Terrain Effects on Character

ArchivedUser

I'm not sure if something like this would be possible to implement at this stage in development, but I've always thought it would be pretty cool if the type of terrain/ground-texture your character was moving on had some sort of effect. For example if you were moving on top of marsh-biome or through shallow water there would be a movement debuff. This could also be applied to amplify skills such as stealth with forest terrain increasing your sneakiness while being in a open grassy field increases your chance of detection. These values don't have to be big, but they could greatly influence tactical combat such as in pvp or sieges where it may be wiser to attack from certain directions in order to avoid a large-open marsh which leaves you exposed to ranged attack for a longer period of time.
This also brings in the possibility of having skills which overcome these debuffs. A water-based mage, for instance, may be able skill an ability which provides a small aoe around them which "hardens" the water and allows nearby allies to cross unhindered. This system could also enhance element-based attacks where bonuses are received on their affiliated terrain.
This would probably be a very hard system to pull-off successfully but if one or more of the above components is implemented well, I think it could really make combat more interesting and increase the need for better positioning in combat.
Something like this might be over-the-top for the normal open world areas of the game, so it could also be possible just to limit this system to instanced areas such as pvp arenas/battlegrounds, dungeons or the areas around castles and towns where large-scale combat could take place.

ArchivedUser

This is a cool idea, and I don't think it would be too hard to pull off. It reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics terrain modifiers, marshlands reduced movement and could poison, certain weather amplified or muffled certain schools of magic. I think it would lend more depth to the world, especially a world in which exploration is a key element of gameplay. I love the idea of setting out into wilds and having to contend with the land itself, as well as using it in combat.

ArchivedUser

Even just some really small number tweaks to some very specific areas could change things up. Wildstar provided a small movement increase buff when you were on a paved road. That small tweak really changed where you saw people and how they went from point A to B. I don't think that was implemented until late beta, either, so it shouldn't be impossible to pull off.

ArchivedUser

Hope they have this, though what might be my favorite out of the all terrain would be visibility, like if it's night or a storm or all of the above, stealth characters would be harder to detect, and so you would have to take precautions if you were guarding a caravan or castle. Like torches or some type of caster class to light the area around you. I don't know about you guys, but if I was a rogue and I wanted to try to do some stealthy espionage, planning on weather and visibility as well as trying to sneak around the edge of people's vision would make it way more intense. The visibility thing could also used by other classes, like getting in closer range for a sneak attack or attacking key points of interest with your guild by using the cover of night or a storm.