Original Post
(Edit note: Little inventory update considering food) Hi everyone, first post and already in the design forum. Not a good way of introducing but let's get started. A while back I began to program a little RPG with the Inform 7 language a nice and quiet comfortable tool for creating interactive fiction. The main goals were: A) To strengthen the sense of achievement not necessarily by reward (XP, fancy new equipment etc.) or immediate feedback from the game (you did quest X go to quest giver Y to claim your reward so this can be over and done with) but by succeeding despised all odds (preferably by cunning and thoughtful use of the resources available), solving problems which are a concern to the player and NPCs alike and the long time effects of his/her actions or inaction. B) To create a small, more time sensitive and flexible game scenario rather than a static but larger one which solely resolves around the player's actions or (mute) presence. Rather than that I wanted to give him/her a certain feeling of urgency and a more realistic role in the ongoing events. The reason for the first was mostly to prevent the Trial&Error approach when confronted with quests that have a range of possible outcomes (that is to see which one is the best possible in the eyes of the player). With specific time limits in place you can presume that he/she may want to achieve as many overlapping (in sense of a timeframe) goals as possible. Assuming now that quests need a longer time to actually take notable effects (in consideration of section A)'s last statement) the outcome, while not always appreciated by the player, is still accepted since he/she invested to much effort up until then to start all over again (it still won't keep him/her from waiting but that doesn't really strike me as fun. Especially if it takes more than an in-game week to see results. There are also ways to prevent this. Red herrings could be spread so to speak. Pretending that a quest is over when in fact it is not. It is also possible to include quests that take positive or negative effect on others whenever they were already solved or not to encourage a more active play style). Granted, this is rather dirty way to resolve quests. But it might also raise the player's tolerance for actual accepting the consequences of his doing. If those results keep him at least intrigued. Or so the theory goes. C) To make yet another Sci-Fi RPG. Yay! :p Thus the survival RPG was born I'm currently working on. Because it's now in the more “mundane” phase of map printing and simple pathfinding I wanted to reflect what has been done from the design perspective so far and to make it open for criticism. Figured it wouldn't make sense to program solely to entertain myself although it is good amusement so far. I'll start off with basic game mechanics like character development and after that some rough outlines of the scenario just for the extra amusement. Part I: The basics What is this about? As hinted above the mechanics rely heavily on the survival theme. The player finds himself in an unfamiliar and hazardous environment with only one true overarching goal: to stay alive as long as possible until he/she can eventually manage to escape this unpleasant situation. Attributes and Skills Since this was my first run I wanted a simple system with only a small amount of attributes/skills and an overall stricter layout, at least when starting the game. I decided to let the player choose several different classes (/characters) that all have the same four attributes but an individual set of skills (8 per class) which are depending on two factors: the character's current attributes and his/her skill bonuses which are either granted from the start, by traits or later adjustment. May those be temporarily or permanent. However there are occurrences where attributes are directly used. The attributes are: #Strength Which (as usual) determines the ability to move heavy objects, damage output in melee attacks (not always) and carrying capacity. #Endurance That also affects carrying capacity and the character's ability to resist diseases. #Dexterity As time is of the essence (especially in combat) the fact how fast a character can execute an action (in terms of turns) may become vital to his survival. #Concentration A minor replacement for the more established intelligence attribute. In opposition to dexterity, which refines motions of the body, concentration boosts the intellectual processes of the mind. Plus it greatly affects aiming but more about that later. Low concentration on the other hand can cause some unpleasant side effects. The character maybe forgets vital information about how to proceed in a specific situation (failing to recite an important codeword for example that can't be attained in the game world) or might start to act clumsy and cursory. The maximum for an attribute is 300 (100 for every in-game month. More about this in the next section). The Skills are calculated as either one-sided: ((Attribute/300)*100 + Bonus) or two-sided: (((Attribute1 /2)+(Attribute2 /2)) /300)*100 + Bonus) The player may choose one starting trait for his character which is the only way to adjust attributes and skills at this point. That is reasonable in a sense that the attributes already start off quiet high as the characters are supposedly experienced professionals (the price for the highest starting attribute in my scenario goes to the IT Engineer with an astonishing concentration value of 300 points. Right off the bat. The lowest would be 160 without counting trait penalties). Alas, it is pretty much a preset class system. Character development In an attempt to differ the experience a little (and to create a more desperate survival mood) the attributes of the player character (and therefore his/her skills) undergo a continuing decline over the whole course of the game. He/she may slow down this process by eating specific (or unspecific) food types that cover his/her bodily needs (for example vegetables for endurance, raw meat for strength, seafood for concentration and spicy food for dexterity). Every day that an attribute is untended it will decrease by 2 otherwise by only 1. It isn’t possible to hinder the progress of neglect any further than that (in other words repeatedly eat one food type the same day). The player can consume up to two meals per day (maybe three it is undecided). He (and with this I'll finally stop this annoying he/she reference. Please excuse the inconvenience) can't die of starvation whatsoever. To keep the math simple (and the plot in a manageable frame) the game to resolves around three months (3 weeks per month, 7 days per week). Converted in a worse case scenario that would mean a total loss of 126 attribute points (roughly a 42% loss of a one-sided skill or 21% two-sided). Cut this in half and you get the best case scenario. It could be arranged that the degeneration starts at the second week for an easier play. This sounds bad. It neglects with what I consider as ideal designer goals for RPGs. First it shifts the focus from quests to food grinding since the player probably wants his character as effective as possible. Second it isn't very intuitional when creating a hybrid character who remains versatile for the most part. The mechanics rather encourage focusing on two attributes solely. And thirdly it goes a pretty odd if not terrible way to present character development. Instead of advancing your character you try to prevent him from being too inefficient. Two statements that mean the same yet come from two different directions. Besides, providing character advance through conventional items potentially makes it feel more like collecting necessary powerups than real development. So why doing this? It had several reasons. Most notably it should encourage the player to explore the game world in the more uneventful first weeks to get familiar with his surroundings. Solving first quests on the way. After completing the game he would get the opportunity to import the discovered food from earlier playthroughs so he doesn't have to collect them again and again. Actually, food shouldn’t be that much of an issue during the second month if the player has been busy but, ideally, become a critical factor again shortly before the finale to add some extra drama on the first run. By securing character progression early on the quests can be more centered on actual necessities than the artificial ones (must collect ten mushrooms to earn experience so I can beat up a rat in a cave) . It should also raise the tension between the player and the NPCs since they’ll, on occasions, eat some of the food they find hence a basic conflict is at hand also in the sense of metagaming: The player wants his character to survive thus remain efficient but he also wants to improve his situation. Something that is often only possible with NPCs to his disposal (though admittedly the last point spawns the problem of exploits as the player might try to outsmart NPCs by hoarding food in remote locations or intentionally tries to lure them into their death. Something that I’ll address in a later section about PC-NPC relationship). Those Improvements come in many forms and shapes but the one which is most notably here is the possibilities to buy perks that come with a tied in morale system. Since it was stated before that quest should preferably be aimed to have no apparent abstract motivation the possibility to attain said perks is more focused around personal ambitions that resolve around the player characters awareness of his role in the game world thus don’t by themselves provide any noteworthy gain. So, it appears to be a good start to couple those insubstantial goals with a more resourceful Black & White system. There are two kinds of perks that can be gained either by disillusion (Good) points or survival (Evil) points. Disillusion represents the characters slow departure from his former beliefs of order and established social norms. It too shows his ability to alter and readjust them so he can better integrate into the new kind of society that is developing. Acting out of character and supporting a new more suitable type of lifestyle that builds upon cooperation are the most obvious ways to gain disillusion points. Disillusion covers technical or scientific advancement, improves or alters NPC proficiency and/or efficiency and sometimes boosts the player character’s (defensive) capabilities. The upside is that once attained those perks seldom show any negative side effects. The downside is the amount of time and preparation they require beforehand. This could mean additional quests, retrieve of necessary equipment or knowledge and a certain reputation with one or several NPCs, if they’ve survived until then. Case in point that this is not true the player gets the opportunity to skip specific traits although to a higher amount of spent disillusion points. Survival perks symbolize the character’s strong determination to stay alive even if that means to descent into madness and abhorrent behavior. Acting overprotective or overly aggressive when personal safety is at risk and surviving apparently hopeless situations indicates that the person in question is following this path. Those perks always deal with the character’s possibilities to expand or enhance his abilities to protect his own life or destroy those of others. Good thing is that they don’t even require any conscious reflection (they often imply the development of a psychosis) and therefore are available for purchase at any given moment. In contrast to disillusion however they also always come with negative side effects which may alienate the character towards both the NPCs and his original play style. There is the possibility to remain neutral. It basically means to play out the currently chosen class as it is implied at the start of the game which also can have its benefits (in case of later quest setup and NPC relationship). Disillusion as well as Survival perks are each sorted in four different categories each covering a specific motive that comes with the chosen class. Every category consists of four perks ordered in a strict hierarchy. Once all categories have been harvested a last bonus perk will become available that can be quiet useful if it is not over interpreted by the player. One very simple example for a final survival perk would be to give the player the ability to revive his character once per day. It is important to keep in mind that those perks are what could be called gimmicks nothing more. They raise chance of the player’s survival and sometimes add interesting strategic elements to the game but are by no means critical for finishing it. It should merely present reasons to the player to get more politically involved and raise the value of NPCs interaction in his (XP) regards. Whereas the question of distribution is still an issue. Making the gain of perk points flexible (meaning abandon NPCs in combat -> Survivor, heal NPC -> Disillusion) would probably ending up in metagaming just like it is often the case in learning-by-doing character systems. Trying to allocate them on scripted events would ultimately mean a lot more effort from my part since I must consider not only the development of quest when specific NPCs have died but also serving at least some new opportunities for gaining said points to keep a little balance. It becomes especially painful when thinking about survival points because it is intended to distribute them to the player every day in case that all of the NPCs have died (since disillusion perks would become trivial at such point). This again is a week point since players might be intrigued to kill off NPCs as early as possible to gain survival perks. So strict rule is: wasting NPCs at random should never be as rewarding as intended slaughter (established with all the juicy emotional violence beforehand). Health Suffice to mention that there is a choice there are two possible ways of managing health. 1) One pool of hit points that is a result of the starting endurance of a character 2) Splitting this pool into several Hit-Zones (Arms, legs, head, torso). Resulting in different negative effects depending on which partition has been damaged. A wounded arm would limit the characters ability to interact with objects and decrease his accuracy. A broken leg slows him down and makes climbing and sneaking either harder or impossible. A destroyed Head or Torso means exodus as usual (although some effects may be added to head injuries like a decreased concentration or a chance to be knocked out cold upon the next clout). A handicap is only removed once the body part in question is fully healed. The amount of hit points is overall small. It is therefore difficult for the character to defeat more than two opponents especially when he is alone. However, for the sake of a played and tested pre-balancing, they are also never affected from endurance decay. To restore health the player can either use items which heal him over a very short period of time (in strict order head, torso, arms, legs) or retreat to so called safe zones in which health will restore slowly over time (all body parts simultaneously). There is an ever present danger of diseases which can hinder the player somewhat and may cause a temporarily attribute loss but only occur when the second alternative is chosen. There are several ways to catch a cold. Sometimes although rarely it can be the result of an attack. It might originate from an unhealthy diet. But the most common way to become blessed is to keep serious wounds unattended for too long. In practice that means that the program will make a troubleshooting through all critical body parts every hour from the point when the first of those injuries were inflicted. For each hot spot that exists an infection chance (depending on the damage) will therefore be used to determine if the character has been infected or not. If yes the body part will be marked accordingly and won't be considered on the next health check anymore. All diseases cure over time but they can also be removed by more intensive medical treatment than putting a bandage over your head. Inventory I decided early on that the player’s inventory should include certain limits not due to a stronger sense of realism but to broaden the sense of danger (and ongoing frustration) resulting from the player character’s slow decay and also to increase the common value of NPCs. This brought up some issues about how far the mechanics could go without leaving the player almost completely defenseless when engaged in combat because he ran out of room to carry a weapon. It was also necessary to think of a text based inventory that was both easily manageable and clearly laid out even after modifications. Here was the debut of the resulting concept. To sum it up: every object that can be taken belongs to one of overall three weight categories, which are light, medium and heavy (thanks claw). Light weight includes support objects like health items, ammunition or puzzle items which can be used instantly and small weaponry like knifes and pistols which must be equipped before usage. There can always be only one equipped item in the inventory. Medium weight consists out of large weaponry (as for example rifles) and tools. Nevertheless their intended functionality all objects of this category can be misused as effective weapons. Like small weapons such objects must always be equipped before they can be used. Heavy weight refers to objects too large and bulky to be simply misplaced in the inventory. Therefore whenever a character takes an heavy object he is forced to hold them in both hands meaning that he will have to drop it when he wants to equip other items in his inventory or to interact with certain objects in the game world (like climbing a ladder). Every character has a numerical carrying capacity which concludes from his current strength and endurance that determines how many objects from the different categories he can carry. In an ideal situation that would mean up to one heavy object, two medium-weight objects and ten light objects. From there, as his carrying capacity is slowly dropping, the amount of items he is able to take around decreases (starting from heavy making its way down to light. Possibly forcing him to drop surplus items) up until he can only carry one medium-weight object and five light ones. He still might be able to carry heavy objects if he and a supporting NPC can bring up enough carrying capacity to lift it. In such scenario both suffer from their inability to use items in their inventory without dropping their burden first. By doing this it is assured that the player is always granted some room for objects with which he can fend of foes and that the presentation of inventory limitations remain simple. Furthermore should the possibility to use two medium-weight objects attract players to invest into Strength and Endurance to remain flexible (there may be quest related moments that requires him to swap to a specific medium-sized object). Problems of that approach, which are empathized by the above link, are most notably the lack of intuitional use partly due to the unnatural setup and the loss of player’s influence upon inventory management. He is for example not able to carry more light objects by dropping a medium-sized one which might cause disbelief and anger. The characters can take a limited supply of food (6 units for three days meal) which is handled separately. Food is the only kind of item that can’t be freely dropped everywhere. Basic interactions, movement & interface Since the language is based upon the idea of creating text adventures there isn’t much choice in how to interact with the environment. The player has to type commands manually without any point and click support while navigating through rooms (which have been separately adjusted with a concrete grid of sectors). To speed up the experience the player can use a quick access command which lists any obvious points of interest in his surroundings and then let him choose between the most obvious possibilities to interact with them. Something that serves as a perfect opportunity for secrets to reward curious and observing players who experiment with not listed items and commands without hampering the overall game flow. A taking command without a reference will make the player choose from a list of every available item in his current location. The list itself is sorted accordingly to weight categories. It is furthermore remarked how many objects of a category can be taken before the player runs out of space or if items from a particular category can be taken at all. The dropping command works in a similar fashion. Every action claims a certain amount of time either statically (interaction with objects) or dynamically (moving from A to B) during which every character is acting seemingly simultaneously. After a turn the game runs through every individual game character (priority is dedicated through dexterity), notes if an action takes place and if yes decreases the amount turns (/seconds) that remain until execution. This makes time management and travel planning a constant background factor during play. Movement is done the traditional way as long as the player is not in a hostile situation. He can try to go in any direction with the original north, south, etc. commands. He can also move between sectors manually in the current room to reach a strategic position or devices he wants to manipulate (although this happens automatically by commands assigned to said device anyways). Each room has entrance points with three sectors attached to them (up to eight if the character enters from above or below). If all of those have been filled with either impassable objects or by NPCs it won’t be possible to enter the room from this entrance point anymore. It is possible however to manipulate objects in the three attached sectors on the other side for example by an attacking commands. In case of a ranged attack beyond those sectors it is only possible to attack targets in a straight line without diagonals due to balance (door open, shoot, door closed) and technical reasons (while rows in the grid can be chosen with variables columns have to be selected manually. A fact that is, quiet frankly, a pain in the arse so far). In case that a character wants to move to a position that is already occupied by an obstacle he will either try to move it or they swap places (although that comes with the danger that if two characters that want to go into the direction will be trapped in an endless swapping circle). Characters are organized into groups in an attempt to ease conflicts in path finding routines. They consist of a leader and henchmen. The player is always a leader while lone or specific NPC may become one. They are active figures in the game world while henchmen are considered ‘assets’ which only get into play when explicitly needed. When a group splits up or is engaged in combat henchmen will spawn in an area close to the leader (formations might be debatable but this seems mandatory for now). They may also spawn on an assigned position if needed (in terms of coherence for example if the henchman is supposed to sit on a chair). If the group is separated after a struggle, one guideless henchman of the remaining NPCs will become a leader (in order of a preset hierarchy) and either tries to regroup with the original team or retreat to a safe location if there aren’t any more urgent demands at hand. The main interface is reduced to a minimal. In order to check health or ammunition the player has to explicitly use the examine command or is regularly warned by text messages if his health runs low. The upper left corner states the player’s current location (although the name might be hidden in some circumstances) and room coordinates. A watch is placed on the upper right corner. It is possible to print out the current room map with all objects, groups (with a list of their current members) and henchmen (if their position is not the one of their leader) or a rough overview of the overall game world and the player’s current position. Combat Combat is a straightforward exchange of blows and evasion. If a character is attacked he has a one time opportunity to dodge the very first of those attacks aimed at him until it is again his turn (meaning he has finished his previous task or has been disturbed). If there is no other weapons to his proposal the player can fall back on simply punching and kicking his opponents (which causes them to fall back a little). Confrontations are resolved in ‘real-time’ meaning that, since every action needs an amount of turns, aggressive and defensive procedures can be (even though seldom) interrupted before execution. It is therefore vital for survival to keep some basic strategies at heart. The player should never engage more than two enemies in case that he is alone and not a survival expert. His character is not supposed to become Super- or Patriotman at the end of the day (especially due to his lack of health points) but someone who was smart enough to stay alive. Sustaining this goal he should try to hamper his enemies while making his escape or force his pursuers to retreat rather than killing everything in sight. If this becomes necessary he should ideally force his foes together into bottlenecks taking them one by one never giving them opportunities to outmaneuver him since this could mean a quick and sudden death. This brings us to the topic of random critical hits which are handled more as critical situations (probably an intense brawl) than direct damage multipliers. They can only be triggered by melee attacks (since ranged attacks are already lethal as it is) and are rather broad in variations depending on the individual situation. There is a chance for a critical counterattack responding to a normal attack for example (most notably when the player is trying to kick someone). Catching prey from its unguarded back or sides not only raises the chance to hit but also the possibility for a critical attack. Victim and attacker alike can’t choose ranged attacks and most likely lose their ability to move (or can only do so if they force their opponent to walk into the same direction in a clash of strength) while a struggle is in progress. This leaves them disposed to both the ones that might want to protect the victim or aid the attacker. Each of those sides is granted attack bonuses (while protectors get the small advantage that they are ‘connected’ to their target through the victim meaning that only the victim has to be in range but not the attacker himself and that they can jump one sector to reach a field right next to either victim or foe and charge right away). The wranglers are not able to attack anyone other than each other while struggling. Their attacking speed is increased during this period to resolve things quickly. There are two possible ways of introducing a struggle. Either the attacker has the beginning advantage (which results in a higher chance for his attack to succeed and lessen the chance for the victim to fend of an attack) that slowly decreases (the setup would likely be that the attacker managed to surprise the victim off guard but slowly loose this advantage as the victim starts to get a grip on the situation) or the exact opposite (the attacker relies on brute force rather than finesses slowly overcoming the victims defenses). During his turn the victim gets the opportunity to attack (with reduced chance and damage) and end the struggle or to go into a defensive stance to withstand attacks (both from the attacker and his companions) while the attacker’s options are reduced to either attack or retreat (without risk except the victim possesses a survival perk that handles this situation). Once an attacker succeeds (by an unblocked strike) the damaged is often significant enough to cause terrible if not mortal wounds. Even if the victim survives the body part (if the system is present) attacked will always be crippled resulting in a devastating handicap regardless the actual damage. The battle is then fought out as usual. About sight: the player can watch into four directions to reveal and identify enemies or to protect his vulnerable back. Turning itself is counted as an action if it requires a greater angle than ninety degrees. It is also possible to strafe to keep enemies in sight (who might react more cautiously to this behavior). There are possibilities to use the environment for tactical benefits (for example climbing on a table will boost the character’s melee abilities but also increase the chance of being hit by ranged weapons. The player is able to kick objects into enemies causing them to lose turns). Line of sight can be important for firearms since a target can stand behind objects or people making it likely that they are hit instead. I disregarded distance for now however because the scenario plays out in a more claustrophobic surrounding. It is possible to give simple orders to the player’s own henchmen like walking to a sector, turning, using items or attacking an enemy and so on. They can also be told to follow specific strategies (keep close to the leader. Cover left entrance. Flee north etc.). Aiming (normal attacks choose body parts at random) is handled similar to a charged attack. When initializing an aimed attack player may choose between body parts (all with their own curtailment) and as soon as he made the decision the current chance to hit is shown a the top of the screen. The higher the concentration of the character the faster it rises (to a maximum of 5%) per turn. The following attack is then either instant (ranged) or delayed (melee. In that case the chance for a critical attack is also increased). Several factors can lower the increase however (if the target or the player moves for example) or even turn it into a decrease (by being hit or obstacles in the way). Should the target get out of sight completely all the progress until then is lost and the player has to start over. This again encourage the use of NPCs that can serve as scapegoats while the player can take them out without interferences. Aiming is always restricted to the player. PC – NPC Interaction As occasionally underlined in the previous sections NPCs can take a vital role in the player characters own survival. But while their most obvious use as controlled battle units, pack mules and meat shields seems to stand out their influence in the game events should shine as their most significant game play value for the player. It is therefore important to attach a more diverse functionality to them (especially since they are most likely in the same situation as the player himself). Instead to restrict them to two or less roles (like merchants or, even worse, simple assets) they switch dynamically between them. They are salesmen the same time as they are companions, constructors, quest givers, specialists and even antagonists if the player’s decisions conflicts with their own viewpoint (in more ways than just stating said opinion to make the player reconsider. It probably wouldn’t work anyways). That could mean that they will confiscate equipment for themselves or even ‘steal’ mandatory items that the player gives to them (if not used they would later on be available again as soon the player reaches a safe zone) and even betray or attack him in the most unfitting moments. The player must keep a good relationship to the NPCs in order to prevent this kind of behavior. Each NPC has a measured loyalty that is separated into favor (stating the actual loyalty value) and overall sympathy (that serves as a borderline). In order to increase favor the player has to perform acts that please the NPCs (providing gifts/food, making a good joke or save them from a critical attack to state a few possibilities). Sympathy is harder to attain and is contributed through quest or main events in which the individual NPC is present. It is also harder to loose than favor. Favor handles day to day situations and more common issues. If the player is in high favor of a NPC then it is very unlikely that he will abandon the player in combat or refuse to help him during a critical attack. Furthermore he won’t consider stealing items that the player is giving to him. Even though the player is able to boost or decrease the disposition of NPCs it will eventually fall back to their general sympathy for him (this progress shouldn’t take longer than an in-game day). Sympathy itself marks the affinity of the NPCs towards the player through his actions. The more they sympathize with him the more it is likely that they will support him in critical moral decisions or conflicts. It also sets the bar for the willingness of the NPC to murder the player or leave him for death during certain events. Loyalty also counts as an indirect currency in the trading system. Since it would seem odd to include money in a rather desperate fight for survival the value of an item is marked by its actual construction time. The higher the favor the faster an item is produced meaning that the player will be better prepared and does have less to worry that the producing NPC could die during an assignment outside the safe zone (in which he can’t continue on his current project) before completion. A high sympathy value also implies that the player has to supply him with less components than usual (It is simply asserted that the NPC will look for the missing ingredients himself). So it is still possible to ‘buy’ items by increasing the favor of an NPC through items and thus decrease the waiting time or to charm an NPC with enough sympathy since then the player has only to wait until his favor returns to normal in a worse case scenario. He is also been rewarded by the time that he doesn’t spent searching for missing parts. NPCs regularly eat from the collected food supply that is brought to the safe zones (although their degeneration is preset). This makes it difficult to avoid exploits since, as stated before, the player might try to hoard food elsewhere. It should therefore be prevented by a more automated and authoritarian handling of food. As it was hinted the character has a special inventory for only carrying food (so do the NPCs) and can’t drop it at will. He is only able to do so in safe zones where it goes into a storage area and is from there technically available for everyone. The player can customize a diet plan that will let him eat food automatically while in the safe zone (either at the beginning of the day or the end of it or something in between). He can also take provisions from the food bank if he desires although he has to eat carried food manually (and for both options alike it is only possible to eat two units an in-game day). My greatest concern right now is NPCs mortality. I considered making them immortal and only killable in special events but that again would possibly soften the mood of vulnerability which I wanted to create in the game. Since it should also happen that a NPC could walk of alone the question was if he could be ambushed and killed without the player being able to intervene. It boiled down to the point that I made them immune to friendly fire and attacks on NPC only possible if scripted. A solution with which I’m not quiet happy at the moment but, as written, the best I could think of at the current moment. Part 1.1 The Lab And what’s this? This half hearted chapter contains some random and unfinished notes about game play elements that still require tweaking and deeper thoughts. Sneaking Nothing revolution – or evolutionary to see here. Every room contains a second layout which is shown when the player sneaks into it while unaware hostiles are in the area(sneaking is always automatically). Next to the usual noted objects present numbers are shown on every empty sector ranging from 1 to 3. 1 means that the player will be spotted as soon he is in sight, 2 that the enemy has to perform a spot check (which is modified with each large object that is in the way. The player can’t climb on any of those while sneaking) and a player character on a 3 is basically only visible if he should fail a sneak check (which is made every sector he moves. Those checks are modified by actual distance between him and the potential spotters). In case that the enemies have a light source or good visual senses all 3 sectors are counted as 2. The current visibility of the player is shown in the upper left corner right next to his actual room sector. Climbing (optional) Climbing is handled as a mine sweeper mini game. Only that the player starts from a specific spot (either up or down) and tries to find his way to the other end. However the way until there is filled with brittle foothold and other nasty surprises. He can use a climbing check after every turn to predict how many ‘hot spots’ are in his current area to be able to avoid them. But he has only a limited time (decided by his current endurance) to reach his goal before falling. Damage is predicted from the number of rows he falls down (going from legs to arms to head). The player doesn’t have to repeat a climbing tour after completion but only has to go through a minor climbing check if he wants to climb the same spot again (both directions). Customizability A wide range of options are present to the player before starting a game. He can either choose between three default difficult levels or create his own custom one. He can thereby influence: Combat difficulty: It states the chance that enemies panic or flee, their combat behaviour and the chance for weapon failure. Puzzle difficulty: Might turn out to be overambitious. Puzzles differ from several factors. Are they solvable in one and the same room or is the solution spread in the whole game world? How many items are required and what about abstractions? Is there a time limit? Depending on this difficult setting you can quickly find an answer. The highest difficult setting also includes the ‘climbing game’. NPC: This is bound to the current setting. What can be said independently is that it influence the favor required to prevent misbehavior and to control their basic fears. It might also set a timer of how long NPCs will stay with you until they return to a safe zone. Food: It is possible to completely deactivate the degeneration or use universal food packs (only one useable per day. They boost three attributes of the player’s choosing) instead of different food types. Catastrophe: The amount of unwanted disaster the character is going to face. Mostly preset. Health: See Health section. On easy a simple hit point counter is used while body parts are activated on normal and hard. The hardest difficulty only includes more hideous and some lethal diseases. Monsters: Determines the behavior of the more animalistic inhabitants of the game world. How likely they will attack the player and NPCs, their territorial expansions over the course of the game and so forth. Saving: Standard (always), Daily, Weekly and Monthly. Traits: Handicaps your possibilities to learn Disillusion perks (undecided) And this should finally cover the most basic things I want to see in the final game (hopefully functional and entertaining). I think I’ll continue Part 2 which focus on setting and characters in the ‘Writing for Games’ Forum. But it is 6 o’clock in the morning so it’s really time to find an end for now. Hoped you've enjoyed it so far (and applause to you if you really read the whole thing) Good night. [Edited by - Pussycat_669 on April 28, 2010 4:47:47 PM]