Ok, I’ll try not to go off-lore this time.
My suggestion comes after the Stephen King book: “The Mist”.
We are talking about a military base where experiments with inter-dimensional portals takes place, but something goes wrong, and this “xeno” dimension break free and starts expanding in the nearby locations, bringing along monstrosities of every kind.
So the lore talks about a prototype of teleportation device that opens up a portal to an external world.
(maybe I’m wrong, but I know that there are portals anyway).
So maybe the lore can be “Expanded” with an additional extra-terrestrial dimension that got released onto the earth from one of this portals.
This mist will be evaluated as weather that occupies a little part of the map (4x4 sectors for example), this mist actually moves around at a slow peace, and inside it there will be Monsters that can’t be found anywhere else.
The mist, as the rain, will not enter any kind of building.
Technically this monsters can’t leave the mist, because it may contain a particular chemical substance that is essential for them to survive, if they leave their natural habitat(the mist) they will become weaker and less effective and if they stay out for too long they will eventually die.(Maybe this can be worked on a little)
For those of you who have seen the movie or read the book, I’m not suggesting the implementation of such OP monster, as the hentai tentacle monster that lurks around the store, found in such a masterpiece (bad luck that spiders and giant was was already implemented in Cata) but maybe we can find other kind of creatures that resemble more to an alien world, maybe opposed to the nether ones, creating a status of permanent war between these two universes.
I am full of ideas and propositions, and everyday I will try to fit them into the lore to make them acceptable, if the fact that I post so many content suggestion bothers you, let me know and I will regulate myself.
I think It would be a nice idea if applied to whole entire over maps (obviously not the one you start in). To give it much more apocalyptic feel and make destroying the portal instalation a interesting late game challenge.
Are you really sure you want to venture into that immovable wall of fog?
We can pretend that this mist is generated by a monster in particular, like a boss, and if the players find it and manage to kill it, the mist will disappear and the monsters in it will die, obviously this boss comes from a portal. Every “mass” of mist that appears has it’s own “boss”.
Like a moving ecosystem powered by a biologic atmospheric machine.
If you’ve invaded labs and made it to the bottom a few times, I assume I can tell you this:
You know those portal generators at the bottom of most labs? This could be like a “Hardmode” for Cata. Getting to the bottom of labs could be made a much more strenuous process, and activating the portal activates the Mist.
A visually obscured region with hidden dangers is fairly generic. Mist, smoke, or just the dark. It’s a common motif in horror, what you can’t see is often more frightening than what you can. The parallel of dimensions bleeding together already exists. I do like the idea of a mob emitting the mist, and it being followed by minions who can only survive in the mist (maybe outside of the mist they have stats halved and some continual damage affect). I think as long as you don’t re-use King’s specific creatures you have a novel enough concept.
I personally find smokers some of the creepiest zeds, even when I can kill them easily. With protection the smoke poses no real direct threat, but I hate waltzing in to kill a smoker and lose sight of my surroundings.
This short story is my favorite work from stephen king. I’d enjoy seeing this worm it’s way into cataclysm, but I agree it needs to be molded more for the game so it’s not just a straight rip.
I think the game already pulls more than enough from the Mist. It’s entire premise is pretty much exactly the same, the mechanics for monsters dying off in the hostile earth environment is even identical already.
I don’t particularly think it’s a very interesting mechanic, really. It seems like an even worse version of smoke, and that already takes out a fair chunk of my low-level characters who haven’t found a mask yet.
Some do. A lot don’t. Depends on what you’re looking for- and ‘original’ != ‘good’.
My point being, do you play this game, right now, because it has a compelling story…or because it’s a survival rogue-like with zombies, mutants, cbms, hidden temples & deathcar 9000s?
@Inadequate
Which proposal are you referring to?
There are ~3 right now- OP is a 4x4 overmap zone, probably intended for mid-high characters.
Another is a boss-beast that spawns the mist & the creatures in it- I take it’ll be like a cooler version of a triffid grove. This is, mind you, a much larger area than presented by smokers.
The third proposes an end-game mechanic where everything gets misted after you climb to the bottom of a lab & [spoilers]. Tougher enemies, more hostile environment, end-game content.
Why do you think it’ll be bad?
Mist != smoke
Smoke inhalation is a problem because it directly damages your characters. Pretty consistently too. Stepping into mist on the other hand would keep a limited vision effect, but the only damage you’d have to worry about are from monsters. It’s a calculated risk, rather than a small zone of certain damage.
Are you considering atmosphere, and how you yourself would react to a large misted area in your way? Would you go around or brave the critters within? How would you react IRL?