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Bravery as a Stat.


PoshRocketeer

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Character bravery is something that seems quite strange, characters becoming frequently panicked by effectively nothing despite being seasoned veterans of the apocalypse.  I have a solution to this problem that would be both an improvement to existing systems and a dynamic gameplay element.

 

Bravery is a hidden stat summarized by the character's info screen in terms like "Feeling/I feel confident." "Feeling anxious." "Terrified" etc, etc. These would be rough translations of the stat.

 

Bravery can be increased by killing zombies, and increases slightly faster when fighting multiple infected at once (and winning.) Higher levels of bavery begin giving diminishing returns on bravery gained from actions, similar to how higher levels require more XP. Injuries, fleeing from combat or hordes, as well as other environmental factors can influence bravery (such as fog or rain). Anxiety and depression also significantly influence the build and fall of bravery.  Being injured will soft-cap your max bravery level until they're healed, depending on the severity.

 

When bravery is built up, panic is built more slowly, and decays quicker, at higher levels single, double, or even triple zombies seldom bring panic to the character. The character can become temporarily desensitized if they've held max bravery for a significant period.  

The brave, cowardly, and desensitized traits all directly effect your character's starting bravery as well as build and fall. Desensitized maxes out character bravery, and prevents the fall of the stat. 

Brave increases starting bravery, and makes it easier to maintain, though still easy to lose if you are consistently making mistakes or being chased off by hordes (or survivors in future)

Cowardly naturally decreases starting bravery, makes high bravery harder to maintain.

Other traits could be added around this system as well, if desired, pacifist for example could lock your bravery at minimum, or another trait entirely could be added.


Low bravery influences how quickly you become sad, high bravery influences how quickly you become bored, having extremely high bravery means that combat no longer excites.

 

I think this would be an excellent addition, though admittedly a decent amount of work to implement. The only comparable stat we have in game right now is weight. It would make gameplay infinitely more dynamic, solve the issue of frankly quivering man-babies for survivors despite having kill counts in the thousands, and be an interesting mechanic to maintain without being a hard requirement. Its development would also open the door to other dynamic stats/traits and features.

Edited by PoshRocketeer
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Yeah I'd very much like this. As of yet, character growth seems underwhelming on some aspects. We are not talking about RPG hero type stuff or anything, but realistically an expert is quite fearsome when compared to a noobie, and you don't get so much of that feel right now. At the beginning of the game your character should struggle significantly more when climbing fences and the like, your first few zombie kills should be an atrocious process, but you'd quickly get considerably better and afterwards improve with diminishing returns.

The neurological gains in efficiency when performing a task is tremendous at first. It happens even in relatively simple movements like lifting weights, when a person begins lifting weights for the first time, they "become stronger" far quicker the first few weeks, not because of their muscle development, but because of the formation of neurological engrams, the brain learns of the most efficient ways to activate the muscles necessary for the gesture, from then on gains are slower because they will depend on muscle tissue.

If at some point in the future devs are interested in revising and modifying character progression, this sort of stuff would add both realism and feeling of struggle and success.

 

Panic and stress resistance is great because it would show the psychological aspect of cerebral development, you start to have more moderate adrenaline releases when faced with danger, you become efficient at the task of staying safe, it becomes second nature to sleep with one eye open. 

 

Early game should feel like a real hurdle, nightmares every other night, stress and panic build up more often (no time to get sad or stressed though lol). After the helicopter passes, you'd have become a different person both in-game and as a player. Players who never make it that far are lacking something in order to make it, in-game zombies are people who were lacking something in order to make it. If your character, if you, manage any sort of success in that bleak scenario, it's because you were a fast learner of the rules that apply to that world, and that character should feel it in their bones as much as you do. 

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7 hours ago, NoPizzaSad said:

Yeah I'd very much like this. As of yet, character growth seems underwhelming on some aspects. We are not talking about RPG hero type stuff or anything, but realistically an expert is quite fearsome when compared to a noobie, and you don't get so much of that feel right now. At the beginning of the game your character should struggle significantly more when climbing fences and the like, your first few zombie kills should be an atrocious process, but you'd quickly get considerably better and afterwards improve with diminishing returns.

The neurological gains in efficiency when performing a task is tremendous at first. It happens even in relatively simple movements like lifting weights, when a person begins lifting weights for the first time, they "become stronger" far quicker the first few weeks, not because of their muscle development, but because of the formation of neurological engrams, the brain learns of the most efficient ways to activate the muscles necessary for the gesture, from then on gains are slower because they will depend on muscle tissue.

If at some point in the future devs are interested in revising and modifying character progression, this sort of stuff would add both realism and feeling of struggle and success.

 

Panic and stress resistance is great because it would show the psychological aspect of cerebral development, you start to have more moderate adrenaline releases when faced with danger, you become efficient at the task of staying safe, it becomes second nature to sleep with one eye open. 

 

Early game should feel like a real hurdle, nightmares every other night, stress and panic build up more often (no time to get sad or stressed though lol). After the helicopter passes, you'd have become a different person both in-game and as a player. Players who never make it that far are lacking something in order to make it, in-game zombies are people who were lacking something in order to make it. If your character, if you, manage any sort of success in that bleak scenario, it's because you were a fast learner of the rules that apply to that world, and that character should feel it in their bones as much as you do. 

Well, I agree with you except for one thing, you actually made it because you have the equivalent of an RNG diceroll in your favor, you're "immune", but not actually immune. Genuinely the weakest aspect of the lore all for the sake of copying romero's homework.

Edited by PoshRocketeer
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I could be wrong, but i remember reading something about the character progressively getting more resistant to panic and eventually reaching the Desensitized trait. It would take a decent amount of game time and zombie kills to reach that though, and personally i've never played long enough to experience that, but you could also eventually nullify your coward trait if surviving for enough.

 

It's mixed memory i don't really remember where i've read it, maybe it was something in previous builds of the game or it's still a feature, i don't think it was a mod.

 

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On 7/23/2021 at 10:47 PM, 3lackrose said:

I could be wrong, but i remember reading something about the character progressively getting more resistant to panic and eventually reaching the Desensitized trait. It would take a decent amount of game time and zombie kills to reach that though, and personally i've never played long enough to experience that, but you could also eventually nullify your coward trait if surviving for enough.

 

It's mixed memory i don't really remember where i've read it, maybe it was something in previous builds of the game or it's still a feature, i don't think it was a mod.

 

This for sure does not exist in game.Not even with the Dynamic Traits mod. If it existed previously and was removed, maybe it was overpowered or just didn't work right. It's possible they intend to do something similar in the future with different implementation, I think my solution is pretty solid, though.

 

EDIT: It does exist, but it doesn't seem like it works.

Edited by PoshRocketeer
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3 hours ago, PoshRocketeer said:

This for sure does not exist in game.Not even with the Dynamic Traits mod. If it existed previously and was removed, maybe it was overpowered or just didn't work right. It's possible they intend to do something similar in the future with different implementation, I think my solution is pretty solid, though.

It is a thing. You don't get completely desentisized but you will get significantly less scared over time. 

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Yes, I've read that you get slowly more resistant to panic by time passed, it has a cap of a month or two I think. Brave or desensitized traits can't be developed though.

The fun part however would be to have that associated with time around zombies (not just surviving) or zombie kills, and having it affect stress buildup would also be cool.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/24/2021 at 2:53 AM, Burger_Time said:

It is a thing. You don't get completely desentisized but you will get significantly less scared over time. 

Upon doing some more research, I haven't found anything super concrete, but the system seems like it could use some improvements.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Watch the first episode of Cromulent Archer's one painful year challenge, then any later episode after a handful of months, on YouTube, and you will notice that his character doesn't panic as often or as easily, but it never actually hits the point of desensitized.

 

I do like the concept the original post lays out, it expands upon whatever system it is that is in place, and adds to it in a way that tickles my fancy. Like the effect on degree of bravery, and the lack of excitement in combat. If you're good at something, it becomes second nature, and becomes routine. Hell, you kill enough of them long enough, it may actually become boring. Assuming you are no longer topping up your pair of Depends everytime you get into a tizzy with some zeds.

 

"Ah! You spooked me so bad, I shit me britches!"

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