Hadrian

Hi all, So I'm prefacing this topic pretty heavily up front for those that want some context / rationale for participating in what I hope will be a lively and important community discussion. If you just want to get to the meat and potatoes of what we're talking about, skip down to the 3-point list at the bottom. I did a quick search on Cabin Fever prior to this; I'm not sure if this idea has been raised before and doubt I'm the first to think of it. Seeing as the game's first substantive new patch since Wintermute has been announced, I thought it would be a good time to discuss what has been — for many of us — the game's most cumbersome and frustrating mechanic. As a consequence of the frustration that it tends to cause, Cabin Fever has already been re-balanced once. Patrick said the following** of how it worked at that point (how it still works, I believe), a year and a half (!!) ago: ** If any of this needs to be clarified (looking at you, Patrick/Hinterland, or anyone else who can speak with authority on whether additional changes have happened), let me know and I'll update the post. I have a small set of suggestions that I believe will bring Cabin Fever into what I feel is a long-delayed state of harmony & alignment with the rest of the game's design. Just to set the tone, let me throw some important disclaimers down very quickly. • I both expect and welcome disagreement on this issue, from the developers themselves and/or the community. My goal here is to start a helpful discussion on behalf of those who feel the mechanic needs adjustment, not to simply start a bandwagon. If you're happy with how Cabin Fever works, I want to hear from you. On that note... • I am not interested in seeing any discussion on this topic or another topic related to TLD devolve into finger-pointing and flaming matches. This is, I believe, a contentious discussion point. So I'm asking folks, as I do on my channel, to be measured in their reactions so we can have a quality discussion & continue to raise that bar. • I am not interested in doing away with Cabin Fever. Cabin Fever was added to prevent players from exploiting the game to rack up "days survived" when a state of survival equilibrium, so to speak, had been reached and a survivor could reasonably camp in one indoor location while hunting outside when necessary, rinse and repeat. So, here's my idea. Let me know what you think, and I'll see you next t—oops. Habit. - — - 1. Cabin Fever should no longer prevent players from resting indoors. This is the most immersion-breaking aspect of Cabin Fever for most of us, I think, and it's the component that should be completely removed. While some would argue that some unrealistic and "gamey" mechanics are necessary to maintain the feeling of fun and even escapism in video games, the total inability to rest at all is too unrealistic. Nix this component completely — perhaps preserving the inability to pass time indoors, because at least that makes more sense than not being able to rest (discuss!) — in favor of the following... 2. Cabin Fever should, however, prevent players from recovering any condition (0-100%) indoors. So, you can rest inside all you want. You can recover from exhaustion and afflictions such as sprains, food poisoning, etc., but if your actual condition is below 100, you won't be able to actually recover if you're resting inside, because you have those Cabin Fever jitters. While Cabin Fever should never have a persistent condition drop effect (it does not now; I'm just saying keep it that way), restricting condition gain while indoors would preserve the spirit of Cabin Fever and prevent players from exploiting the ability to perpetually rest indoors without a major restriction on gameplay mechanics (just not as major as not being allowed to close your eyes at all!) 3. Cabin Fever should likewise reduce the rate at which exhaustion recovers (among other suggested tweaks, per discussion on this thread). I think it also makes sense to replace the current full restrictions on rest and passing time with nuanced tweaks to the player character's normal state of being in addition to being prevented from recovering condition. Reducing the rate at which sleeping recovers is one obvious change — you have Cabin Fever, after all; you can sleep indoors, but you're not going to be sleeping well — but what else can be done? Should passive calorie degeneration increase due to anxiety / increased heart rate, requiring players to eat more? - — - Having laid all of that out, please share your candid thoughts and additional / alternative ideas for Cabin Fever. If anyone at Hinterland finds this idea — or even just pieces of it — resonating with them, especially Raphael & veteran team members, all of them (and the players in turn) will benefit from a lively, detailed, & respectful discussion. Thoughts? -H