I have played through a bit and found many interesting items that are purely aesthetic, I feel that this game would benefit from having a Stress or Sanity meter. I tried to keep it as compiled as possible and still get my points across, almost all of it relates but the most important parts are colored. Stress would normally go down slowly and be able to be replenished fairly quickly given the correct circumstances. "I.E. You have a decent base" You wouldn't need to stop mining every 5 seconds to run home and play with stuff, imagine very gradual degeneration unless you REALLY stress your character out by say for example... repeatedly jumping off a cliff into a dark cavern filled with monsters.. The Basics - How Stress Affects You Firstly before I get into explaining the Stress mechanic and how you gain/lose stress I will explain what exactly it would do and how it would affect you as player. Your character would have an overall 'mental state' At 0% stress, you are at your best, you have no negative effects. As you gain stress 'up to 100%' you will begin to suffer more and more drastic effects. *These are examples but it would need gameplay balancing to determine how effective they would be* Effects are cumulative 'At 100% stress you suffer from all the de-buffs 5%,10%,20%, Etc' 5% Stress - You get hungry faster 10% - You can't jump as high 20% - You take slightly more damage 35% - All lights are not as bright 'Everything seems darker and scarier' "torches, flashlight, campfire, etc" 50% - Reduced Temperature resistance 'You might get cold in areas you didn't before' 100% - Massively reduced HP '50%' All debuffs stack, when stacked with '20% - Slightly more damage" any monster encounter even low level can be fatal at 100% stress. Gaining and Losing Stress Stress would compile over time due to certain actions taken by the player. -Slow constant increase - Boredom -Being damaged -Falling great distances -Overexertion - Mining vast numbers of blocks or rapidly swinging your weapons -Overexposure - Being on planets during harsh weather "Cold,Heat,Rain,Snow" -Sanity - Being in total darkness for prolonged time or hearing monster noises -Eating food that your race doesn't like -Debuffs "poison, burned" -Being insulted by NPCs during conversation "Directly or aimed at your race" Stress would rapidly decrease by interacting with 'fun' items. -Playing with arcade machine {currently not intractable} -Playing the Guitar -Interacting with pets {Pets are planned} -Sitting on the toilet -Watching TV -Being Complimented by NPCs -Etc. I am sure there are more interesting items that don't really do much at the moment [Mention some that you know of in comments} Stress would slowly decrease by relaxing -Sleeping in any bed -Sitting on any chair -Standing still in warm-clear weather [possibly but very slowly] -Being inside your ship Stress would decrease or be negated in direct response to using certain items Purple/Indigo Stimpak - Decreases Stress By a Lot Flashlight or torches - in a dark area would negate the sanity drain Rain gear or Umbrella - would negate weather effects
This mechanic works great in Don't Starve, eating certain foods, needing to sleep, being around too many monsters etc. Not sure how it would work in Starbound but it's certainly fun in Don't Starve.
Hmm, I never actually played that, mostly what made me think of this was feeling a bit like some of the cool background objects could have functions.
Honestly, although you went into great detail I believe Starbound shouldn't have hunger at all, never mind more bars to annoy you constantly. I don't know why, I just hate them, they add nothing in the way of gameplay in my opinion and just seem to be there to stop you going AFK.
Sanity works pretty well in certain games, but I really don't think it would fit too well in a game like Starbound. I mean, it sounds alright in theory, but in a sandbox-based game like this, it would probably end up annoying most people. It would make a great mod, but not so much for vanilla.
One of the first color bits says "You wouldn't need to stop mining every 5 seconds to run home and play with stuff, imagine very gradual degeneration unless you REALLY stress your character out by say for example... repeatedly jumping off a cliff into a dark cavern filled with monsters.." -Starbound is a SURVIVAL sandbox. - It would be a very gradual degeneration 'A few in-game Days of normal play on a planet" And it would recover very quickly. -It doesn't cost resources to Lower stress. - It wouldn't outright kill you, you are still safe to AFK until something else kills you at least.-100% stress does not kill you "like 100% sanity does in Don't starve' <Also a SURVIVAL sandbox. -Hunger does not raise stress, If you are in a safe area with sufficient warmth and light your sanity will actually go DOWN 'Again it won't really affect AFK"
I already have to worry about hunger, HP, Energy, And heat. I don't think we need anything more to worry about.
I would agree with you if it wasn't so easy to get food. If they made it hard to get food like the aforementioned Don't Starve, then I might have issue with a hunger bar. As it is now, it adds a nice bit of realism without be totally obstructive.
I like this idea, but I don't think it should apply on every planet... say you could encounter specific biome types that were a little more mentally taxing, then I'd go for it. You know, the kind of places where the dirt is pitch black and there's tentacles coming out of the walls and the monsters look like Cthulhu.
Mmm, actually it is a "Survival-Sandbox" It even has a built in game mode for specifically sandboxing. I agree, most of the posts so far have been in support of "easy mode" which could be solved by just adding a creative mode that removes all hazards, Food, HP, And Heat. And another point I would like to make is that the other reason people have not been in support is that it would be "annoying" when I made it very clear that It is designed to NOT be annoying But I will make the points again I guess maybe someone will actually read them -*VERY GRADUAL DEGENERATION* - You don't need to constantly monitor stress, Even getting to a low percentage takes a while, getting to 100% could take Actual real life days of actively trying to gain stress It is *Free* to lower stress and it happens EXTREMELY fast under the correct circumstance, in normal play you will almost never be stressed. Stress would only compile if you try and push your character to his limit and To get rid of it would be as simple as beaming to your ship and waiting for a minute, OR interacting with a "fun" item and reverting back to 0% stress almost instantly.
Yeah this is kind of what I mean, not every planet is going to stress you out, different ones will stress you for different reasons and you can even tank against the stress, for example. You enter a new world with monsters that are high-tier and you are wearing low-tier gear then you will slowly be stressed when encountering them. until you get better gear. You enter a snow world and start to freeze which would slowly stress you, you can tank against it by adding heat resist, Campfire/torches would not be as efficient as actual cold weather gear. so attempting to "campfire tank" a cold world becomes slightly harder. I also like the idea of certain planets "just stressing you out" by being on the planet. Possibly planets with crazy features could cause your mental state to drain? Possibly an item called 'Blindfold" and it's only stat is one to "Lower or remove" terrain affecting stress level?
So, because it's not hard as crap to find food, you find it "annoying"? I like the food system cause it could allow them to add buffs/debuffs to being full or starving later on down the road. It would be very cool to be able to mine faster when you've got food in your belly than when you're starving.
If it is really that hard to become stressed, it shouldn't be implemented at all. It would give us no challange or worry. Maybe in a mod.
You misunderstood, I meant since food is soo easy to get the meter just becomes something of an irritation, it has no features besides "At 0 you die" and you only ever get to 0 if you're not AFK or a complete idiot/newbie. You're idea for mining being faster adds a use to the meter, and thus it would be less annoying.
I personally think this is an insanely good idea. Many of those before me have raised excellent points in the refining of this crazy concept. The devs would have to be out of their mind to not implement this. See what I did there? But no, seriously. As long as it isn't an issue through, as you said, normal gameplay, this would add a really nice edge to certain areas of the game. Having a 'nightmare biome' or some aspect of a planet that caused stress to be an issue would be great - and it'd make those stimpacks quite the commodity. I know some people don't like to have all these silly little 'needs' for their character, but for me, it makes the game all the more worth playing.
Actually it is a action/adventure sandbox exploration RPG, but you know.. not going to get nit picky........ People should be allowed to play the way they want.
