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!

[Greyedsteel]

Originally posted by bacon:

Originally posted by mister_Haladriel:

Uhh... Pengus are literally on the other side of the world from viking X)

pengus

Pengus

[bacon]

Originally posted by Greyedsteel:

Originally posted by bacon:

pengus

Pengus

penwings

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GflW9_t7LZk

[mister_Haladriel]

Ahahaha

But let's not distract from Deep North :)

[Greyedsteel]

Originally posted by bacon:

Originally posted by Greyedsteel:

Pengus

penwings

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GflW9_t7LZk

No only P e n g u s