Physics: Is it a good idea?

Yeah, even if you're only talking about death effects (which xxnoob has demonstrated would be a dire waste), I think people are often far too quick to associate "physics" with a particular implementation of physics - the common arcadey implementation whereby post-death, creatures are treated with very low weight and perhaps even not much concern for friction or joint movement limitations etc.

That's not "physics" any more than "painting" means pictures of mountains and nothing else.

And, you know, it's not like the physics of the world at the moment aren't silly. You can whack a man (or a monkey, or whatever) with a massive tree branch or something, swung at a pretty absurdly quick pace (the force would be incredible to swing like that) and he'll either flinch and keep attacking, or collapse neatly on the spot.

It's all just on the screen - it's all just representation, whether you call it a physics engine or not - and the choice is not between representations of sensible realistic physics and silly physics; it's between silly physics of one kind (PoE's world), silly physics of another kind (D3/TQ's world) and a whole spectrum of other possibilities in between and beyond.

Physics are not just ragdoll, they can really add life to the backgrounds.

It's what adds so much more depth to a world like Skyrim.

As a middle way I would love to see more breakables in the PoE maps because it's so satisfying to see the skills interact with the background.

They can add more objects and slow down the game, but they can otherwise be kept entirely client side, as eye-candy which can be turned off for older GPUs.

* For example those stone cairns in Act II could fall:



* The tents in bandit camps could burn and collapse.

* Some bigger plants could also catch fire and wither.

* Water splashes when walking through smaller streams.

* etc.

Physics is definitely something that PoE needs, in my opinion. Not the silly ragdolls of games past, but physics that relate to the environment, such as wind blowing sand or rustling the greenery.

Some limited ragdolling like limbs or bones or held weapons/items would be neat, in my opinion - it would absolutely make my day to Heavy Strike a skeleton as a Marauder and watch the ribcage explode into bone fragments.

You could add death ragdoll that deactivate after the enemy hit the ground. That way you decrease unnecessary processing.