Environmental Effects that make the game world seem more alive.
One of the things I've been seeing a few people complain about in a few different threads is how "Boring" the game world seems in some areas. So i just wanted to take the time to see if we could come up with Ideas of small simple to implement Elements that would make the game world seem more real.
1. Non-Combat Wildlife / urban animals:
What I mean is wildlife that doesn't follow the same rules as normal Monsters in the game. This is things like small snakes, lizards, birds, insects, rodents, etc that are normally too small to notice as a threat to players, not targetable, and are simply there to have things appear to move about in lifelike manners. With the recent changes to how Monsters are sized this makes more sense. The reason we are culling large numbers of Marmots is because they have gotten so big that they are most likely destroying crops etcs. While a few mice hanging out in the Culinary Guild might be pets of the guild members who feed them cheese. You could even have instances where one of them might cut a piece of cheese off and walk over, feed a small group of mice then have the mice roam around carrying the cheese about. Every now and then stopping to eat the cheese.
Dogs running around cities with kids chasing them. Cats hanging out on roof tops, stalking the mice hanging out in the Culinary Guild.
Birds flying through cities, hamlets, and world areas. Birds that come and fitter about your head when you get to close to their nest in a tree in Gridania.
Owls hanging out in trees at night and disappearing during the day.
Snakes randomly slithering across pathways in the forest.
Chocobos roaming the wild off in edges of the world players can see but can not reach normally
Fish, whales, dolphins, and other marine life swimming about near the ferry, jumping out and splashing every now and then. Coming close to shore and doing the same.
2. Plantlife that "interacts" with the player and the game world.
The best example I can use to describe this is the scene from Avatar where JAKE SULLY goes about touching plants and they glow, snap open or closed, etc.
But also we need plants that seem to move on their own, spitting seeds and pollen into the air that floats about.
3. Non-Weather Based Weather Effects...
This is hard to really describe. But these are normally considered weather phenomena. The main one is Heat Waves and Mirages in the desert areas. Dust in the sky from wind blowing sand everywhere. Dust Storms etc.
Tornado. I'd love to see Tornadoes.
Comments added by other users:
fireflies at night and pigeons in some city plazas ground that fly away when you approach them.
