So the idea is Shards Auras an idea developed by Me and DarkRepulsor
What if shards, the mystical and powerful source of the ancient
Oortians’ power, are more than just glimmering crystals in the ground?
Each shard radiates a powerful aura of magic, affecting all living
beings that come in contact. Some shards provide a healing field; others
stir the rage inside the hearts of the living; others bestow strange
and terrible powers.
Beware of creatures that stray too close to the aura of the shards,
as they too will receive the power the shards have to offer. Peaceful
creatures turn hostile, and dreadful enemies become even more
terrifying.
These infected shards would be natural occurring shards
that for some reason are no longer pure thus being tainted the shard
would attract/infect mobs making them gather and hostel. They could
probably make it interesting to have different shards have different
effects when infected.
Infected shards could be in certain areas or be whole bios
themselves where mobs cluster more and will attack you much easier.
These shards could also give the mobs a boost in def, agility and
strength. So like evil goats and cows XD and also the normal bad mobs
just worse.
Good idea. The concept of infection on shards also sounds cool, but may be it would also work well if the different shard kinds have their own positive and/or negative effects. If bound to elements water shards may heal you and foes while a fire shard damages you and foes get an extra fire damage to their attacks. If friendly creatures are turned into agressive beasts is decided by each shard kind on its own, so a holy shard keeps them nice while a death or profane shard transforms them into evil protectors of the shard.
But jeah, that is a great idea and will be a good way to enrich the varriation of the places to expore, even more if they are placed randomly by the regeneation process (you never know what to expect when revisiting a cave system, muahahahaharrr ^^)
This really sound like an awesome gameplay feature.
(ESO has done something similar with their “dark fissures”, that randomly spawn on the world and disapear once you have destroyed all creatures they have spawned)
Here my 5 cents:
What if the infected Oort shard is instead of being a free flowing block, as your picture suggests, a “totem-base” block on the ground-height+1 (basically standing on the ground). Whenever such an infected shard is generated it also gets 3 random blocks generated on its top, each adding another effect/aura to the “totem-base” block (like @TheBirne already suggested) .
Some additional examples:
Earth: Slows down the movement of all players
Rock: Increased hitpoints for all nearby hostile creatures
Wood: Life regeneration for all nearby hostile creatures
Different ore types: different status buffs for all nearby hostile creatures
Diamond/Crystal: Mesmerize peaceful creatures leading to →
This could look somewhat like this:
(Maybe not all that sinister to fit in the world^^)
As this picture suggests those “element-blocks” could (maybe) get another texture as long as they are placed on the “totem-base” block.
Some additional ideas that I´ve got while i wrote this:
What if each “totem/infected shard” has a small aura radius where its effect is quite strong but also a significantly bigger radius with a weaker effect, that has a fair chance to affect several player (beacons). So players are encouraged to seek out and destroy those infected shards.
The block thats directly on the “totem-base” could have the strongest effect/aura, while the block on the top of the “totem” has the weakest effect/aura. This would add even more diversity to the totems since not only the elements themselves would have an influence on the aura of the “totem” but also their order. (A even more complex system would be to have each slot having another specialization. The bottom block gives defense aura depending on the block type thats slotted on the bottom whilst the top block gives an offensive aura)
Definetly something like this,either in @Grey707 s or mine version. (or any other version the devs or community come up with) This is a really good idea and a great way to differ procedurally generated structures in Oort from that in other voxel games.
There also could be a buff if you manage to kill the foes and destroy/harvest the crystal. Like seen in many other games with shrines. Until you did it it buffs the foes - if you manage it it buffs you and all players in the area (like for 10-15 mins) and then vanishes (may be into your inventory )
)