Design: About Oort Shards, Portals and Warps

Devlog
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We’ve talked a little bit about Oort Shards, but never given much detail about how they fit into the game. There’s lots of gameplay discussion going on at the moment I thought this might be interesting. So, here’s a little bit of information about how we think Oort Shards will tie into the game.

Lore
Oort Shards are an ancient technology you can use to create the most powerful items and contraptions. They’re the most common reminder of the Oort’s legacy. Strewn across every world in the universe, over millions of years Oort Shards have assimilated with their environment and will only provide power on the world you find them on.

How you use them…
When you arrive on a new world there’s going to be a few core things you’re going to want to do to get settled: make home, secure your stuff and build a way back to your home planet. These actions will require Oort Shards from the planet you’re on. Placing a Beacon, opening a Portal back home and crafting an Oort Chest (holds the same contents across all instances) will all require Oort Shards.

When you step through a Portal to a new world your first step will be to begin the hunt for Oort Shards!

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Portals
Now, here’s a bit about how we expect the Portal flow to work. There’s two types: Portals and Warps. Bear in mind this is different to how they work in game now…

Portals are a permanent rift between two locations and can only be connected to other Portals. You make one then you make the other (or a friend does) and you connect them. You always know where they’re going to go. They are opened for a cost of Oort Shards for 60 seconds, and then they close again but they can be opened again and again (for the cost of Oort Shards).

Warps are a temporary rift, open for 60 second only, between where you are and either…

…a completely random world (within the same band of worlds, eg: tier 1)
…a specified location (using a location token)
…a specified online player (using a player token)
You can only travel to the maximum world tier you’ve unlocked (see about tiers here if you don’t know about them) or the rift will tear you apart as you’re not strong enough.

So…

If you were on Lleb, you’d be mining for Lleb Oort Shards. You can only open a Portal or a Warp on Lleb using Lleb Oort Shards. So when you get there, you can’t get back home or anywhere else until you’ve found some shards.

Here’s a flow for if you had a base on one world and wanted to create a new one on a new, random world:

  1. Build a Portal frame using Portal Blocks crafted using Oort Shards. Take out the Portal Token.
  2. Open a Warp using Oort Shards to a random world.
  3. Step through the Warp to a random new world. The Warp closes behind you after 60 seconds. Now you’re stuck here!
  4. Mine for Oort Shards, place a Beacon.
  5. Mine for Oort Shards, craft some Portal Blocks and make a Portal frame.
  6. Place the Portal Token (from step 1) into the new Portal frame. It will go back to your original home now when opened.
  7. Open your new permanent Portal using Oort Shards (for 60 seconds) back to your original home.
  8. It’s done, you’ve created a new Portal link to a new world, completely in the game world!
31 Likes
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would that mean if i went from 1 world to another i could bring the shards and sell them to others so they can make portals to that world? also how would you then get to another world in the first place?

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Tell me if what you mean is:

You use an Oort shard from the planet you are on to open a portal to another world,
When you arrive the other world, you need an Oort shard to open the portal back home?

So, does it mean there will be portals that can be passed only through one “side”, and when you go to the other world, your way back will be blocked until you find more oort shards? idk. i think if you open a portal, it should be open from both sides, it makes more sense that way in my opinion.

(Btw, the lore mentions “contraptions”, right? :smiley: I want Oort Shards to be used for some other technological contraptions besides portals! i want moving blocks and machinery!)

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[put this comment into the main topic]

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That fires the thrill of the unknown :smiley:

I also like the warps. They fill the role of town portals or friend summoning I like in MMOs, even if it may be a bit complicated if your friend is on a world you not have been (cuz to get back you have to get shards again, which leads to the problem that you realy have to know if it is worth traveling to them or if it is a waste of time ^^

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So you build a portal frame, take the portal token thingy, open a warp to a random tier 1 world using oort shards and then build a portal frame in that new world and place the token from the first world in it (or something like that :smiley: ). Now you have a portal between two worlds.
Did I get it right? :slight_smile:

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Yep, that’s right.

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Sounds cool :slight_smile: But what abour the rift shards you mentioned earlier?

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Will beacon portals be for use of the beacon owner only?

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Now here’s a question, what would happen if I put Oort Shards in my cereal? :grin:

3 Likes
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Severe Hallucinations.

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I really need the idea of using an oort shart to move through every time. sounds aweosme.

also +1 for allowing you to enter a random world. that is actually pretty epic.

also how many worlds do you plan to make for launch and do you still consider using daily/weekly worlds? what would happen if you go to a daily world and doesnt find any shards so you are stuck when the world gets destroyed.

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I assume that Oort Shards will be rather common if they are used in so many things

I also assume that portals built within a beacon can only be used by those who have access to that beacon while portals built outside of any beacon can be used by anyone

And This is great

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Keeping things consistent, the ability to use a portal within a beacon would be down to whether the portal has been locked. If the portal is not locked, anyone would be able to use it, if it was locked only those people the beacon gives permission to would be able to use it.

@ben to verify.

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i was actually about to ask that, so neat. but nobody wants to answer my question of what happens if you cant get away from a daily world? xD

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Presumably something like being teleported back to the last beacon you were in? Maybe the same thing if you die on another world before entering a beacon.

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Hmm… is it possible to move the teleporters once placed? for example i make a teleporter to another world but i also have a guild hall where that teleporter would be amazing.

also it was stated that warps could only take you unto the tear world you have unlocked. what about teleporters? could i get to tier 3 and my newb friend could go through the portal because i placed it?

also what is the difference on oort shards and oort stones.

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  1. (afaik) we havn’t discussed that at all, but I imagine it’s as simple as placing a new portal block, and ‘swapping’ out the portal tokens from the old one to the new one. I guess think of the portal tokens as the ‘address’ of the portal, it just so happens that creating a portal block also creates an entangled pair forever linked. @ben to shout at me for being wrong :wink:

  2. ben answered that passing through a portal requires the ‘player himself’ to be strong enough to withstand the travel, so I think the answer is no.

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  1. for warps yes. doesnt mention it in teleporters though. which should be more stable hence less straining on the body (speaking from a logical side)

but yeah, the token system is all rather confusing. i like some of the ideas but being able to warp to a PERSON seems kinda op. especially on a pvp word.

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Well just think assesination contracts for you will be easys dagger Smith XD