[quote=“Binky, post:28, topic:5254”][quote=“ted, post:27, topic:5254”]Well, on the one hand, the outline has a survival section that claims survival will be difficult and take a lot of time. The outline also has a progress section that suggests that survival is only the first, potentially short stage of the game, and after that you have time to explore and learn skills. The low-intensity section also suggests that you aren’t obligated to pursue elements you aren’t interested in, and super-intense situations are rare if you do not seek them out.
So to put all that together, there is apparently an early point in the game where you have enough spare time to go exploring, yet can instead avoid exploration and spend as much of that time as desired on survival tasks in safer locations. I think it’s likely that survival will be easy at that point.[/quote]
There’s certainly a point where survival will become easier, but I don’t think it’s a design goal for it to ever become easy or trivial (being a survivalcraft game that would make the game kinda pointless). Food and Water based survival may become easier, but I imagine other things will take up the mantle of making survival more difficult (monsters, poison rain and so on).
Really though, I’m very much for ageing being optional/a late game effect, and definitely shouldn’t be a short term/early game concern.[/quote]
To clear up a few things:
Survival, in the sense of food/water/shelter, is important but ideally fairly straightforward, and thereafter not a constant concern. You can turn it up if you’re into survivalcraft (reduce city sizes, etc) but if you take a few days, pin down a supply of water & the means to purify it, locate a reliable shelter, and develop some means of reliably obtaining food, you should be able to maintain that base without devoting most of your character’s time to this day-to-day maintenance.
(The idea is that you have to look after your character. We’re not as strict as Unreal World, but much more so than GearHead, where you can operate literally around-the-clock with food as a recovery item rather than a fuel. Even Nethack, which does require food, doesn’t require hydration or sleep (and in fact sleeping is purely a negative there). Different genres, different priorities, and all that though. Not saying they’re bad games because they don’t require maintenance.)
Now, if it turns out that there’s fungus nearby, or you missed that Triffid grove, or oops there’s a Jabberwock, then yeah, rebasing may make Survival a high priority again. Ditto for winter and temperature problems.
And as for aging, I think ted nailed the problem with timing. By the time you’ve played a char long enough for aging to be a factor, you’ll find it an unfair effort-wasting mechanic. I’m not sold on imposing the type of Terminally Ill ted proposes, but I could imagine it being something possibly associated with the Nether Cliff.
