Depression effects hunger!

[OxManZomboid]

Like the title says my quick idea is to link up depression to hunger.

 

across the board I look forward to see how some of the mechanics might develop in updates in regards to their 'synergy', but one thing I thought of that makes sense to me is how depression might be able to effect your character's ability to eat in some instances.

 

I was thinking at the higher levels of depression lets say, your character really just can't eat anything unless he is possibly starving to death.

 

You click eat on an item, and your character just says he's 'too depressed to eat'

 

now you would have to alleviate this problem before eating.

 

I would even say your character should become too depressed to do almost anything, including some of the tasks which bring you out of depression.

 

The result would be having to search for means to cure your depression that are not immediately obvious to the player. 

 

obviously needs tweaking and testing to find out exactly what those tasks are, but I was thinking TV, and radio are pretty decent being that they are somewhat hard to find at certain times, and even require batters/electricity to use.

 

also maybe taking a walk could effect this as well.

 

 

I hope I got the point across here without too much rambling.

 

 

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TLDR

 

The depression mechanics might be improved by linking the ability to do other tasks with how depressed you get in the game... or maybe even OUTSIDE THE GAME!!!!! DUN DUN DUN....

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P.S even if you hate the suggestion, gimme a DAM SPIFFO!

[TrailerParkThor]

I like this idea, but it could be really hard in some situations. Not 100% sure but I think depression currently affects movement and transfer speed only. Maybe to balance it out, it could actually lower the rate of hunger gain. This way, depressed characters have more time to fix their depression. This could also be a fun synergy by allowing yourself to become depressed during maybe winter to conserve food. I think walking around outside already lowers depression, and running does so even quicker. I agree that TV/Radio need more function other than lore and Life & Living. I've been using the Immersive CD Player and VCR mods. These basically make TV and radio obsolete other than RP. I would like it if different stations had different buffs (and maybe even debuffs). Maybe news stations like Triple N, WBLN, NNR, and LBMW could all lower boredom, but increase stress. Talk shows and Soap operas like TURBO and KnoxTalk (and maybe Judge Matt Hass) could lower stress, but increase unhappiness. Cartoons and Music like Paws and HitzFM could lower unhappiness, but increase boredom. I imagine that these would be pretty low rates so they aren't OP. This way, TV and radio would be an important part of the meta. You could save up literature and fun food you find early on, and just use these devices while there's still power. This also opens the door for the devs to add stuff like functional CD players, Walkmans, and VCRs. We need need NEED a Blockbuster parody somewhere in Knox Country. I just can't get immersed in this 90s zombie apocalypse until I can raid a video rental store and bring The Lost Element back to my base.

[OxManZomboid]

I like the rental store idea a lot.

 

I don't believe depression is something we should see make the game easier in anyway.

reason I say to make depression's effects more 'difficult' is because currently like you said movement and transfer speed effected... kinda low on the totem pole of significant changes to gameplay in my opinion.\

 

I do think that animations for moodle states would make slowing down character and transfer speed more "engaging" which is satisfying, meaning funnily enough animations can sometimes stand in for gameplay.

 

but the essence of the point is less about the specifics of eating , and more about incorporating the actual effects of depression into the game.

 

I think my balance would be, make it much harder then it is to get depressed like, doom and gloom depressed (especially early game, when adrenaline is/should be very high) and then bump up the different effects it has on your character by more diversity in its current function.

 

make the player take his characters mental state as seriously as he takes hunger/thirst and fatigue/sleep . which are by far the two moodle synergies  that have the most impact on the gameplay actively right now (respectively) * I was a huge fan of the post on here that says our characters should slowly lose our minds under some circumstances.. that could be extremely powerful, and drive the shyte out of a character's narrative. Hearing something in the bushes and possibly seeing like.. ghost zombie visions and crap would probably fit in nicely with the atmosphere especially later in the game when most of the players are able to section off some space. 

 

*imagine if an npc or multiplayer friend could actually look like a zombie for a few seconds and you shoot your buddie

 

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I would say for balance the peak depression levels shouldn't raise up to danger levels on a normal playthrough until winter time. with big hits when the player does stuff like turn on the television and flip through channels that are all turned off, or attempts to drink from a fossette that has no water. ( I don't think players should know by default how much water they have at their disposal, would be a cool moment to go to get a drink and just here a noise of him trying to turn it on and see an unhappy moodle )

 

Im open minded but my gripe with the tv giving me a debuff and then a buff consistently is for a few reasons, first one is the examples you gave are very early game examples. If we give a unique buff to news tv shows, they are 100% gone in the first like 2 weeks in the current implementation (which movies and stuff should help with but yeah news and the such kinda just gets pushed away so needs some more thought on that. 

 

and the second one is the problem i think it doesn't solve with the severity of the bordem and stress and the like, where. they still feel more flat then basic hunger fatigue and sleep.

 

(actually panic is  another great synergy as is because it relies on the others I mentioned. only thing I would think 'needs' 'improving' on panic is to put animations that show the character moves more sporadically.. not cause its like game changing (could be)  but wow that sounds fun to me.)

 

bouncing around from moodle states isnt as exciting for me though for my playstyle to  be fair, like if I am depressed and I can watch tv to fix that, it would be annoying for me to have to do some other task after that to fix the new one and then so on and so on in perpetuity. And if that is only an effect for one of the mooodle states and not the other I think the inconsistency would feel more like a discouraging system for exploring ways to fix yourself rather than an encouraging way.

 

(doesn't write it off for sure cause similar systems are in play and  have worked to great effect in other cases. like how climing through a window is something you want to do (like watching tv to cure bordem) , and then that can have a negative effect (cutting myself on glass for instance), but even then you can see that the devs add percussions to this effect where if you are prepared you can get around it completely. where as in the example you've shown so far we would see no specific way to dodge the negative spiral that would be created unless we just put a hard stop into the chain of actions)

 

what I would  enjoy more would be to be burdened a lot all at once at key times that are easy to read into why im getting these debuffs, and then feel accomplished after getting out of the whole i got dug into, at least for a significant enough portion of time to get some stuff done that I want to do.

 

 

[TrailerParkThor]

That's why I think if they implemented a deeper TV/radio system it would have to have extremely low rates. Just like irl, those are more mindless distractions to help relax or procrastinate. I don't think they should be able to pull you out of a deep depression or anything. Either way, it would have to be heavily tested and tweaked.

 

Now that you have explained it a little more, I definitely get where you're coming from! I find it really funny that your character can be Severely Depressed, yet basically just act like a lazy fuck. Are we 13 year old girl depressed or zombie apocalypse survivor depressed? Maybe they make the movement speed penalty a little more intense. I think adding a driving speed penalty would be nice as well. Ever driven in a sad mood? You don't speed around lol. Then, they link each stage of depression to different mechanics. Feeling A Little Sad: At this stage, only movement/transfer/driving speed it affected. Getting A Tad Weepy (btw needs a better name): Speed penalties increased. Survivor won't eat anything heavy, i.e. only chips, pop, chocolate, fruit, etc. Depressed: Speed penalties heavily increased. Survivor won't eat anything at all. They will refuse to build anything major, i.e. walls, doors. They won't dismantle anything either. Tiredness will not lower below Drowsy. Severely Depressed: Survivor won't eat, they won't build anything, they will refuse to carry anything they aren't equipping. They will move at a snail's pace and cannot decrease Tiredness below Tired.

 

These could be too extreme so I'll wait for the devs to test any ways, but I agree that this could easily change the meta and make the game more realistic and exciting. Imagine getting Severely Depressed and basically being at risk of starving to death if you don't find a way to become happy again. The problem is that I think NPC and animal companions will be a big way of renewable happiness. So I wouldn't expect this kind of change to the system until after those are added. The devs have also mentioned a Psychology system. So expect Stress and Unhappiness to actually be expanded upon a lot there. Hopefully, things like Depression and Anxiety will be actual mental health "injuries" that you can gain and lose more dynamically and realistically. This would also open the door for other things like Mania, Psychosis, and Schizophrenia that could all lead to the hallucinations and insanity that would make sense in a desperately hopeless zombieland like Knox Country.

 

On the point about animations, I agree 100%. The list of animations still missing from B41 isn't too long, and some of these would be really nice to include. There are definitely some more necessary animations that I would prioritize first, but all of these are on the top of my wishlist. If not in this build, these will most likely be added with the Disease/Psychology Update build whenever that comes. And at the very least, they should probably come before the full release.