Why can PC's not have life goals? Mod idea?

Game Talk The Drawing Board
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This might need context, so:

I haven’t played for a while, and I forgot why I stopped, so I jumped back in with a new cheat character to freshen myself up. Once I refreshed myself on movement and basic survival, I went to a non-cheat character and survived a little while.

I then met an NPC (NPC spawn rate at 25.00 cause why would everyone die instantly?) looking for mutagen to go full Rat-Man (and maybe raise some stealthy lizard mutants?). I then got bored after running from zombies, and thought, “Wow, that half rat guy got his life goals in order a bit. Why can’t I do that?”

Then I had a great idea I can’t act upon because I can’t code/program/do-anything-meaningful-for-those-around-me for the life of me. What if PC’s had random/planned goals/dreams like NPCS?

What would goals be and what would they do?

So, there could be some Goals like becoming a master at CQC, or making a sword by yourself, and you might randomly spawn with one on a new character or pick one out alongside class. Maybe you are a Guru who always wanted to make a suit for yourself because [insert backstory here], so you think “Why not do it since the world is pretty much dead?” SO, you raise tailoring to max, make your suit or other piece of clothing, then get a major morale buff from making it and have a sizable boost to morale when you wear it.

This could be the case for anything craft related, such as getting morale for using a sword that you crafted to accomplish a goal, or driving a vehicle, or eating food.

For combat skills, you get a morale boost every time that skill goes up, and get a permanent boost for when/if you make it to 10+, and get minor boosts for when you use said skill. If you have a dream related to non-combat skills like cooking or bartering, it would be pretty much the same. Get a boost for buying something or successfully convincing someone to do something, etc.

Then. some goals would be unrelated to stats or skills, and would then be something like, “Kill a x amount of zombies/ special zombie” or, “Travel X amount of overmap tiles from starting position.” They would then be just like the others in that after completion, you would get minor buffs for doing something related to the initial goal, like killing a zombie or traveling at all.

Ideas for Goals

Goals would be possibly random and could have it’s own settings if someone didn’t want to have a backstory planned out for a character only to have a goal go directly against it. However, I was thinking about profession-specific goals. Said goals would only be available to certain classes/starting character backgrounds. Some ideas were:

Addict

  • Goal: “You are sick of this stuff. Time to kick your addiction!”

Would mainly consist of getting a small boost at the end of everyday with not using said drug. After losing addiction and satisfying the goal, you would receive a morale boost for destroying any of said drug you come across.

Groom/Bride

  • Goal: “It was supposed to be the happiest day of your life. Now, the person you loved the most in this world is gone. At least you may still be able to create something so you never forget them.”

Would consist of finding two rings, the opposite gender’s dress apparel, a picture frame, and some candles. You could then craft a small shrine in their memory. Being near or examining the shrine would give major morale boosts, along with maybe a small notification in the side bar saying something like, “You now survive for them.”

Experiment/Escaped Experiment

  • Goal: "They will pay for what they did to you. They will all pay. "

Could consist of finding and killing a certain NPC, with the assumption that this might have been one of the scientists who mutated you. Find their name in a computer in a file with your name, see where they might have went/ find a tracking device that leads you to them. Get a CRAZY morale
boost from their death, and get a boost for destroying anything science related from their on (Serums, lab coats, test subject jumpsuits, etc.)

Based on a small understanding of the game, I guess this could be done with a mutation tree for each goal, with the threshold for the “Completed goal” locked behind said objective being done. But really, this is all just a loose idea. I really have no understanding of how this could be done, and am a little bit too busy to learn to code to the extent that I could do this and not screw something up. Thank you if you read everything.

Thoughts?

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I think that’s a fantastic idea! I might have to look into that :smiley:

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I, personally, feel that goals should be set by the player. To me, it’s an RP thing. I think modding it would be a lot of work for something that you could do right now by employing some imagination or by pulling slips of paper goals out of a hat.

That’s not a put down or anything, though I think it sounded like one. Just voicing opinion.

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Randomly generated, progressively harder life goals sound like a great idea to give some sense of direction while still retaining all sandbox aspects of the game! :smiley:

There could be few of them active at the same time and if you don’t make progress on them inactive ones will fade away making place for a new ones. As of rewards, other than small long-lasting morale boost I can think of player “inventing” new recipes or exploring pieces of in-game lore.

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Pulling slips of paper out of a hat reminded me of this. Its the C:DDA Objective Generator.

http://orteil.dashnet.org/randomgen/?gen=f8sMRQA5

It still works and is the digital slips of paper in the hat.

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Yeah, I get that. Maybe I just really suck at both self motivation when it comes to this kinds of stuff.

And I also didn’t want to keep going on and on, but that would be a part of it. You CAN choose a goal for yourself at character creation, or go with the flow and get one randomly upon spawn.

Or pick one up from doing a certain action or actions. Maybe you kill someone, and something awakes inside you. Then once you kill enough people, you the PSYCHOPATH trait and get a morale boost for killing, incentivising maybe letting the beast loose.

This entire post is really lengthy and ranty (mine not yours,) but this was really meant to be a concept idea that someone might like to act upon. It would be nice to get a reason in-game to do a certain action other than just for pure RP on my end.

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Yeah, yeah! Something like that. I just had to think of something that would be realistic, and morale seemed to be the most obvious thing.

Also, another idea was to have random life goal just pop up as you explore. Like if you see a Guitar, there would be a chance of getting the goal, “Master the guitar.” Play for 100 or something hours, and morale boosts from music would increase significantly.

I also wanted to add that maybe some goals lead to others. Like the hobo/addict goal of getting rid of your addiction could then branch off, giving you the choice of relapsing, or improving one of your skills like bartering to, “Become a better person.” Go from apocalyptic hobo to extremely wealthy post-apocalyptic business mand just sounds like a good way to keep people playing while not limiting the player. Just like you said, a sandbox with a bit of both direction and motivation without being obnoxious.

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Interesting idea. I don;t know that they should be set by the player but instead based on the scenario and stats.

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Sounds a little like the sims goals. I could dig it if it was low key and less random than the sims made it seem.

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Oh yeah. I guess it is pretty similar. Shoot.

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Doesn’t make it a bad ideal. I think its cool, even though I always set my own goals. I like the examples you have provided, like getting sober or learning the guitar, etc…

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Well, now I feel that my idea was ripped. Dangit.

Well, maybe it just need something to differentiate it more.

What if there’s on option where if go against your goal, you get morale/skill/stat debuffs? I mean, it would be optional, but feeling bad about doing something you would never really do is realistic.

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Kill a feral hunter
Drink some milk
Hunt and kill a wolf
And use a vibrator for recreational purposes.

Cool.

But the system I’m thinking of have a an effect on the game itself, maybe on the NPCs around you. But I will certainly use rhis when a character gets stale.

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And here we see a normal Tuesday in the apocalypse. Unless that’s all at once, then it’s something of a wild Thursday.

Edit: I just tried the generator. I love how some of these end up sounding like a narrative.

Get utterly wasted on some Belgian ale.
Go on a rampage with a flamethrower.
Eat a fresh, hot meal.

Visit a church.
Smash a window.

Raid a river and steal everything not nailed down.

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“Get those lilypads and catails! We are gonna eat good tonight boys!”

  • Crazy Carl, leader of the River Demons. Killed shortly after by giant mutated crabs.

Ill leave which one you think of to you.

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Ignoring the reality bubble for the time being. I think an NPC “Bucket List” would make more sense. Also easier to program. The how when it comes down to it would require player intervention to help make everything the toon wants happen. So it kinda ends up with a strange trapping of a fetch question, whereby the NPC follows you all over and does a few silly things and then the quest is complete.

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I think it could be interesting, I wouldnt mind having a system similar to the way the sims handles aspirations (get this, learn this, do this type of things) that could effect characters morale or provide a boost to crafting time, complicated yes but I think it could provide an interesting gameplay dynamic once were beyond the survival stage and into the apocalyptic living stage.

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I like the idea of goals like in game quests…as long as there’s some kind of reward involved. A minor reward of course, such as a bonus to a specific skill, mutation, recipe unlock, with the rewards tailored to the goals.

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