History Main / GeoEffects

* ''TabletopGame/{{Lancer}}:'' Terrain can make and break an encounter, whether it's Difficult terrain making itself impassable, Dangerous terrain that can cause actual damage if the traverser rolls poorly, to destructible terrain forming cover both soft and hard for mechs to hide behind. Some mechs abuse or ignore terrain features more than others - the HORUS Kobold in particular is a thorough terrain abuser, thanks to benefiting greatly from having terrain features, being able to detonate said features with its Seismic Ripper for explosive damage and outright ''generating'' additional terrain at will in the form of Slag Cube, be it one cube at a time or in one massive burst of mass terraforming that can reshape an entire battlefield in a single turn.

** In later games, the movement penalties are mitigated somewhat by the units' own terrain ratings - a unit with an overall S-rank in a terrain isn't as bogged down - or their movement types.

* The environments and surroundings was a big factor in battle during the first half of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed'', as Kira would have to numerous opponents in machines adapted for the current landtype or space, and he would need to adjust his Operating System to do the same.

** Each type of terrain provides a different amount of cover. For example, units take full damage when on roads (0 stars of defense) and the least damage when on mountains or headquarters (4 stars of defense). Oddly, the damage subtracted isn't affected by either unit's type, just the defender's health before the attack started.

* In ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'', each type of terrain provides a different amount of cover. For example, units take full damage when on roads (0 stars of defense) and the least damage when on mountains (4 stars of defense). Also, many characters are more effective in certain terrain. For example, Kindle has higher attack in cities, while Koal operates better than others on roads, terrain bonuses are increased with Lash, and Jake has the edge on plains. [[WeatherOfWar Weather works similarly]]. Everybody has much lower mobility in the snow, except for Olaf, whose attack, defense, and mobility are all increased. FogOfWar puts everyone in a bad situation but Sonja, as well. Finally, bonuses of this type (such as stronger attack on the sea) can be given to any character with the abilities system used in ''Dual Strike''.

* ''Fanfic/IWokeUpAsADungeonNowWhat'': Each dungeon floor specialization includes a few "global" effects that apply to every room on that floor and the floors immediately above and below (including the surface for the first floor). For example, bug floors cause harmless "deco" bugs to costantly spawn from the floor, walls, and ceilings to provide food for insectivorous minions, while pixie floors create an ominous mist and small bird floors produce windy weather.

* An issue of ComicBook/YoungJustice saw the team trapped on the DeathWorld of Apokolips being pursued by hordes of flying parademons. ComicBook/{{Robin}} managed to figure out the timing of the local [[LavaPit fire pit]] explosions, and lured a bunch of mooks into the blast. Darkseid is a big fan of NoOSHACompliance.

* ''TableTop/YuGiOh'' has Field Cards, cards that effect the entire field. There are series of cards that will power up various types of monsters (Such as Umi for Fish, Sea-Serpent, Aqua and Thunder Monsters) but since cards don't typically stay on the field very long in the current metagame, Field Cards with more than just attack power ups are typically preferred, such as The Sanctuary in the Sky, which keeps a player from taking damage when their Fairy type monsters are attacked.

* In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', map environment fully defines the fight. Small chokepoints put fragile and mobile classes at a great disadvantage while making explosives, an good entrenched sniper, and sentry guns extremely powerful, while wide areas put all of those at varying levels of disadvantage against fast, mobile attackers. And high ground can make taking a capture point fiendishly difficult because it lets the defenders fire from cover without exposing themselves for too long, whereas attackers need to rely heavily on [[ZergRush Zerg Rushing]] fireteams with sniper support or sustained bombardment from rocket-jumping Soldiers and artillery-like stickybomb spam. This is even more brutal with multiple levels instead of a single slope, as exemplified in maps like Egypt and Badlands, both of which have capture points raised well above the battlefield and with scant cover on the way up.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' fighting spin-offs ''Scarlet Weather Rhapsody'' and ''Hisoutensoku'', each weather type has a specific effect that can turn the tides in a fight. Example? Typhoon: all knock-back is ignored.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' video games:

* ''VideoGame/WarlockMasterOfTheArcane'' has variety of effects. There are standard movement and vision limits, but also some special areas that provide special resource and/or damage the units on the tile.