Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.development (
More info?)
On 26 Jul 2005 16:36:00 -0700, "Thomas" <comments@foresightsagas.com>
wrote:
>I guess it comes down to testing with most of these (silly?) ideas. Do
>they add or detract from the game. I think if you only had to sleep
>every few hours...
Before you post them one-by-one, here's a pretty extensive list of
possible player states:
8.2 Food Related States. A character needs to eat.
8.2.1 A character's range of satiation from food ranges from
"starving" through "hungry", (nameless state), and "full" to
"stuffed".
8.3 Thirst Related States. A character needs to drink.
8.3.1 Like food, but goes "parched", "thirsty", (nameless state),
"quenched", "bloated".
8.4 Rest Related States. A character needs adequate sleep and rest.
8.4.1 "Exhausted", "tired", (nameless state), "rested", "perky".
Unlike food and drink, a character cannot have a too-rested penalty
(although this is not strictly realistic, an "overslept" state goes
beyond what I'd want). There is also an "asleep" state and possibly a
"dreaming" state might be used. Also a "doped" state for drug induced
slumber.
8.5 Environmental States. Temperature influences a character's
performance.
8.5.1 "Hot", "warm", (nameless state), "cool", "cold". Possibly also a
"wet" or "damp" state if in the rain unprotected having been in a body
of water. Other possible states?
8.6 Other States. All the other things.
8.6.1 There are some good or possibly good conditions: fast, berserk,
sharp (heightened senses).
8.6.2 There are some states caused by various damage types: bleeding,
frostbitten, burnt, stunned, knocked out.
8.6.3 There are some psychological states: afraid, panicked, paranoid,
confused, hallucinating, giddy. Hajo's suggested happy, lonely,
enthusiastic, depressed and one could add other "morale" states like
bored, proud, ashamed.
8.6.4 There are some miscellaneous physical states: nauseated,
sneezing, poisoned, infected, blinded, congested, paralyzed, slow,
drunk, mute, deaf, numb.
8.7 I'm not sure where to put suffocating, which could be caused by an
attack or by submersion in liquid (drowning, might be better as yet
another condition as liquid enters lungs) or by lack of breathable
air. I do need to include a "needs air" type of condition for when the
@ forgets his spacesuit or lets the air run out (duh!)
8.7.1 For that matter, one could be "on fire" as well.
8.8 While "poisoned" and "infected" are single displayed states, there
should be individual toxins and diseases with differing
characteristics.
8.8.1 Need to track course of infections and toxins where effects are
non-simple. Infection can include parasites, including the "eggs that
hatch into little monsters that eat the host before bursting out".
8.9 Stance: Stance is the state of one's physical position. It can
modify movement, combat, and other actions.
8.9.1 A character has exactly one stance.
8.9.2 Humanoid stances: standing, sitting, kneeling, prone, supine.
I think this is a dangerously near-exhaustive list and way too much
for most purposes. Unless you want to emphasize survival in "nature"
rather than in combat, avoid thirst. Air shouldn't be a concern in
fantasy setting unless it's underwater or something. Even the various
bad physical states can be hard to distinguish meaningfully. No point
in having deafness unless you've already got a sound model working.
Also, most games will *not* want to have individuated
poisons/infections because medical science isn't a game element. This
is pulled from my Prototype notes, which is a space opera setting and
on alien worlds, survival needs for water and air come into play (in
an urban setting, the game should assume you stop at a water fountain
now and again and not even run the thirst counter). Drunk and confuse
are likely indistinguishable in most games. Stances is getting into
exotica for fantasy RLs, but I think is important for a game full of
gunplay.
--
R. Dan Henry = danhenry@inreach.com
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram