Environment Ideas for a Future Game

So, given that there have now been a couple of concept art pictures depicting either underwater or waterfront fights and exploration, I thought this would be a good time for pictures of two bridge varieties I wouldn't mind seeing in future games. 

Pontoon bridges, aka floating bridges, are made by connecting together several boats or floats and have been in use since ancient times, both during wartime and peacetime. Their temporary nature is their best advantage: they can be assembled and disassembled relatively quick, e.g. to let other river traffic through, and high tide or flood can't submerge them.

I'm also a big fan of arch bridges, both wooden and stone-made. The Japanese Kintai bridge is one the most famous and its profile looks completely different depending on the water level. I've never been on an arch bridge which consists of several archs but I found a photo taken by someone standing on the highest point of the Kintai bridge (the 3rd pic under the spoiler) and the view is very cinematic. If combined with a Nightingale floor, walking on this kind of bridge could provide a memorable experience.

Also, since it looks like we'll be venturing into areas fouled by red lyrium or Ghilan'nain's brine pools, I'm anticipating we'll get to see dead forests. 

I like the ominous mood in this picture with its dead grass, ancient statues and a shadowy entrance to a forest: if you changed the pic to having yellow grass start at edge of the forest and have the statues mark and guard the unspoiled areas of the land, you could easily turn it into the opening scene in Horror of Hormak in which the wardens are sensing that something feels wrong in the Nevarran forest they are in. 

Also, I found a perfect inspiration picture for a blighted tree, the Bracilian jabuticaba tree. It grows its fruits directly on its trunk which makes the tree look like it has been taken over by some parasitic plant. The tree is also very peculiar looking during its bloom, so if DA developers are looking for plants with a wow effect in their environments (like the trees in MEA which were clearly inspired by baobab trees), I'd say this tree would certainly do the trick. Inspired by it, I could also also easily imagine visuals of entire trees taken over by toadstool or other mushrooms.

Well, that's just flexing now, Germany. (Seriously, I love that bridge.)

The nightingale floor thing is cool. I'm just imagining, though, players enter some temple in Tevinter and the floor chirps whenever they walk on it, and there's a codex explaining the concept, but its in a REALLY hard to find place so everyone just thinks the devs put the wrong sound effect on the floor. lol

Please no. Then they better take DAI Val Royeaux as exemple and make it a bit bigger and more detailed, with big building in the background. Don't go back to DA2. That was pure horror.

What I don't want:
- only one sort of landscape like DA2
- labyrinth like DAO (the only think i don't like in DAO)
- anything i have to controle like swimming, riding and flying. If people want it than to chose.

Not the right topig but i would love better dance cinematics. Orlai was good, but too stiff. Maybe in a romance, something like street dance.

I want wilderness and cities to be combined. I don't want "this area is a city, this area is just landscape" like they did in ME:A and DA:I. Because it made the experience very disconnected, and what really do I have to "explore" and "discover" in landscapes if I can't find any ancient city or hidden town or anything of that magnitude. I know that technically it may be tough but well... figure it out

The most important thing for me when it comes to environment is unique environments on every map.
I don't want enter a new place and feel like I've been there before. To me, it's a huge problem in DA:I and ME:A.

• No more dwarven ruins / caves that have architecture that looks exactly the same in 4 different areas of the continent.
  
• No more remnant sites or vaults that look exactly the same on every new planet I visit.
  

Architecture is not a monolith. Every artist takes inspiration from what already exists and puts their own spin on it. Look at Germany for example. Even within the country there's variation as to how their architecture looks like. I know dwarves can't dream, but they have the ability to be creative. I hope.

These repeated environments are not engaging. They're a chore and after I've seen them for the first few times I really don't want to see them again unless there's at least some kind of change made to them (color, lighting, meshes, anything unique).
It makes exploring very unexciting. "Look at this area that you've seen before but now instead of being in B map, it's in C map!".

At the end of the day, anytime you reuse assets they become less valuable, unique and exciting. I loved fighting the Remnant Architect. I didn't love fighting it 5 times, which is the exact time it's repeated in the game.

I think the main key is to reuse assets smartly and sparingly. Sorry if my post came off as a little ranty. 

Making sense doesn't make them interesting. It's incredibly boring to look at and experience, and making excuses for it with lore isn't going to change that. Does it make sense that fade rift open all over Thedas? sure. Are fade rifts (all 80 of them) in the game anything more than a non dynamic, non strategic, repeated asset that recycle the same mobs again and again? You can bet on it.

I really like this effect. And while I don't like the outcome every single time (usually due to me simply disliking chosen colour), I'd love to see more of it.

Although this is for Unreal, I'm loving the progress being made for accumulating snowfall.

I remember Frostbite was experimenting with this (and seasonal changes in general) during the early development of Anthem, but we haven't seen any progress on that since then. Fingers crossed we might see some implementation in DA4.

You mean like when the bridge collapsed in front of us at Adamant and we fell....into the Fade.

Let's talk about salt and brine pools.

I think subnautica players might have something to say for underwater. I know underwater worlds only from sim backgrounds. I'd like alpine mountain regions.