We're continuing our exclusive series of developer blogs from the Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen team this week with a new post from Chris Perkins. This week, Chris gives us an inside look at Extreme Climate and Atmosphere Systems.
EXTREME CLIMATE SYSTEM
The goal of our Extreme Climate System is to create immersive extremes of weather and other types of natural phenomena that will have significant and realistic effects on the player. Put simply, frozen regions that are bitterly cold should significantly hinder, even kill, a player who is not prepared to be in such a Climate (Acclimation System, details coming later in development). Similarly, players traversing the open desert should be at a more gradual risk of exhaustion, dehydration and eventual death if the player is not acclimated and persists in that area.
The Extreme Climate System will build on the traditional Resistance system in that players will find themselves in extreme environments that go beyond the help of basic Fire, Magic, Disease resistance, etc.
We are planning for 6 Extreme Climates at launch: Frigid, Scorching, Toxic, Anaerobic, Pressure and Windshear. Each of these Extreme Climates will have five tiers of potency with which they can exist in the world, which will determine the scope and severity of its effects on the player.
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ATMOSPHERE SYSTEM
Last week we discussed Pantheon’s Mana Climates, which formed as fragments of foreign realms have crashed into Terminus and the native energies of the two worlds entwine. Periodically, these Mana mixtures don’t fully stabilize and become corrupt, producing bizarre, unpredictable and often threatening fields of energy, all based on the particular combination of Mana colors in the mixture.
Since Atmospheres will often be more subtle and harder to discern than an Extreme Climate, for example, the Atmosphere System will be closely linked to the Perception System as a way for players to gain potential clues about unusual Atmospheres they may come in contact with, even how to utilize certain Atmospheres to beneficial effect.
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Like Mana Climates, Atmospheres can be large enough to cover entire zones, or manifest in a small radius around a magical ring. While these are subject to change, here are a few examples of lesser and greater Atmospheres players could come in contact with throughout the world of Terminus:
Lesser Atmospheres: Silence, Confusion, Peace, Fear, Resource Drains/Flows, Charm, Shrink/Grow
Greater Atmospheres: Coma, Insanity, Rage, Insight, Terror, Supernatural Light/Darkness, Intangibility, Anti-Gravity
