Long-term management (Fat, Muscle, Sanity)

[ColdWinter]

First, i have to say that this game is truly amazing thanks to the devs and community.

 

I just past day 200 in stalker and keep going. There is one mechanism missing in my eyes: character long-term management.
Right now, your status can go super quickly from “everything is perfect” to “I’m almost dead”, or the opposite. In many cases it is good: this is short-term management. (ex: cold weather, thirst, wolf attack…). But there should be elements to take into account on a longer time scale.

Below are three long -term status that I would love to see. They would work kind of like the status for thirst, hunger, tiredness and cold, but would have much more inertia (evolve slower).

 

• ·        Fat:

Your body stock calories mainly as fat. If you eat a lot, you get faty. If you stop for a long time, you starve. However, this does not happen on one day.
How I see it working: Calories stock describe the amount of calories directly accessible for your activities: If you fall to 0, you can’t do any physical activities, you are out of power. 
But your metabolism work hard to provide energy. It means that closer you are from 0 calories, faster your fat get transformed into “usable calories”.  Eating would also directly provide calories (as currently in game). In the opposite, when you have a good amount of calories in stock (let’s say more than 1500), and not doing any physical activities, those calories get slowly transformed to fat (this would happen mainly as you sleep).

This would make the calories management much more realistic and add a great game-play mechanism. This also fixes the hibernation exploit: You can stay several days without eating, but too long and you end up with a low amount of fat, ultimately leading to death. (Cabin fever is no longer needed, and it’s really the only thing that I strongly dislike, it feel not right).

• ·        Muscle:

      If you exercise a lot, you should build up muscle, if you hibernate you should slowly lose them.
Muscles should directly influence the amount of time needed for any physical activities. You can even imagine some activities impossible if you are not strong enough (like pushing a huge rock blocking a path, opening locked door…)

• ·        Sanity:

 What happens to you should impact your sanity.
Things improving your sanity : playing an instrument, having a good meal, a good night, past several hours outside…
Things degrading you sanity: every bad event happening to you, corps, cold, hunger...
Sanity should also affect the time needed for every action (willpower). If it went to low, you would start hallucinating, be more tired…

 

I’m convinced that adding long-term elements would greatly improve the game, feeling more realistic, interesting and not even more complex. Those long term element would evolve slowly, letting a lot of time for new player to adapt.

Thanks for reading this post, hopes you like the idea and wait for your suggestions.

(PS: sorry for my approximate English).

 

[nicko]

sounds like a great idea to me, would be funny to also see your self in a mirrow and be a big fatty or a slim Jim.

[Canadian Beaver]

In general, I think there needs to be more character development in order to support the long-term game and give some extra depth. However, the Devs DO have a perks/feats system on the roadmap. We may see something like this-especially since willpower is supposed to be implemented before story mode. I do think that the point about conditioning/muscles is great. Average Will Canadian bush pilot isn't going to have a ton of experience humping loads, so maybe if there was a system that allowed you to increase your carrying capacity after pushing it-at full health-for a while, it would be interesting. A goal for people to strive for.

[ColdWinter]

Indeed, there are many things to come in the upcoming update. Hopefully there will be some long-term goal. But reading the roadmap, I can’t find anything that looks as the mechanism I describe. However it’s a changing list, that’s why we are here to give ideas 

[simarson]

We need a more long term complexness under the short term for making this game more long termed. Eating your self fat and relax for some time have a higher meaning then just your own role playing imagination. I'm total in for it.

[Resethel]

I mostly agree with you, since all those aspect would definitely add more depth to the game.

However, I won't discuss further on each subject, since they had already been discussed before eheh 

 

The need for more long-term management is needed, but I fear some of them would make the game slightly easier. Backslashes mustn't be forgotten!

[jeremiah johnson]

On 6/11/2016 at 5:35 AM, ColdWinter said:

·        Muscle:

      If you exercise a lot, you should build up muscle, if you hibernate you should slowly lose them.
Muscles should directly influence the amount of time needed for any physical activities. You can even imagine some activities impossible if you are not strong enough (like pushing a huge rock blocking a path, opening locked door…)

I definitely agree with the muscle or endurance aspect. With all the weight carried and distances traveled coupled with the high protein diet, the main character would be able to gain muscle pretty fast. I feel this should translate into being able to carry more weight or at least go longer without getting tired. 

[boshmi]

On 11/06/2016 at 8:35 PM, ColdWinter said:

·        Sanity:

 

 What happens to you should impact your sanity.
Things improving your sanity : playing an instrument, having a good meal, a good night, past several hours outside…
Things degrading you sanity: every bad event happening to you, corps, cold, hunger...
Sanity should also affect the time needed for every action (willpower). If it went to low, you would start hallucinating, be more tired…

 

I agree 100% with muscle and fat suggestions, but sanity is something that could get a little shifty, and even if it was implemented, it would need to be REALLY long-term (talking 100+ days). People tend to assume that; exposed to traumatic experiences and prolonged isolation, you'd start hallucinating or going insane. This doesn't really happen realistically. Your character would gain a different outlook on life, nature, the world in general, but they wouldn't just start seeing things because they stumbled across a few corpses. That sort of thing would make someone disgusted, or perhaps uneasy if in close proximity, so say you get a sleeping debuff if you attempt to sleep in proximity to a corpse, but hallucinations is just going a bit far.

I agree that there needs to be more incentive for having good meals, and playing more actively, rather than just cabin fever but I don't think this is quite the right way to implement sanity. Just voicing my opinion on your piece, as it is an interesting topic, and one I would like to discuss further.

[ColdWinter]

On 12/06/2016 at 4:58 PM, Resethel said:

The need for more long-term management is needed, but I fear some of them would make the game slightly easier. Backslashes mustn't be forgotten!

I definitely agree that adding those mechanisms must be done carefully, and not make the game too easy. I love the hard aspect of the game and even find stalker too easy. But it’s really a matter of balance I believe. Few examples:

Fat:

• Advantage:

More calories reserve at the beginning. (Maybe 20 days of equivalent stock?). Eating well sustains this stock.
Habillity to hibernate few days.
Heat bonus?

• Drawback:

Less food can be found on the map.
Weight depends of your fat stock: walk slower, consuming more calories. Same for rope climbing.

Muscle:

• Advantage:

Carrying amount depend of your muscle. Maybe range from 15 to 25 kg depending of your amount.
Physical actions can be executed faster if in shape, like for chopping woods.
Possibility to access new locations.

• Drawback:

Your weight also depend slightly of your muscles.
Need a lot of food and training to maintain a high amount of muscles.

It’s just few ideas, but I’m sure there are many possibilities to make those mechanisms well balance.

[Axtos]

+1 for fat and muscle!

[Michael70z]

I like the fat and muscle very much and I think that hinderland is adding a will to live feature.

[Wastelander]

2 minutes ago, Michael70z said:

I like the fat and muscle very much and I think that hinderland is adding a will to live feature.

Welcome to the forums! Grab a hot cup of coffee, but for your own sake stay away from the granola bars

Yes, something like that is in planning according to the roadmap (which reads a bit like my christmas wishlist). I'm hyped to find out how it works!