What would you like to see possible underwater considering things such as weather, day and night, perception and crafting?
I think seeing states like boiling, thick mud, sticky tar, poisonous algae, oxygen sources.
I am also interested to see how underwater activities can impact surface water activities like fishing. For example group fishing! A group member can scout underwater and try to drive fish into "the fishing spot" or better yet, you are the bait!
Also deep underwater cavern surface water fishing would be dope.
Well I don't actually expect weather underwater LoL. Though I agree that metaphorically, you could call things like varying currents & clarity of the water 'weather'.
I expect to have the light levels decrease as I go deeper underwater, so I'm certainly curious about how dark night time is going to get. I hope that as a counter-balance to greater night darkness, that there will be many plants and animals underwater that give off their own light.
I plan to have a Crafter who makes leather armor, and I hope to skin hides from water creatures to make unusual or unique leathers.
In some stream a couple years ago, Joppa said that VR's intention was to have "less NPCs and more exploring the environment" underwater. I hope that means lots of perception pings and thus related quests to embark upon.
I like your idea of having a diver helping other players who are fishing on the surface. That sure sounds like teamwork to me!
Wind and rain and ice impact underwater life and conditions in real life but I get what your saying lol.
Yeah light sources not just oxygen sources could be more beneficial effects. Bioluminescence my fav!!
Scipio said: Wind and rain and ice impact underwater life and conditions in real life but I get what your saying lol.
You're right, I can recall seeing video of divers and subs being affected by storms. While I believe those affects are limited to fairly close to the surface, that will include many rivers and lakes on Terminus.
When I think of "underwater", I just tend to imagine the vast, deep ocean.
Also, on further consideration, it seems to me that any self-respecting ocean bottom should have a fair number of wrecked ships. And where there's sunken ships, there be TREASURE matey!
Aaaarrrrrrrr!
I am very impressed with how VR is doing lighting, and water. I would like to see cool lighting, where some shafts of light penetrate the water fairly well, and other spots are fairly dark.
Sea serpents. Like versions of the Loch Ness monster. Where you can see a small head above water, but most of the body is below water.
schools of fish, that move in unison. And of course...shipwrecks! O ya!
Jothany said:In some stream a couple years ago, Joppa said that VR's intention was to have "less NPCs and more exploring the environment" underwater. I hope that means lots of perception pings and thus related quests to embark upon.
I recall this being spoken of as well and it was mentioned in the latest stream HDRPII too. Also I think mentioned in the Wilds End stream.
The way Joppa mentions "the abyss" and endurance and breath, and using the word tension makes me imagine swimming in darkness exploring a sea cave hoping to find an air pocket, then a current takes you off course and you are in a panic lol. Then have to decide to surface and give it another shot a different direction. Stuff like that where it is an adrenaline filled exploration in the dark depths :) That's not to say no NPCs but more a focus on that feeling rather than combat.
GeneralReb said:The way Joppa mentions "the abyss" and endurance and breath, and using the word tension makes me imagine swimming in darkness exploring a sea cave hoping to find an air pocket, then a current takes you off course and you are in a panic lol...Stuff like that where it is an adrenaline filled exploration in the dark depths :)
I'm already feeling claustrophobic from just reading that!
I want content as varied, interesting, compelling, challenging and rewarding as content on dry land. If this doesn't happen, when why bother putting in on the time and effort and wasting all that money? Oh, and no, exploration by itself is not a driving factor for me. Exporation, once done, is gone.
Specifically, in relation to classes, I would like to see abilities that offer significant advantages for dealing with environments and conditions. I want things like mage light, underwater breathing, levitate... etc to actually hold strategic value and not be resigned to class flavor. I want these abilities to be desirable for exploration/navigation, and hold value for groups.
As for what I would like to see underwater that is a fairly long list. To shorten that list up I want to mobs that can only be found in underwater environments. I want to see those mobs use their environments to create unique and dynamic encounters that are not possible on land. VR has talked about aerobic and pressure environments underwater, however, I would also like to see areas that may include fridged or hot environments. Why wouldn't artic water also be fridged, or an area around an underwater vent be hot? I could also see underwater environments that may be toxic. It would also be nice to see unique and desirable gear/items which only come from specific underwater encounters.
As for the water surface, It would be cool if storms could affect waves and potentially fishing opportunities in coastal areas. Like what kinds of unique fish or items could you get during a heavy storm or directly after one. It might be cool to see certain mobs that only surface if the environmental weathers meet the right conditions. For example, maybe sirens exist and they only surface during foggy conditions, maybe aqua goblins are a thing and they only surface at night (or maybe they also prefer foggy conditions). The point is it would be cool to see things emerge from the depths and then make the player figure out why.
If there is underwater content - meaning things to fight not just pretty views - I see two things as essential.
1. Some way to survive without having to find air every 45 or 60 seconds. That gets really annoying really fast.
2. Easier enemies. Three dimensional fighting is harder so enemy difficulty should be toned down.
Underwater areas can be less populated and have fewer content than land areas. The water ways can be mostly dangerous traveling paths with a few areas of hostile mobs or treasure. We are all terrestrial creature and will gravitate towards walking around. No reasonable player expects the underwater zones to be as full of content as the land. Just include perils and challenge to reach a rewarding destination. I would love a high risk trip underwater to reach a cave system with towns and dungeons. I don't have any desire to buy and sell to vendors while floating in a puddle or underwater. It should be a unique feature that doesn't detract from the fact that every playable race has feet and toes.
Considering the general feeling against fast-travel. How about an insidious, accidentally discovered kind of fast-slow travel via the unseen undertow? imagine: Hey, wasn't the shore alot closer?-a few minutes later-Omgosh now the lighthouse/glowing pearl in the giant oyster (above/below) is just a dot of light! before I could see the structure! We must be caught in a current!~where are we heading?! *turns other way* hey that cave/island (below/above) wasn't there before, it looks like its getting bigger!. Later on... Yes you can swim there from here, but its alot quicker, sort of, if you catch the undertow. It will drag you along. Have to have good swim skill/enduring breath though otherwise, you'll drown out in the middle of nowhere. And if you're lucky can catch the trans-pantheonic current that criss-crosses it and ride with the giant sea Narwhals! ...um...west.
Otherwise atmospheres compounded with swimming - lava shoots, Plate tectonic shifts releasing gasses, pressure and toxic.
What I want under (and on) the water:
Counterfleche said:One more:
- The ability to slowly walk along the bottom if sufficiently weighted down.
hmm. what if the pressure was so great, everything was slowed down. Know how haste, overhaste, haste modifiers has been the "thing", what if all that was negated in a camping or *ahem* crawling kind of group? If you were pulling with ranged things you would have to know just how far ahead to lead the target, because everything is moving so slow. (Players could learn to show off by how far away they could "pull". If shouting/taunging/playing you can see your sound as vibrations and where your "aggro" (vibrations) overlaps. Because everything is silent, being so deep. The fight would be slooooooow. Huge telegraphing. Player frustration not coming from reacting fast enough, but being Zen enough to calmly press the right buttons when the telegraph comes and if not, calmly changing tactics. Watching the warrior gracefully miss his swing. seeing the puff of poison, like a squid inking in escape, from a rogues missed attempt. The caster, missing the spell and see it sailing off to....coincidentall hit something wayyyyy out there so far away that it seems like an add when it finally arrives.
Harvesting. Once dead, the players haul the carcass up- carefully for the bends if that is a thing- and as they do the MoB expands- gets huge! if they go up too quickly. But if they stop at just the right level, a harvester can carve the expanded carcass and harvest some things before they are ruined by bursting from the pressure change as they rise.
