Syp at Bio Break expresses his disdain for underwater environments.
I generally agree with him in regards to full underwater zones. I hated Vash'jir in Cataclysm. I think that 3D is generally not suited for MMO movement. Underwater also feels like it punishes melee more than ranged, as melee depends more on moving than a ranged caster who can stand still and nuke.
However, I like having water in a regular zone. Like a lake, and a quest sends you to find something in the lake. It changes the rules of the game, but in an intuitive manner. You expect to be slowed down, to have drowning mechanics. The experience is short enough that it's interesting, but not long enough to outstay its welcome.
Alternate environments where the world "rules" change significantly are fun in short doses. I would love to see an outer-space, zero-G mission in SWTOR, for example. But like any good idea, alternate environments can be taken too far.
When I think of SWTOR, space PvP and PvE come to mind as worlds where the rules change. Other than underwater environments I don't like them so much, though. Maybe it's because they don't feel very intuitive (at least not to me); they are more of a mini-game within the larger game, I feel.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. I like them precisely because they are a mini-game within the larger game. I think it's nice to change things up every so often, so long as it isn't overused.
DeleteWater environments are especially stupid for combat.
ReplyDeleteFireballs, fire elementals, projectiles hit just as much as in air. I know that fireballs are not real at the first place, but underwater fireballs are stupid even from that standpoint.
I don't know. Water puts out fire, but fire also boils waters. You could say that a fireball underwater ends up explosively converting all the water around the target to steam, leaving them with scalding burns.
DeletePlus magic is magic.
A good example of a temporary change in environment, for me, was in Wildstar when you first encountered low gravity and got to bounce around everywhere. You went back to regular gravity after that zone if I remember correctly, but it was fun.
ReplyDeleteI never got far enough in Wildstar to see that. But it does sound like a fun zone.
DeleteI think an excellent example of well done water environments would be inside the Blackfathom Deeps dungeon in WoW where several quest items and an optional boss are underwater, but not the entire zone or dungeon. Therefore drowning mechanics and the effects of swimming are in play.
ReplyDeleteBFD is an excellent example, especially with how much of the underwater sections were optional.
DeleteA little bit of under water goes a long way. BFD, as mentioned above, was water used in moderation.
ReplyDeleteVash'jir might be one of the prettiest zones in WoW, but I was always mildly disoriented there, I disliked finding myself being attacked from some angle on the vertical axis, and more than an hour in the zone started to make one of our regular group members motion sick, so we had to lay off at times.
In addition, in a game designed to essentially work on two dimensions, adding the third just made movement awkward. Situational awareness is already a problem in games like WoW, since you cannot easily turn your head to glance around. Adding another axis to check just makes that worse.
That's a very good way of putting it. A little goes a long way.
DeleteBut if a game doesn't have that small amount, it is kind of disappointing.