[Suggestions & Feedback Request] Desert Biome Shown During July Livestream
Hello glorious community,
As we go through your feedback on the Riverlands biome that was seen during the May 2022 Development Update livestream, we’ve got another biome headed your way!
Making sure that each of the biomes on Verra feels unique is something that matters to us, and we want you to let us know in this thread what you’d like to encounter in the desert biome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oDeP9HBYGs
To help guide this conversation, here are a few thought starters:
Please don’t feel limited by the thought starters above. Feel free to share any suggestions you have for our desert biome.
We’ll be compiling a report for the design team on Friday, August 12, 2022, so please try to get your suggestions into this thread by then!
Everyone here at Intrepid Studios looks forward to reading all the feedback you have to share regarding things you’d love to see in the desert biome!
As we go through your feedback on the Riverlands biome that was seen during the May 2022 Development Update livestream, we’ve got another biome headed your way!
Making sure that each of the biomes on Verra feels unique is something that matters to us, and we want you to let us know in this thread what you’d like to encounter in the desert biome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oDeP9HBYGs
To help guide this conversation, here are a few thought starters:
- Are there certain aspects of deserts that you like from other games?
- What deserts in games stand out for you?
- Are there certain points of interest you would like to see in deserts?
- Are there desert tropes you would like us to include or avoid?
- Which unique creatures do you think should be found in deserts?
- What kind of desert weather and seasonal effects do you wish were found in more games?
Please don’t feel limited by the thought starters above. Feel free to share any suggestions you have for our desert biome.
We’ll be compiling a report for the design team on Friday, August 12, 2022, so please try to get your suggestions into this thread by then!
Everyone here at Intrepid Studios looks forward to reading all the feedback you have to share regarding things you’d love to see in the desert biome!
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Comments
Are there any ideas you'd like to share for the biome? Thanks for the kind words!
The biggest thing I'd ask for is probably bigger sandstorms and overall sand blowing around, but I assumed that would be shown more once Intrepid shows us whether in this particular biome.
As far as a desert trope goes...Would love to stumble across a dungeon or encampment that is a mirage, and only appears at a certain time of day perhaps? How cool would that be.
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What deserts in games stand out: I think the creatures stand out more in the biome relative to others.
Desert POIs: Oasis, Ruins/Temples, Cliff faces/other sources of shades, a valley of flat and low elevation where you can see the different elevations (think opposite cliff top,) canyon with striations and varying hues, and a rock or cacti forest.
Tropes: Unsure. Definitely distortion from heat/sun visually on the landscape.
Unique Creatures: Massive sandworm or predator insect types.
Weather and Season: Something to convey how conversely cool it gets at night, sandstorms, the rare rainfall/cloud, dust devils, mirages, etc.
I think including sand burrowing ambush insects or such things and generic buzzard type enemies/animals would get desert vibe going. I loved all the animals/enemies that were shown in the video specifically hippos.
With dynamic weather system I think sand storms and tornadoes would be cool and they could either drive enemies up from hiding in sand or hiding different shelters.
And nasty creatures that live in the sandstorm, and only in there, but with valuable crafting resources. Some type of sand elemental perhaps.
Love the mirage idea it's the perfect place to hide rare traders or secret quests.
I would like to see quicksand areas, pits and how wind moves sand in the desert covering routes and passages.
Fennec foxes, jackals, lesser Egyptian jerboas and antlions could be good additions into the desert's ecosystem.
As for inclusions, maybe something like a baobab tree that's so big you can actually go inside. Lizards, snakes, snake-lizards lizard-snakes (got my animal-mergey-Margaret-hat on there...), maybe we can even get a camel mount or something. (Ok, or a camel-armadillo or something - a camedillo?)
It's not even 'because it doesn't feel that much like a desert' because that's not true, but moreso that it felt like it was lacking something that I find difficult to put into words. Maybe it was the scale I saw it from, or the fact that there were no shots of it at night, included in the expo, but it's just too oddly 'alive'.
The sort of thing where you can change the terrain to be greener and it will cease to look like a desert. Now, this is absolutely fantastic if that's in the plan, and I can definitely imagine, given everything else that you guys do, that if so, I'll be blown away. In a 'normal' ordinary MMORPG or similar game, I'd expect a lot of things to be out of place once that happened, like the Scorpions, but this is Ashes so I'd expect a change in the spawners too.
Something here just isn't working for me. I'll hope it's the cinematography chosen, or the specific utilization of the assets, but something just doesn't look quite right. I can't put my finger on it yet, but I'm just going to trust in the incredible Intrepid art team that it's my own error and bias for now.
tl;dr Looks great, I hate it.
Overall - well done!
I think adding in mirages, after staying in the desert too long, will be a great idea for immersion. Along with maybe quicksand, some Egyptian themed buildings, and simple camels will be great additions.
Id love to see like sandstorms, dustnados, floods, quicksand, Some type of serpent boss or mobs would be so dam cool to see also. Everything looked amazing so far. Being in the dessert be cool if when on high ground the sun may reflect off things in the sand and you might need to ruin and see what it is. Floods would also be cool for navy combat and transport, only certain times can you make your way someone, huge risk in the tide washes out and your ship becomes a relic in the sands
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Edit: one thing is, I'd like to share the concern that others have in regards to the Render distance for the grass and foliage, terrain does look flat in the distance and my suggestion is only for you to Allow us that have high end PCs to bump that up
If you are concerned about the performance on preset settings make it so the Ultra preset doesn't have everything maxed out - but have a checkbox with a warning message, to enable us go beyond ultra and bump the settings such as rendering distance for foliage further
The animals were all really cool, though I do hope for even more variety. More original maybe subterranian animals or hybrids like Davey's armadillo camels 😆 also Snorse ftw.
The architecture and all of the environmental design looks superb and I can't wait to explore it all more. Looks like the team has a very clear direction and I like it and look forward to seeing more of it.
The potential for weather here is something really interesting to me as well. Like others have said sandstorms, smaller dust devils, quicksand, and flooding are pretty cool ideas to bring in. But I'm more interested to see what seasons mean for the Desert. If things could be unlocked through the levels of the sand rising and falling I think that would be neat. A season where the dunes are extraordinary high and cause impassable terrain. Or maybe where the nights get so cold in the winter all the insects make themselves sparse and more mammals are present. There's also a potential of for climates so hot that parts of the sands glass over?
Look forward to seeing more 😁
Professional Skeptic, Entertainer, and Animal Enthusiast
For example, in this image, the foliage in the immediate vicinity of the camera is visible, but to the right hand side of the image across the lake it looks barren.
Here's another example from the Wetlands biome video. The surrounding area near Steven has foliage, but in the slight distance ahead of him, there's a tree on a small hill that looks like it has no foliage.
But as he gets closer, it spawns
Other than that, the biomes themselves look great and I don't have any immediate critiques.
Overall, the work and tools you guys have create is amazing! I'm so so so impressed. No notes in that regard at all.
Both kinda had a feeling and reward of you could find some special items out in the emptyness. I like the idea of either lots of enemies with a potential for a special hard enemy to appear or few enemies but the ones you do run into are on the more dangerous side. Generally I imagine a desert as a dangerous place since its not very livable.
I think having some sort of puzzle you can find that you can fail would be a cool way to find items, or for gaining access to a high density of gatherable resources if you complete it. Probably cant let people camp in it though cause then you'd get bots in that sort of spot lol
As for creatures and weather, I have no idea other than extremely generic answers lmao
I don't know about that, I think the concept showed a lot of creativity. It's a one of a kind creature. My sister and I lost our minds when we seen the snorse lol, it's great. But to each their own.