Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
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.
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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.
Comments
Different weathers as well as extreme ones like tornadoes. Realism is very important to me such as water accumulating after raining, big pile of snow, wind realism, etc.
The wind direction must affect boats steering and speed.
Wind must affect mounts fur.
Do you feel anything is missing from the weather system that we’ve shared so far?
Fog.
Are there types of weather in other games that you feel are done well? If so, what makes the weather in those games good?
Zelda Breath of the Wild.
Is there anything you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the weather system?
I’m excited by the realism of big ice blocking an entrance, wind including it blows the trees, herb, helmet.
Id want them to be long enough to have time to do things like, plan a caravan trip to exchange goods lacking in an area. Prepair for it, and do it. And id like to be able to have the idea, and accomplish it in the same season. Instead of, well last winter we thought of shipping goods to node 13, but we were too slow, maybe we'll try it next winter
I think 1 week is sufficient, but no more than 2, for one season.
I would like to see some trees that have globes which light up at night time to give that warm summer night feeling.
I'd also be curious to see what other biomes will look like with weather, such as windy dunes, and foggy marshes.
Keep up the great work!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP31ixSBO7GHKLBefWVcJaA
It would be nice if the snow would glitter abit when a light source hits it, like in the picture.
In World of Warcraft-expansion:legion there is this floating city called Dalaran that has a special effect on all the city buildings that glitter depending on where the light source hits and where ur camera moves (picture in the right corner). Maybe this effect can be applied on the snow?
Rain effect - The game Planet zoo has a really nice and intresting rain effect that makes the rain look like its "dripping" of things like buildings/trees and animals. Maybe its something for interest ^^?
Fog/clouds that is dense like the picture at the left bottom corner. Imagine you are fishing and there is dense fog on the water... suddnetly a boat appears.
Waterfalls that create mists.
Cloud/fogs that has mystical colours.
The video that was shows on the livestream had lead enviroment artist so i was thinking its okey to post enviroment suggesstions here aswell ^^ .
I noticed that the "road" could have abit more details to them like in this pictures. Its like you "brush" and blend in abit of other stuff in the road like grass/leafs/stones etc. Ofc it dosent have to be that on every road =]
And maybe we can see some ruins along side the roads soemtimes,? Kinda showing us that before everything bad happend to Verra this was a "busy road"
Bugs that splashes when you run over them, kinda intresting feature in World of Warcraft.
Water that have different colours, even magical ones depending on the zone. This can be all from Ocean/rivers/puddles/fontains etc.
Water physics in World of Warcraft is nice in my opinion =]
Its moves nice when you walk/run/jump in it and leave a "trail" when you move through it. And depending on the color of the water and if its magical it leaves a colors as "trail" that represent the colour.
Magical water that glitter/shines.
In world of Warcraft expansion shadowlands zone bastion you can see the glittering water. Its hard to capture it on pictures. This water just looks so intresting and beautiful in a magical game ^^
There is even some luminos alge in the water that glows on the edges.
This glitter water is only on the surface. As soon as you dive the water it will look normal =]
Would be awesome if we could have luminos alge in the water. This would fit well with the water physics that World of Warcraft has that leaves a "trail" in the water. Like imagine you run in this water and it will turn luminos like blue alge.
I noticed on the livestream that while the ground gets alot of details the rivers did not in my opinion.
They look abit like "left alone" like they didnt get any "love".
I would like to see abit more details near a river and where bridges will be. The picture is just a suggestion about what i mean.
This details around a bridge would be cozy and awesome and feel magical to see around bridges in verra. Ofc not every bridge has to look so detailed as this.
Some more inspirations for rivers. This rivers are calm, but even if it is a stream there can be magical plants that are stong and can grow and stay in place in the water or big rocks with bushes on top of them in the middle of the stream with some glowing fantasy fireflies or magical wisp circling the stone =]
Animals drinking from the river.
Even the edges of the river can have more details to them.
Leafs floating and so on.
When there is some puddles big or small or just created by the rain it would be cool to somtimes see leaves floating on them and maybe a even a small frog chilling in them or on a big leaf.
Would be so nice if this rivers and puddles had grass/stones/flowers/roots/shells/old broken trees on the ground. This creates an intresting look when you look in the river or puddle. it gives it some life.
Its nice when a puddle or river is well blended with the ground. Like if it is alot of leaves on the ground it will blend in the water. hard to explain, the picture shows it well.
Big dead trees in the water or floating ones and skeleten of creatures.
Would love to see more critters and insects that makes the world alive like the butterflies u showed on the livestream.
Would be amazing to see maybe luminos butterlies/bees or wisps flying around trees or anywhere. They can be in groups or alone. Gives a vibe of a fantasy magical world.
One thing i noticed on the livestream is that all trees are kinda in real life looking. and have the same"size" kinda exept maby 1 or 2 bigger ones. Maybe this is how the world is suposed to be and thats fine
But, I think it would also be nice if we saw some sizes in tress from really huge ones so small ones and inbetween.
Also i think it would be intresting if there was alot of magical and crazy looking tress that dont look like in real life ones. Like the pictures below. This 2 orange pictures are kinda what i am thinking, trees crazy looking and twisted with mix of magical bushes that blends well together with the enviroment.
Some sugetsion on magical crazy trees =]
Trees/bushes that have different mixed barks. Floating trees.
trees that forms like this maby above a road? and maby some bridges that we will have can be a huge log and even a fallen tree that connect the ground with a hill so you can walk on it.
Would love to see fantasy looking grass in some places like this picture.
It would be nice if some trees was placed with bushes/flowers and stones "foliage" around it.
Another cool thing would be if there was a grass field as the livestream that when you run phrew it it would spawn magical light or fireflies. Just like in this movie The good dinosaur. when i saw this sceen.. its was so beautiful<3
I know it's not a finished world, I just want to give some nice suggestions, about what I would like to see in a game!
R: snow accumulation on roosters
Do you feel anything is missing from the weather system that we’ve shared so far?
R: would love to see thunder and lightning
Are there types of weather in other games that you feel are done well? If so, what makes the weather in those games good?
R: what was shown is the best for me
Is there anything you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the weather system?
R: I think it would be nice if the waters froze, but the waters that are close to the ice areas
I like the threats and bonuses. but mostly the threats.
Q: Do you feel anything is missing from the weather system that we’ve shared so far?
A: Threats from extreme weather. For example when it's snowing and you don't have appropriate clothing or a warming spell or item active you should take damage. Same for the heat during the summer.
Also weather events that don't exist in the real world like corruption storms that bring the corruption to an area or help it expand faster.
Q: Are there types of weather in other games that you feel are done well? If so, what makes the weather in those games good?
A: in other games with dynamic weather systems, like fallout 4 I Loved how they created a unique weather event that was the radiation storm which benefited most enemies that were not only immune to radiation but got healed by it; and hurt my character giving me that sense of urgency and danger. It could happen anywhere and at any time.
Also in terraria the weather often brought with it different enemies that have specific loot you could only get from them. And some plants would only bloom during a specific weather event allowing for extra crops from a specific plant when it's raining for example.
Q: Is there anything you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the weather system?
A: I am very excited to see how weather is going to affect the difficulty of PvE content like quests and open world dungeons.
Like maybe for example a fire based boss in dungeon "x" is much easier to kill during winter. albeit because one of their skills is disabled, or they take more damage or deal less damage or all of the above.
What aspects of weather in-game are important to you?
I really love when weather has some minor effects on my individual gameplay experience. Effects on the macro gameplay experience are good too (closed off trade routes, frozen straits, etc) but I love when my personal day to day experiences are affected as well.
One of my favorite Skyrim mods is Frostfall, a module that lets weather affect the air temp in various regions, makes you second guess whether you really want to jump into that arctic ocean, allows some new armor pieces to affect how well insulated your character is, introduces camping sets of various weights that are more or less insulated for different climates, introduces warming and energizing effects to different food and drinks.
All of that is quite in depth (arguably too much so) but the thought of having climate, weather, food/drink, clothing, and utilities all play off of each other in a noticeable way is really satisfying to me. Your system already looks great, but how does it feel to the me as a character in the world? Can I really feel the effects of it in a tangible way? That's what I'm focused on.
Do you feel anything is missing from the weather system that we’ve shared so far?
I don't want to assume this hasn't already been discussed, but one thing I'd love to see are occasional natural "disasters" or "major weather events" like volcanic eruptions in mountainous zones, hurricanes in coastal zones, monsoons in desert zones, or forest fires from lightning strikes in some inland forest zones. These could occur quite rarely, but could have some interesting effects on the environment for the following weeks.
Volcanic eruptions could spawn unique mining nodes around the lava flows, and volcanic ash could be gathered from the earth where it's suffocated the nearby flora and turned into great fertilizer for farming plots.
Hurricanes could naturally fertilize the local gatherables by sweeping nutrients from coastal soil further inland, giving them higher quality/quantity produce. Perhaps some well-hidden deep see treasures could randomly spawn for the following week near the coastline that were swept in by the storm.
Forest fires could spawn from lightning strikes that burn down swaths of forest which regrow from the fertilized soil over the following week, spawning more gatherable nodes / making the existing nodes produce a higher quantity/quality of product for the next several weeks.
Monsoons could bring new life to desert areas, increasing the spawn rate of gatherables and creating some temporary oases in the area which coax in some rare-goods-merchants for a week or so.
These could run at random along a range, then have a set refresh timer before running the range again. It would be a lot of work, I'm sure, but this is something I imagine would be technically possible and haven't seen in an MMO as of yet. Definitely an example of eye-catching, memorable moments that would set this game apart from anything else on the market. I can only imagine the sense of awe and community excitement in-game when one of these events occurs.
A day-long torrential downpour in the desert causing an explosion of life and trade. An awful looking storm forming in the skybox off the coastline causing ship captains to quiver in their boots and head for land en masse, potentially losing their ships and drowning at sea if they don't heed the signs, while a spiraling, low-visibility weather system makes its way up the coastline. A massive forest fire creating a smokescreen across the neighboring valley and increasing fauna spawns in the neighboring areas until the forest regrows. A volcanic eruption sending plumes of ash into the sky and sending lava flows down the mountain side.
Very rarely do you ever get this sort of dynamic, impactful content in an MMO outside of instanced story events. To have the world itself become an entity to be respected and feared is a true feat, and something I don't think the player base would ever take for granted given our relatively (low) standard experience with other MMO environments.
Are there types of weather in other games that you feel are done well? If so, what makes the weather in those games good?
Breath of the Wild, the sheer amount of research that was put into making their systems realistic (there have been fascinating in-depth breakdowns of this on YouTube).
The Witcher 3, the soft rain storms on the mainland felt so cozy, but the intense thunder storms on Skellige felt really threatening and impressive.
Is there anything you’re excited or concerned about regarding what was shown with the weather system?
I'm really excited to see how the weather/seasons will actually impact the gameplay in a meaningful way, not just be pretty to look at. Don't get me wrong, it is very pretty, and I very much appreciate that, but similar to combat, pretty looking particle effects and elegant martial animations aren't enough. It has to have weight and impact.
Keep up the great work!
The one thing that was mentioned in passing was the different regions having different weather, with an expansive world this of course makes sense. What I am potentially concerned about are the transitions between biomes. I hope work is done to create transitional biomes between each biome to avoid stark/drastic changes.
Example:
Walking from an arctic area into a forested area. Trees should begin to appear sparsely at first then increase in density during the path, shrubbery will increase, lichen will decrease, the biodiversity should be fluid throughout the entire world.
This could be done by having microbiomes around the ~18 biomes such as the diagram below where you have the low arctic between the high arctic and the northern tree line (which includes multiple subzones)