Feedback talk:User/XxxTenebraexxX/Lixus Parasite (Water Breathing)

You have a great idea. As to whether or not it could be integrated into GW gameplay.... iffy.

They have some potential to be companions for ranger types if the parasitic part could be tweaked a bit. I'm very sure the asura would have a field day with experiments, but who's to say the asura aren't the ones who disproved the lesser parasites plans for Tyrian conquest? This could make a very interesting minipet if the idea were approved by Anet. Walking around in towns/outposts with this cephalopod thing attached all pulsating and stuff. Very Lovecraftian.

I could also see your evil lixus parasites as being long forgotten experiments of Abaddon from before he was cast down from the heavens, so to speak. They also bring to mind the afflicted of Cantha during Shiro's return, not to say they are directly related, but they do sound very similar in mindsets: cunning, malicious and creepy.

Altogether you have a great concept, and I wouldn't mind seeing it incorporated into the game. --Ravencroft0 13:29, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm a big fan of this! Well thought out, and you seem to have covered most of your bases (making it hard for me to play the Devil's advocate). In fact, I just deleted a whole paragraph I had typed stating, "I don't want to have to pay/adjust myself to deal with NPC's" when I remembered Kurz vs. Lux points affect us in a similar way. I wonder how the market would organize itself around this tradeable item: If they can be randomly gotten from point x at no cost, and sold in city y, would there be a need for a price beyond what it would cost to have it removed? Now I'm just rambling... G R E E N E R 10:11, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

I was scanning through some GW2 articles and thought this[1] looked very interesting. --Ravencroft0 10:23, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

They sound less like parasites and more like symbiotes, but it's a sweet idea anyway. Also, as a way to extend this idea different types like insectile or lizard or even crystalline.

Add another downside to the Lixus Parasite

I love the idea of being able to breath indefinitely underwater. However, there should be more of a downside to having one of these parasites then what you have initially suggested.

Having some NPCs dislike you for using the parasite is an interesting concept, but while adventuring in the wilderness and fighting monsters this will not have much of an effect, if any, on gameplay. Plus, given the fact that a good fraction of explorable areas will be underwater, this makes the idea of being able to breath indefinitely underwater more then worth the trade off of having the odd merchant refuse to do business with you. So many people would probably choose to become infected that their would be more parasite users then 'loathers', which would make it the norm and throw the whole prejudice idea right out the window. In order for the Lixus Parasite to be an item that 'loathers' have a reason to hate and where users really have to give something up when they let it infect them it has to have a major downside that will have a constant effect on gameplay.

My suggestion is that when someone becomes infected by the Lixus their health will be negatively effected, be it a lower overall health level or slower health regeneration. This negative effect will last as long as the Lixus is attached to the player. The players health will return to normal if they choose to have the Lixus removed. This way you really have to think it over when given the option to become infected or not. Is breathing underwater worth having lower overall health? When spending a long time on land is it worth paying to have the Lixus removed? And when you finally return to the water is it worth putting the thing back on or better to use consumable items?

As for how this concept of health loss can be explained in the game world just consider for a moment what it means to have a parasitic relationship. One organism (parasite) takes advantage of another organism (the host) for its own personal gain. What does the Lixus have to gain? In your description of it you stated that its tissues merge, in a sense, with the body of the host animal. Lets say that when this merger occurs the parasite's and the host's blood vessels become fused. Now the blood of the host flows through the body of the parasite, which absorbs nutrients from it in order to sustain itself. The blood then flows back into the host, depleted of nutrients. The host must now eat not only for itself but also for the parasite. The host and the parasite would also share air in this manner, the host breathing on land and the parasite breathing underwater. However, now that they must breath for two we start to have problems. Lets say that neither organism can take in enough air to properly supply both of them with enough oxygen for their bodies to run at maximum efficiency. The host, being the larger of the two, would be hit hardest by this. Given that the host organism now has lower levels of nutrients and oxygen circulating through it's body it will most likely result in the host having an overall lower level of health then it did before it became infected.

Sorry to have gone on for so long, but I thought that in order for my suggestion to possibly be incorporated into such a great idea as the Lixus I should explain it in detail. --Nicodemo 22:36, 18 April 2010