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Dev Discussion #11 - Biomes

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Comments

  • I dont mind the biomes, but i prefer more wide zones i dont like slopes and stones every 5 meters :( , take a fresh example of this upcoming mmo please this is what i love for enviroments in MMO! https://reignofguilds.com/en/screenshots/
  • Undead CanuckUndead Canuck Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    For me, a lot of the biomes in Landmark were nice. The deserts were not boring, the transitions between the biomes were done well, and the variety was nice.

    Rolling hills (i.e. ambush areas), dense forests (i.e. ambush areas), caves (i.e. ambush areas) are wonderful, but I hope I don't jump out of my reanimated skin every time I turn a corner.
    So far, everything in game looks wonderful, but in forested areas, there should be more trees. EQ1 had some nice gloomy forests (where I used to jump out of my skin going around a tree and seeing huge bears...).
    So, in a nutshell, places that don't make you jump too much. The old ticker isn't what it used to be. Too much of that and I will have to have Nagash visit to kick start me again.

    And beautiful mountains are a vision of awe. We need some of them. Especially ones that cannot be crossed. Natural breaks that don't break immersion.
  • Favorite: jungles biomes filled with ancient ruins.

    Least favorite: plains or desert (at least when they are done at a very basic level)

    Although I think the desert would be a really interesting biome if it was given some unique features like castles carved out of sandstone cliffs or giant snowy mountains dispersed throughout.
  • I think any biome would be nice if we don't have map in the 3 first lvl of nodes and if there are attracting area to guide you to not going lost.
    Base on your video about nodes , road and bridge will appear with nodes leveling , so if we can get lost in early stages of nodes could be nice ;)
  • Idhalar AlBaieshIdhalar AlBaiesh Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    All biomes are awesome if done right.
    Only in silence the word, Only in dark the light, Only in dying life.
  • digitalwinddigitalwind Member, Intrepid Pack
    edited October 2019
    All biomes are/can be awesome...however there are two factors devs need to consider:
    1. Travel time
    2. Travel Convince

    No one likes big empty spaces like WoW's The Barrens (they are necessary, they are also unappealing) It's annoying and brings your mood and enthusiasm down whether you are aware of it or not.
    No one likes clunky hard to navigate areas - Think urban places where you are boxed in to certain paths and your travel is far more maze-like. Canyons and Cave tunnels might also apply.

    Bottom line: If it takes awhile to travel relative to other zones or if I need a map's help going from A to B, it will not be enjoyable after the nth time.

  • Favourite: Desert (if littered with features and not lifeless sand forever)
    Least Favourite: creepy undead place / graveyard (undead are overused in fantasy)

    Biome that has to go: any biome that feels lifeless or is featureless
  • NagashNagash Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    Ravudha wrote: »
    Favourite: Desert (if littered with features and not lifeless sand forever)
    Least Favourite: creepy undead place / graveyard (undead are overused in fantasy)

    Biome that has to go: any biome that feels lifeless or is featureless
    3dbh5c.jpg

    nJ0vUSm.gif

    The dead do not squabble as this land’s rulers do. The dead have no desires, petty jealousies or ambitions. A world of the dead is a world at peace
  • Nagash wrote: »
    Ravudha wrote: »
    Favourite: Desert (if littered with features and not lifeless sand forever)
    Least Favourite: creepy undead place / graveyard (undead are overused in fantasy)

    Biome that has to go: any biome that feels lifeless or is featureless
    3dbh5c.jpg

    Talking about biomes where undead are roaming around as if it's a normal type of landscape. There needs to be a strong narrative to create such a biome, and not all fantasy settings can fit such a narrative well. Warhammer does it well.
  • DamoklesDamokles Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    Nagash wrote: »
    Ravudha wrote: »
    Favourite: Desert (if littered with features and not lifeless sand forever)
    Least Favourite: creepy undead place / graveyard (undead are overused in fantasy)

    Biome that has to go: any biome that feels lifeless or is featureless
    3dbh5c.jpg

    Did you hear that nagash? You are overused and not scary anymore! X'D
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  • IreriIreri Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    I want to see this location in the game: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/File:8-1024x576.jpg
    It has fascinated me for a year. This is where my toon will play and explore. The buildings raised up above spring floods but right next to a food source. My inner child rejoices at the thought climbing to the top of a tree house and just looking around at the scenery with the sound of water flowing in the background.

    Also, as a healer who usually gets squished easily, rivers are great to swim across to try and get away from mobs when I am exploring.

    I would love to see bio-luminescent plants and animals in the water you could dive down to look at for fun.
  • HandOfUnityHandOfUnity Member, Intrepid Pack
    Likes - Forest, Enchanted Forest, Mountains
    Dislikes - Desert, Any landscape that is infuriating to traverse
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  • oddodd Member, Explorer, Kickstarter
    I'm a bit late to this, sorry.

    I don't really have a favorite biome, but I tend to dislike the tundra- and desert-like biomes because they are made on general information for games and tend to be completely barren. If you could add in details about how these biomes actually function, that'd be great. Like adding a lot of fish off the coast of a dry desert or adding lots of caves in an area that rains a lot and putting endemic life in them. These places aren't sterile and when they are treated like that it sucks to play in.
  • NagashNagash Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    Damokles wrote: »
    Nagash wrote: »
    Ravudha wrote: »
    Favourite: Desert (if littered with features and not lifeless sand forever)
    Least Favourite: creepy undead place / graveyard (undead are overused in fantasy)

    Biome that has to go: any biome that feels lifeless or is featureless
    3dbh5c.jpg

    Did you hear that nagash? You are overused and not scary anymore! X'D

    If I had a heart it would be hurt
    nJ0vUSm.gif

    The dead do not squabble as this land’s rulers do. The dead have no desires, petty jealousies or ambitions. A world of the dead is a world at peace
  • Thank you all for joining in another Dev Discussion on biomes & environments! Putting together a quick recap for the team now, but please feel free to keep sharing your thoughts and examples here <3

    We'll see ya for the next Dev Discussion!
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  • I absolutely love the atmosphere of a well-made mystical forest type biome. One where dryads, wisps, and other similar creatures roam and the trees are massive and the plant life is exotic. I also love underground environments with strange creatures.
  • sunfrogsunfrog Member, Founder, Kickstarter
    Jungle. My favorite biome is the one I haven't see yet.
    fNX2ISa.png


  • i wouldn't know.
    i am no elven prince...
    sunfrog wrote: »
    Jungle. My favorite biome is the one I haven't see yet.

    did you like the examples I posted? (first page)
    https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/comment/208648/#Comment_208648
  • sunfrogsunfrog Member, Founder, Kickstarter
    Not till just now. I like all of those. :D
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  • I like biomes with some detail in them for example. Have seen the cool mushrooms that were being worked on for the landscape. They look really cool but if there is only one model of them through out the forest then makes the game look monotonous and repetattive. But if you just changed the shade of color a size maybe a lady bug by one. One could in theory spend to much time one a muchroom trying to make it cool. But I am talking about how one mushroom may be differnent from another. Of course some of them are going to be exactly the same but think would not to be not to difficut to lets say make 20 different versions ounce the original is made. And use those to populate the forest. I am talking about small differences.

    This applies to rocks trees stones in dungeouns doors in dungeouns.

    Really like marshes that you can walk through in ankle deep water.

    Biomes I dislike are volcanic redston areas. With red rivers of magma and fire themed monsters that are basically all the same color. Basically everythign is red and fire based. Think there is a right way to do this.

    There should be variety in biomes. One example I would like to mention is When Mist of Pandaria came out for WoW. Frome what >I remember there were two thems those bugs and pandas. So all your dungeouns had either an oriental theme or that bug theme. The dungeouns art style and mobs were so similar that they felt like a an extension of another dungeouns. Entire expansions was that was that way. Just gets repatative after a while.

    Not to found of huge under water biomes. I lake is fine or going treasure hunting off shore for treasure in sunkin whips but not water worlds.
  • VannubsauceVannubsauce Member, Explorer
    edited October 2019
    For me it's not necessarily the type of zone but the zone's ability to capture the imagination. For me, the 3 most important components to making a good zone are:
    1. Aesthetics
    2. Content
    3. Atmosphere

    Aesthetics - The zone or biome does not necessarily have to look the best or have the highest fidelity, but it does need to feel like it's a place that could belong in some other universe. It should, ideally, have colours and lighting that capture that zone's location within the wider world.

    E.g. In RIFT, the zone Gloamwood very much captures the gloom that is present. Everything from the lighting to the colours, the trees, the ground and the main settlement really feel like it belongs. The zone varies quite a bit in elevation with many bridges and caves to traverse and dark creatures to encounter.

    Content - The zone or biome should have enough things to be seen or done. There's no use having an aesthetically pleasing zone only to be something you spend 30 minutes in and never come back to. There should be a natural flow/progression to the questing, diversity in fauna & flora and perhaps other reasons to stay or come back to it.

    E.g. In Conan Exiles (not an MMORPG but still), each biome has a distinct set of creatures and resources that spawn only or mostly within it. There are certain pockets within each zone that capture the imagination and cannot be mistaken for any other area. In the jungle you will find gorillas, snakes, panthers etc. with scattered ruins and shipwrecks along the eastern coast. There are things to encounter on the ground, up high and even in the water.

    Atmosphere - The zone or biome ought to capture the right 'feel' through the visual and sonic components. Background/ambient music and sounds should feel like they belong and be unique enough within a world that makes it distinctive.

    E.g. Elwynn Forest (WoW) has peaceful ambient music that cannot be mistaken for any other zone. The place feels neutral, neither safe nor dangerous. Stormwind, on the other hand, has very majestic music and ambient sounds pertaining to an urban area. Battlegrounds, conversely, will play very war-like sounds to match the mood of the battle.
  • Overall it needs to feel "alive". If it feels dead, players won't really want to interact with it.

    Drastic biomes (desert, snow mountains, ect...) are great if you make them high risk, high demand, high rewards.

    Going into a snowy region without supplies or gear should be punished. Avalanches, blizzard, environmental debuffs, waves of snow beasts or high level snow beasts, ect all should be included to make it dynamic and rewarding to survive and thrive there.

    Going into a swamp region players should be more aware of poisons, underwater swamp beasts, and insect waves attacking players and towns.

    No matter the environment type high risk, high demand (environmental danger/debiffs), and high rewards.
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  • sunfrogsunfrog Member, Founder, Kickstarter
    If there's a Halloween town I like that one.
    fNX2ISa.png


  • NagashNagash Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    sunfrog wrote: »
    If there's a Halloween town I like that one.

    yeah its called the city of the dammed
    nJ0vUSm.gif

    The dead do not squabble as this land’s rulers do. The dead have no desires, petty jealousies or ambitions. A world of the dead is a world at peace
  • Undead CanuckUndead Canuck Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    But that town won't feel 'alive'... :)
  • xlangatangxxlangatangx Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One
    edited October 2019
    -
  • XiraelAcaronXiraelAcaron Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
    edited November 2019
    1) I like forests, but really dense and dark places...like if you look from outside in, you only see darkness and inside you need to have some source of light to find your way around.
    2) The other biome I like is cold high-altitude areas with some woods, with streams, lakes and also some snowy planes on them (see Wrothgar in ESO).

    [And although you do not want more...sometimes one does not always get what one wants ^^]
    3) The last one is sandy deserts, although they are hard to make interesting, I like them. especially if you can find little hidden caves or oases amidst the dunes.
  • I think what makes zones so interesting is when the story and game content creates the narrative around how the zone was formed/developed! Personally, I'd like to see a snowy mountainous zone with very narrow terrain and pathways, making it difficult to quest without running into other players. I'd also like to play a zone that is dark and very gloomy and evil.
  • Variety is the spice of life. While I think i tend to enjoy misty, forested, mountainous areas the most, that is only when contrasted against other varied biomes in the world. Any environment can get boring if a player has to experience it for too long a period of time. So my opinion is to just leave all environments on the table and let the art team go full force into making them as interesting and varied as possible.
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