Vampires - Immersion Ideas
Lokryn
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So, I think I'm not alone in feeling that vampires need some love in the RP or gameplay department. I'm not concerned about PVE/PVP balance. I'll leave that to the math wizards. My ideas/suggestions are only aimed at making the experience as a vampire more immersive. Currently, there is not enough in the game to make me feel like I'm playing a vampire character. If even one of these suggestions is added into the game, I would be happy. My ideas come from various sources which might include other games (including Elder Scrolls), movies, etc. Some of these ideas may be dumb and will probably fall on deaf ears but I'm throwing them out there anyway. Also, I realize that equal attention would need to be done for both Werewolves and non-werewolf/vampire characters.
1. Vampire home base/Sanctuary - I'm thinking adding a home base similar to Castle Volkihar in Dawnguard would be a great place for players to call home. ZOS could make it instanced or not, whatever makes better sense. Having a home base would have the following features:
- NPC Vendor Items:
- Vampire Cattle - The home base would have caged victims where you feed freely. Killing the cattle would anger the npc vampires there though.
- Daily Quest - As an aspiring vampire, you may feel the need to do work for the coven. Daily quests can reward you with experience and gold or blood potions. The quest can be just about anything from killing a specific NPC (thank you Justice System) to charming a mortal politician.
- Coffins - More on this later
2. Safefall - Reduces fall damage by X% (whatever is reasonable). This is pretty self explanatory. Most movies and games have vampires that can fall from great distances without getting hurt. This buff would need to be modest to avoid exploits in Cyrodill I think.
3. Give Vampire fangs. - For some reason, ZOS failed to give vampires their most iconic feature. It would be cool if they increased in size as you move from stage to stage. Also, give us a bite animation please. The current animation is understandable considering this is a MMO but please investigate giving a true blood sucking animation.
4. Vampire Coffins - No matter what genre you look at, vampires have an unusual need to sleep in coffins. Whatever the reason, I think giving vampires the ability to sleep in coffins would be great. There are many coffins throughout the world. Create an animation to allow the vampire to get inside and lay down for 30 seconds to get a food-like buff (call it something vampirish) that scales with your level. Sleeping in a coffin found in the world would give green level food buff. Sleeping in a coffin at your home base/sanctuary would give blue level food buff. You cannot have a food buff and coffin buff at the same time.
5. Increase the time between stages and then allow vampires to be attackable by guards at stage 4. Now I know this is controversial but the Mortal's Mask item/power should alleviate any worries with this.
6. New Abilities. So this is where the balance issue is most relevant. Since I'm not a balance guru, I'll just give some examples of abilities that I think would be cool but would need to make sense from a balance standpoint. This is in addition to what ZOS has already created but since there are only 5 slots, something would have to go.
7. Vampire's Seduction - Causes the NPC to ignore the vampire while being fed on. It has a 5 minute cooldown. This would allow the vampire to feed on NPCs in town without being attacked by the guards. This is, of course, only if there is not a second witness. This is where it can be really fun following or finding a NPC and feeding on them without alerting the authorities. But if you're caught feeding on a charmed NPC, you still get the highest heat and will be accosted by the Guards. Also, feeding on an NPC removes your Mortal's Mask spell.
1. Vampire home base/Sanctuary - I'm thinking adding a home base similar to Castle Volkihar in Dawnguard would be a great place for players to call home. ZOS could make it instanced or not, whatever makes better sense. Having a home base would have the following features:
- NPC Vendor Items:
- Vampire Sanctuary (give it whatever name you want) - This is an item that has a 30 minute cooldown and causes the vampire to disperse into a cloud of bats and reappear at the home base. This would be similar to the mod "Bat Travel Vampire Power" mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/21689/?
- Mortal's Mask (Costume or Item with On Use) - This item will give the vampire the ability to look like their mortal selves for X duration. It cannot be cast in Cyrodill and once the player goes into combat, the effect is dispelled and given a 15 minute cooldown.
- Blood Potions - As the name suggests, this is bottled food for the vampire. It allows them to transition to a previous stage. However, it is very expensive and has a X minute cooldown.
- Vampire Cattle - The home base would have caged victims where you feed freely. Killing the cattle would anger the npc vampires there though.
- Daily Quest - As an aspiring vampire, you may feel the need to do work for the coven. Daily quests can reward you with experience and gold or blood potions. The quest can be just about anything from killing a specific NPC (thank you Justice System) to charming a mortal politician.
- Coffins - More on this later
2. Safefall - Reduces fall damage by X% (whatever is reasonable). This is pretty self explanatory. Most movies and games have vampires that can fall from great distances without getting hurt. This buff would need to be modest to avoid exploits in Cyrodill I think.
3. Give Vampire fangs. - For some reason, ZOS failed to give vampires their most iconic feature. It would be cool if they increased in size as you move from stage to stage. Also, give us a bite animation please. The current animation is understandable considering this is a MMO but please investigate giving a true blood sucking animation.
4. Vampire Coffins - No matter what genre you look at, vampires have an unusual need to sleep in coffins. Whatever the reason, I think giving vampires the ability to sleep in coffins would be great. There are many coffins throughout the world. Create an animation to allow the vampire to get inside and lay down for 30 seconds to get a food-like buff (call it something vampirish) that scales with your level. Sleeping in a coffin found in the world would give green level food buff. Sleeping in a coffin at your home base/sanctuary would give blue level food buff. You cannot have a food buff and coffin buff at the same time.
5. Increase the time between stages and then allow vampires to be attackable by guards at stage 4. Now I know this is controversial but the Mortal's Mask item/power should alleviate any worries with this.
6. New Abilities. So this is where the balance issue is most relevant. Since I'm not a balance guru, I'll just give some examples of abilities that I think would be cool but would need to make sense from a balance standpoint. This is in addition to what ZOS has already created but since there are only 5 slots, something would have to go.
- Vampire's Sight - Gives the vampire Night Vision for X seconds.
- Detect Life - This ability allows you to see the blood signature of nearby living things, even through walls for X seconds.
- Bat Teleport - Allows the vampire to turn into a cloud of bats and instantly teleport X yards. This is just like the Bats ability of the Vampire Lord in Skyrim
- Raise Dead - Allows the vampire to raise a recently killed NPC (or even player!) to fight for him for X seconds. If it's a player, the chosen player would still be able to rez like normal. The spell just copies the look of the dead player, gives them a undead skin and walk animation. Talk about humiliation (fun!).
- Blur- Allows the vampire to run at incredible speed (something high like 200%) for 2 seconds (something really short). Based on the fact that vampires can move so fast, they are like a blur in many games and movies.
- Vampire Claw Attack - this ability causes the vampire to claw at the target and cause them to receive increased damage for X seconds. The player would literally grow black claws and swipe at the target regardless of what weapon they are currently using.
- Vampire Regeneration - At night, health regeneration would return to stage 1 levels regardless of what stage they are currently at. This falls in line with the "stronger at night" theme the player's bloodline follows.
- Summon Gargoyle - Pretty self explanatory. Balance it like Sorcerer pets.
7. Vampire's Seduction - Causes the NPC to ignore the vampire while being fed on. It has a 5 minute cooldown. This would allow the vampire to feed on NPCs in town without being attacked by the guards. This is, of course, only if there is not a second witness. This is where it can be really fun following or finding a NPC and feeding on them without alerting the authorities. But if you're caught feeding on a charmed NPC, you still get the highest heat and will be accosted by the Guards. Also, feeding on an NPC removes your Mortal's Mask spell.
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