I think it would be cool to have sanity stats and effects, even if it’s slight morale penalties initially for having tons of bodies without the requisite serial killerish traits like cold blooded or what ever. Then, when Mi-Go and Things and such show up, you start taking bigger sanity hits, and may even gain some negative traits, like paranoid, or schizoid. Not full on schizophrenia. Just hearing voices. Whispers in the darkness.
Of course, you could probably combat these things with the proper drugs. You can’t punch fog, as Terry Pratchett once wrote. I mean, if you’re really drunk, how’s something going to scare you? You can’t fully comprehend it. Ah, it’s a squid face. Who gives a shit? Shotgun! BLAM!
Once you can get used to the stuff, yeah, having it be disconcerting might be interesting. Permanent SAN penalties just because the wrong mob spawned seems frustrating though.
I agree that any long term, “Lose the Game” type effects like Infra Arcana ought not to be a feature.
One ought to be able to carry on as a crazy person. Maybe gain a random non animal mutation, like carnivore, or cannibal.
[quote=“TheGrifter, post:3, topic:2693”]I agree that any long term, “Lose the Game” type effects like Infra Arcana ought not to be a feature.
One ought to be able to carry on as a crazy person. Maybe gain a random non animal mutation, like carnivore, or cannibal.[/quote]
Uh, Carnivore is considered an animal mutation: your body actually rejects plant-based food. (That includes Royal Jelly. D: ) If Heartless or Cold Blooded w(as) still in, those might work. Cannibal seems overkill IMO.
Edited to remove confusingly incorrect reference-KA101
[quote=“Nighthawk, post:5, topic:2693”]Seeing disturbing things ought to at least hit your morale a little bit, and maybe killing them would get rid of the effect sooner.
I also think hearing a little girl crying while in the darkness of a lab should mess with you.[/quote]
Perhaps, but recognizing that it’s another of those frickin’ noisy mi-go (Loud noises, causing dynamic spawning, in a Lab…gets interesting surprisingly quickly) ought to temper that a bit. One of those cases where I’m not sure whether it’s supposed to mess with the player or the character.
sanity effects should of course have counters. reading a variety of books, having companions around to talk to, a secure base to kick back in, good food, etc. should all work to reverse the effects of insanity.
I’d like a mix of fucking with the player and the character. IC Mindscrewry: “You hear a child weeping to the northeast.” Meta Mindscrewery: “You hear WHUMP to the south.”
For example, I was at a bus station once, waiting for the bus. Lady beside me was a meth head. She went on, and on about how meth opened up contact with some hidden spirit world that led to demons or some nutjob delusion.
I think that building anxiety/panic effects might be interesting if they are sufficiently modeled. You experience enough shit and never feels safe and don’t get enough sleep etc etc etc… eventually your nerves will get shot and you will go just a little bonkers, with or without mental illness. It would be interesting to track events that might ‘fray’ a person, and events that might relax them, and then stick in some thresholds for interesting effects, like:
Hearing/seeing things that aren’t there,
Screaming and attracting attention,
Reduced combat ability,
Inability to act for a turn(freezing),
Nightmares and poor sleep,
Increased fatigue
I am not sure I would call it sanity. I’d call it stress, or something along those lines. Stress in significant enough quantities can make a person behave in ways that a normal person might consider strange, paranoid, and irrational, but when you talk about ‘sanity’ vs ‘insanity’ it’s not the kind of thing a healthy person wafts in and out of on a day to day basis.
There was a thread about this a while ago. I like the idea of the game imposing some of the panic and fear and stress that the setting should imply. Even playing a sufficiently graphic zombie game can lead to some panicked situations and bad decisions that something like Cata cannot inflict upon the player due to its, uh… low graphical fidelity and turn-based gameplay. Enforcing a little potential for panic on the character, however, seems like a good method of bridging that context gap.
Aaaaalso It’d give us something to do with some of the medications that are in the game that currently only apply to people starting with certain flaws.
Would just as soon not have random debuffs like that–I don’t find Interface Screws “interesting”, much like I’d rather not actually play Call/Cthulhu because I’m not fond of a constantly degrading character. If I want to live in Crapsack World, I turn off the computer.
[quote=“Hyena Grin, post:16, topic:2693”]Can you clarify what it is you are opposing, because nobody said anything about ‘random debuffs’ or ‘constantly degrading characters.’
And it’s a post-apocalyptic worst-case-scenario survival roguelike.
It’s supposed to be crapsack.[/quote]
Any of this ring a bell? (“events that might relax them” seem like they’d be made difficult/rare because “FUN!!11!” or “BALANCE!”, so I don’t put much confidence in those.)
I think that building anxiety/panic effects might be interesting if they are sufficiently modeled. You experience enough shit and never feels safe and don't get enough sleep etc etc etc... eventually your nerves will get shot and you will go just a little bonkers, with or without mental illness. It would be interesting to track events that might 'fray' a person, and events that might relax them, and then stick in some thresholds for interesting effects, like:
Hearing/seeing things that aren’t there,
Screaming and attracting attention,
Reduced combat ability,
Inability to act for a turn(freezing),
Nightmares and poor sleep,
Increased fatigue
And re crapsack: Naah. I kinda like the opportunity to build something better. Sorry that seems to undermine your ability to enjoy the game–perhaps we should take HunterAlpha’s tack on this one.
Stress goes down over time on its own. That is a feature of stress. In real life. I suggested some things relaxing the character because that also makes sense and gives the player some control over it. Like, eating good food. Taking alcohol/drugs. Getting a full night’s rest. Taking Xanax.
You make too many assumptions when you respond to stuff that is meant to be an off the cuff suggestion. It’s not like I’m sitting here outlining a full system, nor am I one of the developers or contributors that’s going to go in and make these changes myself. It’s a discussion. You should have a little more faith in people, or at least be willing to entertain a discussion beyond just typing ‘oppose’ at things. =)
I have good faith in the developers to implement the ideas and systems they think are good for the game. I’ve outlined some pretty wild systems and I’m sure 99% of what I spend time and effort typing out on this forum won’t see the light of day. It’s really just a mental exercise for me. In the absence of a willingness/ability to alter the code in the game, I like to think up systems and concepts that may or may not work.
Anyway, I don’t think anyone ought to feel threatened by ideas being suggested that they don’t like, at least until a developer puts his two cents in.
Adding more ways for stuff to go wrong is good in my opinion, as long as they’re not sure to go wrong. Plus, it could give rise to some interesting mechanics (Get high on hallucinogen before clearing some particularly bad place for example.)
Enforcing a little potential for panic on the character, however, seems like a good method of bridging that context gap.