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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.
Ways that stars could influence Verra?
maouw
Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
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:
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.
Info on the night begins at 11:11
https://youtu.be/cqIiIeI-XvA?t=671Here'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.
I wish I were deep and tragic
1
Comments
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
"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
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.
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.
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
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.
Sounds legit!
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).
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
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:
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?
(NW meteors were awesomely impactful and impressive, visually and feeling)
Somone fk up ur zodiac chart :P pretty sure sheep spose to be goat
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.
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.
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.