Weight, Food, Sleep, etc... -> Reality Mode (Part I)

[Yarro]

Hello to all,

 

I know that many players (me of course included) are fans of deep immersion into the game-world-experience as well of higher level of complexity.

 

What I'm thinking of is a kind of "Reality Mode"

 

- Sleep, rest, eat and drink

 

The Chars would have to get some sleep after some timespan or rest after a travel (ever tried to walk from A to B for more than 10 hours? at the end of the day you're just exhausted, troll slying has to wait until tommorow ) .

Eat and drink also, so that the vitals of the Chars are "full". If not there should be penalties for e.g. Hitpoints, accurancy, running speed, etc... .

 

This should not go into a sims-mode where you have to feed each of your party members or send them to sleep.

You would have to carry some supplies with you, which are automaticaly consumed with time. The more party members there are, the more supplies you need.

If some party members don't get food for a long time, they would leave the party before they starve, or would not be able to fight, ... .

 

This means that the party would have to resuply now and then or you would have to plan your excursions into the wilderness a bit more thorough.

Some skills should help to get supplied in the wild, e.g. hunting, or a "survival" skill, something like this.

If you see that you run low on supplies, you can tell your party member so go hunting, and the skill decide his success.

 

Getting from one place to another should have a certain travel time, where the party e.g. would make a rest for the night (in the open or an inn) . This could have some interesting story options, too.

 

 

- Weight and Equipement

 

Of course there is my fauvorite image of the Hero getting out of the dungeon, with 67 longswords,, 23 Longbows, 15 heavy plate armor sets, ... you know what I'm getting to.

In many games you have some kind of weight limitation for the char, where he can carry lets say about 200 kg (!) of gear.

So if a dirk just weights 0,2 kg, you could have 1000 of them on you...yeah right: where?

 

I know its for the sake of fun, but if there would be a more realistic concept, that adds into complexity and fun at the same time, this would be great.

I'm thinking about have some more realistic limitations for the chars about how many parts of equipement they can carry.

This can of course scale with the strenght factor, where a normal person can carry let's say up to 20 kg without feeling overburdened, a strong person can do with 35 kg. But noone can carry 100kg and fight...or walk... .

 

There would be mules/donkeys/horses that carry your gear (into a certain exted - a mule cannot carry 2 tons...). The more gear you have, the more mules you would need and the danger of them being killed or stolen would encrease.

The only really safe place would be the players house or HQ to store your loot/gear.

 

Let me not start about how one can be able carry 1 Mio. of Gold pieces with them... . :D

 

I'm not 100% sure where the micromanagemend is too high and reduces the overall fun.

But if it would be optional than players would be able to choose if they want a more immersive and complex gameplay - or a more story driven or action oriented way, without having to care about the sleep etc. .

 

What do you think about this?

 

Greets Yarro

[norolim]

This is a third topic on a similar subject, today. There is an interesting discussion going on in this topic, if you are interested.

Edited September 27, 2012 by norolim

[Monte Carlo]

Not my cup of tea, well not all of it, but I can definitely see why it would appeal.

 

This is why announcing modding tools would be a great idea, because this is exactly the type of feature a good modder might create.

[Liora]

The problem is, where do you draw the line on "realisim"? It has always struck me that in nearly all games, even when badly hurt, characters wil fight at 100% effectiveness until they fall down dead... don't you think if you were close to death you may start to fight more slowly, or your attacks would impaired in some way? Also what about weather? If you're exploring a frozen mountain top, don't you think you would have to have a warmth rating on armor/equipment so that you could dress accordingly for that climate? I hate it when I see, characters (they do this especially with female characters) running around in skimpy armor in very cold places.. I'm thinking "HELLO! She would die frome the elements alone!" How about the fact that in games, parties often run for many kilometers at a time without stopping, and they run wherever they go?

 

Those are just a couple of examples, but if you really wanted to make the game "realistic" (despite the fact that you're fighting imaginary creatures with magic spells etc.), it would get very complicated. Also, at what point does realism just become tedious?

 

I like the idea of having to eat, but it needs to be well balanced.. as the OP said, eat automatically, have a "pool" of food that the party draws from, allow hunting.. I don't know about having a skill for that, I think shooting a deer or rabit should be good enough, if you see one. I just don't want to have to constantly worry that my party is going to starve to death if I'm not buying food at every inn, or constantly making sure my party members eat something.

 

Resting is fine too, but I prefer to have the option to camp in the wilderness, rathing than having to travel to/pay for an inn.

 

As far as inventory goes, I agree, it's unrealistic for one person to be able to carry 20 swords and 10 pieces of different armor, and 1000 gold coins (how would you physically manage it, let alone bear the weight?). However, personally this is where I perfer to suspend my disbeleif quite a bit. I find inventory management can be very tedious, and I don't like encumbrance.. at all I think it would be great if there was an option to turn encubrance ON or OFF. I do like the idea of having donkeys or pack mules though.

 

Those are just my thoughts/opions... I guess I'm all for a little realism, as long as it doesn't start to make the game feel tedious.

[Aedelric]

Yea, this is the third topic on this subject I have read, not sure we need another.

 

You should use this topic which was only made earlier today.

[Yarro]

So, someone had the same idea at the same time, great !

It seems, that there is some demand for this kind of gameplay and I hope, that at some point it will come into the game.

 

Greets, Yarro