Sewers and Swamps

[FlintlockJazz]

Embrace your inner sewer!

 

Sewers are must have, especially for a rogue character. I loved how you were able to use them as an alternate route through the city in Baldur's Gate when the cops were looking for you. More of that stuff please!

 

Probably too hard to do in an isometric game but I would love it if they ever managed to do travel by rooftop! That would be even better for a rogue, especially if you could climb using skills and such. :D

[Monte Carlo]

I prefer swamps to sewers. I don't know if the engine will allow for goo animations but quicksand would be cool.

[Amentep]

I like to fight in swamps. In caves. In tunnels. In city streets. In buildings. On snowy ice glaciers.

 

As long as pathfinding is good, I'm good.

[MattH]

Sewers are fine, as they are bit mysterious and give another dimension to a city, sometimes providing a bridge between civilization and the ancient, but swamps are synonymous with tedious filler areas for me. Just make everything green-brown and misty, fill everything up with the most annoying monsters in the game, and prolong up to 10 hours... It's traditionally the part when developers let everything go slack for a while in terms of inspired game content. See also endless dark tunnels.

Edited September 27, 2012 by MattH

[Shardbearer]

Sewers that were converted from the outer parts of catacombs/ruins/ancient caverns always were fun for me, also an opportunity to add to the lore of the location.

[Gecimen]

Swamps, yes please! Sewers? Got too much of that in D3.

[curryinahurry]

Sewers I'm pretty meh about as they tend to be best when used as conduits to more interesting locations as Shardbearer mentioned.

 

Swamps/bogs/wetlands however have a great deal of potential as they can be really alien environments. They can also be used to created unique scenarios like having to take a raft, which could lead to interesting encounter design...imagine fighting some unseen entity that attacked from below with your party in a confined setting. Also it could allow for interesting use of skills; a bandit camp in the swamps for example. If your party has a high swim skill, you can cut across the map and set up an ambush or attack from behind; if not, you have to attack from the front, but a party with high stealth combined with nature skill might be able to sneak up and ambush.

[rjshae]

Yes, obnoxious environments can be fun. But they are not implemented very realistically. Seriously, have you ever tried running through mud the way you could jaunt through the swamps in Witcher? That was almost laughable.

[teknoman2]

sewers are an absolute must in all rpgs. you cant have an rpg without sewers, its a sacred rule of the genre

[curryinahurry]

Yes, obnoxious environments can be fun. But they are not implemented very realistically. Seriously, have you ever tried running through mud the way you could jaunt through the swamps in Witcher? That was almost laughable.

 

I never played either of the Witcher games, but I did spend a significant part of my childhood in Southern Louisiana, and a lot of time tooling around the bayous and swamps therein. They can have really varied terrain, but what you mention can also be incorporated in the game design; low nature or forestry skill an you wind up off a dry path and into the soup. That can lead to decreased movement, nasty monster encounters, or quicksand. I'm all for anything that deepens the gameplay.

[Spess Merhenn]

SWEET, A SEWER LEVEL!

[LadyCrimson]

I'd prefer swamp over sewer, I think. Mossy trees and murky bogs appeal more than marching through the waste of the city. Not that sewers can't be fun, or useful rpg devices.

 

One reason I'd probably like the swamp is to also have more environmental landscapes in the game. I get tired of tromping through seemingly endless green-grassed forestland every time you leave the confines of the cities. Of course, depends on the world setting (a desert planet is going to be mostly desert, ala Dune). But in general, I like variety.

[Daigar]

I'd like to suggest a mountainous area which isn't just flat with alot of rocks around. Thin ledges, deep passes, dangerous crags, maye even climbing rock faces!

 

Also tropical rainforests. Love me some tropical rainforests. Preferrably with dinosaurs. Or orcs. Orcs riding on dinosaurs.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Daigar

[PsychoBlonde]

 

Swamps are okay in my book, but there's something about sewers, maybe because they're all dank and smelly and claustrophobic. On the other hand, they're so ubiquitous in RPGs that it would feel strange not to have one....

 

Sewer tunnels like those in most games largely don't exist. That's not to say complexes of buried tunnels don't exist under cities--and they often wind up filled with water/waste/mud--but they weren't originally built as sewers and (usually) can't be accessed by opening a handy grate in the street. The drainage tunnels are usually too small for most people to stand up in, let alone fight in.

 

That being said, I don't really care if there are sewers or not.