Some thoughts on the Fellshrine Ruins

'If you think that's cliché, I dare you to survive the night.'
- Marceus Lioneye of Sarn, before sending a bragging recruit on a scouting mission into the ruins, which to his great disapproval had to have his skull pinned onto a tree by an arrow after rising from a nearby grave several days later, albeit still with that cocky smirk on his now fleshless face.

I enjoy this area, but I think it could be so much more awesome with some minor and major changes. Currently the Fellshrine Ruins area - in a nutshell - is a grassy plain with hordes of skeletons and some rubble.
In general I think it would not be a bad idea to get a ruined, creepy graveyard thing going on here. Think about it, with legions of undead already there, why would we not want a twisted graveyard leading up to a church which is infested with horrors risen from the dead? So here are some ideas:

• Add decayed graves and tombstones in various sizes, with undead abominations rising from the ground.
• I can't really figure out what time of day it is when playing the area. It is definitely too bright though, make it dusk or a pale moonlight night.
• Currently the colors are way off. Everything is painted in a desaturated greyish-green with no contrast to brake the pattern whatsoever. The shadows tossed by the trees are weak.
• Speaking of vegetation, using the same grass and trees from the previous areas is not really cutting it. I'd like to see thorny bushes, black vines, weeping willows(!), moldy reeds and slimy, unhealthy (in a Lovecraft sense, if you know what I mean) moss.
• Ground fog alone would make this area ten times better. As I understand, Russell currently(?) lacks the tech to add this to the game.
• Small black bats scattering from the trees as the player walks by, giant bloodsucking bats attacking the player.

Example of a nasty bat-monster.

• The enemy variation in general needs work. Currently we only get skeletons and zombies (and some stone golems), which move awfully slow and make every fight predictable. I want to see enemies such as headless horsemen, necromancers summoning their own undead minions and cursing the player, undead animals, hellhounds, liches in torn robes, shrieking banshees, walking shadows and all kinds of other goodies the afterlife has to offer.
• Part of these more powerful enemies could make the fighting itself more interesting, as now there is someone to lead the hordes of weaker and slower skeletons and zombies into battle, buff them, raise them, or make them rise from their graves.

Someone eager to decapitate the player.


Undead cerberus/hellhound. Far more vicious than the shuffling hordes (and totally awesome).


Undead god-knows-what.

• The background sounds could be improved by snarls, hisses, shrieks, howls, wails etc., with the player not even knowing where they are coming from before being attacked. Also the death sound of skeketons could be a little more visceral than the mere rattling of bones we got currently.
• I don't know if it can be done, but I would like the area to be less flat, add some (grave)mounds if possible.
• Special effects on the player such as plagues, diseases, necroses (all resulting in different status ailments) upon being hit or bitten by certain enemies can help with giving the area a unique, uncomfortable feel.
• Accessible crypts acting as very tiny one- or two-room sideareas would be a nice addition.
• Crypts, monuments and tombstones tossing long, crisp shadows in the moonlight.
• Remove the broad road leading straight to the church, add twisty paths that can lead nowhere.
• The church could be locked, with the key to be found inside one of the graves (sidequest and miniboss opportunity).

support all these suggestions!

i was just thinking that myself last night that Fellshrine could be super awesome if it was at night. a pool of light similar to the dungeon areas, maybe glints off in the darkness from the eyes of wolves or other 'monsters' ... would make the eventual entry into the church dungeon a bit of a relief.

oh, and fog, and changeable weather in general in more areas

i realise its in the "nice to have" category but it would be amazing to be able to head to places like Fellshrine in a lighting storm as in the opening section of the game, or in a foggy graveyard type atmosphere at other times.

"

dust7 wrote:

'If you think that's cliché, I dare you to survive the night.'
- Marceus Lioneye of Sarn, before sending a bragging recruit on a scouting mission into the ruins, which to his great disapproval had to have his skull pinned onto a tree by an arrow after rising from a nearby grave several days later, albeit still with that cocky smirk on his now fleshless face.

I enjoy this area, but I think it could be so much more awesome with some minor and major changes. Currently the Fellshrine Ruins area - in a nutshell - is a grassy plain with hordes of skeletons and some rubble.
In general I think it would not be a bad idea to get a ruined, creepy graveyard thing going on here. Think about it, with legions of undead already there, why would we not want a twisted graveyard leading up to a church which is infested with horrors risen from the dead? So here are some ideas:

• Add decayed graves and tombstones in various sizes, with undead abominations rising from the ground.
• I can't really figure out what time of day it is when playing the area. It is definitely too bright though, make it dusk or a pale moonlight night.
• Currently the colors are way off. Everything is painted in a desaturated greyish-green with no contrast to brake the pattern whatsoever. The shadows tossed by the trees are weak.
• Speaking of vegetation, using the same grass and trees from the previous areas is not really cutting it. I'd like to see thorny bushes, black vines, weeping willows(!), moldy reeds and slimy, unhealthy (in a Lovecraft sense, if you know what I mean) moss.
• Ground fog alone would make this area ten times better. As I understand, Russell currently(?) lacks the tech to add this to the game.
• Small black bats scattering from the trees as the player walks by, giant bloodsucking bats attacking the player.

Example of a nasty bat-monster.

• The enemy variation in general needs work. Currently we only get skeletons and zombies (and some stone golems), which move awfully slow and make every fight predictable. I want to see enemies such as headless horsemen, necromancers summoning their own undead minions and cursing the player, undead animals, hellhounds, liches in torn robes, shrieking banshees, walking shadows and all kinds of other goodies the afterlife has to offer.
• Part of these more powerful enemies could make the fighting itself more interesting, as now there is someone to lead the hordes of weaker and slower skeletons and zombies into battle, buff them, raise them, or make them rise from their graves.

Someone eager to decapitate the player.


Undead cerberus/hellhound. Far more vicious than the shuffling hordes (and totally awesome).


Undead god-knows-what.

• The background sounds could be improved by snarls, hisses, shrieks, howls, wails etc., with the player not even knowing where they are coming from before being attacked. Also the death sound of skeketons could be a little more visceral than the mere rattling of bones we got currently.
• I don't know if it can be done, but I would like the area to be less flat, add some (grave)mounds if possible.
• Special effects on the player such as plagues, diseases, necroses (all resulting in different status ailments) upon being hit or bitten by certain enemies can help with giving the area a unique, uncomfortable feel.
• Accessible crypts acting as very tiny one- or two-room sideareas would be a nice addition.
• Crypts, monuments and tombstones tossing long, crisp shadows in the moonlight.
• Remove the broad road leading straight to the church, add twisty paths that can lead nowhere.
• The church could be locked, with the key to be found inside one of the graves (sidequest and miniboss opportunity).

I can have fog clouds and stuff appear around like the wisps do in the ship graveyard. Just cant make full screen weather effects

Clouds of fog would be great, Russell.
Would "wafts" of mist be possible? Picture to illustrate what I mean by wafts:

Very good suggestions you have there dust7, those shiny, brightful as sun forests really looks so happly, and bad.

It feels like they'are thrown out from any generic adventure game, definitly not suitable for a dark arpg game, on the contrary i love bad weather.

"

BrecMadak wrote:

Very good suggestions you have there dust7, those shiny, brightful as sun forests really looks so happly, and bad.

It feels like they'are thrown out from any generic adventure game, definitly not suitable for a dark arpg game, on the contrary i love bad weather.

I just think we need more contrast and identifiable regions. Players hate it if every area has the same stuff going on. It's just boring. I think it's awesome if you come out of a dungeon back into bright daylight, and everything is just bright and stuff (act 1->2 for example), but mood needs to change after that also. I don't see how fog could be visualised in PoE without looking incredibad.

Picking up on dust7's suggestion on graves. What about the posseibility to loot fresh graves, or does that cross a line?

Buying a shovel in town to dig up and unlock a secret crypt, assigned to a random grave in the instance.

Reading inscriptions on gravestones and have zombies/skeletons crawl out and attack would be cool.

"

Froysadal wrote:

Reading inscriptions on gravestones

Excellent idea! :)

"That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange aeons even death may die."

Making the area darker with 0.9.9 was a good step in the right direction imho. :)