Influence by weather, seasons and time

ArchivedUser

@shazooo writes:

Hi folks,

after watching your 30-minutes-gameplay and your "light-dressed" char walking through the winter landscape on YouTube, I’ve made some thoughts how can the seasons/weather/time influence the char. To be honest, nobody would wear a t-shirt/short at sub-zero temperatures, so why should your char do?
My suggestion is, to add an extra-slot, where you can equip special gears.

For example:
During the winter season, your char will get the debuff "getting cold", which decrease your movement by x%. To avoid this, you have to equip a cape or a fur coat with the buff "keeping warm", which remove this debuff.
But if you wear this cape/fur coat during the summer season, it will get you the debuff "starts sweating", which decrease your power abiity by x%. So you have to unequip it to remove this debuff.

The other point is the weather and day-night-time.
For example:
During rain, fog or night, your char can hardly see other players/NPC's and by clear weather or day, it's hard to hide from someone.

ArchivedUser

Theres already been a lot of talk about this Hopefully they will utilize the seasonal system to its fullest potential, pretty sure the devs have also talked about it at several occasions

ArchivedUser

From all I have read it sounds like the seasons and their effects are going to be integral to what happens to much of the game.

ArchivedUser

I like the idea for it's realism, but in practice it would be really irritating. As it stands, seasons will be a week-by-week scenario, meaning that 1 month = 1 year in game. That is a lot of change happening fast, especially for the hard working casuals who only get 1-2 hours to play a day, roughly 10 hours a week. When you factor in other climate changes: Thunder/Snow storms, Droughts, Flooding, etc. That is a lot of equipping and unequipping for a mechanic that is only there for realism, and nothing that impacts gameplay, other than character looks.

Another note to point out: Players enjoy their individual look, I count myself as one of these players, and having to decide if I should wear cooler clothing, or warmer clothing, or I need to keep a special item with me in case of bad weather; All of that defeats the purpose of Transmogrifying, armor customization, etc. Why spend gold to give your character a certain look, when you know it's going to get covered up by a black/white/gray furred cloak that makes you look like a member of the Night's Watch from GoT. I make this same argument about guild tabards ((Though that's an optional item and another subject altogether)). 

Now, please don't get me wrong, I love theory-crafting and discussing what may or may not be in this game. I just don't like systems that make it a game that much more complicated when it doesn't even effect gameplay: Yes, you did mention environmental debuffs, and while there may be a mechanic, let's say an ancient dragon plunging a region in an eternal winter, I don't think there should be potential day-by-day system that forces you to wear one item or discard another for the sole purpose of adding more realism in the game. I really enjoy aspects of realism and common sense in fantasy worlds, but at the end of things, it's just that: a fantasy world, a place I can go to after getting home from work and relax until bedtime and forget about my IRL.

ArchivedUser

Anyways Interesting aspect and I love the idea!

ArchivedUser

My thoughts were only for the mechanics. The look of the cape etc. should be changed for sure if the player want to have his/her cool-looking gear

As I wrote, for these items there has to be an extra-slot (like the cape-slot in WoW) and you can show/hide this gear.