I'm certain I'm not the only person who has tried to find a way into the water immediately right? It's so inviting and pleasant down there on the riverbank, and the sound vfx and rushing reeds and all have a definite sirens call. I've been taking it now extra slow as a Druid to just look at all the environments, as I am now able to manage the camera in a more comfortable way, and it does feel like some beautiful scenery.
I think it'd be fun if we could move out further into the water, or swim across to something on the far side. Or maybe get swept downstream to a second alt starting location? Or yanked under by a Naiad to die? or just something with the water. Or by the Umberlee tome, but really I love that first stretch with the flapping nautiloid tentacles and like paper ash floating around. Presented with a choice between heading towards brained out bodies on the ground or diving in immediately and swimming the opposite direction does seem like a possible sensible course of action to take. Of course the river right now is a wall.
That would be a fun first branch though, especially if there was a glowing light or strange sound or whatever as a draw. Maybe if you enter the water you get swept downstream and end up meeting the goblins first, or a whole different inroad to the ravaged zone.
Actually the more I think about, it would be cool if we started in the water with a choice of which bank to swim towards as an initial branch. It would kind of enhance the believability of surviving the crash, since we get knocked off at the last minute and hit the water splash down.
Rather than the magic floating down to rest, it could just hitting the water. That might heighten the dramatic suspense out the cinematic, where instead of waking up from an unconscious state in the aftermath, we could basically be insta drowning and have to make a snap decision and final charge to reach the shore before passing out.
Water as an element of danger immediately is kind of cool. Like the riddle from BG2, "were I more, I could swallow you!" If there was a basic swim state that would also allow for fun stuff in dungeons. This was done to great effect I thought in games like Bioshock or Ocarina of time and many others (it was also the first choice presented in Mario64 when 3d cracked the mainstream for the first time, to jump in the water), but its always sort of missing from the D&D crpg games. The swimming thing I mean. I don't know that it has to be all crazy animated, just a walk in and hand wave a bit would work probably. The swept away thing could be more dialog to cut style. But I think that might be a fun way to play with it, since afterwards it becomes like a thing of real danger to be wary of. The River. Short of trying to really make aquatic environments or have a scuba class like Skyrim, it'd still be cool have the kind of wade out into the water and dog paddle about feature.
Unrelated, but the rocks too. For a mountaineering type angle in a similar vein, it would be cool as hell if we could just dart up that hill that Shadowheart looks up, when she first mentions it, and then throw down a rope. Or maybe try, but fail and fall, then break a leg that she has to heal. These are sort of like shorthands for not being able to fully interact with the terrain, so instead giving like dialogue choices or brief cinematics for stuff of that sort. The kind of danger exploration mode I guess. Not sure if anyone else is into stuff like that, but for me it can almost make the game. BG1 had a really beautiful ambient environment effect thing going on with it for the time, like holdovers from the Loom era that really made you enjoy just pausing for a minute and taking in the scene. I think BG3 has that same level of hypnotic space to hang out in, and especially down by the river feels like it has that for sure. I really would love to be able to rotate the camera in all directions just to look at it. The area designers did beautiful work
Last edited by Black_Elk; 27/02/21 08:10 AM.
