by DaniAngione » Thu Oct 01, 2015 6:54 pm Some issues here and there, sure, but hey - this is a new land, so why not think of ways to improve on good ideas?
So here's another idea:
Festivals, Rituals and Ceremonies
The idea is simple, to create some sort of mechanic that would require you to prepare one of those festivities in exchange for some buffs/effects. Could be seen as a new, more interactive and fun take on the old ancestor/prayer system.
What would a festival, ritual and cerimony be?
Well, the idea is to make them available to everyone, so:
- Festivals would be big parties - aimed for villages or large groups. The effect could be slightly improved by gathering more and more people, so maybe this could encourage villages to call in their friends and friendly neightbors for even more amazing festivals!
- Cerimonies are similar to festivals, but focused on small groups. They should need like 2 or 3 people, but not really increase its effectiveness with more. For hermits or small groups.
- Rituals are mostly solo and more like pre-battle prayers and such.
How would they work?
For those familiar with the Symbel, it would be pretty much the same thing. However, each festival/cerimony/ritual would have their specific list of requirements for the game (and the gods!) to recognize it. All festivals and cerimonies should have a central item (like the Bonfire) and rituals too (like the old Altar). The idea of the central item is for it to have a 'range' (like Bee skeps do) and so the game can check for the requirements inside that range. If everything is happening according to one of the cerimonies/festivals/rituals, the game will recognize it and apply the effects when it's over.
Requirements could range from several things, some ideas:
- Specific food and forbidden food - Some celebrations could require certain food to be served (available on tables/eaten). It could also forbid certain types of food.
- Specific clothing - There's a lot of options here. Some festivals could require everyone to be wearing laurels, for example, or a nature festival could require everyone to be naked! Possibilities are endless.
- Traditional Music - A fine use for instruments, some celebrations could require certain instruments to be played. It would be too much to ask for certain songs - and complicated - but I suppose that as long people are required to play an instrument for some time, they might as well try and actually play something that sounds ok
- Events - Imagine how cool it would be if some events could be identified... For example, a breeding festival (to buff all animals breeding rates) requires you to slay a cow before the bonfire!
These are just a few of the possibilities.
To prevent 'overuse', abuse or spamming of festivals, there could be certain conditions, like 'cooldowns' - but it would be nicer if said limitations were related to the game somehow (instead of just adding timers). So, for example: Moon phases (not sure if they're in the game like they were in Legacy), time of day, etc...
As for rituals, they chould be more simple and cheaper, and provide small bonuses/buffs. They should require some infrastructure, so they can't be abused/overused all the time around the wilderness - more like a hunter's prayer before heading out of your claim, for example.
Possible Ideas and Effects
These are not the complete ideas and requirements, just a simple arrangement of ideas to show how many possibilities are there
- Harvest - Could be a festival (big effect/radius), cerimony (smaller radius) or even a farmer's prayer (small radius and effect) but this special celebration would make it even more probable for crops to increase in quality and speed their growth.
- Artificer - prayers and festivals for better mining luck, smelting rates, etc...
- Breeding Festival - animal sacrifices and such for better and faster breeding rates, better meat, etc...
- Nature's rites and rituals - different celebrations asking for blessings of nature, small Survival buffs for early game, better foraging, temporarily increased perception, etc...
- War rites - from war mongering villages feasting for victory in battle to a lone warrior prayer, it would be cool to have such options.
- Scholar Festival - Togas and slightly increased LP gain for a time
- Moon prayer - nocturnal prayer for increased stealth
The list goes on and on. There could be pretty much a ceremony for everything, anything you imagine. A lot of balancing would be required - they would need to be expensive enough for people not to 'spam' them but worthy enough for people to actually utilize them from time to time. That's why I think that gameplay conditions (like moon phases) would be the best way to limit their use.
There could be some really crazy stuff too, maybe even human sacrifices (with increased effects the more total LP the sacrificed person has), etc... Anyway, the ball is thrown. I hope the idea is appreciated
