Idea/Request: Quagmire /Ætherial Abyss / Ætherial Quagmire / Ætherial Labirynth

[Kavaskous]

This is a suggestion I've posted in the suggestion section of the forums; I figured it couldn't hurt to swell the forums by another thread to reach out to both the community and the develops through multiple channels so here goes:


Image you're walking through the Twelveswood in the direction of Mor Dhona, you're weary from the local fauna's frail attempts to eat you, and you swear you've seen that very same mushroom-covered log. You shrug it off as eitherDéjà vu, or a simple mistake - you'll simply be more cautious and aware of your surroundings.
After a time you begin to notice that you've traveled for hours and naught a creature has attacked you, nor has the sun moved from it's perch on high. Confusion and desperation begin to take hold when you realize that the rules of reality are warped in this place - possibly due to the high concentration of Ætherial energy from both Mor Dhona's Crystals and the Twelveswood's Elementals and abundance of life.


Rationing the last of your food, you venture forth carefully, looking for a pattern; you discover that there are many specific paths that must be taken in order to reach a certain area - while most paths you take lead you back to the beginning of the area, going a certain way seems to allow you to travel to different areas within and without this wondrous place.


Eventually you find several paths that lead out of this quagmire, and despite the fact that these passages seem to change by the hour, the itch to explore deeper takes over. While most of the areas you go to inevitably lead out of the forested area and either back in the Twelveswood (if you screw up badly) or in Mor Dhona on the other side. There are 1 or 2 other places that can be found and explored, one being a beautiful environment that is much like Urth's Gift, where plants and Crystal are intertwined and both are growing and floating in mid air. Massive fissures in the ground shine with the light of the World Crystal, while small islands with trees and small crystal seedlings - that shine with the pure energies of life itself - floating aloft serenely in the gentle breeze. This place could perhaps be the safest and most beautiful places in the game, and could even be expanded upon with popularity; high-quality graphics would bring life to this place and be a key example of the hard work SE has put into saving their asses and recreating a game that may very well be a huge turn around, and have created a goegeous, detailed, and unique world that captures....blah blah blah

An alternative area that can be accessed could perhaps be a 24-man dungeon that requires the use of patience and jumping (yes, I said it) to progress forward, whilst dealing with the many perils the map itself presents. Pit falls, spike traps, ledges to jump to - Cutter's Cry was simple in terms of environmental annoyances. One thing that games often neglect is the environment, they oftentimes fail to realize that the thing that ultimately can get you killed is your surroundings. This massive Temple of unknown origin is amassive stone and crystal fortress that one of Atomos' various incarnations inhabits and appears to be guarding something. Upon clearing the fight you walk to the top of the Temple into the great spire and Light the Pyre - summoning forth Seraph, who must be fought and defeated for their Divine Weaponry.

TL:TR

• Think Zelda, the Lost Woods and Hidden Temple from Ragnarok Online.
  Area located between the Twelveswood/Black Shroud and Mor Dhona.
• Many ways to wind up where you started, at the end, in intermediate areas, or in one of two major maps - one being a beautiful safe zone, one being a 24-man raid for only the bravest and most cautious of heroes.
• The environment itself has traps in all forms; carefully watching where you step, speed, and jumping over dangerous obstacles and traps are essential to surviving - the monsters aren't the only dangers.
• The paths, landmarks, and other features shift and change with time; each hour some areas may move around, making memorizing the way around next to impossible.
  
  
  
  Just a crazy thought I had, whether or not something like this already exists in some discussion or elsewhere, I wouldn't know - discuss, expand upon, or even doodle some lovely art.
  
  
  Hmm... this is a double post...

[Sabaku_Usagi]

As soon as I read Quagmire just had to put~



EDIT: A few points to be constructive.

1) I would refrain from using multiple fonts, just paragraph breaks with a bold faced title would make it much easier to read.

Introduction
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer commodo lobortis nisl vel mollis. Suspendisse potenti. Donec nulla lacus, laoreet vitae adipiscing sit amet, suscipit a lorem. Vestibulum id aliquam tellus. Ut dapibus odio nisi. Nulla facilisi.

Extra Background Information
Aenean eu quam at purus ultricies adipiscing. Nullam vitae ligula turpis, at convallis felis. Suspendisse ac mi dui. Curabitur ipsum urna, tempus ut venenatis eget, luctus ut risus. Praesent lacus lectus, auctor ut blandit ac, tincidunt eget tortor.

2) "Website Feedback & Suggestions" is actually about the website/lodestone. Comments about UI, search functions, navigation issues, etc should be posted there.

3) Multiple topics identical to each other isn't allowed even if they are in different forum sections.

4) TL ; DR (Too Long ; Didn't Read)

5) Correct spelling/spacing/font if you feel like it.

I'll reformat your text in word and give it a read, my eyes just couldn't stand the font changes. I'll update with my actual thoughts on the content of the post.

Edit 2: So if I read it right, the basic idea is you zone into an instance where you are presented with branching paths? And depending on the path(s) you choose you either get booted out or you arrive in Mor Dhona? In this instance there is a 24-man raid with a lot of different environmental/creature hazards and you need to climb up a temple to summon a boss monster who you can kill for weapons.

If that's on the money I think it's interesting, but I wonder what the conditions would be for getting sucked up into this instance. If it's random it could be pretty annoying for a 24-man raid, if it's not random but something like the teleport to Kirin I could see a lot of people raging. Inside the instance, I could see the branching paths... but is it a bunch of teleport in sequence, a bunch of long paths? Do you get a map, is it a zone that can't be revealed?

[Razzle]

I'll just suggest on top of your idea.

Since some players may get trapped there or lose their patience, there should be a limit for traveling inside: for example, if its some kind of rooms like Hidden Tower from Ragnarok Online, you get to visit 10 rooms before being kicked out to the enterance. To reach the end you need to take a path that includes visiting 10 rooms in a certain order (or less than 10 rooms to allow players to make mistakes)

That, or make it instanced with a "Go out of dungeon" button lol