Something I really want to see: An "Open Water" Biome.
GlyphGryph
USA Join Date: 2015-02-19 Member: 201435Members
USA Join Date: 2015-02-19 Member: 201435Members
Some of the scariest moments in the game, when you can really feel "lost at sea", are when you're operating near the surface over the deeper parts of the game or off the edge of the "play area". The idea of the near infinite blackness stretching out below you is intense. The problem is that areas are devoid of life and anything of genuine interest! But I don't think they need to be.
I propose that we should get an "open water" biome - a biome to surround our main operational plataeu and as a layer above it's deeper waters.
This area could be full of larger, schooling tuna-equivalents that, much like the migratory behaviour of the Sea Traders, travel from point to point along the map and provide some sort of valuable resource. It could be home to more of our whale-equivalents, and perhaps a deep sea critter or two. Most importantly, it could contain hidden points of interest deep into the black of the open water - a floating wreck, a rare additional floating island (sub-surface or not), a huge plankton cloud various open water fish are feeding on... but beneath all of it an infinite abyss.
And then we need to add a predator that can ascend very rapidly from the depths to devour large mouthfuls of the tuna-equivalents before descending again.
I propose that we should get an "open water" biome - a biome to surround our main operational plataeu and as a layer above it's deeper waters.
This area could be full of larger, schooling tuna-equivalents that, much like the migratory behaviour of the Sea Traders, travel from point to point along the map and provide some sort of valuable resource. It could be home to more of our whale-equivalents, and perhaps a deep sea critter or two. Most importantly, it could contain hidden points of interest deep into the black of the open water - a floating wreck, a rare additional floating island (sub-surface or not), a huge plankton cloud various open water fish are feeding on... but beneath all of it an infinite abyss.
And then we need to add a predator that can ascend very rapidly from the depths to devour large mouthfuls of the tuna-equivalents before descending again.
Comments
A moving biome in sort. That's really a nice idea. Right now, you have to tell yourself : " i need that, so i have to go there " for almost everything in game. Everything is fixed in a box : yes there are creatures and flora but they can't go out of their prison box biome. We could feel freer (or more free i would like to know by the way ) thanks to that biome.
I like that.
Even the area above grand-reef or dunes could do with some floating planktonic ecology... even a few reefbacks...
My favourite would be a giant version of the palegic graptolite! They literally attached themselves to the surface of the water and grew downward!
Imagine a dense floating forest of these just under the surface... and a few reaper leviathans waiting outside...
This would make the rest of the open water populated at night but not during the day
To flesh it out further one could add gentle slopes (until beneath maximum crush depth), and reshape this terrain to imply there were bottom dwelling detritus feeders (e.g. labyrinth like tracks) or some kind of ant-lion like creature:
The creature need never be seen - just its traces on the bottoms.
So, on the whole - it should be possible to have an open water biome that uses very few resources (both in terms of processing power, and in terms of dev work). Let's hope for such a biome after version 1.0!