Neutral traits at start (flavor text)

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

i saw an old thread, and it told me to make a new one, now I’m here.
Tile-sets use the traits to change the character.
Thus i suggest a third trait category for neutral traits.
Hair color, height, skin color, age, facial hair, eye color. Allowing a person to paint a better image of the world, or allow a tile-set maker to do that for us. I’m sure you can think of more, but those basic traits should be included, and if you put them in the current 2 categories, that’s just discrimination. Plus for the NPCs, that would just color the world a bit more. We have albino, which would overhaul the rest, but still. I want to be able to describe my character in game, and have a minor effect. And if you wanted, you could throw in racists to shoot, but that’s up to you.

I have no more to this point. Sorry to the tileset makers if this gets made, since you would have plenty more things to add. I speaking to them in general but there is one that comes to mind more than others.

2

I think all smal things that have no effect ingame should be left for your imagination.

3

[quote=“SioxGWolf, post:1, topic:10878”]i saw an old thread, and it told me to make a new one, now I’m here.
Tile-sets use the traits to change the character.
Thus i suggest a third trait category for neutral traits.
Hair color, height, skin color, age, facial hair, eye color. Allowing a person to paint a better image of the world, or allow a tile-set maker to do that for us. I’m sure you can think of more, but those basic traits should be included, and if you put them in the current 2 categories, that’s just discrimination. Plus for the NPCs, that would just color the world a bit more. We have albino, which would overhaul the rest, but still. I want to be able to describe my character in game, and have a minor effect. And if you wanted, you could throw in racists to shoot, but that’s up to you.

I have no more to this point. Sorry to the tileset makers if this gets made, since you would have plenty more things to add. I speaking to them in general but there is one that comes to mind more than others.[/quote]
Would having blond or red hair count as negative or neutral?

4

Beautiful/Ugly Truth teller/Liar are already flavor text. >.>

I think this is one of those cases where it might be better to just open the tileset files and DIY it to what you want.

5

Well, sometimes letting RNG give a general description of a character would be better, plus a few mutations that have no effect ingame already exist, like snake eyes. This is more for people who use tile sets, who want it visualized for them rather than they doing it themselves.

Neutral, for the most part. I can’t even think why you’ed ask.
And

[quote=“Iosyn, post:4, topic:10878”]Beautiful/Ugly Truth teller/Liar are already flavor text. >.>

I think this is one of those cases where it might be better to just open the tileset files and DIY it to what you want.[/quote]
No those are not flavor text really, they have an effect when dealing with NPCs. And two, I’m not at all skilled in coding, and while I have the right mindset, I can’t actual write it in.

6

Well blonde would come with a penalty to intelligence and red-hair would be like the ugly trait, only worse. Obviously neither would be neutral. /s
I think adding this stuff would detract from the game tbh. A lot of the immersion for me comes from imagining the things the game doesn’t specify outright.

7

Well blonde would come with a penalty to intelligence and red-hair would be like the ugly trait, only worse. Obviously neither would be neutral. /s
I think adding this stuff would detract from the game tbh. A lot of the immersion for me comes from imagining the things the game doesn’t specify outright.[/quote]
Ok, hate speech.
Second, it would help with the immersion.
Ok, imagine a guy. What is he like? Describe him.
It would be more like a book. Yes, their skin color and hair color is defined, the style of hair is defined, he does have a scar across his cheek. But, what you see as I give you general descriptors can still be wildly different from mine. You are given guidelines that your mind uses to build a character, instead of doing it yourself.

Let me build a scene.
I walk in a bar of a small settlement, all dead butchered and gone decent time ago. At the front I see what appears to be a sheriff, his skin tanned by the sun, a wide dirt covered beard showing bits of grey on his chin, drinking with a pastor and a strangely casual man. The pastor was tall, even while sitting, his skin a deep brown, what is left of his hair gone bright white. He wore his coat over a Kevlar vest. His smile may be from the third member. The asian man was leaning far back, joking and laugh with the two, but more so with himself. He wore a brown jacket, dark blue jeans, and a black pair of boots. His black hair tied back into a pony tail, his eyes wide as he talked, only to close tightly as he laughed. With each joke, the large pastor would let out a quiet snicker, while the sheriff sat quietly, only moving to drink from the mug.

Ok read the short scene?

Ok, now tell me this.
how long is the pony tail?
Is the pastor large because he’s strong or because of a slower metabolism.
What does the sheriff wear? What color is his hair, besides the grey and dirt?
While I gave and described these characters, I was going off my mind, but even so, what I imagine won’t be the same as you imagine. By describing the characters, you are given something, A world. Not a world in you own little mind,where everyone has brown short hair, a scar across the eye, or even around the same kind of traits. You are given a world that is a world of it’s own, though you fill in the lines not stated. You can be more immersed by the fact you are not the one building the image from scratch, but are filling in the black and nonstated. You don’t have to write the characters, just imagine them.
This is not for just the people who use tilesets, who need help seeing the world, it’s for the people who want to be part of the story, not writing every detail, but making those details my own. Living a novel, a world not fully mine, but still my own.
Plus it’s just a third column, and a necessary definer when generation NPCs.

Describe a character to me. Then describe what my character would look like. I’m just curious.

8

I really hate when people water this term down to worthlessness.

Second, it would help with the immersion.

Why don’t you just open notepad.exe and type “hazel eyes and a pony tail” and keep it open as you play. It would be precisely as relevant without requiring anyone to code it.

9

I like imagining myself without the help of a predetermined set of words, thanks.

10

Sorry bro, didn’t mean to ‘trigger’ you. No wait, actually, I’m not sorry. It was a joke, I even spelled out that fact for the benefit of those who take everything too seriously. Calling a gentle prod at fairly universal stereotypes ‘hate speech’ is asinine and undermines the use of those words in situations that warrant them.

As far as your idea of immersion, if I wanted that level of detail to be spoonfed to me, I’d be playing Fallout. I get more out of a game that gives me an outline and lets my mind fill in the details. I’m utterly unconcerned that the world my ‘little mind’ (really?) paints doesn’t match yours. Happy in fact.

11

[quote=“Malkeus, post:10, topic:10878”]Sorry bro, didn’t mean to ‘trigger’ you. No wait, actually, I’m not sorry. It was a joke, I even spelled out that fact for the benefit of those who take everything too seriously. Calling a gentle prod at fairly universal stereotypes ‘hate speech’ is asinine and undermines the use of those words in situations that warrant them.

As far as your idea of immersion, if I wanted that level of detail to be spoonfed to me, I’d be playing Fallout. I get more out of a game that gives me an outline and lets my mind fill in the details. I’m utterly unconcerned that the world my ‘little mind’ (really?) paints doesn’t match yours. Happy in fact.[/quote]
Hm… alright. Opinions and ways the thing works. I suffer from a lack of a sense of humor, and sorry for that inconvenience. It’s just the flavor text is something I defend because I feel it need.

When writing a tale, making a story, character have to be made. But, when I am left with such few details, I am left immersed. When I create a character, I find that either they are a stereotype, or they are anything but that stereotype, which kind of goes back to being that stereotype. The character are similar, always similar. I feel as immersed as if I were in a story of my own, from scratch.

But, if I were given just a few more details, I can see a more varied world. Not everyone a stereotype, or some white guy with brown hair, or some white girl with blond hair. Where I live, variety is so little, so samey. With a few details, a few simple descriptors, and then I feel more in a different world, rather than a world of look alikes and blah.

I don’t see why you care so much about something that will affect you little. It’s for someone who wants a bit more of a live world than a game. Why should you care if there is some unused details added to each character and NPC? You can do without, this isn’t for you. It’s for people who want the details to give them some more foundation to help them imagine the world, or for the people who, like Fallout, want to see the details. Those are the people who use tilesets, that is what the tilesets are for. And if these are in, a tileset can use these descriptors to change the sprite.

Chesthole can show everything you wear, every mutation, the tools and weapons you can use. With these assigned descriptors, they can do more.

I see this and I see how you say how useless this is. And for you, it is useless. It simply isn’t for you, it’s not. You are the kind people who probably don’t use tile sets. I bet you don’t, or don’t care they’re there. This is for people who do use them. for the people who make them.

I mean, there is snake eyes mutation, which does nothing. It is useless. So why would it exist?

I’m sorry for how I act, how I may offend you, how my opinions differ so much from yours. I do hope you will forgive me for my faults, and at least try to read what I write, and understand why I think the way I do. Also, I kind of knew you where joking, so I retorted in kind. Again, sorry for lacking a decent sense of humor.

12

Okay if you’re gonna make jokes about stereotypes, you gotta make it more clear you’re joking broh.

But on topic because I am done with humouring derails: There’s a difference between ‘useless’ and ‘functionless’. Character traits that add nothing to gameplay dynamics and so are code-wise functionless, but are certainly of use to the player who feels like their imagination is being supported by the game’s presentation.

If such a function were made, I’d package it up as an optional mod for those who want it: a visual version that plugs in with chesthole/tilesets, and a text-only version for those who prefer the ascii retro look. For anyone who doesn’t need their character’s appearance confirmed outside of their imagination, it is pure clutter. So don’t make it main branch. Seems an easy enough compromise.

I feel an addition of such details would be more useful in helping make npc’s memorable, honestly. NPC’s are something we run into a lot and they can get pretty cookie-cutter and hard to care about as individuals in the game. A little uniqueness right now would not solve the problem though - what they really need first is a personality and sanity/behaviour overhaul. After that point though, I could see a few ‘neutral traits’ like that adding to my ability to keep track of who I’m interacting with, more than just a name and a gun.

I was under the impression snake eyes as a trait added points to your mutation line in the direction of reptile - it does nothing on its own, as it is a stepping stone to further mutations. More of a game balance move there, or a means of graduating one’s mutations so one doesn’t poof into a lizard all at once. Wasn’t it a prerequisite to later forms of enhanced vision? This differentiates it greatly from neutral traits, which are not prerequisites for any sort of progression.

13

If this were implemented, I would separate the character description out of the traits/mutations and make it an optional part of character generation.

14

This mostly was for NPCs. Yes, but that also includes your character.
This kind of goes with how I’ed like to see character creation and multiple characters work.
Rather than picking some random traits, balancing out your points, choose a name, gender, and done… I want something different.
First, gender than name.
Second, your time line. You can play a character as young as 18, around the legal age to work.
You can divide your time, and what you did leading up to the point where you play.
Example: spent youth in scouts, went to school,got a drivers license and a car, college, police academy, and did that until cataclysm, where I went to the Evac center as it happened. I am about 27.
From that, certain skilled and things are given.
Scouts gives survival, first aid (medician) and social skills, school, reading/writing skill, science, physical skill (which I want to go more into), drivers license and car, driving, college, like school, police academy, more driving, negotiation, physical and mental skills, a restraining nonlethal fighting style, shooting, and all that.
But, also being a cop means lacking certain traits that would prevent passing the test, and high enough skills to pass it. Of course this game accomidates it, but just from seeing Rycon play, and Noah lacks driving, brings up the idea of it.
But, also traits thing. And through here we assign traits all people have.
Gender, simple
Skin color (I describe appearence later)
Height (more of a general statement, and this has a slight effect on a few things.)
Hair Color (appearence)
Eye color
Hair style (Bald, risk sunburns without a hat, lacks encumberance, warmth, and appearence will be described later, while the styles have an effect in warmth, encumbernce, appearence, and also allows others to use it against you.)
Facial Hair
Willingness to kill (From so pacifist that you couldn’t kill a gnat, to the so psycopathic that it is an unconrtollable act)
Sight (blind-see in the dark)
ECt.
You see where I’m going with that.
But let’s continue
Favorite color
Favorite flavor(s) (The more you have, the less it effects you, in the moral sense)
Hated color
Hated Flavor(s) (still the same as favorite)
How vain you are (discussed later)
Favorite subject (Like you could enjoy a textbook on the subject)

Alright, now you argue that they are functionless. Let’s add the function.
hair grows, that leads to problems, it’s why there is a military mandated haircut. You cut your hair so you can wear that nice hat, but with hair, it’s warm, yet also shaded, so no sunburn.
Now, now the purpose of skin colors, and hair colors, and all the vanity, and the reason you loving purple has a game play effect.

There are two people, both twins. In every way they’re identical except one, eye color. How do you decide? Well, the one difference. While many say appearence doesn’t matter, it’s was proven otherwise by science. Humanity lost many, and to return, more is needed (for reasons, a Sims-like approach is recommended)
Also, the higher you are in vanity, the more moral benefit you get for looking right and good, but the more your effect by not.

Also, racism does exist, and in most games it would be terrible. In this one, it can be solved with ease.

And if you don’t want to worry about any of it, Just leave it all on the default, random.
This is mostly for NPCs, and I do wish that I could also set the personality of my character when he’s an NPC, who does stuff when i swap to another in the same world. Of course, I will spawn very far from my other half, so interaction is brought down in chance, also play another character does put your original at risk.

Also, the better luck you have biologically, the worse luck you have situationally.
Of course it’s a rough thing, and what not but eh.

Oh almost forgot, facial hair does have a purpose. Like nose hair and ear hair. It’s natures air filter! Also keeps them nice and warm, and shaded.

But I can see why people don’t like it, it is clutter for those who don’t need it. They don’t care about what the world looks like, they’re here for the game or something.