Hypochondria revamp

[Livio Persemprio]

Hello there, I'd like to share a thought I have and hear your opinion about it

 

I think that the game would be more immersive if every character was hypochondriac by default, I hate that I can tell if I'm dead or not way too earlier than expected, I'll just redo the character before he dies, it feels like cutting emotionals link to it (and so does literally everyone I met by now).

I'd like to suffer more.

 

If every character was hypochondriac by default then you'd have to hope, and hope may hurts.

To balance things out for players that don't wanna waste time we could add a positive trait (+2) that allows a player to know if he's actually infected or not (per it could be a skill locked to doctors and nurses).

 

That's my idea, what's your opinion?

(P-please b-be g-gentle)

Edited April 28, 2016 by Livio Persemprio

[winterpyre]

well it would certainly add a lot more tension after being scratched, and tie you to your character more.

I do like the idea that maybe doctors or nurses would be able to tell sooner if it really is infected or not, maybe give them the ability to calm and reassure people that they will be fine (even in the current system this would be helpful).

[Livio Persemprio]

Thanks ^^

Sounds nice, perhaps being reassured could give a small buff to the player in terms of mood (this is useless now, but I hope mood will become more important in the future)

Edited April 28, 2016 by Livio Persemprio

[winterpyre]

maybe, I was thinking more along the lines that the reassurance could help prematurely end the hypochondria phase.

[Livio Persemprio]

Oh, that makes more sense actually, I like it more.

Should the doc able to lie about it? And what would happen in that case? (E.g. telling a sick guy that he's fine, or telling a guy who is fine that he's sick)

[winterpyre]

I suppose he should be able to, though if the guy is legitimately infected the symptoms will only get worse over time.

This might actually be pretty neat could be a way to get someone to not act recklessly and waste supplies long enough to kill put them out of their misery while they're not looking.

Edited April 28, 2016 by winterpyre

[Livio Persemprio]

Yep, or you could encourage them to act suicidally for your own sake by making them believe they're I'll

[winterpyre]

person: "dang I got scratched, at least its not a bit lol"

doc: "nope, that's infected i can tell"

person: "WHAT, no way im not even bleeding!!"

doc: "yeah sorry bad luck, here take this shotgun and go over there"

 

 

XD

[DresdenBBQ]

I 100% agree with you on being able to tell if you character will die from it, and if that was a default thing then i would be fine with it BUT with that said every time being scractched infected or not getting a fever? Now thats a bit much, anxious would probably be reasonable but getting a fever from not evening being sick sucks.

[Livio Persemprio]

 

1 hour ago, winterpyre said:

person: "dang I got scratched, at least its not a bit lol"

doc: "nope, that's infected i can tell"

person: "WHAT, no way im not even bleeding!!"

doc: "yeah sorry bad luck, here take this shotgun and go over there"

 

 

XD

I could definitively do that XD 

"You're a hero, we will love you forever. Kbye"

14 minutes ago, Queen Glory said:

I 100% agree with you on being able to tell if you character will die from it, and if that was a default thing then i would be fine with it BUT with that said every time being scractched infected or not getting a fever? Now thats a bit much, anxious would probably be reasonable but getting a fever from not evening being sick sucks.

Hmmm, perhaps it is, I didn't consider it since I only play as hypochondriac, i feek like the main point is not getting scratched, and at every scratch I stop and start to focus on my health, so gameplay wise it's fine to me, but then without the fever it would be too easy to tell if it's just hypochondria kicking in or if it's really the end, I guess (?)

Edited April 28, 2016 by Livio Persemprio

[King Kitteh]

I don't really think this is a great idea if everyone is a hypochondriac. I mean, there are people who would be in denial of getting infected. Saying to themselves "it'll all be okay". And if they truly aren't infected they wouldn't experience bad symptoms.

 

Of course that's pretty much the default for all characters currently. I guess you could change it so all characters are hypochondriacs by default and have optimistic be a positive trait or something that means you only feel sick when you really are.

 

Doctors reassuring sounds neat though.

[Livio Persemprio]

Well, I don't really care about the mechanic of feeling fever and everything, the thing I really wish to accomplish is having people more emotionally linked to their character, them hoping he might survive.

Right now people just know it when they see just a squeasy moodle, it kinda breaks the whole immersion of the game if you'll pretend the character never actually died.

Since that's where I come from, how would you fix this suggestion based on that?

 

[King Kitteh]

2 minutes ago, Livio Persemprio said:

squeasy moodle

 

I approve.

 

In all seriousness though, I'm not sure how you're going to get people to feel more emotional with their character, and forcing them to won't work. There will always be the person who picks the traits that are the most beneficial, the person who dies 10 times trying to build a giant castle. I think people who truly value their character still get the sense of hope as they wait tensely hoping the queasy moodle won't appear. The suspense until it does is enough in my opinion.

[Livio Persemprio]

46 minutes ago, King Kitteh said:

 (Halp, my phone broke the quoting system ;_; ohgodwhy)

Derp. Well, it's no secret that this is not my main language. What was the word I was looking for there?

 

Anyway I feel that, I don't want to " force" people, that's useless, old don  chisciotte romantic garbage.

What I meant is that there are people who would like to be forced.

 

I'll use an example, fallout 4

With the revamped survial you're forced to save only when you sleep. Why? Because people save scum, i do that as well and I hate it, but it's the most sensible thing to do.

 

If all the character were to make you doubt they are actually infected or not, players who just aim to benefits would have some way of balancing it I guess.

 

The first thing I can think of is to make hypochondria the base condition, and invert the -2 trait to a +2 trait with the effect of letting you know in advance if you're dead or not.

 

Anyway my intention is towards players that would appreciate this, "benefit players" will always have a way to play as they like, they always do.

 

 

I feel you when you say that people who evaluates their characters will still wait till the very end, but there's no point in it, I think that a little bit of false hope would be fun, this is the kind of game that wants you to hope, I think

Edited April 29, 2016 by Livio Persemprio

[King Kitteh]

8 minutes ago, Livio Persemprio said:

snip

You meant to use "queasy" but I think you misspelled it as "squeasy", which isn't really a word but makes you think of something that you can squeeze. So it was the idea that when infected the player would become mushy and easy to squish that I found funny.

 

Anyway I agree with your core idea, it would be neat I guess. Only real issue is that it might be confusing to new players. "Why did I feel so sick and then nothing happened?"

 

 

Edit: Turns out this is a Squeasy

 

Spoiler

 

Edited April 29, 2016 by King Kitteh

[Livio Persemprio]

From now on I'll always call that moodle  squeasy XD I like it

 

I wouldn't worry about new players too much, the game even encourages them to drink bleach XD

I'm glad you like the core idea, but I feel like it can be polished a little bit more, I'm not completely satisfied with it yet

[TheDreaded1]

Maybe less of a hypochondriac and more fear...when a zombie scratches you, then your character could be scared/depressed until enough time passes that you know you're safe. I also think if you are infected, it should skip queasy and go straight to sick and fever after a brief incubation period..

[Livio Persemprio]

Yep, that's the kind of polishing I'm looking for, thanks for the idea.

 

A phase where you are not in fever but in high paranoia sounds reasonable enough to avoid the counter intuitive "where did that fever go" from new players, I like it

[DresdenBBQ]

9 minutes ago, TheDreaded1 said:

Maybe less of a hypochondriac and more fear...when a zombie scratches you, then your character could be scared/depressed until enough time passes that you know you're safe. I also think if you are infected, it should skip queasy and go straight to sick and fever after a brief incubation period..

Not sure about the depressed part but i would be scared as hell. Depressed would be something that like you KNOW you're infected.

Edited April 29, 2016 by Queen Glory

[TheDreaded1]

Yea, probably not depressed...unless traits affect your reaction..maybe they'll add a pessimist social trail

[Livio Persemprio]

Yep, i think something like paranoia would do, that's how i'd feel at least

[winterpyre]

we could use anxiety for simply being scratched, depression if symptoms get worse or a doc gives you bad news, or end the anxiety early if a doc reassures you(though depression comes on much faster if the doc was wrong/lied)