Ideas to Improve Watcher

[DeNayTan]

YES, this is long. I enjoy writing. Also: Spoilers!

One of the issues with the campaign is that, due to all the portals, the regions feel disconnected and isolated. While a few of them are canonically other regions but in the future/past, the rest could take place at any point on the globe. We don't get much context as to their location, if any.

You know that weird rotating map of all the regions that we get every time we hibernate? What if, at the press of a button, that map would swap out for a more traditional map. Pebble's and Moon's place at the center, maybe add Downpour's Outer Expanse to the left, place all the other iterators that we can see in the background of some areas, and then get creative with those region bubble things used in the other map and place them around.

Then you'd add some sort of way to signify when certain areas are depicted in the timeline. I'd probably try to find a way that is both informative and nonspecific. For example, divide all of Rain World canon into "eras" defined by what is going on at that point in the timeline. Ancient Urban would be in the "Ancient Era". Outer Rim, Shattered Terrace, and Daemon are probably all in "The Era of Decay" at the end of the timeline (in that order, in my headcanon). Could name the era when all the iterators are alone without the ancients as "The Era of Iterators". So on and so forth. Then on this map you'd add a series of symbols (implied to be written in the Ancient's language) next to each region. Decoding these symbols would tell the player when on the timeline it takes place. One symbol for each era, along with symbols that mean phrases such as "early", "late", "middle of", etc.

Adding all this in would give so much more context as to what we see. What if Coral Caves is really close to Moon, and we just don't know it? What if Daemon used to be a familiar place. one we'd otherwise recognize, and now it's all that's left of the World, floating above the void sea? What if Ancient Urban was what Moon's city looked like, long, long before her construction? What if Ancient Urban instead served that story role to one of Moon's and Pebble's other neighbors, like NSH? What if Verdant Waterways and Turbulent Pump are both part of the same structure? What if Stormy Coast, Shrouded Coast, and Sunlit Port were... Yadda yadda yadda. What Watcher lacks, among other things, is the quiet storytelling that the main game's world provided.

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Another missed opportunity for Watcher: We get to see all around Rain World's Rainy World, and yet we never get to see a new Iterator. This is a big missed opportunity. We could've seen someone who watched Pebbles's downfall from the outside. We could've seen someone who was completely disconnected from that drama and instead dispenses lore for any regions we visit. Hell, here's a cool idea: If this hypothetical iterator was put in a region that we get to see him at two different points in the timeline, we could screw with him via time travel schenanigans. Or alternatively, see him in a state similar to Pebbles in Saint's campaign.

[evilmoondragon]

I do like the map idea quite a bit, especially since it is kind of confusing to navigate the 4d map at times. My only real input aside from that is that I personally don't think Daemon is a part of the world, really. More like some pocket dimension/void outside of reality, if that makes sense.

I did enjoy reading this and will subscribe to the discussion.

[>112358<]

Personally I love the "rotating map" design and don't have trouble with it myself, its really cool. But consider how many people have complained about it being confusing, maybe adding a "swap 2d/3d map" button would be good? I don't want the rotating/3d map to be removed

[evilmoondragon]

I like the rotating map but it's confusing. I definitely want there to be a 2D option.

Even 5D Chess has multiple perspectives including a 2D layout of all the timelines and history.