Nightingale Legacy Portal
Customizing realms is the main selling point of the game imo. I'd love to see more minor cards, especially interactive ones that go a bit beyond modifying the skybox (as cool as that is).
I'm well aware that dev time is at a premium, so I tried to keep that in mind. Below are my pitches, organized into groups of similar types.
Reoccurring environmental events
This category focuses on small localized events that come and go like natural phenomena. The idea is to have them activate and deactivate at random intervals in one or several places at a time.
The spawns of these phenomena could be handled in much the same way that bound spawns are. They might even share their spawn locations. It would seem wise to allow estate cairns to block them in an area.
Some of these events could pull double duty as new spells to get more out of the effort.
#1.1 – Updrafts, Dust Devils, Tornados
These are areas where gusts of wind disturb the air visually and create loud fluttering sounds. Stepping inside them notably increases the jump height, while opening the umbrella pulls you up high into the sky.
It could be sensible to create variations of this effect for several realm cards.
Interesting variations could be
a) intensity, aka jump height and umbrella updraft
b) positive and negative effects such as healing, restoring food/stamina/sleep, as well as minor damage, poison, fire damage, blinding/deafening, etc.
c) varying visual effects, such as rushing petals, sparks, sand, bugs, fish, etc.
(removing hunger in a torrent of bugs has got to be funny)
d) varying activation intervals; an intense few seconds vs a permanent PoI
e) the effect could be bound to a specific location or be a moving event/PoI, similar to the apex beasts
f) a somewhat quirky and fae-inspired variant could actively (if slowly) follow the player or evade them within a small range
Being able to create an updraft, a storm or a firetornado with a spell could be really neat.
#1.2 – Sky Rivers / Inverse Waterfalls
These large streams of water flow up into the sky in lazy, winding spirals – completely defying gravity.
The effect on the player could be similar to #1.1 but much slower and they can’t avoid it by not jumping. I mostly find the idea of ‘water defies gravity in a major way’ visually appealing and very fitting for the setting.
I think of these more as non-persistent and very impressive landmarks that you can swim up in to gain height for a glide across the map.
These could come in various types (such as sand for the desert biome) but also with healing effects, movement across the map, various spawn/despawn intervals, etc.
#1.3 - Comets
Small comets fall from the night sky. These could be used for different themes, effects and card variants.
a) The classic streaks of light could be perfect for a particularly dark and scenic skybox. Some realm cards could create only the sporadic comet, while others result in amazing light shows.
b) A more violent type might create an ominous sound or visual effect in the impact zone (to alarm players). The impact itself could be a classic fireball effect, possibly felling trees and shaking the earth.
c) A more fantastic variety could come as a pale, blue streak that illuminates the map and on impact it scatters into a dozen little ghostly creatures that rapidly scurry into the night (Howl's Moving Castle comes to mind).
All of these could be coupled with resource drops or special types of enemies (maybe even pets) to make them more exciting for the player and encourage a chase for the impact site.
#1.4 Rifts
A special, temporary event that allows players to teleport across some distance.
To make these interesting and useful the direction from which a player enters could determine the direction in which they teleport. The player's movement speed while entering could affect the distance – as in, sprinting will get you across half the map while walking into the rift will only transport you a short distance.
As for visuals, these could take the form of mushroom rings, mirages of a distant oasis, an ominous fog cloud or a simple rip in the air.
In case there’s a need to avoid 'falling through the map' and such issues, the destination could be tied to the closest PoI in the ‘selected’ direction.
Global effects
These effects would affect the entire realm. They’re generally fairly simple and straightforward.
#2.1 - Walk on water
Players can walk on water for a short time while consuming stamina in the process. Doing so creates rather funny running noises.
Potentially very useful in swamp realms – which I bring up because some players really dislike the poison.
It could be cool to have increased running speed on water and/or sliding movement (as if on ice).
This mechanic would also make for a cool new utility spell.
#2.2 - Fountain of Youth
Existing bodies of water slowly heal the player (possibly at the cost of stamina or in addition to making them tired).
A minor glow effect of the water, possibly only visible at night could be quite striking. Dancing lights or a particular watercolour colour might also be interesting.
#2.3 – The Eternal Hearth
No more fuel consumption at the various crafting stations. It might be a nice touch to couple this with an eternal dusk or a particularly pretty summer night sky.
To balance the effect, something like a slight increase in crafting times may or may not be appropriate (there's still the opportunity cost of not using another card in the end, so I don't think it's necessary).
#2.4 - The Relentless March of Time
A card that noticeably hastens the day-night cycle, as well as, the cloud movement. This might combine nicely with plants growing faster or trees regrowing after a few minutes.
Other interesting effects could be a minor stamina penalty or an effect on tiredness (positive or negative).
For the full fae experience, Puck could appear and lecture about his siblings playing tricks on mortals – trapping them in here for years or decades. It might be polite to inform the players though, that this is a mostly visual effect and not an elaborate prank by Puck though.
Trigger-based effects
The following ideas are intended to be somewhat fantastical and aim to personify the realm to some extent. The idea is to have the cosmos react to the player.
#3.1 – The Benevolent Raingod
Equipping and using a non-empty watering can initiates a rain shower. Emptying a watering can ends the current rainfall.
This may require a cooldown to make it less goofy.
#3.2 The Judgement above
Directly looking at the sun causes an effect similar to the desert heat. It also slowly shifts the lighting of the entire realm to an angry red, while an ominous hum can be heard by anyone on the map.
For further escalation, it may also create earthquakes or spawn bound enemies near the offending mortal.
Variants of this mechanic could also have less hostile effects. The sun could blink like a massive eye - creeping everyone out.
Alternatively, looking at the sun could switch between the day and night cycle or briefly speed up the skybox's movement.
Generally, it might be funnier to give this a lengthy and randomized cooldown. “No, I swear! It happened the moment I looked at the sun. No, I don’t know what’s different now.”
