Alternative solutions to Water Poisoning

[BiologLOL]

Remember these guys? I already did a tiny suggestion, where I went through every member of the Team. Here it is.

Certain game mechanics, designed for immersion, should be changed

[AOthesedays] Meet today’s stars of the show - Team Immersion! Got familiar with them? Alright, time to put each on a trial and fix them. Now look, Vetex, we love your game. I have over 1600 hours on Arcane Odyssey, and many have too. However, you throughout the years implemented many features that do nothing but annoy people for no reason, and called them “made for immersion“. You have your design choices, sure, you’re the lead dev after all, but it is a videogame in the first place, and peo…

But, one member in particular was receiving far more negative feedback than others, him being the Water Poisoning. Back then, I stated that the mechanic is not salvageable, and must be removed entirely. I still stand on that, but, as a guy who listens to the community, I had to come up with a rework, since people wanted it to stay, for some reason.

Dark Sea should be difficult, and there are ways to make it such, but RNG-dependant forced difficulty mechanic is not the way to do it.

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I am stealing YOUR ideas for Water Poisoning

The most infamous member of Team Immersion, the poster child of bad game design - welcome the Water Poisoning mechanic! Nobody here needs me to explain what that thing is and what it does, so I’ll skip over it. All I will say is, receiving an eventually-lethal damage source at a completely random point in your playthrough, just for existing in a location, is dumb. Adding an always on-hand, easy way to clear it is even dumber. Originally, (and I still stick to that claim) I said in Team Immers…

I made this topic, so people could gather all their rework ideas there, and we could discuss them to polish the change further. In all, we made two separate concepts of how to make Water Poisoning not (or less) obnoxious.

Concept 1: PoI (points of interest) locator.

This one was made by me solo, and I just gonna copy and paste it there.

@BiologLOL

I think that a good way to reimplement Water Poisoning is to make it an indicator of points of interest appearing near the player.

In lore, the poisoning exists because of magic pollution. So, why not we make the usual Dark Sea’s magic pollution not enough to cause harm to us, but when a magic-related object or entity is present, the level of pollution gets amplified and it starts damaging the player, alerting us.

When the point of interest generates, the player responsible for it receives Water Poisoning for a short time - about 5 seconds. Not enough to kill, but enough to alert that something has happened, and you probably need to toggle on Sensing.

The list of points of interest is: Giant White Eyes, Giant Poison Jaws, Kraken, Giant Kraken, The Omen, Athena’s Page (is removed from the list after collecting all of them), Athena’s Statue Island, Hecate Essence, Dragon (excluding the younger ones).

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(Cooler than mine) Concept 2: Add a meter.

The most common solution to the problem. People don’t like the mechanic appearing at the most random moments, completely unpredictable. So, just remove the RNG - easy, right?

@starcitadel

Long story short, you have a meter. If that meter gets too high, you get water poisoning, which starts out as a weak DoT effect (1 or 2 per tick) that grows much stronger over time, eventually being lethal. The meter increases faster and decreases slower as you go deeper into the dark sea. Soap and bathing will always clear the meter instantly, but standing under cover will slowly but steadily reduce it until it’s gone.

As a base, here’s a meter. The effect now ramps up linearly, instead of getting rolled for every 20 seconds or something. Also, Soap’s gone now. No more invalidating a game mechanic with a click of a button at any moment.

For the meter to start filling up, you need to be exposed to the rain. Swimming in the sea doubles the gain speed of the meter. Bathing in your Brig always clears it instantly, and standing under cover passively lowers the meter.

@AlarGuardian

i0: no water poisoning
i1: 10m, 10% loss/s
i2: 7m 30s, 7.5% loss/s
i3: 5m, 5% loss/s
i4: 2m 30s, 2.5% loss/s and soap/bathing reduces it by only 50% (gotta use it twice)
i5: 1 second. ur not meant to be there anyway chud

The speed at which the meter fills up scales with the range of Insanity the player is in.
Insanity 0 - Water Poisoning doesn’t exist (like it already does currently)
Insanity 1 - the meter takes from 9 to 12 minutes to fill up, and you only need to stand under cover for 10 seconds to clear it. Why is it random? I don’t want players to use a stopwatch, its boring and ruins immersion.
Insanity 2 - the meter takes from 7 to 10 minutes to fill up, and you need to stand under cover for 15 seconds to clear it (not 13 and 2/3, thank you).
Insanity 3 - the meter takes from 5 to 8 minutes to fill up, and you need to wait for 20 seconds under a roof.
Insanity 4 - the meter takes from 3 to 6 minutes to fill up, and you need to waste 30 seconds (40’s too much) for it to clear.
Insanity 5 - the meter takes from 10 to 15 seconds to fill up, and you can’t clear it under any cover. After all, this area shouldn’t be explored at all, but the player must still be given some time to exit it as soon as they notice they ventured too far.

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@Iris

Additionally, there are several more cosmetic changes depending on how full the bar is
At 25% and higher, your character gets 2 new animations (one where they try to shake/brush water off themselves, and one where they hold themselves and shivers)
At 50% and higher you get similar messages to the red insanity text, but now white, in which your character complains about being soaked and their skin/eyes hurting a bit , or that they want to take shelter from the rain, or that they should’ve put on more protective clothes.
At 80% and higher the edges of your screen become a bit distorted and you regen stamina and health 25% slower
at 100 % you start to take water poisoning damage like usual (but instead of lasting for 5 minutes or something, it lasts for 5 seconds and gets refreshed constantly)

Now, for how that meter affects the player. Multiple warning signs will appear, before Water Poisoning becomes dangerous. The stuff that happens is quoted above. The constantly refreshing effect with a short duration is there in place, so the player can hop under cover and get rid of it immediately, since the meter will drop below 100%.

@starcitadel

Additionally, when water poisoning gets to a lethal level, the meter will begin flashing red, and hovering over it will explain how to not die

Also, at 80% of the meter, this will happen. Should prove useful. When the meter does reach 100% however, the incoming damage will have to ramp up from 5% to 100% during a 60 seconds-window. Water Poisoning’s current DPS is considered 10% here. Yes, this is much more threatening, but you are given so many warnings - if the meter actually gets to 100%, that is on you. Dark Sea is a hostile place, tickle damage doesn’t suit it.

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Extra stuff

@Clear

Maybe, just maybe, the damage of Water Poisoning could be reduced by a large chunk for every God Soul one has interacted with, in addition to whichever other changes are made?

God Souls will prolong the time the meter needs to fill up by 10% each. I didn’t apply their effect to the damage, since prolonging the timer is more beneficial. Just a small buff rewarding those who explore, should be fair.

@Iris

Beast defense now affects water poisoning gain. (if the armour is good enough to protect against massive animals, it’s good enough to protect against some rain)

Beast Defense decreases the damage of Water Poisoning, but I am not giving the exact stats here. Dragonblood Ritual will increase the players’ Beast Defense, so why not.

Islands should receive more cover spots. Some rare small openings in walls with Prismatic Geodes and chests in them aren’t enough, and trees don’t grow everywhere. Fishing in the Dark Sea shouldn’t be a race to the Brig and back every few minutes. Just scatter some rubble on the beaches that counts as cover or something.

The Brig should count as a cover spot. Simple as.

@Amuka

there should also be special weather events where water poisoning is not gained but actually gets replaced with a different obstacle (vetex is telling us the most chaotic part of the dark sea is actually has incredibly predictable weather?)

Add more events to the Dark Sea, maybe even one that replaces Water Poisoning with something much more dangerous. Just having Waves Colliding as the only event that can happen is boring. This part is barely related to the suggestion, you lot can ignore it.

Alright, that should be it. For those who didn’t want to see Water Poisoning shot dead in the bronx 13 and 2/3 times in the back alley, here you go.

[Deus_Ult1ma]

Take my vote, too bad vetex will never listen.

[Vratien]

I need a Tl:Dr
My attention span is not long enough to read allat
still gets my vote tho

[BiologLOL]

@Vratien

My attention span is not long enough to read allat

This is a bane of my existence

@Vratien

I need a Tl:Dr

Solution 1: important thing appears - you get Water Poisoning for 5 seconds as a ping about its spawn.

Solution 2: Water Poisoning gets a meter which fills up faster, the further in the Dark Sea you are, and has many red flags on the way to it.

[The_Tron]

Man, these “team immersion” topics are getting annoying. I dont belive things are going to change.

[BiologLOL]

@The_Tron

I think you’re not being constructive and are just spreading unnecessary hate

30 were brave enough to speak out, but not to do the action. 900 weren’t brave enough to even speak out, or just didn’t care at all, since they aren’t staying on the forums for AO at all - they’re just here for the chatter with others, after quitting AO. I do honestly believe I am doing a good thing by making all these suggestions

@The_Tron

Nothing’s going to change

I don’t want to just give up on this stuff.

[TheoreticalExistence]

@BiologLOL

instead of getting rolled for every 20 seconds or something

Small misconception most people have.
Water poisoning doesn’t roll randomly, it rolls every time you are inflicted with ‘soaked’.

If you’ve ever fought a water magic atlantean, you’ve probably had it inflict water poisoning on you constantly throughout the fight.

[TheoreticalExistence]

You say this while being completely unconstructive and spreading unnecessary hate.

[BiologLOL]

@TheoreticalExistence

Water poisoning doesn’t roll randomly, it rolls every time you are inflicted with ‘soaked’.

Yeah, and the Dark Sea has constant rain that soaks you. So, basically, it rolls randomly

[TheoreticalExistence]

Correct, but that also means that all the other soaked inflictors, like being in the sea, water magic effects, and whatever else will dramatically increase your chances of being hit with it.

This is why you don’t get water poisoning often when you go in and the rain bugs out.

[BiologLOL]

But what about chugging down tide potions?

[TheoreticalExistence]

That’d probably also do it, never tried that though since that’d be stupid lol.

[BiologLOL]

@TheoreticalExistence

This is why you don’t get water poisoning often when you go in and the rain bugs out.

Don’t remind me of what we lost… Rainless Dark Sea was truly beautiful, and they fixed that bug!

[TheoreticalExistence]

Anyways I actually like the idea of having to deal with an environmental effect that’s there because the place you’re in is completely inhospitable so you have to manage that.
(think heat buildup in a desert or running out of oxygen in space)

Water poisoning in its current form is unsalvageable and sucks ass but if it were reworked into something along those lines then yeah that’d be cool.

[The_Tron]

@BiologLOL

900 weren’t brave enough to even speak out, or just didn’t care at all

Imagine generalizing an entire community to just the forum. I have several friends in the game with both 3k 2k 1k, 8k, 700 hours who have never even heard of the forums, and I wouldn’t recommend it. I guarantee they are more loyal than some on this forum. I don’t think loyalty is determined by chat, but by playtime.

@TheoreticalExistence

You say this while being completely unconstructive and spreading unnecessary hate.

Your argument is to turn my argument against me, which adds absolutely nothing to your response.

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Getting back to the topic, I know that not all the points are bad, but for God’s sake, as I said, it’s intentional friction!

[BiologLOL]

@The_Tron

generalizing an entire community to just the forum

If those people aren’t on the forum, I have no way of gathering their opinions to improve my suggestions. Especially with Roblox’s latest age verification additions. They have something else to say about Water Poisoning? Sure, bring them here, I am always open to discussions.

@The_Tron

it’s a core Dark Sea mechanic that will NEVER change because it doesn’t need to (that is, nobody will change it)

Vitality route also was a core mechanic of the game, and some people can currently argue that it didn’t need to be changed, as the iteration of Spirit that we got is a mash of Magic and Weapons without its own identity.

@The_Tron

I know that not all the points are bad, but for God’s sake, as I said, it’s intentional friction!

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And I didn’t totally remove it (unlike the first time)! It is still there, still threatening, and even more so, with the added side effects. It just lost the RNG factor that players hated, and it is now visually clear when the mechanic is going to become a problem

[The_Tron]

@BiologLOL

If those people aren’t on the forum, I have no way of gathering their opinions to improve my suggestions. Especially with Roblox’s latest age verification additions. They have something else to say about Water Poisoning? Sure, bring them here, I am always open to discussions.

That’s a good point, but I myself have never heard anyone mention the rain; the only times we go there are to kill the omen. But you did you point clear.

@BiologLOL

Vitality route also was a core mechanic of the game, and some people can currently argue that it didn’t need to be changed, as the iteration of Spirit that we got is a mash of Magic and Weapons without its own identity.

Yes, but from the beginning it was an incomplete mechanic, explicitly, the dark sea is also incomplete but it’s a different context.

@BiologLOL

And I didn’t totally remove it (unlike the first time)! It is still there, still threatening, and even more so, with the added side effects. It just lost the RNG factor that players hated, and it is now visually clear when the mechanic is going to become a problem

And it’s at this point that I need to apologize; I hadn’t seen that part properly, so I apologize. The topic is about alternatives, and you did promote one, but there are so many things with higher priority right now. But that doesn’t invalidate part of my mistake.

[BiologLOL]

@The_Tron

I myself have never heard anyone mention the rain

“Mention the rain“? You mean, the Rainless Dark Sea bug I brought up? Nah, this is just my personal grudge, the devs aren’t to be blamed here much. They did their job - the bug existed, and they patched it. I just miss the views that opened out there, on the islands covered in sunlight.

@The_Tron

from the beginning it was an incomplete mechanic

And it still is incomplete

@The_Tron

And it’s at this point that I need to apologize

Hey, I need people that oppose my ideas here! What is the point of a discussion, if everybody agrees with one side only?

[The_Tron]

@BiologLOL

“Mention the rain“? You mean, the Rainless Dark Sea bug I brought up? Nah, this is just my personal grudge, the devs aren’t to be blamed here much. They did their job - the bug existed, and they patched it. I just miss the views that opened out there, on the islands covered in sunlight.

No, I was talking about the rain itself. None of my travel companions find the rain unpleasant; in a way, we all see beauty in it, in the concept. The eternal rain, in a way, artistically represents melancholy.

@BiologLOL

And it still is incomplete

@BiologLOL

Hey, I need people that oppose my ideas here! What is the point of a discussion, if everybody agrees with one side only?

Now that’s constructive. But I don’t want to stay on the forum anymore today, I’ve already spent too much time there, but the discussion was fun.

I liked the idea of ​​the meter, so I don’t think the topic deserves a negative review. Besides, it obviously took effort to write, and a large group of people find the mechanic annoying, so it’s reasonable to want to try and change it.

[TheoreticalExistence]

@The_Tron

Your argument is to turn my argument against me

Its called calling you out on being a hypocrite.