A more specific offshoot of my needs post... One cool way of bringing a science fiction universe to life might be to challenge players to deal with different sci-fi factors. For a game that has both sim and RPG elements, different species could have different needs that result in different gameplay. Needs would be met either through using devices or making certain gameplay choices. Here are some of the needs I''m thinking of adding: Environment Every character has an environment need based on gravity, temperature, atmosphere, and pressure. Different species have different (sometimes wider or more narrow) requirements. Game events like a crashlanding on an alien planet, or lose of atmosphere by hull decompression, could challenge players to meet their needs before ill effects cropped up (usually injury or death). Rest Similar to how the Sims does it. Most biological and some mechanical characters would have an increasing need to rest. Rest in gameplay terms is quick (time compression), but opens the door to interesting and suspenseful events. (Think backstabbing, or having to deal with the problem of sleep while in the middle of an alien infested, overrun city ). Lack of rest would mean stat and skill penalties. I''m thinking if players go multiples of their sleep cycle without rest, they start losing sanity points or hit points (good for alien mind control senario ). They could lower their need temporarily through stimulants. To make this really hardcore sci-fi, different species would have different sleep needs, with some not needing to sleep for weeks. Nourishment Different for each character. Cyborgs might need both food and energy; androids only energy. I''d only add this for flavor, and am thinking that you could toggle an option that basically means that as long as you''re in an environment that has nourishment, this need is met. It seems only interesting when you don''t have food, and have to forage / hunt / go cannibal. It seems easy to implement fascinating aliens with this need, as well: Ones that, say, dine on minerals, or NPC lifeforce like B-movie space vampires. Social Maybe. Not sure about this one, as I''m going for much more game and much less sim. I have thoughts of players who are slightly insane after being lost in a deep space pod for years... but since my only thoughts on this are negative, this may get ditched... Species Specific I haven''t put much thought into this yet, but this is prolly where I can get the most flavor: Characters that need to go to certain locations every so often; characters that must tithe money to the church; characters that need a minimum amount of hard radiation. These would create zones of gameplay and interesting game objects to interact with (theoretically). Comments appreciated, as usual -------------------- Just waiting for the mothership...

quote:Original post by WarMage
Wavinator, the only thing I think you missed (and this is a GREAT post!) is that of divergent controls for different species. If I am stranded on the Grakthnarb planet, and Grakthnarb have 6 arms with 9 fingers on each hand, chances are I won''t be able to operate much Grakthnarb equipment, I''m going to have to either befriend a Grakthnarb, or hack and smash! Woohoo! What if they don''t even have hands, and do all their stuff through TK or some other psi?!

Great idea! This could be cool both in terms of having a skill and having the capability to use alien items. And it makes aliens *MUCH* more useful. I really like it!

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This is far reaching: doors, weapons, computers, comms stations, newspapers, Hell, I might not even be able to beg for food! The food might kill me if I could beg for it!

Hahah, yes, I think this would work if gamers accepted a more symbolic representation for stuff in the game world, so that all of these items could be different but not so different that you''d need thousand and thousands of variants of the same thing.

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Again, most of this is on the hard-core sci-fi side.

Thanks, WarMage, that''s exactly what I''m looking for!

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-WarMage
...we domesticate your ill-temepered alien pet-beast...or you get it prepared for dinner, free!

LOL

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Just waiting for the mothership...

quote:Original post by WarMage
Thanks for the props, Wavi

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If you really want to get into the fun fun world of hard sci-fi sims, you have to be able to accept and flourish under the theory of divergent evolution.

Absolutely. I'm a Richard Dawkins and Stephen J. Gould fan!

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Going back to the Grakthnarb hiveworld, maybe their star is a small main-sequencer like ours, but the atmosphere diffracts its light such that everything evolved to see only infra-red, or something else not in the human visible spectrum. You would again need a guide-Grakth, or some visor that translated the available radiant light into something for human optic consumption.

Don't forget that all the possibilities for your various planets and star systems will have idiosyncracies that will most certainly affect life that coalesces under their influences. More gravity, more water, more methane, more diamond-rain, more meteor showers, more hard-rad, more magma, more heavy metals, more long chain molecules, more predators, 1000 foot tall pink trees that spit acid, anything!

This is very cool. I have to go back and revise it and add better detail to the life gen parts, but this is the sort of thing I definitely want to add. Not sure how to realize it all graphically, but I'm going to do my best to wedge it in there.

I think backed with the needs idea, being in an environment this detailed will really capture the essence of science fiction. *crosses fingers*

Thx!


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Just waiting for the mothership...

Edited by - Wavinator on July 1, 2001 1:33:32 AM