Chapter XXVIII: Environmental and Long-term Status Afflictions

This is a thing that would add some very cool immersion to the game. In FFXI we had some of this…we had poison plants, undead attacking based on low HP, traps, etc. The idea here would be just expand this.

An example…we have a sandstorm…it’s effect should be strong enough for players barely being able to see a thing…unless, of course, they’re equipped with protector goggles. Just like it is! You can’t really see underwater or in a sandstorm if you don’t have correct gear.

Some other examples…dark caves…there should have caves that require someone to carry torches to illuminate…maybe a DoL role since miners are the specialists in “holes”. Poisonous areas? Gas mask! Dense forests full of vines? Machetes! Snow areas? Warm furry coats!

This all should affect…even when not using the correct gear…going to a snowy are in bikini? Be ready to get a cold status affliction! Swimming in plate armor? You know what will happen. This could affect things, like players in heavy armor not being able to cross deep water or swim or walk in sand (just imagine you walking in the sand with solerets or sabatons and them getting full of sand, becoming much heavier and getting articulations sticking…) or we not being able to climb walls without the correct gloves…or going to desert with furry coats…all should matter!

And since I already said a thing about cold…it’s one of the long-term status affliction I wanted to see…a very rare status affliction (you actually can play in the snow for hours in bikini and not get a cold) but that, when it happens, it would last for a ingame month (32hrs). After all, no one recover from a cold in a matter of hours.

Also, while the effect of status afflictions can be annoying and last long enough, sometimes they can be positive…here some examples:

-Cold: Increases actions recast time and decreases stamina regeneration by 10%.
-Undead: Cannot be healed unless by draining HP actions. Any other healing will deal damage instead of healing.
-Diseased: Cannot recover HP or MP without the help of actions or medicine.
-Bleeding: Doubles the aggressive monsters detection range against that player. Also, decreases the TP generated by basic actions by 50%
-Cursed: Decreases movement speed and adds an extra recast time of 5 seconds to basic attacks.
-Lycanthropy: Become werewolf during night, not being able to use items, change gear or class and only using werewolf actions (automatically equipped while the player is transformed and automatically unequipped (changing back to player original action palette) when it changes back to spoken form). This one, in special, would have a purpose bigger than just annoying players…because not only the effect lasts a very limited period of time (only during nighttime of full moon) but also would actually be a positive change sometimes, because would restrict the player to werewolf actions, but who said they are bad actions? They would be just as good as when used by a werewolf monster, just like the HP and attributes.

Also, we do have a class in FF story that is shapeshifter…the morphist! This status affliction could just be the base for unlocking it!

This kind of content not only would boost immersion but also increase a lot the fun of certain areas!