Terrain/building destruction idea

[Zednel]

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tldr:

Terrain deformed / buildings destroyed during a fight -> time distortion shenanigans -> terrain/buildings restored
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long version:

I have been thinking for some time now, what kind of system or event could set apart Em8er from other released or currently developed MMO-s. Sure, there is the fact that we will have mechs to pilot, fighting giant kaijus etc, but I wanted something that players would notice both during and outside of battles, something to catch their eye.

I saw the reveal trailer for Battlefield 2042, which reminded me of a video about Battlefield 1 gameplay, and what popped into my mind instantly, was the terrain destruction. I haven't played any battlefields since BF 1942 nor was I interested in playing any newer ones, yet if anyone would ask me what's the first thing that comes to my mind about the series, it would be terrain destruction.

So, how could this be implemented in an "MMO-y" way? Usually, MMO-s have static or instanced maps (at least older ones), so players will always experience the same scenery. If you play, for example, Classic WoW, and you level up 5 characters to max level with the same route every time, everything will be the same: Same trees, hills, rocks etc. The first non-static WoW landscape that comes into mind, is Mount Hyjal during Cataclysm, where depending on the questchain, the terrain (or rather the instance) would change, but in the end, it would be the same for everyone.

However, here in Em8er we have a mechanic that we can make good use of, namely the time distortion. Unreal Engine 5 showed* that both beautiful and dynamic terrain changes are possible; we could use this to deform the terrain (rocks break into smaller pieces, craters appear after explosions, trees break and fall, ice shatters etc.) and destroy parts of buildings during fights, and after a set amount of time (or resource gathered etc.) with a distorsion effect, the terrain or buildings would "reset" to their pre-fight looks. This would provide both immersion in the world and a sense of wonder in players - "wtf happened here... what is that giant crater? this must have been a big battle!"

As an illustration, here is a rudementary picture of what I think of.



Thanks for reading-

*I have inserted a link to the Unreal Engine 5 terrain physics showcase video

 

[Pandagnome]

I like that, could some of the broken stuff be take e.g. if it was a big rock and shattered some random parts of the rock could be taken sometimes you could find odd things that are useful during such events.

This is really using Unreal Engine 5 to its strength the contrast with those example images definitely gives me the idea of how varied it could be.

Time distortion is great idea for it to go back to its original state, if it was not for time distortion would of said that the mineral properties and the advanced micro organisms could accelerate the regeneration.

 

[MattHunX]

GREAT IDEA! The very thing that's keeping the Tsi-Hu in the prison they're trying to escape from could both aid US and destroy us, by dynamically altering the terrain depending on whether a region or zone is stabilitized or not, which could impact the weather, as well, of course. Not saying nados, but...

And it would also be a good sci-fi explanation, within the lore of the game, for how changes happen.

 

[Zednel]

As for the distorsion effect, I have found two videos that both have parts of what I have in mind:

1.------------------------------------------------------------
Unreal Engine Teleportation effect

To narrow it down:
From the beginning to 1:11 the distorted circular-ish effects and the teleported characters horizontally spiked body



Of course both effects should be a bit wobbly and the circular effect should be more dynamic OR very simple (ex square, rectangle), though the vertical lines shouldn't be vertical but mapped to the destroyed objects surface, and should only appear briefly when the destroyed object gets restored (or left out completely, we want a good distorsion, not a clusterf*ck)

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DmC Dante vs Bob Barbas

As for this one, there are multiple things that I like:



These outward flying rectangles that also apply a negative-color effect, and the "broken glass" background as a mask

Also, on these rectangles, you can see a "bad signal/white noise" kind-of distorsion from 4:07 to 4:13. Can't post picture because of low quality.

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Combine these with a bit of small scale lightning (Terminator 2?), and I think we are more or less golden. And of course, the colors here are just coincidences, IMO blue and purple variations are much better for this.

As a closing thought: A kind of time-reverse effect could also be applied, the destroyed object combines back from its pieces.

 

[Pandagnome]

I like this kind of fluttering sound as if the world if fluctuating before it goes back to its original state

Also like this how the environment is fractured and changes