Ways that stars could influence Verra?

To branch off the feedback thread without cluttering it, how do you imagine the constellations to influence the world?

Info on the night begins at 11:11

https://youtu.be/cqIiIeI-XvA?t=671

Here's what we know:

Verra has (at least) 3 moons - one of them is mysteriously shattered
There is a constellation for the Dawnbreaker
Constellations will affect: narrative, item acquisition (relics), empowering abilities and/or items
[implied] Vek can find constellations more easily than other races
[implied] Constellations change depending on where you are (?) - could just be a testing thing though

There are so many directions this could go, so some kick-off questions:

Would you be happy if only 1 constellation was active per night? If not, how many?
What kind of secrets events could you imagine happening?
Would you like major events that everyone across Verra can see?
Since the gods of Verra walk among us, how do you imagine the stars work with religion?
Should the stars be useful to how we build our Nodes? Or would you keep these systems separate?

Personally, I think using constellations to influence dungeon puzzles could be really cool.

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Arya_Yeshe

I'm all in for:

triggering events
activating altars
opening magical gates
brewing special potions
performing rituals and attunements
buffing mobs and bosses
spawning more of certain mobs
bringing certain fishes closer to the surface
influencing tides

I think all constelations on the sky should be active
If constelations could influence on brewing potions then you would always have many options, many different mobs in different regions would habe buffs

etc

We gotta remember there will be people all over Verra, activating all will bring different effects on difference places, this makes more interesting than having one effect on all regions

Nerror

Also finding out if you're compatible with your ingame girlfriend.
"OMG she's such a Dawnbreaker. She matches my Wisp Whelk so well"

maouw

Nerror wrote: »

Also finding out if you're compatible with your ingame girlfriend.
"OMG she's such a Dawnbreaker. She matches my Wisp Whelk so well"

Hahaha - I can imagine a Node that worships Norlan, the goddess of Fate, sending out daily horoscopes

Azherae

I hope that Steven's massive lore doesn't eclipse the potential for the odder stuff that people use star positions and astrology for in games.

I never really get involved in it, but it's nice to have around as a backdrop for multiple things.

As noted in Feedback Thread, religious orders, particularly Vek related ones, would be great to have related to it. I could see sailor 'superstitions' and similar things too.

As for constellations active, I think it'd be 'better' to have them active multiple per night but then we're into the 'yearly constellation changes' (not hard) and 'obscurity based on moon position' (somewhat hard KINDA). I feel that puzzles would be okay too, as well as observatories in scientific node buildings.

That said, while I love a good star chart, these only really 'do something' once you start getting 'Fate' and 'Deities' involved, so I'd prefer things to be focused around that if it's for ME to interact with.

Percimes

Nerror wrote: »

Also finding out if you're compatible with your ingame girlfriend.
"OMG she's such a Dawnbreaker. She matches my Wisp Whelk so well"

Hehe, I was about to joke that, as a secret effect of constellations, a small variation on character stats would depend of the dominant constellation at their creation. Something like a +1, -1 for that day.

It would drive min/maxers crazy, but it could also created some sort of bizarre tradition or belief that the best for X class were born at that time of the year. Could easily be included in the lore, and being all out of wack since all non-Tulnar characters were probably not born on Verra in the first place.

Arya_Yeshe

You know what could be cool?

If Scribing and Arcane Engineering had relations with the Constelations, so you would have to craft certain items with the right constelations in the sky

Craiken

The constellation system has huge potential for treasure-hunt style quests. Perhaps you can reveal a secret door by playing a particular song in a special location while a certain constellation is active in the sky...

I'd also like it if astronomy caused some nights to be extra-special. Perhaps you can only forge the Dawnhammer using an anvil on top of Verra's highest mountain during a conjunction of the shattered moon and Dawnbreaker's eye.

Czeris

Whatever the effects of the constellations, please let these (at least some) be obscure and mysterious, and revealed in game through experimentation, rather than just given out.

Arya_Yeshe

Czeris wrote: »

Whatever the effects of the constellations, please let these (at least some) be obscure and mysterious, and revealed in game through experimentation, rather than just given out.

Sounds legit!

Azherae

I could definitely get behind 'creation of items/armor while under a Constellation' if it were easy enough to implement. Particularly if they give some sort of faith based bonus to something that doesn't matter a lot meta-wise.

Oddly I feel like the best fit for this would be Alchemy? Like, it's a potion. It 'having a tiny extra effect' because it was mixed under the Starlight of the Celestial Sandal isn't going to break the game, nor cause a massive issue with balance or exclusivity.

Same for things like... idk... books, scrolls, temporary maps... anything like that.

Armor would probably not be as 'fair' to do it with, but if the armor only gave whatever small buff while the Constellation was aligned 'again', I doubt it could possibly be meta enough to be anything other than flavor (or a target for crazy players to try to get one of each of the Verran Zodiac or whatever).

Arya_Yeshe

@Azherae yes... Constelations in general would make more sense for Arcane Engineering and Alchemy... but could be anything literally if you want to be creative

Maybe the armor could give the buff when the constelation is present, being day or night
Then if you use that armor when the constelation is not in the sky then the buff disapears, only to return when the constelation is present again

So specialized armor buffs could be like a "seasonal" thing, but having constelations instead of seasons
So if you want a defense against fire so you can min max a certain dungeon, you would need the help of the stars

Liniker

say no to scope creep

maouw

Liniker wrote: »

say no to scope creep

Yeah valid point - but I trust intrepid's POs to manage their backlogs. They'll cut things that don't fit.

I wouldn't want a situation where running 1 type of celestial enchantment becomes the meta, but it'd be cool to see things like:

Bloodmoon Werewolves that drop unique materials
An empty stonehenge that becomes overrun with cultists under solar/lunar eclipses
A suspiciously quiet meadow that, under certain constellations, comes to life revealing pixies so we can harvest fairy dust (classic)

Arya_Yeshe wrote: »

You know what could be cool?

If Scribing and Arcane Engineering had relations with the Constelations, so you would have to craft certain items with the right constelations in the sky

This makes sense to me - celestial alchemy/herbalism is a really novel idea. How deep would this system be, though? And how would the constellations relate to each other? Things could get quite stiff, but we could use "compatibilities" (as Nerror joked) to make the system less rigid:

To borrow from chinese zodiac compatibility charts:

So the idea is that celestial alchemy/scribing could be more about how to mix-and-match the zodiacs, and less focusing on one zodiac. The chart above is symmetric, but you could have an asymmetric chart - kinda like pokemon type charts - if that's not too complex?

Anyway, I acknowledge that there are people who wouldn't want to feel like they have to participate in this stuff - I think you could go really deep into it as a subsection of one of the artisan roles, but black-box it from the over-all crafting result so nobody else has to know what was involved. That way, only if you're directly involved does it matter to you (specializations!)

Just imagine how much more functionally relevant the religions of Verra would be if these things mattered?

akabear

Sometimes a star or meteor streams across the sky and then plummet towards land, rocks the world and in doing so drops/spawns something awesome to be contested over!

(NW meteors were awesomely impactful and impressive, visually and feeling)

Veeshan

Wouldnt be agaist Vex getting a racial bonus where there get a small buff for the night when they stargaze a constilation (Constilation determins the type of buff)

Veeshan

maouw wrote: »

Liniker wrote: »

say no to scope creep

Yeah valid point - but I trust intrepid's POs to manage their backlogs. They'll cut things that don't fit.

I wouldn't want a situation where running 1 type of celestial enchantment becomes the meta, but it'd be cool to see things like:
Bloodmoon Werewolves that drop unique materials

An empty stonehenge that becomes overrun with cultists under solar/lunar eclipses

A suspiciously quiet meadow that, under certain constellations, comes to life revealing pixies so we can harvest fairy dust (classic)

Arya_Yeshe wrote: »

You know what could be cool?

If Scribing and Arcane Engineering had relations with the Constelations, so you would have to craft certain items with the right constelations in the sky

This makes sense to me - celestial alchemy/herbalism is a really novel idea. How deep would this system be, though? And how would the constellations relate to each other? Things could get quite stiff, but we could use "compatibilities" (as Nerror joked) to make the system less rigid:

To borrow from chinese zodiac compatibility charts:

So the idea is that celestial alchemy/scribing could be more about how to mix-and-match the zodiacs, and less focusing on one zodiac. The chart above is symmetric, but you could have an asymmetric chart - kinda like pokemon type charts - if that's not too complex?

Anyway, I acknowledge that there are people who wouldn't want to feel like they have to participate in this stuff - I think you could go really deep into it as a subsection of one of the artisan roles, but black-box it from the over-all crafting result so nobody else has to know what was involved. That way, only if you're directly involved does it matter to you (specializations!)

Just imagine how much more functionally relevant the religions of Verra would be if these things mattered?

Somone fk up ur zodiac chart :P pretty sure sheep spose to be goat

Fantmx

It is definitely a fun new part to an mmorpg. I see the stars more having an effect on the lore and quests associated with the lore.

Perhaps some quests are only available when a certain constellation will be present. I am guessing this will factor heavily into the religious factions. I could see it also having some input on magic items that are crafting.

Perhaps we will see that with the rise of certain nodes and the cataclysmic storylines that follow, there will be changes to the stars or what we can see of them at least. Perhaps certain metropolises like religious or scientific will be able to change the stars.

Long term it would be fun to incorporate the celestial bodies into future expansions as a method of change or destruction.

I am very interest in seeing if the moons will have a tidal effect. That could cover/uncover certain areas, dungeons, items, which could have a much more daily effect on players.

Azherae

Well, the other thing we can bear in mind is that while the stars are probably actual stars, they're ALSO probably 'sparks from clashes between the gods'. Residues of their conflicts so powerful that they can radiate enough energy to support life, etc.

The important part of THAT, is dependent on whether or not Verra is the 'seat of Creation' and it's implied that it is.

So a constellation could represent 'your patron deity's special attack', however many strikes it is, clashed, blocked, or even made contact with, their target, in the great Celestial war.

A constellation can then be potentially viewed as 'knowledge of the manifest strength of your deity's will'. Like, you could 'ponder a constellation' as the concept of a Deity-Tier metaphysical attack' and all the connections and meanings of the positions of the stars thereof.

That's the sort of thing that makes for good integrated lore in my opinion. Everyone could learn it differently, too. A Bard would learn 'the rhythm or notes', a Fighter would learn 'the Art of application', a Cleric could learn quite literally 'Divine Conviction', etc.

I'm really 'for' anything that is short lived, either 'can only be used when the constellation is visible', or (I'd prefer, as noted in a prior post) refreshes one charge of some not-terribly overpowered thing that you can use at will, but won't recharge unless you stay up and pray/meditate on a night where you can see it.

Imagine the epic feeling of 'being able to pull off a win in a battle because you remembered to look to the sky for your Deity's Will' and therefore got the last tiny boost you needed to make it, and then used it at the right time.

Most games, I'd think this would be shied away from design wise, but given Steven's perspective on Religion in Ashes, I wouldn't feel it was out of place, even mechanically. Just one more thing for the balance pile.

EDIT: Literally used the word literally too many times... I need to get out of the code mines.

maouw

@Azherae
YES - that would be an awesome way to incorporate religion into the stars.
Also, I agree with constellation effects being temporary - I'd imagine these effects near religious nodes to be full of chaos given heightened interactivity with the divine causing way more fluctuation of these temporary effects.

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