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!

[i have 2026 vision fear me]

Originally posted by 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

Maybe the other vikings could be in fact minibosses, and each one would reward you a fragment or maybe piece of an armour to create a weapon/tool, or simply armour. Akin to the Dyrnwyn ?

[i have 2026 vision fear me]

Also on your final point or hope, regarding a combat update. I have to agree. I think that a lot of weapon type unlocks are too far in the game. Greatswords, magic, and in my opinion weapon enchantments are waayyyyy too far in progression. The former is at least in Mistlands, the latter in Ashlands. Iron greatswords, basic magic like you mentioned too. That would require adding either Eitr earlier into the game, or making it so that these "magic" items are cooldown based or maybe just consumables. With an ancient seed, some other doodats, and a new, or simply base crafting station, you'd be able to craft your own grewdwarf summon. Or how you mention the healing magic that the greydwarf shaman has. That could be a consumable made from greydwarf shaman trophies amongst other relevant themes.

However, with the magic i think they'd end up being "forced" or "encouraged" to then add magic to other biomes too. If someone new comes in and see that oh theres magic in the blackforest, but then no other type until mistlands, then it'll be very disappointing. I was going to mention that plains has other magic, but that magic from the fuling shaman is quite literally the same as the fire and blood shield staff now that i think about it. Even the projectiles from my memory seem very similar. Most likely the same code but different effects and design.

But i'm not too fussed about magic, other people will probably want it far more, but i've no other ideas than the ones i've listed. But of course if someone has a suggestion for magic in the inbetween biomes, then go ahead, though always make sure that it's thematically similar and respective of what Valheim IS. So many mods i see end up bloating with vastly different textures, designs, and animations to what Valheim has, making it look like an utter mess.

But, all i want honestly is an Iron Greatsword as the bare minimum. We know Iron Gate can do it, because the abomination is still one of if not my favourite enemy in the game, so those little updates are honestly massive. Little things add up much quicker, and i believe are better at adding depth and progression than big biome updates. Plus, they are most likely far better at relieving symptoms and feelings of burn out. They're like taking a walk when stuck on a major project. I watched the documentary on Hayao Miyazaki, and that man took so many walks and breaks. Plus, they also sometimes jogged his brain enough where the walks inspired different ideas. I'd bet that the abominations might've been a test on developing more complex enemies with more advanced animations and attacks before the tackled making the Gjall (iirc the timeline of when it was added), the Queen, the Valkyrie and Morgen.

[mister_Haladriel]

Originally posted by i have 2026 vision fear me:

All of it (reducing for space saving sake)

Thanks ^^
Glad that there's someone with similar ideas.

About magic in other earlier biomes is exactly what i want. Maybe i wrote it somewhat clanky, 'cause english is my secondary, but magic through consumables and durable items is exactly what i wrote, and if i remember correctly even suggested at old Valheim Discord server and got some attention.

More detailed it can be some sort of wand or staff that uses ancient seeds, cores or similar "magic" resource and have somewhat low durability. And scrolls or runestones for consumable magic. In my mind it can copy abilities from mobs directly, so you can just use whatever mobs are already using but with some twist, and, because magic is scaling with skill and always has unique utility (like Staff of Fire is best in Ashlands because of blunt damage dealt with projectile, skeletts with shield are perfect for dodging enemies etc) it won't be useless in other biomes.

But that's just my thoughts... Pity my supposed ADHD and some mysterious curse of "Mathematically Dumb" hinders my ability to code...

[Exodite-Dragon]

I would definitely not be opposed to different weapon types coming online sooner. I still think the harder-hitting magic attacks should be reserved until Mistlands, but I'd kill for some fist-type weapons, greatswords, and additional types of battleaxe earlier on.

[Lacrimosa]

I am almost certain that one of the creatures we will have to fight will be polar bears

[Steve]

I just expect that Deep North make me work for it harder than I had to in the other biomes. Preserve the challenge, respect the content.

Kick my ass for the last. Let's go.

[bacon]

Originally posted by Steve:

I just expect that Deep North make me work for it harder than I had to in the other biomes. Preserve the challenge, respect the content.

Kick my ass for the last. Let's go.

at one point devs had said "not everyone will be able to finish the game" but they seem to have caved on ashlands nerfs. and now they have said that deep north will basically be lateral difficulty to ashlands.

my hope is there is some kind of endgame with increased difficulty, like a cataclysm that changes the world to increase frequency of starred mobs or something.

[Ashley]

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??

I hope we don't have to shovel snow to get around considering how tedious Mistlands is I am not optimistic

[Xenobunny]

Hopes and Dreams.
- Sleighs. Large one for lox or whatever new critter you tame and/or a dog sled for a gang of tamed wolves/asksvan. A dog sled would be fun if they got the drift/sliding effect right.

- Ice formation. As waves hit objects and apply the debuff to structures and objects anywhere from rocks, trees, buildings, they could accumulate generated ice formations. This doesn't have to be exclusive to the wet effect, it could just happen in snowstorms. The effect could be negated by the shield generator. To get rid of ice you could make a fire or get out the pick axe. Hardship.

- Advanced elemental magic. I would like a flamethrower and the ability to raise defensive walls of ice for starters. A defensive wall would be a blessing. My fortress incursions look like the siege lines of late renaissance star forts. Raised dirt walls and trenches. Give me a spell to do that in a mouse click.

- More farming options for freezing biomes. I would REALLY like to apply some kind of vine growth to my mountain castle. Something enchanted like a crystal leaf vine or frozen roses.

- More alchemy. I love that character classes became more defined in the late game but I find I rarely use the few bombs you can craft. I would play my mage less and enjoy the accumulation of materials more via other classes if frost and fire pot bombs were a thing. I'd like to add more AOE utility to my rogue and warrior kits. If Alchemy became a skill I would even appreciate the odd chance of crafting an extra bomb when making batches.

. . . and for all the money I've got pages on what I'd like to see after 1 point 0 including balance rationals for a full expansion :P

[Divinity]

Better be some damned polar bears. I just want some sort of bear in the game.

[OctoberSky]

Originally posted by Divinity:

Better be some damned polar bears. I just want some sort of bear in the game.

You dream of a mighty bear, sleeping deep below the earth in the winter of the world. It turns in its sleep, folds upon folds of flesh and fur. It has no head, no limbs. A vast mass of bear flesh, mercifully quiet.

[i have 2026 vision fear me]

Originally posted by OctoberSky:

Originally posted by Divinity:

Better be some damned polar bears. I just want some sort of bear in the game.

You dream of a mighty bear, sleeping deep below the earth in the winter of the world. It turns in its sleep, folds upon folds of flesh and fur. It has no head, no limbs. A vast mass of bear flesh, mercifully quiet.

Is that from a more recent lore stone ?

[avatar.zero]

Originally posted by i have 2026 vision fear me:

Originally posted by OctoberSky:

You dream of a mighty bear, sleeping deep below the earth in the winter of the world. It turns in its sleep, folds upon folds of flesh and fur. It has no head, no limbs. A vast mass of bear flesh, mercifully quiet.

Is that from a more recent lore stone ?

That's one of the Dream Texts and has been in the game since initial EA release.

[mister_Haladriel]

Guys, i want to appreciate how you are all nice and have interesting thoughts! \^^/
Cheers!

[GreatThunder]

FROSTGIANTS
I want Frost Giants, with freezing breath, and punches that send you flying, and meaty axes that will split you in two.