Hey! I got another idea! Weather!

Comments

• jonci Member Posts: 48

  January 2005

  Actually this came up some time ago on the stratics message board during one of the weekly discussions.

  "Insanity isn't a problem, its a vivid imagination!"

  "I'm not insane. I just have a vivid imagination!"
• Khyperu Member Posts: 20

  February 2005

  Ya this did come up on the Stratics forums some time back. But I think its a great idea and would be interesting to see in Rec.
  

   

  ~Khyperu~
  Soon to be dreamer
• StrikesBrain Member Posts: 222

  February 2005

  I am not sure what was discussed in stratics with weather since I'm STILL having trouble getting that forum to cooperate (perhaps if someone summarizes the relevent bits?)

  Here's my take on weather, the city of underlight is a city of dreams and chaos related weather should be damn freaky!  This is not of our world.

  Though, I figure it'd be best with two distinct types of weather, "Sythetic" and "Chaotic"

  Synthetic weather is merely a part of the plane in which it occurs on.  It was created by whatever dreamwright crafted that plane as a part of their art, making it more like whatever they wanted.  Weather like this would not generally be detrimental, unless the creator of the plane was one of those odd dreamers who liked to create dangerous challenges on purpose.  One plane may have spring rain showers, another place may have gentle flurries.  A swam may have curtains of silky mist.  Maybe a wright who really liked to climb icey mountains may make driving blizzards in a dreamscape of sheer cliffs, but generally weather.  Of course, since the dreamcity was created as work of art, some of this weather may have some artistic license taken on it to make it more pretty.  On some occasions other forces may take this weather and twist it into something different, perhaps, twisted, perhaps damaging.  In UL once there was a storyline where the lake of tears suddenly turned to blood.  Perhaps, on a similar note, imaging walking into a plane known for its rain showers only to find that when the rains come, they come as fire and brimstone instead of water, slowly eating away at your avatar.  It would make for an interesting story as the dreamers begin to point fingers, as they did when the lake of tears went bloody.

  Then there's Chaotic weather.  Chaotic weather is "natural" it is an affect of the chaos outside the dream.  The city walls would probably do much to blunt this weather, but at its worse, like during chaos eclipses it could possibly get past the walls and assail the dream.  Of course, it leaves one wondering what a wave of chaos looks like.  Personally, I imagine it as almost like driving winds blowing waves and waves of harsh orange reddish thick acrid mists over the dreamscape. Mare spawn rates might inflate and the dreamer at first may get a warning on their chat window that they are feeling discomfort from the storm or some such thing basically warning the dreamer to take cover, perhaps they stop regenerating during this time.  If someone gets caught in the crescendo of such a storm, I'd imagine it'd erode away their avatar at first, collapsing them into a soul sphere eventually if they don't heal or take cover.  Here's the thing, raw chaos traditionally was bad for the soul, I don't know if Lyra will go the same route or even HAVE chaos eclipses here, but killing someone outright for being in the wrong place is a little evil.  One idea is to simulate damage to the soul by slight experience drain as they weather the storm as a soul sphere, such damage shouldn't be large enough to make a HUGE penalty so long as they hussle though  slight drain will make most people panic.  Anyone who hasn't acted in a period of time should be autologged off when a storm collapses them, because that's just evil to drain them dry because they were afk.

  Of course, why stop at just immediate affects, you could have fun creating a perfect storm of chaos, as it makes a plane temporarily more and more like a rift.  Lets say the plane "bob" is going to have a chaos storm, the plane bob is usually a bright and cherry plane with the great eclipse shining brightly in is sky at all times.  Lets say it is a chaos eclipse and during then, the plane is due for a storm.  A dreamer, Mary, wanders into bob, he notices that the light in the plane has taken on an odd hue, it seems a little more red about the plane, but Mary figures it makes the plane look a little bit more lovely with that tinge and walks along.  Soon, the color grows, she decides something is definitely wrong, she glances at the great crescent to find that in its place is a massive eye, very much like one of the eyes you'd see in the temple of Horron in the cauldal rift.  She sees a cone of something like clouds circling that eye and decending upon the plane slowly.  Now, let us suppose Mary is an experienced dreamer, she has an art that she can use to protect her from the affects of chaos.  She fires off the art and braces for impact.  Soon, the roiling winds of chaos decent on the peaceful plane of bob, visibility is cut as the harsh churning waves of chaos wash over the plane over and over.  Soon, company arrives, a pod of light falls from the sky, it explodes open on impact revealing a nightmare inside.  Soon Mary finds herself fighting 1 to two of those buggers at regular intervals.  Then agian, talismans seem to just drift in with the storm, like much neglected floatsam.  When the storm crescendos Mary finds it nessecary to keep her protect art up, ranged projectiles seem to spiral off course, movement seems hampered by the winds.  Even some of the mares seeem hindered by the storm.  The landscape itself along with the sky becomes horribly twisted.  The ground takes on an almost organic look and feel to it.  The skyscape becomes twisted with a barrier of "clouds" that almost look like a wall of flesh funneling off to infinity, things that shouldn't be in the sky, like giant eyes.  Dementing things circling around the heavens, things which moral men and women were not meant to know!  Mary eventually decides to pull out, ducking into a portal, only to be dumped into the rift instead, surprised, confused and disoriented.

  Possible features for such a storm may be:

  • Any unique items or artifacts that vaped could be remembered by the server, allowing them to drift in as floatsam from the chaos when such storms strike, it would make for an interesting way to get at some good items.
  • Other items vanishing, portals shedding their wards almost instantly.
  • Ranged accuracy suffering
  • Straight out damage which could possibly be blocked with an art
  • Mare attacks.
  • Portals malfunctioning, dumping dreamers into random locations of the same plane, or even into one of the rifts.  PLanar portals, especially the threshold portals should be left alone you can figure they are stronger and it helps if some newby who wandered into the plane gets a chance to duck out.
  • A bit of a warning that something bad is going to happen so people can back out, but make it strange enough that rubber neckers may stay in a bit too long for their own good.
  • Possibly not affect a dreamer adversely right off the bat, like severe cold in the real world, they may be able to withstand the abuse with a degree of discomfort at first, before their resolve weakens and it begins to damage them outright.  This would allow even newly awakened a chance to back out if they enter a plane and find all hell breaking loose.

  Chaos is something so horribly twisted that no person could truly comprehend it.  The mares are a testament to that with their severely alien anatomy and behavoir.  Chaos storms should reflect it, it should be downright twisted and without a doubt leave someone with the impression that this is not something pleasent.

  Because only someone as deranged as me would have a rubber chicken Named Alfredo Sanchez