Localize temporal storms to areas of recent player activity

[seraph of candles]

So, I love temporal storms in theory. They're incredibly cool and tense and humbling in a way that feels very exciting. The visuals are breathtaking. The warning is terrifying. The way it messes with your audio, your dialogue, even your music if you have a mod... it's really cool. Corpse runs are especially riveting, since they see you running through this impossibly trippy landscape.

My problem is that when that warning comes, there's nothing I can do to prepare.

I can't run for cover, since drifters will spawn in my house. Digging a pit increases my odds, but makes death guaranteed if one spawns in my space. My friends and I had a "coward's cross" where we all stood in opposite corners of a little cross-shaped hut around a campfire with spears, which was kind of immersive (if a little boring--we passed the time while reading our lore finds to each other), but, like, there's nothing we can actually do if a two-headed drifter appears. We just die.

Currently, the smartest thing to do is apparently to run. I think that's intentional--it's a humbling moment where all your gear and fortifications become meaningless--and once mounts are added, it'll be even more exciting. The trouble is, it doesn't really work the way we want it to, does it? Like, when you get that warning, you don't drop everything and run for it. You don't need to get distance overall. You wait for the storm to run, then start sprinting in a wide circle. You just have to get distance on wherever you were three seconds ago, since drifters are slow and don't spawn ahead of you. It's just sort of a sprinting-hunger tax.

So, my solution?

Localize storms so they are heavier in areas where recent player activity has been high.

Now, instead of waiting to run, you can immediately drop everything, rush to meet up with your friends, and start fleeing for 'high ground'. If you make it into the mountains next door where you rarely go, the storm will be lighter, or even let up altogether, and then you can wait the storm out from safety, watching as your home is overtaken. But that's an if.

I think this would help clarify the real meaning of these storms. You aren't supposed to batten down the hatches and grab your best weapon and get ready for a fight, at least in the early-to-midgame. You're supposed to run for your life. Briefly, the corruption of the world reasserts itself, and your home isn't yours anymore--it's theirs.

And this can make the experience later on, when you get better gear and maybe stand a chance at defending your home from the doomed spirits, all the more satisfying.