Interacting with water

DarkPhalanx

Coudn't find this on the forums yet but what I always missed in MMO's that I played is the immersion with water. It would be cool to actually have wet clothing if you get into water and get a movement speed penalty when your armor is still wet. And if you have a mount I don't think you should get dismounted when getting into deeper water, for example a horse should be able to swim but slower than your character. Maybe some mounts can't swim at all or others are slightly faster. And what about water temperture, when it's really cold swimming can apply a chill debuf or sorts. Any ideas?

Wandering Mist

Yet another suggestion that intends to put more "realism" into the game without any thought to how this would actually work in the game itself. I saved this quote from the last thread like this (sorry I can't remember who wrote it) which sums up my feelings perfectly:

I'm all on board with this.

Let's also have poop mechanics. You have to find a spot to go, and make sure you bury it so you can't be tracked by monsters or PKers (or bounty hunters if you have corruption).

If you hold it in you get a debuff and if you go too long then it'll come out on its own. Then you have to get your armor cleaned or you can't talk to quest givers or vendors.

This of course fits in with my detailed food mechanics. You have to eat regularly, and eat a balanced diet to avoid contracting various diseases, and if you become obese or emaciated your armor no longer fits. You either need to get your armor adjusted or buy new gear.

Dental hygiene is extremely important too but the flossing mechanics alone are deserving of their own thread so I'll hold off for now.

There are sure some great ideas to improve the game in this thread! I hope Steven is taking notes

DarkPhalanx

Sorry, I should have known this idea is stupid. I'll just stick to reading other people's suggestions.

mazh

I just want my healing spells with Water effects

tugowar

Everything you suggested is easy to do, and I like it.

Aardvark

Wandering Mist wrote: »

Yet another suggestion that intends to put more "realism" into the game without any thought to how this would actually work in the game itself. I saved this quote from the last thread like this (sorry I can't remember who wrote it) which sums up my feelings perfectly:

I'm all on board with this.

Let's also have poop mechanics. You have to find a spot to go, and make sure you bury it so you can't be tracked by monsters or PKers (or bounty hunters if you have corruption).

If you hold it in you get a debuff and if you go too long then it'll come out on its own. Then you have to get your armor cleaned or you can't talk to quest givers or vendors.

This of course fits in with my detailed food mechanics. You have to eat regularly, and eat a balanced diet to avoid contracting various diseases, and if you become obese or emaciated your armor no longer fits. You either need to get your armor adjusted or buy new gear.

Dental hygiene is extremely important too but the flossing mechanics alone are deserving of their own thread so I'll hold off for now.

There are sure some great ideas to improve the game in this thread! I hope Steven is taking notes

I definately think you should have to feed your mount

Wandering Mist

DarkPhalanx wrote: »

Sorry, I should have known this idea is stupid. I'll just stick to reading other people's suggestions.

I really need to think before I type in such a douchy manner. I guess I'm just jaded from all the conversations I've had about things like this. Sorry, I didn't mean you should stop offering suggestions and making threads.

The problem with adding realism into a game is that quite often they sound great on paper for the immersion, but just become an annoyance when actually implemented. For example, adding a mechanic that slows you down when your armour is wet would make traversing any water a complete nightmare, which will mean players will generally avoid such areas. This would discourage the exploration that a lot of the game is built around.

CaptnChuck

Its a cool idea, but here's the thing. It just causes unnecessary inconvenience to players. Yes it provides more realism, but player convenience is sometimes more important that realism. Its the same thing with castle sieges only being able to be declared during certain server times. Realistically, you should be able to declare one any time you want. But this would cause a ton of player inconvenience. Hence why u can only declare it during peak times.

Songcaller

Wandering Mist wrote: »

The problem with adding realism into a game is that quite often they sound great on paper for the immersion, but just become an annoyance when actually implemented. For example, adding a mechanic that slows you down when your armour is wet would make traversing any water a complete nightmare, which will mean players will generally avoid such areas. This would discourage the exploration that a lot of the game is built around.

I often find people increase speed in the rain...

Valento92

I love your suggestions, my friend! I actually never thought about slower movements and this can create interesting gameplay in some snowy zones. The only thing that is very difficult to do - and Steven, please take note our glorious creative director - is to balance the sense of depth. It's not that games suck at this but our perception as human beings makes it hard to have a pleasant combat underwater. It's mostly tied to water "weight" making it difficult to make sense of where we are and I probably didn't explain well.

Loved your ideas though!

Namil

DarkPhalanx wrote: »

Sorry, I should have known this idea is stupid. I'll just stick to reading other people's suggestions.

Don’t get discouraged, there’s always going to be people who disagree with you. If you have more ideas please do post them, it’s an open forum exactly for that!

Wandering Mist

Valento92 wrote: »

I love your suggestions, my friend! I actually never thought about slower movements and this can create interesting gameplay in some snowy zones. The only thing that is very difficult to do - and Steven, please take note our glorious creative director - is to balance the sense of depth. It's not that games suck at this but our perception as human beings makes it hard to have a pleasant combat underwater. It's mostly tied to water "weight" making it difficult to make sense of where we are and I probably didn't explain well.

Loved your ideas though!

For me the problem with underwater combat is that most mmorpgs don't account for the additional Z axis that is necessary for it, making depth perception almost impossible and very frustrating.

Valento92

Wandering Mist wrote: »

For me the problem with underwater combat is that most mmorpgs don't account for the additional Z axis that is necessary for it, making depth perception almost impossible and very frustrating.

Exactly. I wonder what would be the best approach to offer a smoother gameplay in terms of perception. For me it's so frustrating attacking things underwater that I prefer not to have any combat at all, just exploration.

And I blame my eyes!! lol

unknownsystemerror

Suggestions are great, as long as you realize you probably won't see them implemented. Every radical risk the company takes outside of the planned mechanics they have in their internal timeline adds scope creep. Every idea thrown out in a meeting that catches Steven's attention like a shiny new toy derails us toward that release goal. For those that have been here awhile there are a couple perfect examples.

Up until Aug 2018 Intrepid was a powerhouse of giving out information about how systems and mechanics were planned to work. Then came PAX with the QTE(quick time event) mechanics. This is where you have to hit a tiny area on a bar and if successful you got resources or had a crit proc. Someone thought that this was going to be a "fun" mechanic. (Atlas btw uses this, and we know what a raging success that is.) They debut it at PAX and people universally hated it. So much so that it was immediately pulled and no one talks about it anymore. Right after that you can see we go through an information drought. They just stop talking. The various devs that would chat alongside Steven, gone. How much time was lost in those early days on that iteration will never be known. (unless of course they are making a secret documentary like The Office.)

In more recent memory is the decision to have the BR. That pile of dung has been heaped upon enough and will not bother since most know the knock-on effect that had. Those that were here at the time know that they flip-flopped on the messaging several times before settling months after failure with "It was only ever meant to be a testing bed that saved the game!"

Will we see things added after launch that flop and have to be taken out? Of course. Will we see things during testing that sounded great in people's heads and Steven's silver tongue was able to sell as workable? Sure. The trick is sifting through all the noise and just making what has been promised.

tugowar

When you put it like that, it’s a great argument for higher transparency... i mean, Amazon really needs the help.

lunarsky

DarkPhalanx wrote: »

Coudn't find this on the forums yet but what I always missed in MMO's that I played is the immersion with water. It would be cool to actually have wet clothing if you get into water and get a movement speed penalty when your armor is still wet. And if you have a mount I don't think you should get dismounted when getting into deeper water, for example a horse should be able to swim but slower than your character. Maybe some mounts can't swim at all or others are slightly faster. And what about water temperture, when it's really cold swimming can apply a chill debuf or sorts. Any ideas?

There are mounts for the water btw so no need to risk drowning your horse.

Yuyukoyay

I just hope they tone down the blue underwater effect. I'd rather that part not be realistic. I want to be able to see properly underwater. It's a balance really between what sounds stupid and what is good. Sometimes an idea is good but the exact suggestion is stupid. The true good implementation of some ideas is a lighter version of it.

That said the being bogged down by water idea is probably a dumb idea for an MMO. Someone mentioned a feeding mechanic for your mounts though and I think that sounds good. Make a system so if your pet is happy it moves at max speed and slower when it isn't.

They could have different types of water that applies debuffs though. The reason I don't like the bogged down idea is because it just happens with all water, but if you show that certain water has downsides ahead of time then I'm fine with a small debuff.

Ravudha

I wouldn't want water to affect my movement, but I could get on board with a short dripping water sound effect playing as you exit water.

At this point, I'm just happy that swimming currently looks quite fast, so we don't feel sluggish in the water, and exploration from land to underwater looks seamless.

Yuyukoyay

I can swim faster in real life than some people can run. So I'm quite happy that it's not WoW's god awful swimming animation. Especially when it's possible in reality to not swim like Fat Albert having a stroke.

DarkPhalanx

All good and fair comments, so I suggested multiple ideas and reading some comments I understand that they can add some negative experience for the player.

If I had to choose I'd say wet armor/clothing effect would be harmless