When a video game is made, there's always a lot of focus put on the broader game systems - things like the combat style, gearing, dungeons/raids, crafting, etc. These are critical, of course, but something I really appreciate is when developers take the time to put in little details. Here are some details I would love to see in Pantheon.
- Player character's eyes/head/neck/shoulders turning to look toward whatever you have targeted. (I've seen this taken a step further in one game, where you can press the Home key and your character's head turns to look at the camera. Allows for arranging some great screenshots!)
- Idle NPC conversations in the background - not just when you talk to them.
- A "wet" effect on your character's hair, skin, and clothes when it rains.
- A little puff of condensed air from characters' mouths when in a very cold area.
- The ability to toggle visor-like headgear up and down.
- Different idle and sitting stances you can toggle through, to give your character their own personality.
- Footprints - for player characters, as well as mounts and pets!
- Appropriate footstep sound effects for the type of ground you're crossing.
- When sitting in a chair, on a bench, on a ledge, etc, your character goes into an appropriate sit animation, so that there's no crouching on top of chairs.
- Character's mouth moving when you type something in /say. Bonus points if the animation is slightly different depending on the punctuation you end with.
- Logical placement of gathering objects. As an ecologist, I'm happy to consult on where you should place certain types of plants and where they shouldn't go. ;P
- Creatures having line of sight for detecting you.
There's probably more. Most (save for the last one) don't really impact combat gameplay at all, but I really enjoy it when I encounter them in the MMOs I play.
I love the passive effects you listed and agree they would add a lot (a lot) to the game. I'm less a fan of the active effects, the things you have control over with toggles, etc.
In EQ2 NPCs' heads would turn to track you as you walked/ran/rode by and I thought that was amazing. It had a handful of other environmental effects, too, all of which served to make the game much more immersive. With the realistic (at the time) graphics it all served to make you feel part of a world rather than just a "toon" in a game.
I hope VR is planning some of the things you listed. It almost seems a requirement for any new MMO.
Naunet said:- Different idle and sitting stances you can toggle through, to give your character their own personality.
I completely agree with all of these and think it would be amazing to see every one of them in the game.
I hightlighted this feature though as I think it's a way VR could make money. This is exactly how Epic Games makes so much money on Fortnite without making anyone ever "have" to pay anything.
I would probably spend a few extra hundred dollars throughout my game life span in Pantheon on features like these. Even opening a store to buy more emotes or dances, or the likes of which you have said. Does not give any advantages to anyone an if people want to pay for it, then let them and it's free revenue for the company.
Please don't turn my thread into a request for cash shop items. :( Everything in my list I have experienced in MMOs with no need to make cash shop purchases for any of them - including idle and sitting stances (honestly I would just say "look at FFXIV's emote system and do what they're doing" haha).
In relation to having a cash shop for something like an emote; i'm whole heartedly against it. I'm not interested in another game that just tries to nickel and dime with you with things that should have been in the game at launch.
I am, however, completely okay with having to observe another NPC or character perform an emote in order to learn how to do it yourself.