Melding

[Vladplaya]

Are we going to have anything similar to it? I am not gonna lie, I thought melding was one of the coolest things about FF, because of how it made the bubble of safe territory feel secluded, because of how it looked with sweet effects and just the story and mystery behind it.

I haven't seen anything that would point to "melding" in Ember, but those Tsihu guys seem to have pretty wicked abilities and I wonder if they would be able to create some fields with similar effects to the melding?

What do you guys think, would it be cool to have something like that in Ember? Should it be just as big, or just few zones? Should we encounter this on other planets later down the road or have it only on one planet? Should we be able to have expeditions inside such fields (with special equipment), or keep it like it was in FireFall were it was slow death?

Or do you think this was just a FireFall thing and it should die with that game?

*I apologize if this already been discussed somewhere else, I did look around a little and couldn't find anything directly about the melding.

Thanks for reading, any comments and discussion is welcomed!

 

[ObsoleteVodka]

Planets atmosphere is toxic so we need to make bubbles of habitable (playable) space. There you go.

Edit: Stated by Mark many days ago on Discord.

 

[EvilKitten]

I think it would be fairly easy to say that the planet we are on has such an acidic atmosphere that even our frames would not last long so we'd have to set up some sort of repulsion technology of futuristic design that would in essence filter the air in an area and make it safe.

I hate having someone post what i was saying before I can...drat you Vodka...

EDIT: There is actually another option...if the world we were on was completely covered in a shallow ocean and rather than trying to build submarine technology for mining we would instead be pushing the water back? If the water was corrosive rather than the air it might be a bit more realistic in terms of science (and it was also look friggin bad ass).

 

[ObsoleteVodka]

Proof!

 

[EvilKitten]

Proof!

The one problem I have with it being the atmosphere being toxic (instead of the water in my example) is that air is a much much harder medium to work with. I mean unless the filter is a physical dome what happens if a hurricane were to pass through? No filter is going to be able to work with that volume of air being pushed through the area. I think having water that isn't a requirement to breathe would be a much more realistic approach, but again that is just me.

 

[Vladplaya]

Well it's certainly not a bad concept, the only problem I see with repulsion of the toxic atmosphere is that it probably wouldn't be looking near as cool as melding. Unless they will put some artistic twist on it and make the clouds of bad gas look sweet with constant storms and lightning discharges running through them.

 

[ObsoleteVodka]

The one problem I have with it being the atmosphere being toxic (instead of the water in my example) is that air is a much much harder medium to work with. I mean unless the filter is a physical dome what happens if a hurricane were to pass through? No filter is going to be able to work with that volume of air being pushed through the area. I think having water that isn't a requirement to breathe would be a much more realistic approach, but again that is just me.

True, but that could be fixed with some sort of energy field generated by the terraformer itself, it's Sci-fi and futuristic so it goes nicely with Ember.

Well it's certainly not a bad concept, the only problem I see with repulsion of the toxic atmosphere is that it probably wouldn't be looking near as cool as melding. Unless they will put some artistic twist on it and make the clouds of bad gas look sweet with constant storms and lightning discharges running through them.

It could look good enough if done properly. I mean, theres places in our own solar system where rains diamonds.

 

[EvilKitten]

True, but that could be fixed with some sort of energy field generated by the terraformer itself, it's Sci-fi and futuristic so it goes nicely with Ember.

Of course, I mean it is a game we (meaning Mark) can do anything we damn well please. But...there is a term, it is called Suspension of Disbelief. Basically the closer a situation is to reality, the easier it is for the consumer to ignore small problems and breakdowns to focus on the enjoyment of the medium. Thus my point, while Mark can do whatever he wants, using water as the toxic/corrosive medium instead of air would be a much more believable situation.

 

[Demigan]

I haven't seen anything that would point to "melding" in Ember, but those Tsihu guys seem to have pretty wicked abilities and I wonder if they would be able to create some fields with similar effects to the melding?

The story behind the Tissue's heavily hints to them being in a time-loop that's degrading. According to the lore piece the Tissue's keep repeating it over and over again, and even the human science division agree's there's some kind of time phasing going on.

So maybe there will be some kind of destabilized-time area's. Places where the time-loop has degraded and time has become an almost complete and incomprehensible mess. I guess the entire storyline will be focused on what's causing the timeshift on the Tissue's and solving it, so throwing in these zone's which need to be combatted before they degenerate the entire galaxy would be a good start as a replacement for the Melding.

After reading what the original FF lore was supposed to be, I have no doubt that this time stuff is going to be used to allow players to murder the same guy several times and have him come back each time. They used something similar in the FF lore. It would actually be a nice treasure-hunt at the same time. First find a younger version and ask him questions about how to talk to their future counterparts and progress with the information from there.


Edit:
Although "toxic atmosphere" is an easy way to explain it, I feel it's lacking. We have about a dozen different human factions spread out over the galaxy and tons of planets with habitable life even before terraforming starts for realsies. Where do those come from? I prefer my idea (duh, that's why I thought of it) where these human factions tried to speed up terraforming by dumping terraforming seeds on potential planets thousands of years before they have the manpower to send colonists. These terraforming seeds release biological machines in the form of custom-build plants and animals that will actively filter the air&ground while immediately preparing the planet for colonization (creating mountains to shelter parts from storms. Filling up tornado bassins to prevent more from appearing and even changing fault-lines to reduce the severity of earthquakes etc etc). You can do things like all the plants gathering the solar energy (of an entire planet!) in specific plant-types, who offer this energy to be easily harvestable by future colonists and power some of the higher forms of bio-animals that dig deep for building resources. This explains why these plants and animals are valuable to have and valuable to kill, and their hostility can be explained by their requirements to survive the harsh conditions of a pre-terraformed planet and potential tampering by hostile factions or simply an evolutionary fault in these bio-machines.

 

[Beemann]

I'm beginning to see a pattern here, Darkb1ke

In any case, it's inevitable that player content will have to be locked off, and I doubt the devs will go with the circle of mountains solution, so cool FX on the playable border is pretty much a must

It should probably kill faster than the melding though, since it sounds like this game is going to be zone based and it would be a little wasteful to generate a bunch of extra terrain that would only be seen on exploit/suicide runs

 

[Vladplaya]

In any case, it's inevitable that player content will have to be locked off, and I doubt the devs will go with the circle of mountains solution, so cool FX on the playable border is pretty much a must

It should probably kill faster than the melding though, since it sounds like this game is going to be zone based and it would be a little wasteful to generate a bunch of extra terrain that would only be seen on exploit/suicide runs

I believe the intention is to have unlockable regions in a single zone, so maybe the toxic cloud coverage shouldn't kill as fast in the areas that eventually will be uncovered. And as I mention earlier, I think it would be really cool if we could have time limited expeditions into the clouds, and using special equipment of course.

 

[TankHunter678]

I believe the intention is to have unlockable regions in a single zone, so maybe the toxic cloud coverage shouldn't kill as fast in the areas that eventually will be uncovered. And as I mention earlier, I think it would be really cool if we could have time limited expeditions into the clouds, and using special equipment of course.

would be best to have enclosed omniframes to give the pilots a self contained atmosphere for that. Only way to do it so that the energy shield going down wont kill your pilot from the atmosphere alone.

 

[Beemann]

I believe the intention is to have unlockable regions in a single zone, so maybe the toxic cloud coverage shouldn't kill as fast in the areas that eventually will be uncovered. And as I mention earlier, I think it would be really cool if we could have time limited expeditions into the clouds, and using special equipment of course.

Gave the Q&A another listen and it sounds like it could go either way. There was also mention of the Guild Wars expansion pack model as a positive thing and possible influence, and a lot of talk regarding different planets. It may just be that they decide to go with a model that is based on non-connected pockets of space. Would make transitions between terrain types a lot easier if they did things that way

In either case though, excursions would be good to have. After all, someone has to terraform the new area, right? Maybe it's a set of planted devices

 

[TankHunter678]

On the topic itself, we will have a habitation bubble. Its kinda a inverse melding. Instead of us fighting the "Chosen" to push the wall back we are the "Chosen" pushing the big energy wall forward and driving the locals into smaller and smaller pockets while we mercilessly kill them in order to obtain the precious resources of the planet. Which apparently includes alien technology/power sources that will allow us to increase the value of the operations and call in yet more people to come help us take over this (probably) backwater planet on the edge of civilized space.

We are the "Chosen", and the Tsihu are the "Forsaken" that will be exterminated.

 

[Ronyn]

Hi guys.
I moved the personal debate portion of this thread to its proper section of the forums. Please get back to the subject expressed in the titles heading. Note that moving posts may have resulted in certain points about this topic being missing from the thread. Please restate your viewpoints of this topic here while continuing the personal debate in that other thread.
Thank you.

 

[Vladplaya]

Good deal! Thanks @Ronyn !

 

[MattHunX]

would be best to have enclosed omniframes to give the pilots a self contained atmosphere for that. Only way to do it so that the energy shield going down wont kill your pilot from the atmosphere alone.

Should the shield go down? That would make the pilot very vulnerable, depending on the type of clothing they'd be wearing, when piloting the mech. If they're dressed in something casual they should be harmed a lot more than someone who is wearing a mechanics jumpsuit or light to heavy armor. Have certain missions where you must exit the frame. Make the distance you can walk from your frame limited. If the area is toxic, before you step outside of your frame, the chassis converts the force-field from around the cockpit and projects it as a dome or closed bubble, a few meters wide, in which you can move about. Good for interacting with certain objects or running a little maintenance on your frame or protecting some NPCs or a fellow player with it. Would it need a battery-life? Should it have a gauge one has to pay attention to, similar to jet energy. It could function the same way, but it would deplete and recharge much much slower.

 

[DARKB1KE]

The issue with Melding is that it can lock players out of content. That was a problem with invasions mechanics.

 

[TankHunter678]

Should the shield go down? That would make the pilot very vulnerable, depending on the type of clothing they'd be wearing, when piloting the mech. If they're dressed in something casual they should be harmed a lot more than someone who is wearing a mechanics jumpsuit or light to heavy armor. Have certain missions where you must exit the frame. Make the distance you can walk from your frame limited. If the area is toxic, before you step outside of your frame, the chassis converts the force-field from around the cockpit and projects it as a dome or closed bubble, a few meters wide, in which you can move about. Good for interacting with certain objects or running a little maintenance on your frame or protecting some NPCs or a fellow player with it. Would it need a battery-life? Should it have a gauge one has to pay attention to, similar to jet energy. It could function the same way, but it would deplete and recharge much much slower.

I would think that part of preparation for an excursion into the toxic atmosphere beyond the bubble would also involve putting on an environmental suit if you were going to have to leave your mech. The mech should still have a self contained atmosphere to "preserve time" for excursions outside the mech.

Basically, if we are allowed to go beyond the bubble, it should be something that forces us to prepare for it and understand that we wont be able to just run around in it all willy nilly.

 

[Terib.Shadow]

The issue with Melding is that it can lock players out of content. That was a problem with invasions mechanics.

But you could also unlock that content, which was the good part of it.
Honestly, who cared about sunken harbor being lost? Defending it and retaking it was the fun part.