious and low tech way to gatekeep the deep north, especially having just slain a dragon boss to make a cold resistance accessory.

keep in mind that fire res potion doesnt really help you against lava in ashlands. so, cold res armor and potions might not help you in deep north against the hypothetical persistent environmental cold effect.

i am thinking that the overworld in the deep north might be fairly desolate and the focus will be on dungeon combat. devs said they have heard feedback that ashlands spawn rates are at harrasment level, and so i think we are unlikely to see the same in deep north.

the big question to me is whether we will run into other vikings. folks who read runestones are familiar with astrid, ulf, and other vikings who have gotten there ahead of the player and have left stones behind. who is worthy of odin's blessing? in addition to fighting the native mobs of the deep north, will we duel other vikings who are converging on the same mission? will we team up with them? will they be NPC quest-givers?

[mister_Haladriel]

Originally posted by bacon:

the big question to me is whether we will run into other vikings. folks who read runestones are familiar with astrid, ulf, and other vikings who have gotten there ahead of the player and have left stones behind. who is worthy of odin's blessing? in addition to fighting the native mobs of the deep north, will we duel other vikings who are converging on the same mission? will we team up with them? will they be NPC quest-givers?

I didn't even think about that! If we will meet them... And what if this gal from the teaser will be our final boss? Maybe minibosses will be restless vikings who lost their minds and Deep North will feel like quasi-PvP, like in Dark Root Garden in DS 1 or random NPC red phantoms invading in DS 2.
Or we will help them and offer a hearth and home at our base... Trusty companions after all this struggle. Really neat thought of yours, thanks

[OctoberSky]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3352448480

You dream you are walking in a snowy wood when you come upon a naked child, sitting against a tree with his eyes closed but his chest moving to breathe. As you kneel beside him, you know he has been sleeping here for many centuries, waiting for you. When you touch his shoulder, you both awaken.

[bacon]

lore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYEhz0tUPwQ

[Zatarra]

I have lived far North in Alaska and I know that moving deep snow impedes your movement and exhausts you.

Now imagine that deep snow in Valheim is like wading in hip deep water, where it doesn't quite unequip your weapon but slows your movement drastically.

That is, until you gather necessary supplies to craft snowshoes...

Or a sled pulled by tamed wolves?!

Or perhaps a Kawasaki snow machine??

[bacon]

Originally posted by Zatarra:

I have lived far North in Alaska and I know that moving deep snow impedes your movement and exhausts you.

Now imagine that deep snow in Valheim is like wading in hip deep water, where it doesn't quite unequip your weapon but slows your movement drastically.

That is, until you gather necessary supplies to craft snowshoes...

Or a sled pulled by tamed wolves?!

Or perhaps a Kawasaki snow machine??

deep snow would be interesting, havent heard that before. there may be patches of it, akin to lava. teasers at this point dont reflect that but there is a lot of development left. we already have tar which inhibits movement, so, deep snow isnt that far off.

[Tomiro]

Originally posted by Zatarra:

I have lived far North in Alaska and I know that moving deep snow impedes your movement and exhausts you.

Now imagine that deep snow in Valheim is like wading in hip deep water, where it doesn't quite unequip your weapon but slows your movement drastically.

That is, until you gather necessary supplies to craft snowshoes...

Or a sled pulled by tamed wolves?!

Or perhaps a Kawasaki snow machine??

Enshrouded does deep snow and slippery ice pretty well. I'm sure it would work in Valheim too. And I think Vikings used skis.

[Rungar]

whatever they do i doubt it will be enough.

[mister_Haladriel]

Originally posted by Rungar:

whatever they do i doubt it will be enough.

Uhh... Enough for\of what?

[jonnin]

I expect.... SNOW!

kidding aside, dunno what to expect. I expected the DN to be blocked with icebergs, but they already did that for the ashland spikes and a repeat would be lame now. I expect enemies, but what, yeti? Frost giants? Skraelings? Even more reskinned skeletons? Some kind of instance and ruins, of course. Some sort of even more annoying than the mountains cold effect? I vote for slick black ice everywhere so we can skate and slide around. New foods! Maybe a new vendor/side quest stuff.

-> All I want is a durable small boat that can go anywhere in the ocean. Karve 2.0. Everything else, unless its even more mist and fog, I will just go with the flow and enjoy what the devs envisioned.

[Tomiro]

Mistlands gave us the ability to glide with the feathered cape.
Ashlands gave us the ability to teleport everything.
Will Deep North give us the ability to fly by taming a large bird or similar?

[BIT Bear]

Originally posted by Tomiro:

Will Deep North give us the ability to fly by taming a large bird or similar?

Ashlands (and Mistlands) gave us a way to fly already using the Catapult and Feather Cape.

[mister_Haladriel]

Originally posted by BIT Bear:

Originally posted by Tomiro:

Will Deep North give us the ability to fly by taming a large bird or similar?

Ashlands (and Mistlands) gave us a way to fly already using the Catapult and Feather Cape.

Feather cape is more of utility tool to not die during rock climbing and building large structures.
Catapult launch of a character has pretty limited range even when you launch yourself from a very high building standing on a very high mountain. Also this launch is a one way trip, you have to climb this mountain and building again to launch yourself in a different direction. Also you can't stop and explore during this launch. It's more of a fun park ride than reliable method of transportation

[mister_Haladriel]

Originally posted by jonnin:

I vote for slick black ice everywhere so we can skate and slide around. New foods! Maybe a new vendor/side quest stuff.

-> All I want is a durable small boat that can go anywhere in the ocean. Karve 2.0. Everything else, unless its even more mist and fog, I will just go with the flow and enjoy what the devs envisioned.

Skating would be so much fun!

Karve 2.0 sounds nice. Not at all times you want to bring a longship, and karve is not reliable at very long range

[i have 2026 vision fear me]

Honestly the idea that the Deep North is accessible the same time as Ashlands, or even earlier is pretty cool and interesting. I wonder if they might have some materials available at an early stage, where you don't have to go from Ashlands to Deep North or Mistlands to Deep North. But maybe you can get a cheeky visit to the biome early on like Swamp/mountains stage, maybe for a little upgrade, food or tool ? Would be cool.

The teaser shows that the Deep North is a cold forest seemingly at the shore, it would be really cool to see that it has a variation in terrain, much like how meadows have forests and then clearings, and a similar case with the plains were that is flipped, large open areas with small portions of forest. Ashlands does also show this, where the trees are on the shore, and not further in, so it might possibly the same case with the Deep North.

Originally posted by bacon:

i am thinking that the overworld in the deep north might be fairly desolate and the focus will be on dungeon combat. devs said they have heard feedback that ashlands spawn rates are at harrasment level, and so i think we are unlikely to see the same in deep north.

That might be the case, it's not too unusual to see this theme in gaming and media, where the surface is barren, vast and open, and underground there are plenty of man-made tunnels or caves. Possibly the surface could feature large and highly dangerous enemies, but scarce in number. Whilst the underground tunnels/caves/dungeons would feature a larger variety and number of smaller enemies. Possibly Deep North draugrs who would wield more dangerous weapons and be far more dangerous and smart than regular ones.

The Deep North could also have mountains too, so potentially a 4 layered/section biome ? Underground would house frost draugrs with other types of smaller enemies, the surface would be controlled by larger apex predator beasts and the like, whilst the mountains could be home to larger drakes and such ? And finally the forests, where polar-like bears would dwell, hibernating and hunting alongside other critters. I'm not too knowledgeable on the types of inhabitants that would be in the Deep North according to lore or mythology, but you could fill it out with your imagination.

I think the sectioned design could allow early exploration of the biome, where naturally until you beat Ashlands, you would not be able to go beyond the forest or tundra. It would definitely add far more depth. Though all of that would be a lot for Iron Gate i imagine, considering the Ashlands fort concepts were reduced to the square walled fort and tower we have now, without any dungeons. Still, nothings stopping them from adding back to the older sections of the game, revisiting Ashlands and the other biomes. They already do really. And i imagine that's because they have other ideas and want to act out on them rather than focusing on one part which would result in burn out, which is not good for anyone.