Part 1: Damage Mechanics So let's get started with Damage Mechanics. My idea is to have limbs and body parts be destroyable and will affect the player grievously. That said, it would add believability to certain situations and present as a further challenge in dangerous planets or situations. For example on how this would work, lets look at Science Guy. Let's say he went down to the planet below him and had his right hand taken off by some Poptop. He returns back with no hand. This would mean he will get the Bleeding debuff which will have him lose health until the openings are covered with bandages or something like that. Here are the effects of each body part when they are destroyed or removed: Head-If high damage, Instant Death. If low damage, a more severe bleed debuff. Arms & Hands-Unavailability of left/right hand usage. Legs- Movement reduced to a crawl if both, speed lowered and high chance to fall down if only one. Feet-Very slow limp movement if one, movement reduced to a crawl if both. Poor Science Guy, didn't the pamphlet tell you they're not good pets? And when you have bandaged it and healed it, you'd be limbless for a long time. For those who got hit on the legs and feet, there could be some wheelchairs or grav- platforms or something. What really makes this suggestion great are augmentations. Augmentations are mechanical replacements of your lost limbs. Let's say Science Guy is smart enough to make one of his own, and now look at him! Good as new! He now can use the right hand like before. Just like before. Don't worry Science Guy, pretend it's just a heavy metal glove attached to your arm where your hand should be. That should lift up your spirits! Although, there are several good and bad things about Augmentations than normal human hands. Here's a Pros/Cons list: Pros -Wield heavy tools and things: With Augmentations, the strength of that limb will be higher than that of fragile, fleshy counterparts. -Modified: If you follow the Zone Principle, this will make sense. You can specialize that hand to be a tool as well. You can insert a hidden knife compartment, or a drill to mine through rock easier. Or if you want to get back at the beast that took your arm by attaching some weapons. Ooh that would be fun! With this you can also use vehicle parts which you couldn't before like a tank turret, or something nastier. -Replaceable: If another one of them cuts off your augmentation, this time there won't be any bleeding and you can chase down that mutt and get back your hand or you can create another one! Cons -Rare: Finding an augment is hard, so most people attach what they could. like claws or something. That wouldn't let them use their right hand, but it would be effective. Chainsaws, anyone? -High Tech: To create one, you would need to be REALLY smart, and that would mean you can't focus your time on muscles or exploring, so you'd then hire a Science Guy, which is EXPENSIVE. -Malfunctions: Augments made of low-grade tech will malfunction every now and then. The limb would shut down and you will experience the effects of not having one except for bleeding. Here are some examples of modified Augments. One is a chainsaw, another a plasma gun. Time to rip apart Poptops.. Or melt them. There could be other types of Augmentations aside from mechanical things. Maybe a Living Vine or something, or maybe a crystal etc. etc. Subsequently, having Augments shows your veteran status. I mean, if you have a chainsaw for your right hand... people will worship you. Also, you could just go inside a Cloning vat to regrow your limbs, if you want. That saying, vats are slightly more expensive that Augments, so if you want to have that limb back, you gotta use augments for a while. Part 2: Death Mechanics Sometimes a blow too hard will kill you. Not even augments can save you, as most of your limbs are taken off and there is no one to help you. You wait as death burrows in your innards and spills your guts. When you die you go to Space. The Outer Space is where the dead go. They wander and get drawn towards other life forms. Once you find a life form (NPC), you can possess it and you can play again as that creature. This is the beauty of this mechanic. You can become a being and another and another, experiencing the world with different eyes each time. It's a loss, to not be your original form, but it's also great, as you could participate in the fight as the alpha predator, engage in space battles, become another person, soar through the skies with wings, launch magic spells of ice and fire, charge at enemy gates with your tusks and more. Though if you don't want that life, there's the Life Stone. A Life Stone is a rare stone that is found in planets and in some mobs. You have one on you when you start. These Life Stones store your Life Essence when you die will recreate you to full health and your inventory unaltered. You can choose to merge with one Stone. Merging with a Life Stone is safe yet risky. Having a Life Stone means having guaranteed immortality, but if you lose your Life Stone, or unequipped it, you will die and the Stone breaks forever, turning you into a Spirit (paragraph above). The Stone was merged by you, and so if it is destroyed, you can never use another Life Stone again, no matter how many mobs or NPC's you have possessed. Be sure you merge with a Stone when you're SUPER AWESOME. There's also the means of cloning. You can create Clone vats to store naked clones of yourself. When you die, the next clone in line becomes alive and you take his consciousness. You'd lose your stuff, but you can get it later. You'd have perfect health and such. Note that, if you or someone messes with the Control System of the Cloning Vats, that clone could have some changes. You could get a large bone sword on your left arm and spinal tentacles on your back or something. If you're demented you'd mutilate your own clone willingly. And lastly, the other way to prevent death is self-mutilation. You can have your crew attach you to some machine and forever be embedded into it. It's like Augmentation but on a large scale. Following the Zone Principle, you can virtually be anything. You could be a gigantic robotic dreadnaught. You could be a jet, a tank, or a space ship. This concludes my suggestion. Please vote in the poll and have a good day!
I just noticed that, in Co-Op, you would die and become another being right? Maybe you'd help guide your friend and stuff as a hawk, being a "guide". It'd really make the game fun and more in-depth
i think the limb replacement could be a great mechanic(for another game that's built around that) but for starbound im not feeling all the enhancements and having anything as a limb replacement, i think maybe getting a robotic hand or limb of some sorts and you keep it throughout the game for that character: or even a character that starts with one however the robotic limb doesn't change game play better or worse for a character, cause why bother with human limbs when you could have a robotic one that beats it out in every way? i think a whole game could be developed around the "dieing and seeking out a vessel to become 'alive' again and be that person or thing" but not in starbound i personally wouldn't want to start over as a new character and go to pick up all my lost items/stuff every time i die
There are limitations to the limbs, of course. You can't use that limb to do this or that like it was supposed to, and the chance of shutting down when you need it most. Also, look at the Cons list. Would you really pay that much to have an arm? I mean, when I said expensive, I meant EXPENSIVE. As in, you could buy the mech with that money. Also, it's not a enhancement, its a replacement. There also some ways to recover your human limbs of course, but still, the option to have augments is great. And if you don't want to be reborn as a new person and experience an entirely new way of life and increase your wisdom of the universe, then fine, if you even read the Spirit Stone part you'd see that it saves your current state and you get one when you start. And there's cloning. And really serious augmentation. EDIT: If you mean the chainsaw and the plasma gun pictures, those are modified augments. The actual augment is just a replacement limb. Those parts come from other places. See the Zone Principle. Plus, you spelled 'Dying' wrong. Just a heads up. Why? Reasons? Come on, I can't take criticism like that if it won't help. Be like that Ephexis dude, listing his reasons even though he doesn't like the idea.
I love the concept but these two right here is tricky. The way this mechanic works is that your mentality, your intelligence and consciousness would take over anothers. The problem I have is this: If it's your consciousness than that means you lose none of your intelligence, or wisdom, or any other mental statistics. Thus you could create said REALLY smart guy, commit suicide than find and posses some bad ass warrior with massive physical stats. You just broke the game. Sure there are ways to limit this, but still it will work the same way, you could take a race that would normally be dumb as all get out... possess it and still be a brilliant mad scientist, only now your beefy too.
Strength and the Smart would require some way to have constant attention to keep it up, and working on one thing would decrease the other, so keeping the two stats up will degrade each other. Also, another dampener is losing your mental statistics in the process since if you took over a smart guy the intelligence would overpower your own, or the bad ass warrior's simplicity will size down your mind. Yeah, your intelligence will depend upon the being you inhabit. Also, its harder to inhabit someone with something strong about them (strength, intelligence, etc.) and such. Your options would be of low-to-mid level beings. I hope that clears things up.
Speaking frankly it wouldn't work like that irl, but than it's starbound and I don't give a damn how it works there. The point is that we are talking possession, a form of mental manipulation, for a creature with a simple intellect there is no way to prevent being possessed, the consciousness of the other would invade yours displace you, and take over. So saying, the smarter they are, the harder it is to take them over, and the smarter you are the easier. Physical strength or endurance has nothing to do with your ability to resist possession. As far as intelligence and physical ability goes your right on the spot there, if you focus on brains you'll lose brawn, even in real life, and if you focus on brawn you'll lose brain. The difference is someone could power their intelligence up, die, than possess a simpleton strong npc and focus on their brain still, with occasional strength training they would still be stronger than they could have been in the other life form, or in any life form with that high of an intellect. The creature would have a natural strength that it wouldn't go under if you train even once every so often. Just sayin. also I state the third AM I am not to be held accountable for anything I say or do... *BUUUUURP* I will re read this tomorrow, if I find that it was insulting I will delete it and apologise, Force2Reckon, OUT!
I think it should be an option as some people doesn't like being sliced up by you opponents, making you have to crawl back to base just to patch yourself up and then buy some crazy ass robot body part, some people doesn't like being android, if you want to be, you shall have the option in the character customisation or in a mode,
It takes great wisdom to reason against someone, it takes even greater wisdom to yield and learn from it. Yes, you have a point. Maybe I'll add in the suggestion a way to regrow lost limbs. Yes, I'd do that.
