"What''s a character without their senses? A robot is my answer"

no, that actually happened to me. You know how when you''re asleep you aren''t aware of anything really? I woke up in the middle of the night but I didn''t regain my body for a while. I was just this disembodied mind, it was the most horrifying experience ever. I couldn''t see, I couldn''t feel, nothing. Just pure void. I would have screamed by I had no mouth or lungs. Then my body came back after a few seconds, the mere physical awareness of your own body is such a relief. There actually is a difference between having your eyes closed in a very dark room and having no eyes at all, even though both seem black.

Ever play Asheron''s Call. In it, each skill''s base stat was calculated based on your attributes plus however much training you have in it. Why not use this idea. Example: Lock Pick Base = 1/2 Dexterity + Touch ... Hunting = Sight + Hearing + Smell ... Detect Poison = Luck + Taste + 1/2 Smell. See what I''m saying.

paul : ok, I am not sure where you are going with your implants, but it make me realise one thing. Most implants improve your perception. Larger bandwidth for sound perception, larger spectrum for sight, anti blinding/deafening filters (at as a buffer before the actual physical parts are damaged), skin captors, to enhance perception of heat, pH variations, humidity, UV levels, etc. Can be used to perceive through contact, various information on other people (how much they sweat, temperature, etc).
Taste enhancer (increase the perception of sweet/salt/acid/bitter... that''s all the taste sense does, really), combined with chemical analyser (through smell). With different chemical databases (become instantely a "nose" of the perfume industry, detect all the varieties of poison known to mankind, turn into a famous gourmet, a wine taster, etc )

As well, you say that there *could* be some sense dominating another... well, there is already. It just depends the person. For instance, I know that I am much more tactile than most people I know here in Ireland. Because in France we tend to have more phsyical contacts when talking, or whatever. But I must say I enjoy all my senses equally, because I *know* I might leave one behind if I didn''t do that.
For instance, do you recognise people by their scent/perfume ? (I know I do that for girls I *know* a bit )
Can you remember the texture of the skin of someone you really like ? Can you visualize the little details in a picture you really like, do you see the little offset printings when you look at a printed paper, are you fascinated when you watch a sunset, or the sky in general, at any time of the day or night ?
Do you keep alcohol in the mouth for a little while, just to smell it better, before swallowing ? Do you *enjoy* eating food ?

If you can answer yes to all those questions, then I guess I can say you are using your senses in a balanced way. But I honestly don''t think people bother that much. (Maybe I am just being arrogantly condescending here ... sorry if I sound like that). what I am saying is that it seems natural (realistic) to have some sense be more important than other. Especially when one is missing, it seems that other improve in compensation. Maybe you should study that ?

As for another sense, well ... I was hesitating putting it in as it is blindingly obvious : the sixth sense
Otherwise called instincts. Though with so much wetware, my definition of instincts seem to make it useless (the 6th sense).
Also you could expand on extra sensory perception, that is, psychic skills And that''s a whole new territory to go into, so I''ll leave you with my ideas above for now !

youpla :-P

There could be a sixth sense. I was thinking of having it so if the character get too boosted up on implants then they start to loose touch with their senses. Maybe this would not be a good idea. But if there was a sixth sense in the game then the player could loose this when their character surpasses a level of installed implants because they have become less human and more robotic.

quote:
Ever play Asheron''s Call. In it, each skill''s base stat was calculated based on your attributes plus however much training you have in it. Why not use this idea. Example: Lock Pick Base = 1/2 Dexterity + Touch ... Hunting = Sight + Hearing + Smell ... Detect Poison = Luck + Taste + 1/2 Smell. See what I''m saying.

No i havn''t played this game but i have considered the system that you''ve suposed in my earlier posts. It won''t be this simple though. Although it might end up being simple depending on the amount of processor juice i get left with. I''m hoping on having a dynamic energy scale that will fluctuate depending on what the character does. The energy level will scale the characters attributes and senses. This way the player will have to think about their character instead of just using it like a toy doll. The character will have it''s own feedback to the player.


"So you're the one that designed that game are you?"
*Gulp* "Umm, yeah"

Paul : there is a similar idea in Cyberpunk 2020. Basically, the more you get wired with implants, the less human you are. And what is the difference between the android and the human ? The instincts hence the lack of sixth sense for an android. Of course, the android, with all his captors, and stuff is already quite boosted, but it makes a balance. A human can still beat a machine, thanks to his humanity ... see the movie Solo for a nice example ("what do you call lying ? You mean I can fake to be hurt to distract him ? But we cyborgs don''t do that !")
Or the mad cyberpriest in Johnny Mnemonic.

youpla :-P

With the Cyberpunk thing...Shadowrun does something similar.
Basically you are given a set number(6 in the game) which
is considered your ''essence'' or how much of your astral signiture(read:spirit) is still intact. You can modify your body to a point, but implants drop it down depending on how drastic they are, and when you reach zero there is no astral signiture left(read:YOU DIE).Of course...then there is cybermancy....but thats a little unbalancing in a game.
-Run_The_Shadows
-Run_The_Shadows@excite.com