As some of you may know, I collect ideas every year at GridStream parties for Halloween brainstorming. After two weeks, I curate them into a somewhat ordered list, we put them in some semblance of order, and I put a little more detail into our favorites, with reference images where appropriate. Then I send those off to FC roughly two months before the event, hopefully about the time they’re looking for ideas of new stuff to add. I’ve just started that thread again for this Halloween.
This is the first year I’ve had the option of also putting that list on an official froob-friendly FunCom forum, but unless someone has a real compelling argument, I think I’m going to stick to the way we’ve always done it. On the GSP forums, I don’t have to worry about dividing the list between AO and SWL and the post length and editing and such restrictions are much looser, so I can manage the list better as ideas come in.
If you’re too lazy to make a GSP forum account to post it, go ahead and tack it on here. I should see it and I can just copy it over.
Once I’ve finalized the list, I’ll see if I can post the whole thing here too. I’m not sure what the post size and image link limits are, but we’ll see.
And yes, you can always just post your own suggestion any time you want, but I find that these threads, especially the discussions of them at parties, bring up a lot more ideas and more of them actually get posted in a big pile FC can more easily find. So let’s hear it. What do you want Old Pumpkin Jack to bring you this year?
That’s not quite what I meant by spider-themed. Spider web is what I keep suggesting. And didn’t we get the Arache spider-themed outfits last year? I can put the spider dress with creepy legs on the list, but that smart wearable technology is actually too advanced for SWL’s engine. The inability to put additional animated parts on costumes (specifically new joints and bones - adding to the animation rig) is why we can’t have animated filth costumes. That part we’ll have to file under “wishful thinking”.
The bone costumes and the jack-o-lantern tux are definite possibilities, though.
I just found a Spooky Sweat Suit in my inventory that’s basically that skeleton costume already. Totally forgot about that. It says it’s a TSW Exclusive item, though. I guess I’ll change that one to “make this drop again in SWL” unless someone knows somewhere it is available and just not listed correctly?
I know I’ve dropped this in the ‘Feedback and suggestions’ thread but it’s for Halloween so here goes:
Broomstick mount.
Maybe a suitable witchy/wizardy outfit an appropriate pet to go with it in a cache? Like an owl or even a toad? (I know we’re not exactly starved for cats, especially around Halloween.)
Could you be a little more specific? An overall change in art direction is asking a bit much for a holiday event.
Do you mean decorating Agartha with blood and gore instead of the balloons and streamers from the anniversary? What would it be the blood and gore of? There’s not a whole lot of wildlife in Agartha.
Or do you mean adding more blood and gore to the Halloween version of Deep Agartha? That was already pretty dark and creepy, as I recall. And again, it’s pretty empty there, just us and Jack.
We’ll most likely be getting the Spooky Stories of Solomon Island back. Would those be enough blood and gore? I remember at least some of them being plenty gory already.
Ohhh. Yeah, I read the last half of that wrong, then. I thought mini-Jack and Incognito pets were the goodies. You meant you want them as seasonal special enemies stalking about the regular playfields, dropping seasonal loot bags, I suppose, which then might include a pet chibi version of the same monsters.
We had Kitties of Ulthar in TSW. Not exactly mini-Incognitos, more like were-panthers that randomly appeared when you killed something else. I don’t remember if we had those in SWL last year. I didn’t have much time to hunt for them. TSW also a game of tag, running about Kingsmouth and trying to catch Incognito before he teleported away. Would bringing those back be enough, or should they bring them back a little different?
As for Jack, having miniature versions stalking about everywhere would be just like Anarchy Online’s Halloween event. Just give him a scythe and Jack’s your uncle. He might get in the way of normal play a bit, but if there were just a few of them here and there, like Krampus, it probably wouldn’t be too disruptive. Maybe there should be more of them around pumpkin patches and filth date farms and such? I’m not sure how that fits the lore, though. Jack’s kind of this one mythic baddie who won’t stay down, not a whole race of pumpkinheads. Any ideas how that would work, or do we just ask for monsters and leave the story to the writers?
The spirits/ghosts could be those of people/animals that have died after being experimented on by the orochi. Using the gateway between spirit world and real world, that is said to appear at halloween, to seek revenge on the orochi. That could tie in some lore with event.
So you just want any special Halloween monster to hunt for, but scattered around all the normal playfields the way Krampus was? Since Jack is probably going to be the Deep Agartha raid and Incognito has his whole storyline and maybe that chase around Kingsmouth, how about something new for the scattered monsters? Maybe even different critters in different areas?
Yeah, I haven’t actually finished the storyline, so I don’t know what “like the bounty hunter” means. I’ve heard of them, but not in much detail. Don’t they show up at random when you spend a while doing regular missions in the regular playfields? So isn’t that already “on normal map not in lair”? I already put this on my list, so I’m not sure what you’re adding by specifying “not in lair”.
I didn’t ask for more clarification on that because it made sense. I put the parts of your post I understood on my list of ideas already. It’s linked in the first post of this thread. I’ll copy your part here if that helps.
And I guess now we’re adding:
[SW] special seasonal monsters to hunt, like minions of Jack or Incognito (mini-Jack with a scythe?), or maybe something new, scattered about the normal playfields like Krampus was.
[SW] bring back the Kitties of Ulthar and chasing Incognito
Does that about cover it? Anything else I misunderstood?
And guardian5, I’ll tack on your idea as a lore note for #32 there.
I see. Yeah, that’s too complicated for an event encounter. Something simpler, like the way Kitties of Ulthar worked, would be better. Just finding any mob with a “Haunted” buff and killing it spawned one. Or the Xibalban. Disturbing their remains gave you a mark that caused them to come after you when you kill something else. Those were more zombies than ghosts, but the same idea should work.
Or if they go with guardian5’s idea and make the ghosts resentful spirits of people wronged by the Orochi group, we could find ghosts just by finding a dead Orochi. Or would that be too easy?
So, a skeletal mask and a robe like the Ragged Robe, but with skeletal gloves instead of the black gloves that are part of the Ragged Robe “uniform”? I think the scythe/axe is going to have to be up to you to choose a weapon… but maybe we could get a “reaper scythe” hammer skin.
I assume you mean the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Or is there something specific about that particular depiction of them that you want to see in game? There’s not a lot of clear detail there, but the idea of the Four Horsemen is the kind of common myth they could work with. And we do already have the flaming nightmare steed, so that’s a start.
Other Samhain missions from TSW (like The Broadcast and The Rider Cometh)
Museum pedestals for Irusan and The Rider in the oddities wing to accompany their Saturnalia/Christmas counterparts.
Maybe some social type of side mission in Agartha where a group of bees get together in monster costumes (Revenant, Werewolf, Locust, Kongamato, etc) that unlocks a new Halloween themed costume.
Since I see horror movie-inspired clothing items for cosmetics, why not make some iconic horror movie weapons to use for weapon skins? Examples include Jasons’ bloody machete, Michael Myers butcher knife (blade); Freddy Krueger claw, Predator Wrist blades, Hook from the hook killer in I Know What You Did Last Summer (fist); Hellraiser cube (variants?) for chaos/magic weapons.
Maybe, possibly, an actual spider (not bike) or bat beast mount?
Maybe a new tradition where every Halloween season, you implement a new PERMANENT monster into one of the maps? I know there is lore to justify why most of the creatures are around, but I’m asking for something sensible to the area, like werewolves or cryptids in North America, or Bennu or Sphinx into Egypt.
At that point, you might as well ask what’s the point in playing the game, as different people play the game for different reasons. At the base level, it’s something new to look at. In addition to just being a new enemy, I’d expect some new lore, achievements, title, and costume to unlock, similar to the format of most monsters already in the game.
