Hi all, new here. I am developing a game based on the book and movie "Fear and loathing in Las Vegas". The story is basically about substance abuse, and so is just one big psychedelic trip. In my game, a FP driving game, the player has to be under constant influence of a drug, or combination of drugs, of choice. Each drug has it's own effects, presenting obstacles, but also leveling out the effect of another drug. I have all kinds of halucinations and image altering effects and the like, got some nice ideas from this forum, too.. Great! Now my question; I want to have a penalty for NOT being under influence of drugs, since then it would just be a driving game.. I didn't give this any thought up to now, I just thought the car would stop, or something like that. But then I came to realize that storywise it would be nice to have "reality" (when not using drugs) even worse than all the bad trips drugs produce.. explaining a bit why the character needs drugs. I once wrote a game also involving drugs, I then had the score count down, really bad music playing.. but I would like to have a more visual or gameplay aspect, that motivates the player to take drugs.. Any ideas?

Maybe when the main character's not on all that mesculine, he can't drive properly coz he's hung over from the drugs? So the driving is harder to control, with sudden jerks and reckless manouvres. After too much of this, the police start chasing you and if they catch ya, your buggered.

EDIT: Fear and Loathing's a fooking excellent film by the way!

Life and all it's trouble get back, he get lots of sad flashback about it ex-girl/boy friend ! Violent thing he endurer during is youth, well, bad thing that have made him a junkie!

boredom? although i don't know how that would be implemented.

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Original post by krez boredom? although i don't know how that would be implemented.

Many games implement that, but usually is not intended. Try to walk in Driver 3.

I definatly think having a hangover style penalty would be a good idea. The guy has so hard that if he doesn't keep pumping himself hes going to crash real hard. So when hes not on drugs he starts driving really slow untill he gets someting to get him going again. Makes sense to me *shrug*

Well, Dr. Gonzo didn't take drugs to stay awake, or because his car would stop if he didn't. He didn't show any signs of addiction to any particular drug, though he took certain drugs to counter the "crash" of earlier drugs. So the suggestion of game-play penalties seems a bit forced.

I suggest: make it so that without drugs, the game is really really boring. Cars take forever to get where they're going, people just walk in straight lines and don't do anything, traffic lights last way too long and there are always cars in front of you so you can't run them, your car's handling gets somewhat more conservative. Nothing to significantly change the rules, but enough that it would suck to not be under the influence of any drugs.

I agree with the after-effect idea.

Drugs that make people feel more energetic deplete the body's resources and afterwards the person can be very tired, as well as depressed - this could be put into the game my the player simply falling asleep (black view and no input, with the player waking up when he crashes into something).

Perhaps the punishment the player receives should be based upon which drugs they have been using recently, leading to a number of possibilities.

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Original post by Sneftel So the suggestion of game-play penalties seems a bit forced. I suggest: make it so that without drugs, the game is really really boring. Cars take forever to get where they're going, people just walk in straight lines and don't do anything, traffic lights last way too long and there are always cars in front of you so you can't run them, your car's handling gets somewhat more conservative. Nothing to significantly change the rules, but enough that it would suck to not be under the influence of any drugs.

I´d go with that one. Just slow the game down the more sober he gets, let all the colors bleed out and switch the music...

That was me BTW. Good luck with the game too.