SUGGESTION: Custom Insanity Effects per Island

[Zephyrus7Exsurgo]

One of THE first things that struck me about Dredge was just how amazing the Lovecraftian horror visions were, however.......as I was finishing up some of the last quests in the game over by Devil's Spine, at the Ancient Ruins, and as deep night hitting the red-orange neon glow of the lava vents below. really popped and also looked menacing and......it made me think:

"HUH......wouldn't it be REALLY bad@ss if some of those vents formed nto the neon line highlights of a massive super-mutated frilled shark that's lurking down below?" And it occurred to me that it would be epicif they just added like ~2-3 custom effects per each of the 6 main locations in the game."

There is already SO much personality in each of the 4 main island chains you hit (not including Marrows) through their unique and themed boss eldritch horror that....adding themed fear effects would be even more fitting and add that much more to the immersion."
So without further ado here are some ideas, shooting from the hip here, on what I think could be some cool location-specific Insanity animations/effects:

Open Ocean:
1) A massive just barely luminescent (in a sickly way) very mutated whale comes swimming up from the deep and, with a horror version of a whale call, tries to flop over onto the ship. [/i][/b] Not only because this is a giant whale we're talking about, but also as added punishment for the rare foolish players caught out late so far from any place of rest, this whale would be very hard (but not impossible to avoid), and would cause 4 damage.

2) A swarm of, ~3-4 unusually large and very mutated sharks, with fangs and thin line on top of the fin that are a luminescent in pale blue. They come out for ~10-15 secs to hunt you before disappearing. [/b] And they would swarm around the player and occasionally one of them would lunge towards boat -avoidable, but not too easily, and cause 1 or 2 damage.

The Marrows: Keep as is, that's everyone introduction to most of the effects.

Gale Cliffs:
1) A bunch of pairs of largish (bout the size of boat, each) very mutated crab pincer claws slowly break the surface and emerge from the water, opening and closing menacing the player and damaging them if they get too near These would act effectively just like the rocks that spawn from Insanity, if you are within a pretty big radius you see them/they spawn (~4-5 pairs in view around ship at any given time), where if you get too close o them they snap at you and do only 1 dmg, but make navigating safely/quickly difficult.

2) Seeing horrifying faces that let forth ghostly howls, melting in and out of the main rock walls of the cliffs. Just like the eyes all around you Insanity vision, it would just be scurry and further eff up your Insanity meter, but no damage. This just further adds to the panic when you're trapped in the tight spaces of the cliffs, it's dark and foggy and you can't see, but you know you're probably not very far from spawning in the edlritch horror that haunts the place. Further adds to the fear and tension.

Stellar Basin
1) A giant, very mutated anglerfish comes up to try and eat you. Given we already have the main eldritch horror in the very center, and the rest is very shallow but all just drops off VERY suddenly around the outer edges.....we would have that one only occur out there, not inside the ring of islands, and what would occur is the player would slooowly see a strange ominous light coming up from the depth, and it would track the player as it rises, slowly revealing its a giant horrifying mutated anglerfish, until it gets close enough to the player or surface and makes an attempt to eat the player [for 2-3 dmg] or the player gets safely back onto the shallow ledge.

2) Unnatural winds occurs wherein the normal wind animations change to a weird, disturbing color and some very incomprehensible whispers start playing, like multiple people having a conversation with each other that you JUUUST can't quite make outt, and they push you towards your doom. These stir up every few seconds or so trying to slowly push the player back towards the center of basin. [/b] This can happen anywhere inside the ring of 4 islands (and the spaces between them). While it's true that if you have the emitter going, Mr. Tentaclesman will be sleepysleepy,this still quite disruptive in that it constantly forces players slightly further away from whichever of the 3 port destinations they're trying to reach, causing them to have to spend even more time out on the ocean when they're trying to get in quickly AND if Mr. Tentaclesman is active, it constantly threatens to feed the player to him.

Twisted Strand:
1) Low, ominous drums and intermittent evil sounding chanting fading in and out in the background, culminating suddenly in a frightening yelp/scream of sorts that startle the player, and disallows map access for 15 seconds This happens anywhere within Twisted Strand and it begins with your compass starting to quickly spin crazily before suddenly it snaps back to normal but your map function is disallowed for the next 15 seconds, forcing the players to learn which of the mirror-like 4 islands of the archipelago are which by appearance and bearings, cuz once that fog rolls in.....and no map.....bad times for the captain unprepared ;P especially in that maze.

2) A very mutated crocodile head (~md large) comes up to snap at you 3 times. It comes up from the depths at medium speed, tracking the player until it hits the surface, waits 1 sec, and then snaps its jaws across a small line-area. Not TOO hard to get out of, even at reasonably slow-ish speeds, but 2-3 couple secs the first one snaps and vanishes it happens again......and then a third time 2-3 seconds later yet. Then that Insanity event ends. What this accomplishes it is forces players to have even greater difficulty navigating those tight spaces safely.

Devil's Spine
1) As originally stated: more ominous neon red-orange lava vents appear and begin to slowly merge, and then suddenly more lights yet on the thing turn on and turns out to be a massive twisting turning Frilled Shark or eel of some kind and it looks and carries that ominous sense that "oh sh*t, this thing is ANCIENT and could easily 1-hit KO me".....but ultimately its coils just kinda knock your boat hard and causes 2 damage and it disappears back into the depths, the lights on it slowly fading as it returns to the deep.

2)Ominous C'thulu statues appear (just like rocks do for Insanity) suddenly within short range of a player as they get near within the ruins, causing spikes in insanity and the player hearing the murmurs of some ancient drowned god. If they get too close to these statues their insanity raises a BUNCH and they hear what sounds like some EXTREMELY deep muffled incomprehensible alien/monster speech (almost like they're hearing C'thulu murmuring. The places throughout the ruins these statues can appear have been predecided, and if the player gets near enough they simply show up. In an already crowded set of tightly jammed together lanes between the ruins, which is ALREADY made further difficult by the Momma Monster and her annoying kiddos, this FURTHER causes players caught out in the rooms after dark to be forced into EVEN less options for passage to escape Momma Monster and the kiddos and find a dock.


Thoughts? I'd LOVE to hear any of you guys further ideas on the matter.

And, honestly, while that is the biggest draw of all (just hearing fam's neat ideas), I suppose if this thread got enough traction we could catch the dev's eye and have them consider this (along with other stuff like new quests and zones -including some new characters and quests sprinkled in old zones too, which would be easy to implement and encourage players to re0explore the old zones) for future DLC . I think that kinda DLC would be not too hard to add into their existing systems and, with how this awesome game is rightly blowin' up, it'd be more than financially justified. So here's hoping the dev's consider this and similar DLC ideas! :)

[Socrates Jackson]

First off, Love your ideas. I had some similar thoughts.

Second, load up the game, let yourself go crazy, and then wander through each zone. They already have unique madness effects, and it is awesome.

Several of your ideas appear in the game. Did you ever have a run in with those other fishing boats? The ones that only appear at night? Try it. Then swing by the Strand and try to navigate that mess in the dark after listening to the red and green Whispers on the Sea. Venture out on the open ocean after that. Maybe let yourself get hit by a red tornado in the Stellar Basin.

I was once running from the...thing in Gale Cliffs after it wrecked my engine. I drove at full speed toward a safe harbor I hadn't seen before and... Well, head down there and see for yourself.

Did you ever approach the Basalt Columns while mad? The ones you can put a hand on, but usually do nothing? Try that too.

[Zephyrus7Exsurgo]

Originally posted by Socrates Jackson:

First off, Love your ideas. I had some similar thoughts.

Second, load up the game, let yourself go crazy, and then wander through each zone. They already have unique madness effects, and it is awesome.

Several of your ideas appear in the game. Did you ever have a run in with those other fishing boats? The ones that only appear at night? Try it. Then swing by the Strand and try to navigate that mess in the dark after listening to the red and green Whispers on the Sea. Venture out on the open ocean after that. Maybe let yourself get hit by a red tornado in the Stellar Basin.

I was once running from the...thing in Gale Cliffs after it wrecked my engine. I drove at full speed toward a safe harbor I hadn't seen before and... Well, head down there and see for yourself.

Did you ever approach the Basalt Columns while mad? The ones you can put a hand on, but usually do nothing? Try that too.

Goodness XD, I felt like SUCH a dunce when I saw your post (effectively immediately after you were kind enough to respond -and with such enthusiasm!), and realized that "my" idea WAS already implemented fully *sad trombone sounds* lol. That said, I am still fond of some of my suggestions as either additions or replacements in some cases :3.

I've had this post bookmarked for FOREEVVVVER meaning to respond, lmao, and I kept being unwilling to delete it without doing you the courtesy of writing you back after you took the time to read all my B.S. and respond helpfully lol. I was kinda saddened recently when I heard Dredge got an xpac, and then watched reviews and discovered it was basically meatless, didn't have much to it :'(. Anyhoo, just wanted to say that I appreciated your quick and helpful response, and I hope this finds ya doing well, mate! (b'-')b