Sleep and the level up lottery

AJ · 2004-05-13T18:43:26

I''ve got a very bizarre approach to eating and sleeping in an RPG that just might make them something more than an inconvenience. Players start the game as refugees at a central location and as such are innoculated. Storywise, they''re injected with nanotechnology which regulates their bodies and builds an implant in their brain. Nanotech helps them to stay healthy as they explore wildly different alien environments or interact with aliens, and the implant helps them store and recall more knowledge than a human normally could. Gameplaywise, eating and sleeping restore health, as in many RPGs. If the player is in any kind of civilization, and doesn''t have food but has money or property, they''re assumed to be eating and sleeping. A minimum stipend is automatically deducted each eat and rest period, unless they have property or a ship, inwhich case its free. The stipend scales with their reputation, but is overridden if the player uses facilities on the map (like a fleabag hotel). Items like stimpacks and nutripills help them ignore their needs and keep functioning. Wild / Hostile / Destitute If they''re marooned on an unsettled world, too poor, or behind enemy lines however, they have a timed meter for eating and sleeping which kicks in. This creates goal based gameplay no matter what map their on. Eating Players not equipped with food must eat or all healing effects become capped. Not eating in 5 days caps healing to 75%, 15 days after that to 50%, 30 days to 25%. After 35 days without food, the player is reduced to one hit point as their nanotech cannibalizes their tissue to keep their vital organs and brain alive. Players can beg for food at the cost of a lowered reputation and negative social reaction Players can break into locations or mug other NPCs for resources to buy food Players can click on dumpster disposals and risk lowered reputation if witnessed and the possibility of disease Sleeping Players must find secure shelter and sleep when their sleep meter runs out or all skill tests they try will be no better than 50/50, even if their skills would make the test higher. Every time they try an automatic skill, like aiming, a red reminder quietly pops up over the skill result. All minigames (which rely on player skill) are set to maximum difficulty Sleeping in a socially unsanctioned place, like a park bench, earns lowered reputation due to the social stigma, and opens a player up to attack by brigands and fines or jail by police on some worlds. Some worlds have shelters for free. Interesting NPCs can be met there, just like any other place on the map. Normal / Level Up Even though they don''t need to eat in civilized areas when they have money, leveling up might give them the incentive to maintain the role-playing feel. But in this case it''s NOT mandatory: Their nanotech system can be configured by eating, their implant "familiar" by dreaming. The system can assimilate new material every few hours, coinciding with the player''s normal hunger cycle. The implant can synthesize new information every so many hours, in time with the player''s sleep cycle. Eating Eating different vitamin/nano enriched foods raise resistance to one element or disease while always lowering another. Zelenae Brainwheat, for instance, allows them to configure their nano so that the get +2 vs. electrical damage, but -3 versus heat damage. The amount raised or lowered depends on the type and quality of food. Certain alien foods, like Kovaunn Bilemeal, would require a Will check, depending on the species. Failure would result in an inability to eat the food for that time period. Alien/incompatible foods would have the biggest gains but most risk associated, as in temporary poisoning, paralysis or stat loss. The quality of the food relates to the ratio of positive to negative effects, as well as its expense Cooking food would change nano-properties, and there may be some room for genetic experimentation and cooking gear. Civilied areas would contain roaming robot kiosks, restaurants and dives which had varying types and qualities of quisine. Some places in the universe would be more reknown for certain dishes than others. Sleeping Sleeping allows the player to train in their dreams, improving skills The player plays a minigame to improve their skills Skills don''t become hardcoded in memory until the player wakes up They can play one round of the minigame once for each hour they sleep They can only sleep a maximum of double the species average (16 for terrans) The better they do at the game, the more points they get (from between 1-3 per round) The higher their skill, the tougher the game becomes Failures in the minigame can erase successes of previous rounds, by so many points Players can make their skills go up by more than 1-3 rounds by risking up to 10 points in an existing skill they previously learned. This buys them 1 extra point, but if they lose, they lose 10 skill points. (Their brain is reorganizing neurons and memory). Different facilities and gadgets modify the number of rounds they can play. A cot near a noisy machine, for instance, is -6 rounds, while a Dreambed gives +2. Comments? -------------------- Just waiting for the mothership...

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by Wavinator May 07, 2004 05:29 AM

19 comments, last by Wavinator 20 years, 8 months ago

TechnoGoth

2,939

May 13, 2004 06:43 PM

Whats so hard about eating? If characters automatically eat as long as they have supplies and the player is notified when suppplies are low then they really have no exsuse for being taken off guard by the effect of prolonged hunger. Besides it will teach them a lesson and give the good story to tell.

Luke : "You where right Han I should have eaten dinner last night or at least breakfast this morning. But I really did come that close to destroying the deathstar."

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Sleep and the level up lottery

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Sleep and the level up lottery

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