The May Newsletter & CohhCarnage stream brought to light a significant amount of work that has been going on behind the scenes. The environmental effects in the game, such as storms, seem to be making their way to completion. We even learned that storms will/may have the ability to 'one shot' characters if caught in the center of impact. Pantheon has decided that they would be nice and give us a warning indicator, with time to move, of when a storm is about to strike. How nice of them :). With that in mind, I was wondering how the artificial intelligence, AI, of storms specifically (environmental effects in general) would be developed? Are they going to be completely random and zone dependant (small scale) or will they stretch across parts of a continent (multiple zones per storm cell), similar to how storms pass across continents IRL? When lighting does strike, will there be a higher probably of it targeting anything specific (i.e. characters, water, tress, monsters) or is environmental effects completely randomized?
Scenario I would prefer to avoid is: Fighting a boss in a specific zone when a storm appears. The storm casts multiple lighting strikes per minute and has a higher probability of targeting me, forcing me to move during the fight.
Scenario I would prefer: Fighting a boss in a specific zone when a storm appears. The storm casts multiple lighting strikes per minute and is completely random. If it strikes on my location than I will move during the fight and know that luck wasn't on my side.
A broader question: How does everybody feel about these environmental effects? Would you prefer them to be random or targeted? Are there any other environmental effects that could be added to the game to improve immersion or "the thrill" of the game?
Take care,
ipDRe
We, here on the forums, are speculating that this is an occurrence in the Dead Storm Valley, a zone for higher level characters.
I would prefer the bolts be random. It adds to my thrill and takes from my immersion - but I find this an acceptable trade as a little thrill is a welcome thing, for me.
Yep! I'm excited to learn about the other environmental effects. Seemingly there will be volcanic, frozen, and dark zones. To what would "Pressure" relate? Underwater zones? That would be interesting!
I would imagine they can be, and will be both completely random and targeted as the Devs see fit.
In the example of the lightning, sometimes it's just a storm (random strikes) but other times it's a boss with the ability like druids to summon a storm that would target a player or group of players.
Tigersin said:We, here on the forums, are speculating that this is an occurrence in the Dead Storm Valley, a zone for higher level characters.
That's pretty neat, it already is adding value to that zone. I am excited to venture through it. Unfortunately I have to wait for the game to come out and then to be a high enough level, haha.
BamBam said: Other environmental effects are planned to. Extreme darkness, Wind, Cold, Pressure, heat is some of Them if i recall correctly. Some classes like the druid and paladin have abilities that help against sertain climates. Also there Will be acclimation items that can be garthered by players to also help fight the extreme situations.
Those are definitely interesting effects. Would each race react differently to these effects, or has that not been communicated yet? I would image that the items used for acclimation would include food/drink as well as wearable gear? I wonder then if the wearable gear would have their own slots, be additions to current gear (and can be swapped in/out?) or replace the current gear entirely.
Zorkon said:I would imagine they can be, and will be both completely random and targeted as the Devs see fit.
In the example of the lightning, sometimes it's just a storm (random strikes) but other times it's a boss with the ability like druids to summon a storm that would target a player or group of players.
You bring up a great point, I wonder how far they will take these perspectives. I agree with how you broke up the two different storms and their targeting capabilities, it makes sense.
I like your questions! Let's not discuss food and drink here because it's been beaten to death and beyond in another thread. Let's instead say that there will be features in game that will allow us to endure these conditions but that we have niether detail nor examples on anything at this time. If we do, someone will correct me below. ;) Racial bonuses will be a thing! We don't yet know what they are. :(
I am hoping - there is nothing to substantiate this claim btw- that the environmental effects are indiscriminate.
"sauce for the goose, mister Saavik" as Spock mentioned in Wrath of Khan I think when they went into the cloudy area with bad bandwidth/sensor reception.
That is: I hope the AI can also target or monsters as well as players. so if you are fighting, and you see the telegraph- and you are a newbie and about to die because you bumped into some monster- maybe if you risk stepping to the side just so...you will get ozone burned, sure. Your hair may be frizzed permanently for a while as the lightning strikes right in front of you, evaporating the monster you were losing against. Maybe you are stunned a bit and cant find your legs as you stumble to run. Who cares that you didn't get any exp, you were just trying to get through to the other side, this place was too dangerous!
But for the seasoned player, that is the challenge. pull, engage, telegraph, and dance, dance, dance, around the strikes; the group members pirrouetting independently to a silent cacaphony.
Tigersin said:I like your questions! Let's not discuss food and drink here because it's been beaten to death and beyond in another thread. Let's instead say that there will be features in game that will allow us to endure these conditions but that we have niether detail nor examples on anything at this time. If we do, someone will correct me below. ;) Racial bonuses will be a thing! We don't yet know what they are. :(
Great point, it's worth keeping a level of fact based information in the threads. I was merely trying to spark thought generation for VR. However, everything I mentioned was pretty basic and didn't require much time to ponder up on my end. I'm not sure I should have an expectation of thought generation from any reader.
I do look forward to the racial abilities and how they're tied to the lore and also class selection. These racial will have a whole new meaning when comparing them to environmental effects, which I would imagine will be paired with starting zones (assumption).
Manouk said:I am hoping - there is nothing to substantiate this claim btw- that the environmental effects are indiscriminate.
"sauce for the goose, mister Saavik" as Spock mentioned in Wrath of Khan I think when they went into the cloudy area with bad bandwidth/sensor reception.
That is: I hope the AI can also target or monsters as well as players. so if you are fighting, and you see the telegraph- and you are a newbie and about to die because you bumped into some monster- maybe if you risk stepping to the side just so...you will get ozone burned, sure. Your hair may be frizzed permanently for a while as the lightning strikes right in front of you, evaporating the monster you were losing against. Maybe you are stunned a bit and cant find your legs as you stumble to run. Who cares that you didn't get any exp, you were just trying to get through to the other side, this place was too dangerous!
But for the seasoned player, that is the challenge. pull, engage, telegraph, and dance, dance, dance, around the strikes; the group members pirrouetting independently to a silent cacaphony.
Your perspective is definitely an option moving forward, if VR decides to utilize this concept. I would imagine there is some immersion that is taken away from the game in regards to having storms telegraph their way through zones, versus directional by atmospheric or environmental gages (such as pressures, winds, mountains, etc.). I don't have anything factual information to back that up but if I put myself in either of those scenario's (newbie or seasoned) I would find myself enjoying the game less. Of course, this is based on my imagination and I've been known to limit it while dev teams, such as VR, take the top off theirs.
Interesting concepts you laid out that would add another layer to playing the game.