Weather & Atmosphere

Recently I’ve been playing (and thoroughly enjoying) an early access game that has some of the best feeling atmosphere and weather in any recent game I’ve played.

Because of the nature of how the weather impacts the environment and your character, you end up having conditions that are unfavorable for sailing, thick fog that makes it difficult to see more than 15 feet around you (both on land and water), heavy darkness at night that promotes the use of light sources (torches, fires, etc.) and status effects such as “wet” and “cold” that reduce stamina regen (or even health loss over time when “freezing” in certain regions).

I’d love to see this sort of gameplay in an MMO setting, with region-wide seasons and localized weather events. This truly changes the approach of the player and disrupts the monotony of certain actions... but it also poses an obstacle that is a pleasure to overcome.

I believe I saw mention of Weather and Seasons for AOC, but how impactful it is for the players is something I’ve not seen clarified. Does anyone have info on this? I know some members of the dev team do streams and social media that I’ve likely missed.

PS - the game referenced in the beginning is Valheim (steam early access). Well worth the $20 as it has broadened my appreciation for environmental effects, weather systems and “fun” gameplay in general. Made by a team of 4 people and it feels better than some AAA releases lately.

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Asgerr

This is all the information we have thus far:

https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Environments
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Seasons
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Climate

I think there has been other mentions during live streams or interviews that might have been catalogued in these, but I can't quote them so I'll refrain from providing possibly wrong information

daveywavey

Valheim?

Edit: Aha, just saw it at the end. I never read past the first few paragraphs.....

Arkethos

I should have a disclaimer before my posts: Beware! Wall of Text

But yeah, Valheim just feels great. Can’t believe it’s just early access either the amount of content it has and how fun it is.

daveywavey

Taming the wild boar has got me even more excited for Ashes Of Creation's animal husbandry. Can't wait to see what combinations I can discover!

Arkethos

Same - I haven’t gotten them to breed yet though...

Yagre

I hope the Ashes of Creation developers take note of Valheim. I think it has a lot of systems/ideas that would benefit them.

Sum12hate

daveywavey wrote: »

Taming the wild boar has got me even more excited for Ashes Of Creation's animal husbandry. Can't wait to see what combinations I can discover!

Tame a wolf.. so much fun getting one shotted just to get a pupper

Sum12hate

Need more than one boar and keep feeding them I have a piggy farm found out you don't necessarily need carrots for them to reproduce just takes less food

Arkethos wrote: »

Same - I haven’t gotten them to breed yet though...

daveywavey

Arkethos wrote: »

Same - I haven’t gotten them to breed yet though...

Two tamed boar in a pen together. Throw in some food for each (mushroom, raspberry, carrot), then give them a pet each to get the love hearts flowing!

Arkethos

Piggy acquired!

But yeah, regarding weather & atmosphere... it’s done exceptionally well in Valheim and should be an excellent resource for devs to reference.

Sailing through the fog and having land slowly appear is breathtaking at times.

Wandering Mist

Things like weather-based status effects and stamina work very well in a survival game like Valheim, but less well in an mmorpg. Imagine if you were constantly debuffed while in a snow mountain biome, nobody would go there, nobody would live there, effectively cutting out that entire portion of the map.

Arkethos

Unless you could craft cold resist clothing, potions/food that protect against cold, etc. that creates demand for player crafting, resource gathering and sets up an economy of constant need.

Khronus

Valheim is a truly amazing game and deserves as many sales as it can get. They are on the right path for a really fun experience if they continue developing with the same focus.

I have also played some other games where the weather completely ruins the game. Escape from tarkov for example. Fog is too bright, rain somehow causes lag, daytime is too bright. Certain maps are made brighter outside so when you go into the mall, it isn't too dark. This causes daylight outside to be blinding. Just don't make AOC with anything Battlestate Games is doing for Tarkov and we are golden lol.

Wandering Mist

Arkethos wrote: »

Unless you could craft cold resist clothing, potions/food that protect against cold, etc. that creates demand for player crafting, resource gathering and sets up an economy of constant need.

Yes but there is already a need for that in Ashes from the node system and gear degrading through use. Do we really need more arbitrary things just to survive in the cold mountains?

Jamation

I personally am not a super fan of climate conditions in games. Some of my favorite locations to live have a "too cold" temperature, but I hate having to wear a full thing of fur or switch clothes throughout the day simply to exist in a certain part of the map.

I'm sure there will be cold/fire/type resistance that could go on armors which would benefit these various climates (like cold resistance to reduce damage from ice attacks more common in a snowy area) but I wouldn't want that to escalate to the point of it being a requirement to experience an area.

I think Wandering Mist put it well in saying that mechanics in Survival type games don't always translate over to MMO type games super well.

Mowaby

Arkethos wrote: »

Recently I’ve been playing (and thoroughly enjoying) an early access game that has some of the best feeling atmosphere and weather in any recent game I’ve played.

Because of the nature of how the weather impacts the environment and your character, you end up having conditions that are unfavorable for sailing, thick fog that makes it difficult to see more than 15 feet around you (both on land and water), heavy darkness at night that promotes the use of light sources (torches, fires, etc.) and status effects such as “wet” and “cold” that reduce stamina regen (or even health loss over time when “freezing” in certain regions).

I’d love to see this sort of gameplay in an MMO setting, with region-wide seasons and localized weather events. This truly changes the approach of the player and disrupts the monotony of certain actions... but it also poses an obstacle that is a pleasure to overcome.

I believe I saw mention of Weather and Seasons for AOC, but how impactful it is for the players is something I’ve not seen clarified. Does anyone have info on this? I know some members of the dev team do streams and social media that I’ve likely missed.

PS - the game referenced in the beginning is Valheim (steam early access). Well worth the $20 as it has broadened my appreciation for environmental effects, weather systems and “fun” gameplay in general. Made by a team of 4 people and it feels better than some AAA releases lately.

Negative status effects are a good idea for a survival type game. Too many things like that in an MMO just gets tedious and annoying.

Songcaller

Mowaby wrote: »

Negative status effects are a good idea for a survival type game. Too many things like that in an MMO just gets tedious and annoying.

Pantheon has gone down the rabbit hole. I wonder whether Pantheon will succeed. It is a rather niche modus operandi but so is Ashes to be fair.

volsh

Totally agree, Valheim is an very good game, if they can add weather like that into AOC then all the better

Arkethos

Jamation wrote: »

I personally am not a super fan of climate conditions in games. Some of my favorite locations to live have a "too cold" temperature, but I hate having to wear a full thing of fur or switch clothes throughout the day simply to exist in a certain part of the map.

I'm sure there will be cold/fire/type resistance that could go on armors which would benefit these various climates (like cold resistance to reduce damage from ice attacks more common in a snowy area) but I wouldn't want that to escalate to the point of it being a requirement to experience an area.

I think Wandering Mist put it well in saying that mechanics in Survival type games don't always translate over to MMO type games super well.

I agree that it can be somewhat of a chore to have to deal with weather effects in an MMO, but with the concept of cycling seasons and random weather events I think AOC is in a good position to make it work.

Are players going to be less inclined to sail during hurricane season? Knowing there is a good chance of a blizzard, do they risk the transport of goods along the mountain pass? Stuff like that keeps the game dynamic, and it opens the door for PvP opportunities if there is a specific route that is safer during different seasons... it keeps players adapting and playing more creatively rather than the monotony of repetition-without-consequence.

For the cold, I’m thinking more along the lines of it being a minor inconvenience to be “cold” in an area and a simple cloak or presence of fire might be enough to overcome the debuff. Maybe it is a movement speed debuff or a Max health/stamina reduction.

In the harsh “freezing” areas (more wilderness or storm related) players would need potions or specific threshold of cold resist equipment to be able to manage in environment without taking damage over time for exposure.

I grew up in San Diego but have lived in the Midwest for the past 25 years... so the contrast of sunny and 70’s vs the 4-seasons is not lost on me. There is something more “interesting” about a dynamic environment & weather that can turn a routine (i.e. boring) activity such as getting from A to B into an adventure in itself. But being unprepared and caught out in the elements should impose a hardship on the person for their hubris. I really don’t want to see a bunch of scantily clad alts running around gathering resources in the middle of a snowy winter area in AOC.

SnowyPoupa

I still remember to this day when I was walking the road to Ironforge and it was heavily Snowing.
Also I still remember the very first time I entered a Raid and that was ZG and it was heavily raining.
Sandstorms in Tanaris and Dark Nights in Duskwood.
Now that game doesn't even have a day/night circle and doesn't even have weather effects. Or if it does is not easily spotted .Ye it can rain a bit but not monsoons.
Weather effects for me play a pivotal role in immersion and so does Day/Night circle.
I don't like the idea of standing in a town with lights on , skybox that clearly shows its night and having so much sun like a Greek Island in summer.
Hopefully Ashes will have more atmosphere than current mmorpgs.
I want to feel like every zone has its unique touch.
Edit:
I know that some people play during the nights only(I am one of those people),but the day and night circle can easily not follow the real life circle.
They can rotate lets say every 6 hours.

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