Gym, abdominal and curl-ups

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

i think it would be great if i can train my character with gym, abdominal exercise and curl-ups
that train should be tiring but useful to earn point in strenght
what you think about it?

2

training in the long term might make sense, but training and “getting 1 strength point” for “getting tired” doesn’t sound reasonable.

3

of course, you can’t get 1 point for each time you train
it should work like any other traits, with a % number… when you reach 100 you gain a point

4

There should be a limit or cap to stat raise though, or else to player can grind their STR to infinite. Also, if this idea ever get implemented, I think it should be hard to access and provide no immediate advantages - training will cost you valuable time, make you go hungry and thirsty faster and give you a negative “strained” effect, but if you’re willingly to go through all the troubles then eventually your stat will increase.

5

We’ve definitely got some ideas about providing ways for the player to gain stats over the long term without mutations/bionics, but until someone takes a closer look at it (and nothing more important occupies that spot first) it’s on hold. Any system added should have these traits though:

  1. There should be a maximum limit stats can increase, similar to the real world (you can only get so strong)
  2. Stats should only be trained with related tasks
  3. Stats should be able to decay if you don’t practice them over time
  4. The new meta should not become “and then grind stats for the first week”. The most likely way I could see accomplishing this is by linking stats to an even slower growth rate then skills. Getting better stats should (at least early on) feel like something that comes about as a result of surviving, not something that you must do to survive. Later on survivors may gain access to training regimen that allows them to maintain or increase their stats at the cost of resources and time rather then actual live training instead.
6

^this

7

I agree with this, that why I suggest them to be hard to gain access to unless the player has found a gym and has enough supply to dedicate to training - something a starting character will definitely fall short.

8

[quote=“i2amroy, post:5, topic:3617”]We’ve definitely got some ideas about providing ways for the player to gain stats over the long term without mutations/bionics, but until someone takes a closer look at it (and nothing more important occupies that spot first) it’s on hold. Any system added should have these traits though:

  1. There should be a maximum limit stats can increase, similar to the real world (you can only get so strong)
  2. Stats should only be trained with related tasks
  3. Stats should be able to decay if you don’t practice them over time
  4. The new meta should not become “and then grind stats for the first week”. The most likely way I could see accomplishing this is by linking stats to an even slower growth rate then skills. Getting better stats should (at least early on) feel like something that comes about as a result of surviving, not something that you must do to survive. Later on survivors may gain access to training regimen that allows them to maintain or increase their stats at the cost of resources and time rather then actual live training instead.[/quote]

No more than 2 Points into each relevant area? Reading boosts Intelligence, Gyms boosts Stranth, Not sure what to do for Dexterity and Perception though… Decays over… Ten days if not maintained? But the question then is does fighting zeds, hauling heavy crap, or other things count as “training” …

9

Attributes are a bit tricky because they impact so much of the game. It shouldn’t be easy to raise and maintain a high level of an attribute.

Simply going to the gym until you reach 100% and then getting a permanent +1 strength doesn’t really sit well with me.

I have a few very different ideas of how this might work;

  1. Temporary buffs. Instead of getting a permanent +1 strength, what you do is you work out at the gym for a while and when you reach 100% you get a ‘Feeling Fit’ buff that gives you +1 strength. This might last for two days. If you work out again the next day it takes longer but modifies the bonus to +2 and it lasts two days. That is the best you can do. If you train again it simply resets the counter. So +2 strength is the best you can get, and if you let it go past the two day mark you drop back down to +1, and after another two days you lose the buff and must start over.

Studying at a library could be done to improve intelligence in the same way. I’m less sure about dexterity and perception.

  1. ‘Fixed’ attribute pivot points with attribute rust. The idea here is that every character has the same attribute pivot point - the point at which the attribute ‘rests.’ The ‘zero point’ if you will. In this case I’d probably suggest eight as a pivot point, since that’s the default starting position. Basically, the higher you are training your attribute, the harder it is to train, and the harder it is to maintain. Attributes will decay faster at 12 than they do at 10 or 9, and stop decaying at 8. In order to make this easier, simply performing certain actions (melee fighting > strength, reading > intelligence, etcetera) will slow down attribute decay. In order to raise an attribute you must perform some action, such as a generic studying action at the library or working out at the gym. (This system would obviously make taking high starting attributes less attractive)

  2. ‘Adjustable’ attribute pivot points with attribute rust. Similar to above, except the pivot point is the average between your 8 and your ‘natural’ attribute (adjusted by mutations etc). So if you started with 12 strength, your pivot point would be 10 instead of eight. If you got a mutation that raised your strength by +2, your pivot point would be 11.

2 and 3 would require some system by which strength could be lost below a pivot point, probably. Sickness and starvation could lower attributes below the pivot point. Because they are below the pivot they would naturally be inclined to raise back to your pivot, with or without specific training. So rather than decaying they would slowly, naturally raise until the pivot is reached.

Just some ideas off the top of my head. I think the first idea is probably the easiest to implement and the easiest to balance.

10

Perception training: Where’s Waldo.

Dexterity training: Playboy.

11

Extend the training to other actions could work I think, but that will warrant a different discussion. Right now I vote for the temporary raise (or permanent raise for the one or two +1?) in stat, the stats will eventually go down to starting values. The higher (or lower) they stray from the default, the harder it will be to maintain and stat rusts faster. This raise should still have a cap.