As we are finishing the first playtest build, @Storoj is working on the level design of the first zone.
What kinds of locations and biomes do you love in video games and which ones would you like to see in our project ? Give us your ideas !
For me it was of course the iconic Coral Forest in Firefall, which we are using a lot for reference as you can see in our flora concepts from our designer Tomas.
some locations from Amalur were like super-Sertao: Tala-Rane and Menetyre - several layers, lots of cliffs, several massive bridges, different split paths, goes really far up and down. couldnāt find any good screenshots, unfortunately. it was also nice that the desert was very rocky and the rocks were of many different colors between yellow and red - depending on exact area. locations in general had lots of line-of-sight breakers like mountains, forts, giant trees, crystals, cliffs etc. and had one massive landmark visible from almost every corner of the current location.
Guild Wars 2 has pretty nice locations overall - but i feel like itās mostly the events that makes the maps - the bigger and longer the event, the more stages it has to gather players from across the whole location. also, lots of water with underwater combat, so, say, a giant lake in the middle isnāt a āwastedā space.
not suggesting underwater combat btw. althoughā¦ maybe there could be some sort of alien goo that blocks jump jets - you know, like in Doom Eternal. alien goo swamp.
Events
This event thing sounds interesting. Usually there are these dynamic world events like Firefall had which happen only in one place (Melding Tornado for example), people gather around it but only if they pass by and see it or if they are initially hunting for such event.
However doing these events in multiple stages across the map sounds more interesting, as large groups of players will go from one end of the map to another and pick up another batch of players together.
Underwater locations
Weāve actually talked about this one in the game design team. It could be done but Exoframes are not ready for underwater environments by design - you canāt breathe. We could solve this by automatically equipping the character with rebreather or a diving mask.
The combat and movement would be a lot different but still interesting I think.
Alternatively underwater zones could be accessed by vehicles only, so you could travel underwater and then reach certain spots (moonpools) in caves or structures where you can leave the submarine.
I think thatās a cool concept because realistically you donāt want to dive and slowly swim around.
GW2 used to have more āfloatyā underwater combat, but they changed it to be more snappy in movement (still different than ground movement) and forgiving in aiming. they also have a rebreather equipment slot that is put on-off automatically. thereās also a separate set of underwater weapons and some skills change or become unavailable under water, but i feel like that is very unnecessary - except the changed targeting of some skills, since being close to the bottom of the water body is rare for both players and enemies.
Very complex system but itās awesome. Things like these add so many new gameplay possibilities to the game.
I loved the Blackwater Anomaly mission in Firefall. The Necronus titan reveal was fantastic, and I wish they capitalised on that feeling of āhell yeah, I have you beatā¦ oh. OH NOā. Running away was really the only option in that mission, and it really gave you the impression that you would soon be fighting for the survival of humanity and the time of living in Copacabana might be a luxury of the past.
We all know how that mission went and can remember what it looks like, but CNC4 had an area that invoked that feeling, Threshold 19.
Couldnāt find a good screenshot of it in-game, but itās massive, imposing, and really makes the Scrin feel huge.
it was CNC3 and the unreleased FPS āTiberiumā.
no footage from Tiberium, but, basically, the whole sky is a massive dark cloud and only few segments of the tower pokes through
Thatās the mission I was thinking of! I remember Red Alert 2 like the back of my hand but the others post- that kinda blend in now.
Thinking of other environments, it really would depend on the setting and lore of the game, which Iām not familiar with if it was even discussed. Is it Earth after a cataclysm? Is it Elsewhere?
I think we havenāt released any lore yet but we have dozens of game design & lore documents from our game design team lead @Hunter5683.
Not sure what info I can disclouse or not, but the location is not Earth.
not Earth - less constraints. woohoo!
speaking of water environment and equipment - how about having environment-specific gear addons, mods or variants? you know, like stacking fire resistance before jumping into hell. then there could be much more alien biomes, all with different effects and requirements. water, vacuum anomaly, high-gravity zone, combustible gas caves, lava pools, whatever alien goo there could be and so on.
That might be maybe too complex, but itās definitely a possibility 
I LOVE āRiftbreakersā flora and fauna. The fusion of the environment and the mech and buildings are gorgeous. Plus thereās hordes of bugs to explode, so that helps the appeal 
That looks great !
I feel Satisfactory vibes from the second picture
Love Riftbreaker! Was playing it a lot when it came out. Indeed has a great juicy artstyle and satisfying combat. Basebuilding and expanding it can get pretty addictive also
Ideas. I love ideas!
I thing one of the most important thing is where we are. Is humanity colonising new planets? If so, newbie zones may be Planet1 and only flora and fauna will atack newbies. Sounds a bit boring, but there will be space for literally any king of location, next 10 levels etc - itās just a new planet N+1. Underwater, low gravity, high gravity, infinite sandstorm - everything. For mid-level players there will be planets like Earth in melding wars - thereāre aliens, they want to colonise too, so we fight. So high level content should be pushing melding / fighting at enemy bases / diversions / alien planet with hard to survive.
In this lore chapter 2 may contain even peace with aliens1 because of attck from aliens2!
The other story can mirror first one - we are elite warriors, we fight with massive put poorly weaponised clan of humanity for resources at new planets.
Or, we are tech empire and fight using battle costumes with other human empire that cyber-modified itself. Of course, we fight at different planets for resources and use generators to place and push borders that defend our territories. of course, there would be enemy soldiers and elite NPC that have similar to our classes abilities. Hm, this is my favourite cause this is the chapter one only. The chapter 2 can be founding an alien race with bio-tech one the high-level planet and in chapter 2 player can change fraction to cyber-tech one. Skills will have new animations but stay in same stats. And both empires of humanity now fight with alien alert 
Oh, locations. I think there can be some volcanic activity making parts of the map inaccesible because of lava. A little royale with no battle
Low gravity planets will have increased jetpack power.
There may be some play with temperature. For example, a planet where thereās very hot at day (and you need cooling pad from time to time or you will overheat and canāt fly) and very cold at night (decreased speed of movement if you do not use jetpack regularry).
If there will be earth, i think the twist is greater to let player recognise own planet using hints, not just placing fight zone at the Eifel tower coliseum etc.
I have a bit of very old (10-15+ years mostly) pictures that i found inspiring. Some of them fit concept of multi-planet colonising with battle suites.
Also i love NetherStorm WoW location and find a pair of arts for it - deep violet, flying rocks (may be used in game mechanics and even thumping), vortexes and flows (probably deadly) of wild energy.
Precisely this, far less constrains, it has given the team much more flexibility. And anyway it is far more interesting to explore a whole new āworldā than it is to explore once again, Earth.
Also these are some great ideas, we will certainly be talking about them!
The NetherStorm area looks incredible!
There should be the way to fast travel to exact location so high-lvl players still can help low-lvls to defent from alient/fauna/tornado/etc. There should not be the way like you summon car/bike/hover, travel to dropship, w8 4 dropship, travel to other planet, there w8 another dropship ā¦ oh wait, tornado is over!
Maybe there should be something like alerts panel where planet administration markers in-planet events and also player can once a day activate all-system alert beam for exact event. Every player can pay and activate emergency teleport system to that planet and rush from base.
Well, thatās definately not a location idea
