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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
What kind of enviromental hazards would you like to see in the game?
Ironhope
Member
I mean, obviously besides the ''dont' stand in the fire'' or do ''don't stand in green goo/lava'' what kind of stuff would you like to see?
Personally, I think the world could be made more alive with stuff like:
- Avalanches
- Quicksand
- Flash floods
- Heavy hail storm
- Trying to cut down a tree only to find out its a treant and getting picked up by it and... ouchie.
- Lurking enemies such as huge crocodiles waiting in the water.
- Landslieds
- Big carnivorous plant eating you if you're not careful
One thing I would just love to see are Diseases; Debuffs you get from the enviroment that can only be cured via a certain profession or by certain classes.
It would be fun to add another dimension where people depend on one another and seeing people seek out people in the world for another reason.
In general, world design that makes the world alive is important and I think enviromental dangers (simplistic and more complex) are a big part of it.
Do you agree? Disagree? What would you like to see?
-
Personally, I think the world could be made more alive with stuff like:
- Avalanches
- Quicksand
- Flash floods
- Heavy hail storm
- Trying to cut down a tree only to find out its a treant and getting picked up by it and... ouchie.
- Lurking enemies such as huge crocodiles waiting in the water.
- Landslieds
- Big carnivorous plant eating you if you're not careful
One thing I would just love to see are Diseases; Debuffs you get from the enviroment that can only be cured via a certain profession or by certain classes.
It would be fun to add another dimension where people depend on one another and seeing people seek out people in the world for another reason.
In general, world design that makes the world alive is important and I think enviromental dangers (simplistic and more complex) are a big part of it.
Do you agree? Disagree? What would you like to see?
-
10
Comments
The natural disasters:
I think would be a ton of fun, but pretty hard to code/implement into the game I would imagine. Some are def easier than others, like the heavy hail storms. I wonder how they would deal with like avalanches, would it cover buildings? Damage buildings? Leave permanent terrain changes?
I think those things would be difficult to implement, but maybe less permanent events, like maybe earthquakes only leave temporary ground particles. Or buildings having a simple "health bar" IE: earthquake happens and health goes from 100/100 to 45/100" and the mayor needs to recruit an artisan to repair it or the buildings bonuses/effectiveness is reduced.
I love the idea, just curious how to make it not a coding/implementation nightmare.
Static dangers:
Stuff like quicksand, or a trap pit, etc, def cool and not too hard to implement I would guess. Like that it adds to the outside world and leveling danger.
Events:
Stuff like the treant and carnivorous flower, def doable too, we have seen this in WoW and other MMOs and people like it, as it spices things up like gathering.
Diseases/Player debuffs:
This is another tricky one, because my first though is:
"I've traveled 10 mins out to a rare dungeon, I spend 30 mins clearing it, almost to the boss, but a plant gives me a disease that makes it impossible for me to clear the boss. So I travel 10 mins back to the nearest village, get cured, travel 10 mins back again to the dungeon and I'm clearing it again, just for a crystal to smack me with another debuff."
I think you see where I am going with this. Spending more time travelling to cure the debuff than fighting the dungeon mobs would suck imo. I think there is a tough balance of making impactful debuffs. IE: Maybe to combat me having to travel back and forth to a dungeon 50 times to dispell the debuff. They make the debuff weaker, but then its more of an annoyance and not a mechanic. I think the debuff/disease just needs to be rare, or make it so when you cleanse the debuff you are immune for the next X minutes etc.
In terms of other impacts of these events:
Would love to see it as a progression path for professions. IE:
I am a farmer and a flash flood happens and half my crops are ruined. But I can see that when i reach X level of farming, I can add some form of like irrigation/drain control (Idk how farmers prevent it in real life, sorry XD). Or maybe add an earth element to their farm that negates landslides. Great way to intermingle other mechanics of the game with professions. Maybe you need a summoner to create an earth elemental or a blacksmith to build a machine to counter floods etc. Which adds value to items in the economy.
But the big one to me is darkness. There’s night outside which with moonlight or ambient light can help with. And then there’s the ‘dark dark’ underground in caves and dungeons. Here’s where torches and demi-human vision ranges (e.g. dark vision, infrared, untlravision, etc) can be awesome.
I want to see holes so that people dont race on mounts mindlessly. Fall in and die.
Mountains, jungle covered ruins (aztec, mayan), underground areas with holes leading to the depths of the earth. Holes. Death holes.
We will be using floating mage stones for light - probably not torches.
I think Ashes won't have dark vision, etc.
Yeah... I know...
By depths of the earth... You mean#underrealm
Yeah, I know
Be a lot cooler if you did tho
Can you imagine questing around down there just to have player bodies rain from the sky hit the ground and die
😂😂
This would be amazing.
Dancing around singing "It's Raining Elves"
Then put a somewhat rare resource in the middle of its nest and ...
This deserves a topic for itself.
Lets make it.
Lots of coold ideas from you Xerheart, hope the devs are watching and considering.
Regarding the disease thing: Sure a balance needs to exist.
How about diseases starting out with mild sympthoms and small chance of transmission but, if not adressed, growing into cripping and very contagious diseases.
This being said, it would be a good reason to have a cleric, doctor (potential profession?) or alchemist (profession), bard (sing me a nice song so I forget I'm a leper for a few minutes please), with you.
It would reward socializing and socializing in a smart way.
I for one hope we will see something like that.
Really cool idea.
Maybe some areas can become muddy when it rains or slippery.
''okay guys its a bad day for sending caravans, we're just going to go at it tomorrow''
''bruh that's what everyone said and thats why prices are going up like mad, let's risk it for the $$$''
Sounds fun although it should be balanced with such people being permantently pvp flagged and thus exposed to the retribution of communities they're toxic towards in such a way.
I think it would be cool if there was a constant storm on the world map that traveled around randomly throughout the day causing many changes to the zone it is currently affecting. Opening secret areas, unearthing a world boss, washing my car without having to pay for it or do it myself. Cool things like that.
That sort of things.
I sort of like these but otoh I really don't unless they add reward to the increased risk. PvP is already an incredibly high risk. These first three not only 'are a nuisance that lowers my profit margin', they also make me even more disadvantaged in PvP. Given the difficulty of balancing PvP risk with bonuses in the first place I feel adding extra rewards and hastles might be difficult to balance properly because PvP risk itself isn't as easy to predict.
The garden one is reasonable, but should be mitigatable with freehold structures and give some reward for succeeding in dealing with it as a result of programming in random lost income outside factors already present in a good farming system.
Animal husbandry one is the only nonproblematic one as you have recieved an increased reward with your increased hastle.
I know it's extra work to code and some things won't work.
Would be cool none the less and make the world feel more alive.
They could pick the easiest and make those and later along the line make other hazards. If there will ever be addons I think they should focus on expanding the existing world anyways, instead of slaping on new landmasses like WoW does.
Better make new events, enemies and hazards.
Many ideas have already been said, but I wana see:
- slippery slopes or surfaces like ice (makes fighting on a frozen lake interesting)
- sandholes with big antlion-like creatures in them
- winds from below or the side on steep mountain cliffs /ways
- sharp stones, that slow you or hurt if you sprint
- traps in NPC camps (they should be avoidable but hurt if not dodged. Also they should spawn rarely so you are surprised if they do spawn)
- falling rocks in caves
- charming sirens that lure you into enemy infested waters while sailing (effectively forcing a random encounter)
I'm sure there is much more to be explored.
Maby something that forces you to compete in pvp like airdrops in BfA where supposed to do. (The loot wasn't worth the hassle)
All of your ideas would be GREAT dungeon boss mechanics too! And the best part is, they would come naturally, because you already had time to explore them in the open world. What a great and intuitive way to implement mechanics.
This could go the other way around too! Find boss mechanics that fit somewhere else and convert them.
LIGHTNING STRIKES! You could avoid taking damage if you stand near something conductive or even form a line to lead the electricity there. (Yes this is stolen from a boss in WoW) But who cares? It's a fun mechanic
newb: ''man why does lightning always hit me? wtf is it a bug or what''
old knight: ''Mate you're in full plate armor and running around on top of hills during storms... do the math''
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
Also add earthquakes, and tsunami to the list.
So, if we travel near a camp of locals I would like to see traps for big game. You walk into it and rhe trap deals damage. And if you die, you have a small pack of trials dancing in happiness cuz they can eat for another day lol
Combining spells is also something I would love to see. The standard one being a wet surface/spell with electricity. But water and fire to create a wall of fog and stuff too.
It would be really cool if spells like Blizzard made enemies get an extra slow and visual effect (''sinking in mud'') if the aoe spell Blizzard was used on a certain type of ground for example, or cause a chance of knockdown (stun) and a visual effect if it is cast on stone.
Would be cool if you could use this ability to freeze water/marsh so allies could walk over it (so it would be a dual use spell, both offensive and utility).