Dynamic Weather and the Changing of Seasons

I would really really like to see more dynamic environments like night and day cycles that could possibly effect certain things, such as: certain enemies might be more powerful at night or even turn into something else?
The changing of weather, like rain snow and wind that could effect people and environments. Like if it rains the ground (if dirt or grass) could get slippery and would make it harder to fight, and maybe a certain percentage of R2 swings may slip and miss, or if your running forward and all of a sudden push back on the thumb-stick instead of instantly turning around and running towards the camera the player would slip and fall getting mud on him/her.
Or with wind. Imagine traversing the Valley of Drakes in DkS and having to fight heavy wind that could knock you down or even off the cliff itself if you dont hold your ground while walking (maybe you would have to hold your shield up while against the wind to traverse it properly so if you encounter an enemy you'll have to trade footing for attacks, or something like that.
Or even the changing of seasons that could effect where you can go such as during the winter you could cross a lake that you couldnt normally get across. Things like these ideas could be really interesting a cool if done right.
And much more likely to happen if DkSII is a next gen game.

I was just talking about this to a friend recently. Dynamic environments could greatly change gameplay. Lightning could be more powerful in rain, pyromancy can melt snow causing all sorts of effects, and invaders can hide at night. I would really want to see something like this.

hey its andres wrote:I was just talking about this to a friend recently. Dynamic environments could greatly change gameplay. Lightning could be more powerful in rain, pyromancy can melt snow causing all sorts of effects, and invaders can hide at night. I would really want to see something like this.

Didnt even think of lightning. It would be awesome to be creeping though a dark area in the rain, and all of a sudden lightning strikes a tree next to you and you have to evade it. Pyro melting snow would look awesome. Maybe this could add different elemental powers, like an ice version of Pyromancy. You could freeze water to cross it. I dunno maybe thats to much. Dont want to make DkSII to gimmicky. But still some great ideas here.

Even if the weather is purely aesthetic I'll be content. It's something this game somewhat needs as I'm sure From would create some beautiful weather.

Souls would be cool to try to implement something like this, but such a difficult series to implement it in with so many factors to consider.. Would be very hard to pull off methinks

Pure aesthetic wise should be easy, almost to the point of being expected in DkSII, I mean you ever notice all the small embers (or whatever they are) that fall down in certain areas of the game? That could easily be replaced by rain or snow. The difficult part would be to integrate it into gameplay. Dedicated servers should be able to handle the hardware, but the actual game mechanics could drastically change combat. Not to mention if players could temporary change weather with spells in order to attack (Rain Dance+Thunder anyone?).

i really like this idea, i think it would be great!

hey its andres wrote:Pure aesthetic wise should be easy, almost to the point of being expected in DkSII, I mean you ever notice all the small embers (or whatever they are) that fall down in certain areas of the game? That could easily be replaced by rain or snow. The difficult part would be to integrate it into gameplay. Dedicated servers should be able to handle the hardware, but the actual game mechanics could drastically change combat. Not to mention if players could temporary change weather with spells in order to attack (Rain Dance+Thunder anyone?).

Thing is though for me is that weather is pointless without it affecting anything. If they do put it in it needs to have an effect, otherwise in my opinion it's a waste of time and space on disk that can be used for more valuable content. If I'm being brutally honest weather in games annoys me if its only aesthetic when it would really change the world for the player.

In all honestly I'm sure if they did incorporate weather into the game it would affect gameplay in a very subtle kind of way. For instance, have you ever thrown a lightning spear in a puddle of water? The current runs through the surrounding water creating a sort of AoE. I'm sure if they did ad weather it would come in the form of things like this. Changes so subtle they do not change the game, yet add another layer of depth to it.

The question is, how would they get seasons and night/day to work? Would it use you're systems date and time? Or the games internal timer?

I'd much prefer the first option, that way everyone gets the same experience. However the second one would add a bit of unpredictably to PVP(if weather effects things). I think either would work out, though I think the second is probably easier to program. I forgot how it worked in Pokemon B/W, I only remember that each month was a different season. I don't remember if you always started in the same season though.

Serious_Much +1 to you because I just noticed your location and signature

For me, at a minimum I want to see a weather/environment effect that change the light level.
Make me fear the dark! Make me crave the light of the fire!

I know the world tendency in Demons was hit or miss, but I would dig the idea of world tendency put into weather.

So for example I walk into a Undead Parish type zones in dark mode and find rain, low visibility, wind trying to blow you off the roof/ledges, and lighting strikes that hit randomly and heal enemies.

They could go crazy with the strange stuff, the Dark Souls world is all messed up anyway. So electric storms, St Elmo Fire, silent hill type fog, snow falling in reverse, lunar eclipse could just "happen" whenever and wherever.

All those could have effect on enemies as well.

With the new graphics engine we can expect great things, so it wouldn't be too far fetched to think about the weather effects becoming a reality in DkS2.

Oh_the_Humanity wrote:

hey its andres wrote:I was just talking about this to a friend recently. Dynamic environments could greatly change gameplay. Lightning could be more powerful in rain, pyromancy can melt snow causing all sorts of effects, and invaders can hide at night. I would really want to see something like this.

Dont want to make DkSII to gimmicky

. . .exactly that.

Some great ideas that i'd love to see but they'd have to make sure that the effects either really added to the atmosphere/tension or were genuine factors that affected the game mechanics or a players ability to access to certain areas.
If anything feels like its been shoe-horned in just to add some variety then i'd be inclined to say no.

eminusx wrote:

Oh_the_Humanity wrote:

hey its andres wrote:I was just talking about this to a friend recently. Dynamic environments could greatly change gameplay. Lightning could be more powerful in rain, pyromancy can melt snow causing all sorts of effects, and invaders can hide at night. I would really want to see something like this.

Dont want to make DkSII to gimmicky

. . .exactly that.

Some great ideas that i'd love to see but they'd have to make sure that the effects either really added to the atmosphere/tension or were genuine factors that affected the game mechanics or a players ability to access to certain areas.
If anything feels like its been shoe-horned in just to add some variety then i'd be inclined to say no.

I agree. Were just gettin creative and goin crazy with the what if's. But in all seriousness, all I really want to see is realistic weather effects.
Like ground getting slippery when wet.
Certain areas like "Valley of the Drakes" where the wind is powerful enough to knock you down unless your shield is up, so when you fight an enemy you have to trade footing for attacks.
If there is weather, I just want the world and players to be effected by it. Even if it's really subtle. It would add so much immersion.

Going off of the lightning spear+water and the possibilities with the new engine, I think that it is likely that we'll see some dynamic weather. What I would love is an arena, similar to the Battle of Stoicism, that could change weather so that I could have an epic duel during a violent lightning storm.

I personally hated the fact they added in the arena, it pretty much ruins the point of the way the online is set up and was pointless because they were already user agreed duel spots before it.

However having what you suggested would make it a bit cooler

Well it doesn't have to be an intended arena. sort of like Artorias' Colosseum.

The aesthetics of a rain environment would inherently grant stealth players a tremendous advantage over invaders. Can you imagine invading someone in a pitch black rain storm environment and they have a fog ring and all black on? I like that.

Wouldn't rain make them more visible? It would either cling to them or bounce off them, based on their armor.
Either one would make their outline more visible.

In the spirit of the difficulty souls, seasons that cycled on a weekly or monthly real time basis (not game/play time) would be awesome. So like the middle of one week or month would be summer, and the middle of the next week or month would be winter. So if you wanted to do something that you could only do in say winter and it was summer, you'd have to wait a week or month to do it.

Snuggles wrote:In the spirit of the difficulty souls, seasons that cycled on a weekly or monthly real time basis (not game/play time) would be awesome. So like the middle of one week or month would be summer, and the middle of the next week or month would be winter. So if you wanted to do something that you could only do in say winter and it was summer, you'd have to wait a week or month to do it.

Exactly! thats what Im talkin about. Then certain locations could be only accessible during certain seasons. Like a lake that is now frozen over in the winter or a cave that was covered with snow gets uncovered in the summer. This would give more reason for further exploration of places youve already been to.

Oh_the_Humanity wrote:Exactly! thats what Im talkin about. Then certain locations could be only accessible during certain seasons. Like a lake that is now frozen over in the winter or a cave that was covered with snow gets uncovered in the summer. This would give more reason for further exploration of places youve already been to.

As much as I'd like this, I'd appreciate a way to overcome the weather barriers as this could be an issue if you could only play on a certain day due to school/work and so you were stuck playing the same environment. I am not, however, unopposed to the idea as it makes builds more challenging when you have to go out of your way to complete them, so say pyromancy that could only be obtained during "summer" or a weapon that could only be made at night. Heck, moon cycles could even play a role in lighting at night (I know I'm getting carried away, but it's fun to remain hopeful
).

hey its andres wrote:

Oh_the_Humanity wrote:Exactly! thats what Im talkin about. Then certain locations could be only accessible during certain seasons. Like a lake that is now frozen over in the winter or a cave that was covered with snow gets uncovered in the summer. This would give more reason for further exploration of places youve already been to.

As much as I'd like this, I'd appreciate a way to overcome the weather barriers as this could be an issue if you could only play on a certain day due to school/work and so you were stuck playing the same environment. I am not, however, unopposed to the idea as it makes builds more challenging when you have to go out of your way to complete them, so say pyromancy that could only be obtained during "summer" or a weapon that could only be made at night. Heck, moon cycles could even play a role in lighting at night (I know I'm getting carried away, but it's fun to remain hopeful
).

I honestly dont think you have to worry about that. I doubt they would use real time to change the seasons. It may takes "real" days or more to go from one season to the next, but I doubt it will be happening while your not playing.

Pokemon does it based on real time. Days are normal, and the season is based on how many months have passed I believe? Every month is a new season, so in a year you go through all the seasons 3 times. What I can't remember is if you always start during the same season or if it also changes based on real time. I'm pretty sure you always start at spring and move on from there though. Changing the systems time/date/month allows you to change seasons or night and day as you please, since it doesn't take "played-time" into consideration.

I want to see it rain, I want to see it snow, but most of all, I want to see the SUN!