I like this idea as-well Maybe teh nightmares should be of your home planet (all the player characters are running from it) It would be a great way of improving lore.
Which would be a nice balance for using a bed for healing, instead of bandages. That and the time it takes to heal, I guess. :B Or maybe there could be happy dreams too, y'know... to offset it. Race-specific dreams would be wonderful.
Please do keep in mind that such things can be very intrusive if they occur at inopportune times. I spend only a small portion of my play time on single player. The rest of the time I'm hanging out with friends doing random team ups, seeing each other's constructions, ship redecorations, etc. I don't want to be working with a friend to clear out a dungeon only to get interrupted and sent into a nightmare because I decided to ease my use of bandages by using one of the local beds to catch my breath. Another thread in this forum mentions the possibilities of events during space travel. While I have not read that thread yet, just the general idea may have some merit in regulating the intrusion of such a game mechanic. If nightmares were simply excluded from all sleep except sleep during FTL travel, that would give a certain level of player control for times when they really -don't- want to pop into a nightmare. (Especially if their inventory is a mess from heavy looting or construction projects). Another alternative would be for Nightmares as a SP event only, however that would still not fix the possibility of going into a nightmare with your inventory a mess. While it is possible to have the player start out with nothing and must scavenge items and/or armor unique to the dream thus avoiding the inventory problem entirely, the idea still runs into the question: "what's the point?" Since I would really, very much dislike the intrusion of such a game mechanic I would rather not see it implemented as a random event. Perhaps it could be more of a one-time deal, or repeating until you win deal tied with using a boss item. Only in this case the boss is psychic and pulls some Psychonauts type mind invasion (can fit in a little with the unique outcast plot for each species) and has a high chance of invading your dreams within the first 10 times you sleep deeply after using a relatively easy to craft summon item. Within the dream you would have a preset inventory while your current inventory is temporarily stored elsewhere and restored when you wake up. The reward for successfully repelling a mind invasion and probing the alien mind in return? Information. You don't bring back an item, you bring back an idea that unlocks the schematic for the reward. Just make sure this preset inventory actually allows for "cheating" (like digging your way through an obstacle course) so you don't invalidate a huge majority of the game's mechanics just for the sake of an artificially difficult challenge.
You bring up a lot of good points, so I sorta agree with a lot of it. So... I think maybe it should only take place on your ship (very rarely), or if you're in singleplayer mode on a planet, or if you use a special item to instigate it. Also, a blueprint as a reward for completing it does sound like the best and most sensible reward for completing the nightmare. That, or a unique tech ability. Something you could learn, instead of an item you magically suddenly have when you wake up.
I tend to believe that since this is a suggestions forum its more for trying to find out how idea work rather than simply shooting them down. Even though I would be against the idea as-is, I did try to come up with some alternative methods of implementation that would make the mechanic more acceptable to more people. My suggestions revolve around the idea that despite so much of the game being "random" there is actually a somewhat high level of player control already in effect. The random stuff that you encounter already is in response to what I will call "major actions" for lack of a better term. Though it might not seem like much whenever you do it, going down to a planet is a major action. Heading off in a direction to explore it is a major action. When you come across a dungeon or feature you can skip over it, or take the major of action of jumping in and seeing what's inside. Even committing to an FTL jump is a major action. Just because our characters have had immense events unfairly thrust upon them in their backstories doesn't mean the gameplay experience needs to follow suit. It's okay to segregate plot and gameplay at times like this. Even using the boss summon items are major events that the tooltips warn you to be careful of. On the other end of the spectrum, using a bed is not a major event. It is not even an act of exploration. Unless you want to make sleeping a major action (which probably isn't a good idea), any large random event tied to it will be likely be intrusive and may rub a good portion of people the wrong way. I do not believe that making it a low enough probability event will make it any better. Not only will it be more of a chore to get when you actually do want it, its rarity could also add to the intrusiveness when it does happen. That is why I recommended adding a major event as a secondary condition before the nightmare becomes a valid possibility. Come to think of it, perhaps the nightmares can be tied to a particular item, such as a haunted bed. Sleeping in a "haunted bed" with veiled warning in its description can be considered a major action (it would also completely remove the need to use something like a boss summoning item first if that route is used.)
Maybe the nightmare could be the later part of some kind of "questline". I mean, as a random event, you find some kind of shrine. You decide to explore it, and after some cultists or abominations, you get to the shrine relic. An item with such an aura of darkness and fear, that its description will warn the player of a curse to those who sleep with it. This chain of events could be part of a larger lovecraftian Plot too There is also, the thing that you can't bring your friends with you to defeat such nightmare boss, so it should be disabled in multiplayer for a lot of reasons.
This could be a great big side quest, I agree that the dreams happening randomly just while sleeping could get a little annoying, so I'd rather have a special bed or item that gives you a 100% chance of having a nightmare, which you have to craft/find and upgrade for each new sector you unlock to make the boss appear again. The nightmares should get scarier and more f*ed up with some messed up plot twists. 8) Also: Definitely tentacles!
Thanks for the feedback guys! Sorry for not replying for a while . I really like the nightmare bed idea .
Happening random can really mess up mutiplayer or ruin a few things in singleplayer, especially in this state of beta. Maybe a questline where you either talk to someone and they speak of a curse, or you go to a strange area. Usually to me, bad things that have a 1% chance is 90% to me, good things that have a 90% chance is 1% to me.
I honestly don't like this idea for one very simple reason: Putting random boss- fights in what is supposed to be a healing process does not make too much sense. And since you are fighting and looting all the time it does not add anything new to the game. I also think that Silent Hill and Star Wars don't really mix well.
I love the idea. If this was added to the game, there would be that portion of people who would dislike the idea and would bitch about it for a bit, then forget about it, we'd all move on and get used to it. I also wouldn't have a problem with it being in multiplayer, because if there's something like this in a game, people playing that game know that they'll just have to deal with it. It becomes a part of the game. However, I do like the idea of controlling it a bit, for those who really don't want to have nightmares. The nightmare bed seems... odd, because it makes no sense that there would be a random bed that just gives you nightmares. That would have to be a damn terrifying bed. The FTL sleep one makes more sense, in that perhaps there's some weird effect that happens to people if they sleep during FTL.
how about everytime your charchter nearly dies his chance of a nightmare increases and maybe effects like blurry ness throughout the fight so you don't know what's trying to kill you and its always millions of levels above you despite having more balanced stats to represent your fear of its power which it doesn't have
