[Suggestion] FFXIV 4.0 interactive weather/world elements

Just something that came to mind. Would it be possible to have weather elements actually inflict damage to you?

Say one of the new areas has thunderstorms, and severe thunderstorms. What if only during severe thunderstorms you have a small chance to be struck by lightning out in the open and stunned for a few seconds? You could place some lightning rods for players to use as a "safe zone". Braver adventurers could brave the storm or wait it out.

What if one of the areas has an active volcano, and once in a while there will be an earthquake and the volcano erupts spitting random chunks of magma that you need to avoid or find shelter.

How about when the wind in one area gets so hectic that it has a chance to blow you in specific directions or adds a weight effect on your character until the weather subsides, find a "safe spot" or leave?

Hullbreaker Isle and Palace of the Dead has traps in it, they were minor nuisances, but you could expand on that and put random encounters with the local wildlife or status afflictions.

Reason I'm suggesting these is that the world could feel more alive than it already is. Gives and added sense of suspense. The survivor's glamour set sort of inspired me to come up with this idea. Would it be feasible?

Why would you want something like that exactly?

For certain future zones I'd definitely be interested in this. Otherwise, only after surrounding changes across the whole game to make it fit. That said, neither something like this nor the changes necessary for it to feel "right" on implementation are particularly high in my list of priorities in what I'd like to see added to or changed about open world gameplay. I want more life, risk, and variety from the open world, absolutely, but I feel like this would be the icing on the cake more than a starting point.

Any other ideas you think would make a positive impact?

It's just for new areas, leave the old areas be.

Came up with the idea from the survival gear when it hit me that this game doesn't really have much emphasis on survival. These occurrences would only happen during severe weather which can be rare or uncommon. There isn't much sense of adventure right now, instances and raids get predictable. This would add an element for unpredictability. Would make gathering a little interesting, though I would wager those more no-nonsense type of players would hate it if a bad windstorm happened right during the window of a rare mining node.

Perhaps I just like just a little more chaos during fates and hunts.

You know what would be nice? The ability to fly in all zones!!!

I love day/night and weather in this game, best mmo to do so, I really want to thank yoshida and his team for making the decision to always have day/night and weather that makes the world always feel alive (tell me the northern lights at western coerthas doesn't make you go wow).

But yeah I would love to see new weather in 4.0 like the suggestions above where weather affects the environment. Think of how FFXII used weather. In sunny weather you can't pass through some routes, in rainy weather some mobs do more damage to you, in dusty weather you fly slower so you might need to use your ground mount.

Stuff like that is fun, they just need to see how FFXII did it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tracewood

It's just for new areas, leave the old areas be.

---

That all sounds more tedious than dangerous or interesting though. Being screwed over by a sudden, random weather effect would easily rustle a lot of jimmies. A less intrusive alternative would be from FFXI's book, where weather (and day, though we don't have elemental days in XIV) could strengthen or weaken mobs in the area based on their elemental affinity, meaning you had to be wary about when you tackled tougher opponents. You could take it a step further in XIV by giving (or locking the use of) certain abilities that mobs could use based on their powered up weather status. You still have to be more mindful of the zone around you without arbitrarily being screwed over by something out of left field.