The Pantheon "World"

[Karofin-]

Now, before you read this, there are valid concerns such as Lag that mean this has to be tested in Alpha.  They need to see if having a zone where it is constantly snowing liek Hoth in Star Wars is all they can do or if Lag permits, could they have seasons in the world, whereby it would get both colder and hotter in places and this would change how the world reacts.  Taking this a step further, here is a snippet from the Pantheon team.  I hope they can do this as it would be groundbreaking.

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.

Thoughts ?  Has anyone seen something like this done before ?  I remember in Vanguard, Fireball spells would travel less far over water for example.

[Phuba]

I havn't seen it in a MMO, but I do remember some RPG's that had spells and characters effected by environmental stuff. For instance Divine Divinity Original sin (Belgian made crowdfunded RPG that was rather successful)

You could have a rainstorm in an area, resulting in wet ground.(there was also a spell just to make it rain)

consequence : 

•         It's slippery and characters might tumble over
•         Fire spells don't work well, and might cause the water to evaporate, causing steam and reducing visibility
•         Lightning spell work very well, With predictable results to all standing in water (including your own party)
•         Ice spell can turn the water in ice, resulting in a very very slippery surface, or trapping anybody who was standing in deeper pools. A fire spell could melt the ice back into water.

You could use oil combined with fire to turn a room into a blazing inferno, water to cool down lava to create an extra path, poison clouds were explosive when they came into contact with fire, etc... You could combine a lot of different spells to create deadly or useful results, always taking into account the enemy you were facing, and the place you were standing.

A fire ball versus a poison elemental would be very effective, but the resulting explosion could be big enough to insta kill your party.... And of course the enemy was just as aware as how spells were effected as you, standing in water vs a lightning elemental...bad idea.

[Karofin-]

Ah yeah all of that sounds excellent to me.  I like the idea of having to think about the world rather than say a mechanic they have had to invent (lights a fuse and kills all within 20s if not interrupted) to add challenge.  it gets those who run in blindly (like me) to have to think too.