Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

Forced to Role Play?

    • 68 posts
    December 27, 2015 1:41 PM PST

    Hello!

     

    I just want to start off this post by saying I have been following this game for a long time and have finally decided to jump on board with a pledge. I am very excited about this game as an avid old school EQ and Vanguard player. Virtually all of the goals are exactly inline with what I consider to be a great MMO that many new games have lost.

    That being said, I did come across an idea that I really didnt like and I thought I would get some insight from everyone else:

    Atmosphere/Climate System

    One of Pantheon’s tenets is ‘Engage the World!’ When we talk about being a PvE MMO, our definition of ‘environment’ means a lot more than just fighting NPCs -- players will be contending with the world itself. Some regions will be very hot or cold. Some areas within a zone might be enchanted with complete darkness, or silence (meaning spoken spells won't work), or poison or miasma. Small tornados could travel through a region, compelling players to work their way around them, not through them, lest they take significant damage. Also, certain spells may work better or worse (or even only work) depending on the climate or atmosphere -- for example, a 'Call Lightning' spell could deal more damage than a typical ‘lightning bolt’ spell but could only be cast if there is a storm in the region.

    Now, to me this is forced role playing. I dont like the idea of not being able to use spells that I earned when I want to. I understand in an online MMORPG there is a certain amount of role playing built into the game (classes, faction etc.) but I believe this pushes the boundaries. I can understand this mechanic in a RP only server but in normal PvE I believe its a little much.

    Maybe I am being too critical but I would love to hear others opinions.

    Thanks in advance.

     ****edit Role play in title*****

     Mod edit: Title edited for you :)


    This post was edited by VR-Mod1 at December 27, 2015 9:23 PM PST
    • 105 posts
    December 27, 2015 2:32 PM PST

    Welcome to the forum!

     

    I don't see it as forced roleplay at all.  I'll explain by using a really silly example.  

     

    I can carry an umbrella.  I can use it when it's sunny and it's useful.  It's even more useful to me when I use it in rainy weather.  But in high winds I most certainly wouldn't want to use it because it may become a hazard and/or blow away.  Also, even though I really love my umbrella and it keeps the sun from burning my gamer-geek pale skin, I am not allowed to take it on the ferris wheel at the park because it's against park rules.

     

    So I can see the spells in game like my umbrella--useful in certain situations and not so useful in others and even banned in some.  

    • 1714 posts
    December 27, 2015 3:59 PM PST

    I think this is a fundamental part of their evolution. 

    • 75 posts
    December 27, 2015 4:02 PM PST

    Welcome on board Beautifully.

    I think the impact of zones and weather are going to one of (the many) the stand apart elements of Pantheon.  I am excited to see how not only the zones and weather impact playing choice and style but how the enemies we expect to encounter will impact spell choice.

    My understanding is that they are looking at bringing back the learned spells, so that you actually memorise spells that you intend to use going into a zone or combat. If you get these wrong you can rest and memorise others (happy to be corrected here if i have misinterpreted something).

    As such you would need to consider a myriad of things in choosing your spells, including but not limited too, weather, monster mitigation or resistances, indoors vs outdoors (although i recall seeing something that this may be mitigated).

    I really like this twist, while i can understand how it could be percieved as forced role play, i actually consider it to be true Player vs ENVIRONMENT.

    While discussing, the examples i have seen have revolved around spells as per example used above.  I assume that this would extend to impact melee characters and tanks? something like muddy terrain negating charge and agility based skills? Silence impacting shouted taunts or audible call pets?

     

    Edit: typo

     


    This post was edited by Narben4 at December 27, 2015 4:07 PM PST
    • 999 posts
    December 27, 2015 6:04 PM PST

    Welcome Beautifully.

    Agreed with others - I view this as another step in content evolution.  I don't view it as forced role-playing, but, more, having the right team/strategy for the encounter while adding more depth to the game.  If you know you're going to a zone that has the capability of casting silence at random, or in certain locations, etc. you're going to want to be sure to have some melees to be able to do damage, and hopefully bring some bandages to /bind wound while the caster is unable to heal.  If you don't know, you may have that fear that a /silence trap may be around the corner and may be wanting to bring a more balanced team because of it.

    Some of the "scariest" moments in any RPG  I've played (console or computer) is when my healer gets /silenced - especially on a boss encounter.  It's pretty much "oh ****" mode.  It would be interesting to see how an MMORPG implements this mechanic.

    • 384 posts
    December 27, 2015 6:32 PM PST

    Welcome to the forums, beautifully!  I have to respectfully disagree with you on this. 

    I feel like having the environment effect you in game is a realistic aspect of the game that developers are now able to incorporate into the virtual world. It doesn't force role play anymore than a wizard not being able to wear plate or not being able to use fire spells under water or warriors inability to heal. 

    • 2138 posts
    December 27, 2015 7:06 PM PST

    Hi Beautifully!, I understand enviromnental impact to be like- needing to wear some cold resist gear for wintry areas, like wearing a parka. Likewise fire resist shoes, say, for hot or lava areas.

    And I like your idea, if I understand it correctly, of having spells coinside with the environment. For instance: an ice spell in a lava area, would be less effective (snowball in hell) than a fire spell, but a earth spell would be stronger than all spells ( smothering, like Paper to Rock in rock-paper scissors), and a wind spell would be catastrophic (fanning the fire)- or as an area of effect if non fire monsters were drawn to the lava area, to be met with an AOE air spell that would vaporize them, but make the area hotter- globally in that area for a period of time ( 24hr in game cool down?) so your gear would not be as effective and you would have to think about moving or your shoes would lose their fire resist. Or just stick with the small earth spell- not as damaging but always effective and cast it often and figure out different tactics. Or a fire spell in a water environment becomes an Air spell in impact, with water being better in water and earth and air being mostly useless.  

    • 122 posts
    December 27, 2015 7:36 PM PST

    Hey welcome to the boards! I tend to agree with the others. This is more a tactical challenge than anything. In many games a "silence" effect might be used to prevent casting, or "blindness" to prevent melee. This is more in line with that than RP. It will just be on a larger scale and done through the climate. This is an exciting route for an MMO!

    I think RP has more to do with making your character follow in game lore through your actions (like refusing to group with members of an enemy race), making things more realistic (like walking most of the time, only running periodically) or taking time out of adventuring to sit in the shrine to your diety (or other such things that your character would do in this were real).

    There is potential for "forced roleplay" in other areas of this game I suppose. I think it's been discussed that consumables will be a big part of the game. I could see them going a route where running out of food or drink has consequences. Also, EQ had a server where there was no common tongue and you had to learn other languages to communicate. They've discussed multiple rule servers so I could see this happening. I will say, I don't consider either of those a negative really. I suppose if they start forcing us to walk 90% of the time I would complain, but there's pretty much a 0% chance of that happening. 

     

    • 288 posts
    December 28, 2015 7:54 AM PST

    Raidan said:

    Welcome Beautifully.

    Agreed with others - I view this as another step in content evolution.  I don't view it as forced role-playing, but, more, having the right team/strategy for the encounter while adding more depth to the game.  If you know you're going to a zone that has the capability of casting silence at random, or in certain locations, etc. you're going to want to be sure to have some melees to be able to do damage, and hopefully bring some bandages to /bind wound while the caster is unable to heal.  If you don't know, you may have that fear that a /silence trap may be around the corner and may be wanting to bring a more balanced team because of it.

    Some of the "scariest" moments in any RPG  I've played (console or computer) is when my healer gets /silenced - especially on a boss encounter.  It's pretty much "oh ****" mode.  It would be interesting to see how an MMORPG implements this mechanic.

     

    I would hope that environmental effects would not be random, unless it made sense to do so.  Having a random silence put upon you in a very difficult game could be griefy.  I don't think it would hurt to have these mechanics set in stone, like for casting certain spell archetypes in this zone, builds up mental fatigue and it also decays, so if you are forced to use those spells too much in a given amount of time it would impose the silence.  Something I could strategize for rather than just randomly being screwed.

    • 122 posts
    December 28, 2015 10:15 AM PST

    Rallyd said:

    Raidan said:

    Welcome Beautifully.

    Agreed with others - I view this as another step in content evolution.  I don't view it as forced role-playing, but, more, having the right team/strategy for the encounter while adding more depth to the game.  If you know you're going to a zone that has the capability of casting silence at random, or in certain locations, etc. you're going to want to be sure to have some melees to be able to do damage, and hopefully bring some bandages to /bind wound while the caster is unable to heal.  If you don't know, you may have that fear that a /silence trap may be around the corner and may be wanting to bring a more balanced team because of it.

    Some of the "scariest" moments in any RPG  I've played (console or computer) is when my healer gets /silenced - especially on a boss encounter.  It's pretty much "oh ****" mode.  It would be interesting to see how an MMORPG implements this mechanic.

     

    I would hope that environmental effects would not be random, unless it made sense to do so.  Having a random silence put upon you in a very difficult game could be griefy.  I don't think it would hurt to have these mechanics set in stone, like for casting certain spell archetypes in this zone, builds up mental fatigue and it also decays, so if you are forced to use those spells too much in a given amount of time it would impose the silence.  Something I could strategize for rather than just randomly being screwed.

    Agreed, but let the players figure it out on their own. I don't want some robed Obi-Wan like figure popping up at the zone line saying "halt, I see you lack frost gear! Best go get some before going here!"

    • 1778 posts
    December 28, 2015 10:33 AM PST
    Thats right. This is just tactical gameplay that requires you to use situational gear and abilities. There will apparently also be ways to help mitigate "debuffs" of your abilities from inclinate atmosphers. So while you might wear fire resistant gear in a lava zone you might still need to use sonething other than a fireball as the local mobs are "fire" based. But if your primary mana color is tied to fire that could be bad news as you likely wonr be killing a fire elemental that way. But thats where you trust your party as this is a group based game. But as I said according to the Living Codex you should be able to mitigate these issues to a degree. Also in reference to the Silenced areas, devs have mentioned having both vocal and hand gesture spells so there is that.
    • 2419 posts
    December 28, 2015 3:43 PM PST

    Manouk said:

    Hi Beautifully!, I understand enviromnental impact to be like- needing to wear some cold resist gear for wintry areas, like wearing a parka. Likewise fire resist shoes, say, for hot or lava areas.

    And I like your idea, if I understand it correctly, of having spells coinside with the environment. For instance: an ice spell in a lava area, would be less effective (snowball in hell) than a fire spell, but a earth spell would be stronger than all spells ( smothering, like Paper to Rock in rock-paper scissors), and a wind spell would be catastrophic (fanning the fire)- or as an area of effect if non fire monsters were drawn to the lava area, to be met with an AOE air spell that would vaporize them, but make the area hotter- globally in that area for a period of time ( 24hr in game cool down?) so your gear would not be as effective and you would have to think about moving or your shoes would lose their fire resist. Or just stick with the small earth spell- not as damaging but always effective and cast it often and figure out different tactics. Or a fire spell in a water environment becomes an Air spell in impact, with water being better in water and earth and air being mostly useless.  

    Traditionally, Manouk, the reverse of what you described was the norm.  Using a fire based spell in a lava area against creatures accustomed to fire, lava and high heat proved ineffective but using Ice based attackes were far more effective than normal.  It was based on resists.  Lava Elementals had high fire resists, low cold resists.  Cold attacks hit for higher percentages and more often where fire spells were constantly resisted.

    I like that not all spells are useful in all situations and I like the reverse where some spells are more effective in certain circumstances.

    • 1714 posts
    December 28, 2015 4:11 PM PST

    I will say I don't like the idea of a lot of situational gear.

    • 2419 posts
    December 28, 2015 4:36 PM PST

    Krixus said:

    I will say I don't like the idea of a lot of situational gear.

     

    Alot?  No, me neither.  I'd hate to switch out entire sets of armor + the non-visible slots just to defeat an environment.  Having to swich out some items, say rings, earrings, neck, (i.e. jewelry stuff) that are historically the resist/effect items would be more sensible.  It just can't be a trivial amount needed else why bother having the concept in the first place? 

    • 1434 posts
    December 28, 2015 5:25 PM PST

    Vandraad said:

    Manouk said:

    Hi Beautifully!, I understand enviromnental impact to be like- needing to wear some cold resist gear for wintry areas, like wearing a parka. Likewise fire resist shoes, say, for hot or lava areas.

    And I like your idea, if I understand it correctly, of having spells coinside with the environment. For instance: an ice spell in a lava area, would be less effective (snowball in hell) than a fire spell, but a earth spell would be stronger than all spells ( smothering, like Paper to Rock in rock-paper scissors), and a wind spell would be catastrophic (fanning the fire)- or as an area of effect if non fire monsters were drawn to the lava area, to be met with an AOE air spell that would vaporize them, but make the area hotter- globally in that area for a period of time ( 24hr in game cool down?) so your gear would not be as effective and you would have to think about moving or your shoes would lose their fire resist. Or just stick with the small earth spell- not as damaging but always effective and cast it often and figure out different tactics. Or a fire spell in a water environment becomes an Air spell in impact, with water being better in water and earth and air being mostly useless.  

    Traditionally, Manouk, the reverse of what you described was the norm.  Using a fire based spell in a lava area against creatures accustomed to fire, lava and high heat proved ineffective but using Ice based attackes were far more effective than normal.  It was based on resists.  Lava Elementals had high fire resists, low cold resists.  Cold attacks hit for higher percentages and more often where fire spells were constantly resisted.

    I like that not all spells are useful in all situations and I like the reverse where some spells are more effective in certain circumstances.

    I could see how a mix of both could be appropriate. For instance, a lava creature should be more susceptible to ice, however, if you were to drop some sort of ice ae creating a field of ice that snares and dots your opponents, the hot climate could reduce the duration of such a spell, even if the damage was more effective.

    • 999 posts
    December 28, 2015 7:17 PM PST

    Rallyd said:

    I would hope that environmental effects would not be random, unless it made sense to do so.  Having a random silence put upon you in a very difficult game could be griefy.  I don't think it would hurt to have these mechanics set in stone, like for casting certain spell archetypes in this zone, builds up mental fatigue and it also decays, so if you are forced to use those spells too much in a given amount of time it would impose the silence.  Something I could strategize for rather than just randomly being screwed.

    Poor wording on my part - and you're correct - I wouldn't want that either.  I was meaning "random" but not in the way I originally wrote it.  I was thinking environmental effects being random in the sense that if a storm occurs with lightning, it might be different than just rain, or snowfall, etc.  Not so much that you walk in X area and X effect randomly happens.  There would be "some" environmental cue to let you know in advance as long as you were paying attention.  I would just view it as one more form of situational awareness similar to a tank maintaining agro from adds, etc.

    Also, another random type object that could be used to impose silence would be some form of trap that a rogue could disarm (or tinkered tool?) that had the spell silence imbedded in it or something about triggering the trap.  Again, it could be an object that could be recognized with /sense trap, etc., but they could be randomly placed in the dungeon based off roamers, etc. to make skills like sense trap more relevant and give rogues (or spells) more utility.

    Anyway, I don't want cheap deaths or unfair challenge - I want to be able to strategize like you suggested, not just be randomly screwed.  Basically the motto that Dark/Demon Souls uses - Challenging but fair (basically not having many "cheap" deaths, although I did still have a few in the Souls series).


    This post was edited by Raidan at December 28, 2015 7:19 PM PST
    • 22 posts
    December 29, 2015 4:53 AM PST

    I dont really think its forced roleplay either.  As others said its a revolutionary mechanic that will set the game apart from others.  To many games grow static, and this is another element tossed in there from things getting to familiar all the time.  I think random weather effects at random times would be a pretty cool thing, as long as they are not on a counter.

     

    I mean if your a wizard, and you get a queue of a s torm rolling in like thunder, i would say to myself, i better find shelter! This is my chance to become more effective.  Let me take a moment to rest and re-memorize what i need in my spellbook.

     

    I find roleplay to be considered more of how you interact with individuals than how you react to things in the game.  If it was reacting to things in the game, then almost everything in every MMO would be considered roleplaying.  It is called a MMORPG for a reason lol.  Basically your taking yourself out of reality to play in a virtual world, how you see fit.  Everything you do in any MMO is a roleplay element in a sense.  Just think of it as a mechanic just like you do a mob encounter etc... 

    If you think about it, say you fight a fire elemental.  Are you going to blast that fire elemental with fire damage?  No, due to the variables considered (just as you would think if its storming) you would use something like frost/ice based spells.  Its just another choice, not what i believe you are considereing a roleplay feature.  Its all in how you look at things.

    • 232 posts
    December 29, 2015 7:55 AM PST

    Vandraad said:

    Krixus said:

    I will say I don't like the idea of a lot of situational gear.

     

    Alot?  No, me neither.  I'd hate to switch out entire sets of armor + the non-visible slots just to defeat an environment.  Having to swich out some items, say rings, earrings, neck, (i.e. jewelry stuff) that are historically the resist/effect items would be more sensible.  It just can't be a trivial amount needed else why bother having the concept in the first place? 

    I am also concerned about this as well.  Switching out gear situationallly is fine, but having it as a major part of the game?  I guess it depends on how inventory management works.  I really dont want bags full of various sets of gear.  Jewelry with resist/effect to counter environments would be great though, and would twart my oppressive inventory management fears.

    I'm OK with the mechanic, I'm OK with the challenge, I really want to avoid being required to carry 8 pieces of fire resist gear, 8 lightning resist, 8 cold resist, 8 darkness resist, and now I have no bag space and I'm constantly on the hunt to upgrade each piece of each set.  That's a lot of gear to manage. 


    This post was edited by Dekaden at December 29, 2015 7:58 AM PST
    • 26 posts
    December 29, 2015 8:29 AM PST

    I'm betting ya'll will be singing a different tune when you have to grind a bunch of situational armor to min/max certain raid bosses. I can almost bet that it won't effect all classes equally so the boards will be filled with qq about class xx only needs 9 special items but class yy needs 14.

    EQ druids had outdoor only spells and that made no sense at all. You want me to make a detour around a tornado or hurricane fine, don't make my grind gear for every situation, not even rings and ears. 

    Use of special spells or a certain class of spells against certain mobs is fine except when you figure that you can't keep all abilities up all the time. Run into a fire lord and you need your ice spells but your bar is loaded with fire spells? Now what? Run for your life and try to find a safe spot to rotate your spell bar then run back? Silly ...

    I just don't think this aspect is new or ground breaking, just an extra pain.

     

     

    • 668 posts
    December 29, 2015 9:00 AM PST

    Marilee said:

    Welcome to the forum!

     

    I don't see it as forced roleplay at all.  I'll explain by using a really silly example.  

     

    I can carry an umbrella.  I can use it when it's sunny and it's useful.  It's even more useful to me when I use it in rainy weather.  But in high winds I most certainly wouldn't want to use it because it may become a hazard and/or blow away.  Also, even though I really love my umbrella and it keeps the sun from burning my gamer-geek pale skin, I am not allowed to take it on the ferris wheel at the park because it's against park rules.

     

    So I can see the spells in game like my umbrella--useful in certain situations and not so useful in others and even banned in some.  

    Marilee this is a great example...!

    • 999 posts
    December 29, 2015 9:13 AM PST

    Dekaden said:

    I am also concerned about this as well.  Switching out gear situationallly is fine, but having it as a major part of the game?  I guess it depends on how inventory management works.  I really dont want bags full of various sets of gear.  Jewelry with resist/effect to counter environments would be great though, and would twart my oppressive inventory management fears.

    I'm OK with the mechanic, I'm OK with the challenge, I really want to avoid being required to carry 8 pieces of fire resist gear, 8 lightning resist, 8 cold resist, 8 darkness resist, and now I have no bag space and I'm constantly on the hunt to upgrade each piece of each set.  That's a lot of gear to manage. 

    Agreed here also - and I wouldn't want the mechanic to cheapen the overall experience for the sake of being different like removing encumberance/inventory management or making weightless equipment bags mandatory or having gear swapping macros mid battle be a requirement, etc.

    We'll just have to see how it is implemented in testing.

    • 122 posts
    December 29, 2015 9:34 AM PST

    I think people are thinking too much about previous MMOs when thinking about this future MMO. EQ really cheapened inventory by having too little bank space and too much on person inventory. Those WR 10 slot bags were a real immersion breaker. Then wow came along and trivializing things became the norm instead of the exception.

    I rather like the idea of situational gear a lot, but I for one hope we have small inventories and big banks/housing. If it's going to rain and you work outdoors, you bring a rain coat. If not, you leave it home. If it's cold you bring a coat. I don't want to carry around 4 sets of gear, I want 3 sets of gear in the bank that I need to go to depending on where we're going.

    I've always hated running around a blizzard ridden zone and a desert in identical gear exactly as well. Enviroments have played a huge role in battles historically. It's about damn time a game has decided to cash in on this! 

    • 671 posts
    December 29, 2015 10:11 AM PST

    beautifully said:

    Hello!

     

    I just want to start off this post by saying I have been following this game for a long time and have finally decided to jump on board with a pledge. I am very excited about this game as an avid old school EQ and Vanguard player. Virtually all of the goals are exactly inline with what I consider to be a great MMO that many new games have lost.

    That being said, I did come across an idea that I really didnt like and I thought I would get some insight from everyone else:

    Atmosphere/Climate System

    One of Pantheon’s tenets is ‘Engage the World!’ When we talk about being a PvE MMO, our definition of ‘environment’ means a lot more than just fighting NPCs -- players will be contending with the world itself. Some regions will be very hot or cold. Some areas within a zone might be enchanted with complete darkness, or silence (meaning spoken spells won't work), or poison or miasma. Small tornados could travel through a region, compelling players to work their way around them, not through them, lest they take significant damage. Also, certain spells may work better or worse (or even only work) depending on the climate or atmosphere -- for example, a 'Call Lightning' spell could deal more damage than a typical ‘lightning bolt’ spell but could only be cast if there is a storm in the region.

    Now, to me this is forced role playing. I dont like the idea of not being able to use spells that I earned when I want to. I understand in an online MMORPG there is a certain amount of role playing built into the game (classes, faction etc.) but I believe this pushes the boundaries. I can understand this mechanic in a RP only server but in normal PvE I believe its a little much.

    Maybe I am being too critical but I would love to hear others opinions.

    Thanks in advance.

     ****edit Role play in title*****

     Mod edit: Title edited for you :)

     

    It has nothing to do with playing a role, but everything to do with fantasy logic.

    If it is storming and someone uses a lightening spell, it would obviously be more powerful, because there is a Storm in which to summon or pull the power from, instead of arcanely pulling it out of either (mid-air).

     

    It makes sense that a lighting spell may have more power during a storm. How do you actually argue against this..?

    • 2419 posts
    December 29, 2015 10:14 AM PST

    So what is the effect other than spell changes? I'd hate to have casters be the only ones stuck with environmental impacts.  

    What happens to you over time as you wander around a zone without zone appropriate resists?  Also, does this effect lessen as you level up?  Typically resists vs NPCs take into account your level vs the level of the NPC.  Will a ice cavern dungeon that is for lvl 10-20 affect lvl 10s in the same proportion as a lvl 50?

    The effect cannot be so trivial as to be ignored yet it can't be so significant that the environmental effect, added to what you deal with when facing the NPCs, overwhelms the players.

    Would food/drink consumption changes be enough of a penalty?  Do you want some constant DoT-like effect?  Or a random damage hit of varying strength?  Perhaps movement penalties? Or weapon speed penalties (cold making you slow? sure, but hot making you slow?) 

    • 1778 posts
    December 29, 2015 10:40 AM PST

    Should be all classes. Remember everyone will be using colored mana to my knowledge and each color will have pros and cons depending on atmosphere. At least that was my take. I only used splls as examples cause they are easier to explain due to elements etc. But maybe a thiefs backstab is a dark green mana tied to poison atmospheres that would excell in poisonous atmospheres but would suck on poison based mobs, and would suck even more in idk say a water atmosphere (water purifies?). Its just harder to make elemental connections with say a monks punch. Whatever the case my understanding was all classes would be tied to different mana colors and those would be effected by mobs "mana color" and the atmosphere.

     

    And I absolutely LOVE the situational gear. And yes I think it should include every piece of gear (more layers amd more content). I think they could probably have a regular inventory and something like FFXIVs armory inventory for quickly swaping out gear. Situational gear was ridiculously fun, it retains the carrot on the stick while still letting you care about gear. Because its no something you get, then throw away every 3 months of new content. Even if Pantheon had such a pace, it wouldnt be the case because this new dungeon might offer fire resistant gear but you wouldnt throw away you cold resistant gear from 3 months before. It was set up differently in FFXI but it also had situational gear and it was anything but annoying to me. It was great fun and became addictive creating/completeing situational gear sets. I think you guys really should give it a chance before deciding its not a good system. I think given a bit of time you will find you love it.

     

    I imagine a scenario where I go into a dungeon that might have 4 areas of atmospheres before I even get to the boss. So when you first enter its a cold atmosphere, then you move into a poison one, then 4th could be a silenced area, the the lowest level could be a lava zone, and then you get to the bosses room. Im keeping it rather simple but you could even have different atmospheres other than elemental based like a darkness atmosphere. The point is ever since i read about atmosphres and the potential for situational gear and abilities ive been ALL IN. And as a majot feature in the list of features I hope it doesnt go away and is greatly expnaded upon. I know I come from a different game from most of you but youre just gonna have to trust me, you will love it, I just have a feeling!