Damage to the enviroment?

[Chaos_Theory]

Well I know Aion is supposed to have world chaning events such as the killing of a giant monsters and such. Well do you think world changing events should include enviromental damamge and I do not mean global warming or pollution. I think this will be cool because when you hear the word nuke you think big boom but it is a let down when the enviroment is unscathed. Lets say you throw a fire ball in a small area or the area is surrounded by plants should the plats be scorched and look as if they took damage. This will make fighting look like you were actually in a big battle or small skirmish. The weather conditions also are supposed to affect spells as well so if it is raining the fire that is caused will be put out. This could apply to arrows. Similar to how CoX's arrows work so if you miss your arrow will be stuck in the ground/tree instead of disapearing into nothing.

The mobs can also be included in this. Since the mob AI is supposed to be unique they could run away when a battle or fight is going on and big nukes or attacks are being used. I just hate it when I am fighting and npcs/mob are just standing there doign their own thing. CoX has this system where npc citizens will cower then run if you are fighting in the street. I think this will be great in terms of realism and immersion.

[lyankyj]

from an earlier interview:
"We've talked about the interactional nature of Aion's world before, and as an added example to that, territories and weather also have an effect on a player's choice in battle. For example if it's a foggy day, the player will feel extra cautious of mobs' wherabouts because you'll never know where one may appear."

"As time passes in Aion, day and night change as well as weather – affecting elemental skills based on elements such as water or lightening."

So that part is ok

[Chaos_Theory]

Originally Posted by lyankyj

from an earlier interview:
"We've talked about the interactional nature of Aion's world before, and as an added example to that, territories and weather also have an effect on a player's choice in battle. For example if it's a foggy day, the player will feel extra cautious of mobs' wherabouts because you'll never know where one may appear."

"As time passes in Aion, day and night change as well as weather – affecting elemental skills based on elements such as water or lightening."

So that part is ok

This is why I asked the question I am asking. I love the idea that the weather affects spells used and combat but what about actually battles affecting the enviroment? If two elementalist were battling using fire spells on a hot day should the enviroment around look charded and burnt after the fight was over isntead of looking like nothing happened?

[Tyrael]

Chaos, you bring up a very contraversial point in many MMOs. Many people believe that the environment should be affected by the happenings of its inhabitants, and I for one agree with them. To do so allows for the individual to feel as if what you do makes a difference in the game.

However I am a realist. Should this happen, the game Aion would look like the burnt lands of Ascalon in Guild Wars after a day of use. Then the game masters/developers would be forced to "restart" the world so that it was as if nothing happened. People would abuse this.

The Matrix Online toyed with this idea in the beginning of development, and I remember in Beta testing, having the ability to break the glass of a high rise building to jump/shoot out of it. Yet the problem was once it was ruined, how long should they wait until they reset it? They tried determining that after 100 (I picked a random number as an example) environmental changes occured, the first change would revert to its original state. That fine, until your gun gets stuck in the newly formed glass as you are trying to snipe out of it.

I hope you understand my point. I love the idea, but its one of those things that is very difficult to achieve (code/game wise). I hope they do, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

[Chaos_Theory]

I see your point about the land scape looking like ascalon after the searing. But I was thiking about it on a smaller scale like burnt grass or or plants that will "respawn" after a few minutes. I think it will be cool to have in the pvp zones if aion isnt open ended pvp. It will give the land a look of battle so you know what you are in for. Since the 3 factions are at war this will help the war atmosphere. Also didn't it say somewhere that mining affects the enviroment or world in some way? I do not think that a fight should clear out a forest.

[Fayeth]

This is a fun idea, but like Tyrael said, their would ahve to be a reset timer on it. That could cuz issues -_- Having the weather affect your spells or the NPCs runninf from combat in x range from them is one thing. But leaving lasting affect of a battle, like a pool of blood or burnt earth would be a bit more difficult to manage.

[Cynthe]

I'd swap burnt remains to let's say foliage catching on fire for a bit, I think that this would already be a step up to realism. In most games, especially mmo's you set all kinds of powers loose but nothing ever caches on fire ect.. Maybe rock/wall surfaces can also be blackened for a few minutes too.

Things like that, that resets fairly quickly but still makes you feel like you did something would be really cool.

[Chaos_Theory]

OK maybe the effect shouldn't be as wide as I think. Enviromental destruction can occur when a big event happens such as the death of giant monster or boss. The aftermath of the battle should remain. This could work like EVE online when a titan class (biggest ship in the game) ship is destroyed the wreck is left behind forever. So everyone knows something big went down there.

[osric]

nice idea, hard to implement (tyrael made this point)... might be tough on system resources as well.

[Orphaned]

I would say it would it happen most likely in instances. Stuff like breaking down walls and so forth. Might be really hard to program constantly changing world environments.

[knite16]

It would definitely be cool, but then you have to know that every day, some noob cake would log on for no other reason than to burn down a forest and "rofl" at people as they came to hunt in it.

[illmeltxwithyou]

Originally Posted by Chaos_Theory

I see your point about the land scape looking like ascalon after the searing. But I was thiking about it on a smaller scale like burnt grass or or plants that will "respawn" after a few minutes. I think it will be cool to have in the pvp zones if aion isnt open ended pvp. It will give the land a look of battle so you know what you are in for. Since the 3 factions are at war this will help the war atmosphere. Also didn't it say somewhere that mining affects the enviroment or world in some way? I do not think that a fight should clear out a forest.

I absolutly love your idea I really think its the next step in MMO's however do you know how much code/lag/glitches this would cause just think about it if you have 10,000 people playing on one server and you have this happening in 2,000 places at once from people hunting / fighting. You could imagine how the server would react to that. While its a good idea I dont think todays servers are up to par with what you want. But i would love to see it.

[Chaos_Theory]

I guess your right about the server not being able to handle such a thing that is non instanced. It would be soo coool though walking through an area that has just been through a big battle.

But would it be possible to have ruins due to an event like a seige? I know there was no definite answer wheather there will be castle seiges but would it be possible to have ruins as a result of a seige?

[Kyuzo]

This won't happen. Guaranteed. The most you'll get is weather type effects.

[Yakuzan]

Well maybe if people keep mining in a spot the place will eventually dry out and leave nothing. I think it would create umbalance, farmers could easily destroy the game.