So...
I've been thinking about the ocean of Deepwoken, whether it was the Etrean sea, or the void, I have (for many times) thought about the ocean in Deepwoken. While thinking about it again, I realized that its SUPER dry, in a sense that there's barely any sea events that are good, like the infamous scraped thunder storm event, which would most likely knock you off your boat or destroy it with a lionfish, especially if you just wanted to grind at miner's landing/Hive for some easy levels. Another thing was that the combat in water was bad, not really that bad, but it wasn't very fun to fight someone in the water. So after some thinking, I thought of a fun way to make oceans interesting and combat in them. So I will be going over some Ideas on a "Ocean rework"
(Apologies for the pain of trying to read this wall of text, my tab key doesn't work .-.)
1, SWIMMING CHANGES
Now swimming isn't the most interesting thing, which is one of the reasons why people don't like the sea. My idea for this swimming change is to let us DIVE into the water, allowing us to reach deeper parts of the sea. Basically, instead of just swimming on the surface, you could actually go into the water and explore it. The way you control yourself is by holding W and then using your camera to turn. The speed you would swim would be similar to how you run/walk. It is not effected by speed buffs (Except for one thing I will mention later) Now you might be thinking: "Oh but what's IN the water, nothing?" Well that's where my next topic comes up....
2. RANDOM EVENTS IN SEA
In the sea, you can find all sorts of things, coral, kelp, even treasure. What I mean by this, is that in certain parts of the ocean, there will be randomly generated "Events'' whenever someone is near, after a while, they despawn (10-60 minutes) depending what kind of event it is, so if it were just some random kelp forest with a ok-tier chest inside it, it would last for 10 minutes. Now for the bigger events... that will be explained later. Another thing to note is that the sea is not full of lionfish, it's actually filled with different kinds of fish you can kill for food, Bass, Carp, all sorts of fish. But beware! not everything in the sea is harmless...
3. WATER COMBAT CHANGES
Now for my favourite part, the combat changes for water! Considering that water combat is really boring and annoying, I wanted to change this as well. Firstly, you CAN swim underwater to fight if you wanted to, of course, going on the surface of the water to fight is still an option (if your boring). Essentially, if someone gets combat tagged in the sea, both the person that hit them and the person inside gain a small speed buff, every time you lose HP in the water, you slow down a tiny bit, but just enough to were you cannot outrun the person with more HP than you. Now for the actual combat, the way it works is basically, imagine normal combat, except you can fly and your attacks work differently, Dodging is disabled, and parrying has a tighter frame on which you can parry. Water combat rewards movement, punishing openings, and your tracking ability. Another thing to note is that swimming undersea is faster than actually swimming, BUT you cannot go to the surface, meaning you're forced to fight someone underwater. It takes around 5 minutes to actually start losing HP. Another thing to note (yes I like my water combat mechanic, how do you know?) is that every time you miss an attack on a player/monster, you lose 3 seconds of time before you drown. Alright, let's get to the attack part. Your m1's give you a little extra "Lunge" every time you swing, longer lunges for bigger weapons, like heavy weapons. lunges are simple, they slightly move you while you're in the water. Next, the crit's... Now some of the crits have changed, but some have stayed pretty much the same, like the dagger/sword critical. But for weapons like the trident, they get a charge critical, basically a critical that charges into people wherever you're facing.
(Phew what a wall of text I'm I right?)
4. NEW RACE
A new race will be added called: Pisials! With a calm 4% chance of being a Pisial, they derived from the latin word piscis (fish). These fish people have little Fins near their ears, and come in Turquoise, Scarlet, and other colours. Their racial talent is "Hydrodynamic", this talents lets them swim faster while underwater, they also start out with 2+ in both Agility and Fortitude.
5. DIVER QUESTS
Considering I suggested all of these ideas, It wouldn't make sense if the divers... Never really "Dived" in the sea. So now, divers have made a new temporary camp on Erisia to study the ocean! these divers are led by a Journeyman Diver Pisial named Jack. Jack was sent to study the surface oceans by the Divers, his job is to make sure the recruits stay in line while on break, and to manage the shipments supplied by the authority, so he really doesn't have the time to go over the surface ocean duties. You first meet him inside one of the tents that the divers set up, dealing with shipment problems. After you talk with him, he tells you to find some recruits sent to investigate a shipwreck for supplies. The event spawns near the backside of Erisia, near the strength unbound area; you can spot the shipwreck by a little pole sticking out of the water. Once you arrive, you find most of the diver squad dead, except for one who is downed. You have to bring him back to the camp, WITHOUT him being gripped. If you fail to bring him back, (Gets gripped, or drowns) You CANNOT continue with the questline. Once you bring him back to the base at Erisia, You unlock diver questlines, these questlines are simple, every 24 hours, you get a diver quest, these diver quests trigger certain events to spawn that guarantee Depths loot. Some quests grant more loot than others, such as investigating an underwater cave, deep in the void sea.
6. MONSTERS!
Now for the different "Monsters" of the sea, there are many dangers of the ocean, some are realistic, like sharks. Some are more out there, and some are things you should have never found in the first place. I'll go over some simple monsters that you may find while going for a dive!
Firstly, you have the sharks, these little fishy fellows come from an old world, long before the Megalodaunt. Some even say sharks evolved FROM Megalodaunts. Sharks have more scaly skin with sharper teeth than their land counterparts, but they don't have the ability to shoot coral. Sharks try to bite you, they can swing their tail at you as a posture break move, or try to dash at you jaws open. sharks like to circle around you, far enough to where they cant be hit by your melee attacks. The strategy to beat these guys is to make sure to move out of the way when they get close, and then hit them by the sides.
Next we have the Leech. Long tube like animals with a mouth on one end designed for suction. These leech are the mosquitoes of the water, they tend to travel in large groups, often resembling a Shark. Leeches tend to stay near the bottom of the oceans, near the deeper parts. You can find alot of leeches in the void sea if you go far enough down. Leeches can be taken out in one blow by all weapons, even the weakest weapons can one shot them. the problem is that there is alot of them, when a leech gets near enough to you, they start sucking your blood, dealing small damage to your HP bar, but doing a ok amount of damage to your Blood Bar. The leech that sucks you will then die, releasing blood in the water. This blood will attract sharks and other monsters to your location. The strategy to getting rid of them is to make sure you keep your distance using mantras, or stay on boats if you see a crowd of them.
Finally, we have "Anglers". These guys are NOT fish, instead Pisials that decided to evolve into something else, they can camouflage with the ocean, scoring prey. These monsters are invisible until they get close enough to you, Once they do, they slowly drop there invisibility, becoming faster but louder. They move the same speed as a Pisial, but slightly faster. There main way of attacking is by grabbing you and drowning you. They also have sharp claws that they use as an alternative for attacking. They tend to go behind the player, going for a more stealth based option. The tactic for these guys is to NEVER go in solo unless you are confident your headphone settings are loud enough, because you can actually hear these guys swim to you, it's just very quiet. Having a teammate basically nullifies there effectiveness, so always bring your guild mate if you plan to dive!
7. TALENT REWORKS
To brave the deep abysses of the ocean, its highly suggested to take some talents to help, even if they don't really help you that much. I decided to rework some talents to help with the dives you go on, of course, depths talents also apply to this, (so sunken predator has more than one niche use.) I will list some of the talent reworks I made up for this. I will also include an alternative for some talents that I couldn't make up my mind with.
FISHMAN: Gain the ability to Insta-execute someone if they are downed underwater. (10 minutes cooldown) ALTERNATIVE: Gain extra time before you drown.
SUNKEN PREDATOR: Whenever you hit someone, slow them down for 1 second. This only applies to underwater and the depths. (Stacks)
UNDYING FLAMES: Your flames withstand the darkest depths of the ocean. Be able to cast your flames underwater. And campfires will never be put out.
STRATOSHOCK: Your Thundercall mantras have a small AOE attack while in underwater.
8. DREAD SERPENT ALTERNATIVE
Now for this, you might be wondering: What do you mean "Dread serpent alternative?" Essentially, you have a choice, you could fight Kaido on the surface, OR go underwater. For the surface fight, it's basically normal Kaido, EXCEPT, leeches spawn all around kaido, meaning if you enter the water, you risk losing a bit of your blood bar and HP. For the underwater fight, that's where the fight changes, the boss becomes more agile, actually being able to move around you, kaido will try to use many different attacks to kill you, using his frostdraw, he will throw ice cubes at you, dealing ok damage, or sometimes he will charge at you head first, like a shark, and more. The serpent will cause tiny little bubbles to appear around the arena, touching one of these bubbles grant 30 more seconds of oxygen. Once he reaches half health, he shoots a giant beam of ice around, removing 20 seconds of oxygen, and stunning you. Once you beat him, you get the murmur AND 5 Large chests containing depths loot.
MISC
So this is the end of my very large rant, probably more than what the devs can even put out. But I don't really care, its probably flawed in someway, but I think this is a decent idea, maybe needing something here and there, but decent. Anyways, if you have any suggestions on how this could be a better idea, even if they will never add something like this (the devs) please write down what could be fixed instead of putting the silly image from mid piece. Anyways, with that, I hope you have a wonderful day/afternoon/night, Goodbye :D
