Red Tide
CrawlinChaos
Pittsburgh, PA Join Date: 2015-06-05 Member: 205267Members
Pittsburgh, PA Join Date: 2015-06-05 Member: 205267Members
Hello there! This is my first post here, so before anything else, I want to say that this is already an amazing game with so much potential! I am really looking forward to seeing how it continues to develop and grow. Also, I commend the developers for their close connection to the community. I have personally never seen another development group with all the awesome features for keeping in touch with the players that these guys have (feedback system integrated into the game, development tracker, feature voting, etc). I have only owned the game for less than a week and its already by far the most fun and dynamic indie game I have ever followed. Anyway, down to business.
I was just swimming around in game a little while ago when I was struck by an idea. I'm not sure if there are any plans for 'random events' in the game, like storms, seaquakes, volcanic eruptions, current reversals, that sort of thing. But, if such things were to be implemented, I think an incredibly awesome 'random event' would be a red tide. A red tide is were there is a massive overgrowth of red or brown algae, which can also sometimes produce toxins, depending on the species. In some cases, this can result in a mass die-off of marine life in the area of the algal bloom. If you want to know more about actual red tides, here's the Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_tide
Now, my idea for the game is to have a 'random event' where a red tide occurs in part of or maybe even all over the map. It would probably last at least a week of game time, if not longer. During the tide, the ocean water would become extremely murky and reddish in color, significantly reducing visibility. Also, most of the marine life (something like greater than 80%) would die off (i.e. spawn rates would be sharply decreased) for the duration of the red tide, making it more challenging for the player to find food (creepvine wouldn't be effected though, so the player could squeak by eating that). Those are the two main features for my idea of a red tide. Another feature could be that for the duration of the tide and possibly for some amount of time afterwards, eating any fish would cause damage to the players health, due to accumulation of the red tide toxin in the flesh of the fish (normally, this only applies to shellfish in real life). That might be too much though.
Besides making things supremely creepy (just imagine swimming around in blood red water where you can't see more than 20 feet in front of you), the tide would force the player to try different survival strategies instead of just relying on hunting fish. It would also present a good opportunity for the player to visit places that are normally dangerous due to the local fauna (like kelp forests with stalkers and spike plants caves) to collect resources.
So, that's my idea. I have no technical skill in computers or programming, but it seems like it wouldn't be that hard to implement in game. Please let me know what you guys think. Thanks and thanks so much for making an awesome game!
I was just swimming around in game a little while ago when I was struck by an idea. I'm not sure if there are any plans for 'random events' in the game, like storms, seaquakes, volcanic eruptions, current reversals, that sort of thing. But, if such things were to be implemented, I think an incredibly awesome 'random event' would be a red tide. A red tide is were there is a massive overgrowth of red or brown algae, which can also sometimes produce toxins, depending on the species. In some cases, this can result in a mass die-off of marine life in the area of the algal bloom. If you want to know more about actual red tides, here's the Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_tide
Now, my idea for the game is to have a 'random event' where a red tide occurs in part of or maybe even all over the map. It would probably last at least a week of game time, if not longer. During the tide, the ocean water would become extremely murky and reddish in color, significantly reducing visibility. Also, most of the marine life (something like greater than 80%) would die off (i.e. spawn rates would be sharply decreased) for the duration of the red tide, making it more challenging for the player to find food (creepvine wouldn't be effected though, so the player could squeak by eating that). Those are the two main features for my idea of a red tide. Another feature could be that for the duration of the tide and possibly for some amount of time afterwards, eating any fish would cause damage to the players health, due to accumulation of the red tide toxin in the flesh of the fish (normally, this only applies to shellfish in real life). That might be too much though.
Besides making things supremely creepy (just imagine swimming around in blood red water where you can't see more than 20 feet in front of you), the tide would force the player to try different survival strategies instead of just relying on hunting fish. It would also present a good opportunity for the player to visit places that are normally dangerous due to the local fauna (like kelp forests with stalkers and spike plants caves) to collect resources.
So, that's my idea. I have no technical skill in computers or programming, but it seems like it wouldn't be that hard to implement in game. Please let me know what you guys think. Thanks and thanks so much for making an awesome game!
Comments
Red Tides are also being discussed there, and much to the disgust of others... 'Brown Tides'
I was trying to figure out a biological mechanism that would inject a massive amount of nitrogen and nutrients into the surrounding water, triggering a dinoflagellate bloom.
The solution: Reefbacks with diarrhoea. All of them at once.
In fact, I was just thinking that a 'red tide' like effect (reduced visibility, reduction in marine life, etc.) could be achieved by an invasion of extremely tiny, reddish krill-like creatures. They would operate sort of like a locust swarm, coming in and eating anything that isn't nailed down before moving on. The swarm would be semi-mobile (obviously the movements of creatures the size of dust motes are going to be governed principally by water currents), so that would explain both how it comes and goes and also why it occurs away from any landmasses (unlike real red tides).
But, ultimately, whatever the explanation, my brainwave while I was playing was how cool and creepy it would be if the water was extremely murky and red, sort of a Silent Hill under the ocean thing, lol.
Something about that particular DLC creeped me right out. Could have been that monotonous, ochre-coloured sky, could have been something to do with those dodgy bomb-collars. Whatever it was, I couldn't wait to get that one over and done with.
The idea of having a Red Tide event that is carnivorous rather than toxic is actually rather frightening.
Any creatures caught in the bloom would be utterly helpless, unable to defend themselves against billions of tiny, voracious mandibles. Such an event would effectively sterilize a large area of ocean, unless some lifeforms have developed a specific defence mechanism against it. Red Tides (and similar events) might form the basis of an in-game biological research program. I believe that something along these lines is currently under development.
Have you been to the Inactive Lava Zone? The opacity of the water there is right around what I was thinking for a red tide effect. You should be able to see what's in your immediate vicinity, but not be able to make out anything outside your immediate field of vision. This produces that nice 'fade-in, fade-out' effect, where objects suddenly appear out of the haze and disappear once you've past them. I would say something like 20-40 meters sight radius would be appropriate. Like if you were swimming at the surface of the Safe Shallows biome and looked down, you couldn't see the bottom. Just red haze.
I was thinking that the advantage of having a 'locust-like' effect for the red tide would actually be better, because then it could effect plants too, like creepvine. Reducing the availability of *all* food sources would have two effects:
1) Force the player to venture out into the red tide to search for the scare amount of food available and therefore increase the creep factor.
2) Presumably, there are going to be 'farming' type additions to the game later on, like aquariums or creepvine tanks. Preparing your own renewable food source would protect you from the deleterious effects of the red tide and thereby encourage players to invest those, instead of just relying on hunting/gathering.