Paranoia debuff, fake things.

[vegetamaker]

After play for a time I thought alot in the book "Robinson Crusoe" and in the movie "Cast Away" (Tom Hanks) and about the need of relationship with others.

 

loneliness a person can become bored, sad and depressant and also can appear the paranoia. You will remember Wilson from the movie "Cast Away" and you will understand me. Of course I don't think a ball with a bad-drawed face could be good for Zomboid, but yes in other ways:

 

When the npcs arrive (atleast for Steam they dont arrive yet) a player could have "paranoia" debuff and with it to see things that really don't exists. There are few examples.

 

- A zombie killed you!!!... but you wake up few minutes later because it was fake.

- Found a npc that help you (in any way). Maybe he give you few apples that dont feed you. (Dunno exactly what npcs will do this is just examples).

- A npc is helping you building a barricade but when zombies arrive they traspase it!!!

- You can talk with him and you will amuse

- A real NPC maybe will not want anything of you because you are crazy. Mostly times you will not believe him.

 

In summary: to see things that not exists and you can even interact with them.

 

When will you have paranoia debuff?

After few days having bad conditions and/or not relationship with others. Also It should have a low chance of appear after a panic sesion and/or injured.

 

There not should have a paranoia icon. You know when you are hungry, panic, hot but not when you see fake things like real things.

 

When will you cure paranoia debuff?

This should a little random between: good sleep, better live conditions or find a real npc that say you that you are crazy. And if all fail, then after few days.

 

If the player think he has paranoia debuff, what can he do?

If a player think that he has paranoia, then he should eat sleeping pills for have high chances of recover from it after a good dream. And distrust about all.

Also a new random book could be out there about "find yourself" with a normal "read" interact for fun and "Am I crazy?". If you choose that option, you will cure.

 

If the player used "Am I crazy?" but he wasn't?

There should be a penalty for fail trying refind yourself. After do it, like every book, you will lost it and become very angry, maybe hungry and tired.

 

 

This will do the player do more attention in what he is doing, what is happening and distrust in many npcs if he had bad conditions before. And ofc it could do funniest the game if you don't find noone in a time...

 

Thanks for all and sorry my bad English. I try do my best :3

[Rathlord]

First of all, welcome to the forums! Glad to have you with us.

 

I mentioned something like this in my huge overhaul suggestion here: http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/1144-the-future-of-pz/

 

It's located under "Mental Health." Here are the relevant bits:

 

Sanity

 

Introduces a sanity moodle to the game. There is no positive version of the sanity moodle, just a negative:

 

Imbalanced: You are shaken by the current events and have been physically affected by them.

• You get a slight negative modifier to your interactions with NPC's
• You may occasionally hear small sounds that don't exist

Unstable: You have been severely affected by the apocalypse, and it shows.

• You have a negative modifier to interactions with NPC's
• You often hear sounds that don't exist
• You have trouble sleeping

Insane: Your mental health is fully compromised.

• You have a large negative modifier to interactions with NPC's
• You often hear sounds that don't exist
• You have trouble sleeping
• You occasionally see things that aren't there, including NPC's, loot, and zombies. These images are exactly like their real counterparts, but can have no effect on the player and disappear after a time.
• You talk to yourself sometimes, causing a small amount of sound
• You have a chance to be much more or much less susceptible to the panic moodle
• For short periods of time you won't see moodles that are affecting you

With the introduction of insanity comes two new traits in the beginning of the game:

 

Strong Willed: Much more likely to stay sane, and stops at "Unstable," not able to become completely insane.

Unstable: Much more susceptible to insanity

 

And finally, things that effect your sanity:

 

Antidepressants: Help stave off insanity, but become addicting

Alcohol: Can temporarily stave off insanity, but long term increases it if addicted

Corpses: Nearby corpses negatively influence sanity (implemented after cleaning up corpses)

Home: Staying in the same house more than once increases sanity

Cigarettes: Temporarily helps increase sanity

Losing a Companion: Losing a companion severely effects sanity

Becoming Injured: Being injured or sick decreases sanity

 

Nota Bene, the insanity effects are quite strong and should take a large amount of time to build up, particularly to the final stage. It should only become a problem if you neglect it or if you take the unstable trait.

 

 

My thoughts were that it should be a little bit more slow and uncommon than just happening when you're not around people for a short  while. It should be something that builds up over time and is hard to get rid of once you've gotten it, much like real insanity. In this system it's affected both positively and negatively by lots of small things.

[vegetamaker]

Thanks for the answer! My bad trying find other suggestion like this, I was looking other post with "paranoia", "debuff" and other words for find it, but not checked any compilation. Sorry!.

 

Is wonderful know those news! I guess my suggestion finish here ^^

[Rathlord]

It's no problem, the thread I linked is really a huge conglomerate of suggestions so it's easy to miss specific things. If you feel like adding to it, or feel you want a different approach feel free to keep discussing it!