Poll: Idea for Progressive Insanity in a Text Based Adventure, or something
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QUOTE:Emurlahn, Post No
" Your meter fills up slowly whenever you take something that is not yours. Then after a certain point, whenever you try to put a object you've observed back at it's place there are a X% chance of you putting it into your inventory instead, X rises with the meter, when you reach the next point it stops telling you that you've put it in your inventory and instead says that you have "Put (object) away". "
hate to be a killjoy but a adventure game fan doesn't need encouragement to be a kleptomaniac, the genre is pretty much built on that assumption. Once an item is picked up, why would you put it back down again unless it was required for a puzzle, in which case having it randomly appear back in the inventory would annoying at best, or a cheap death if that action had to be done quickly to avoid a game over.
The only reason an item would need to be put down is if there was a limited size inventory, but then having lots of useless items would create a combination explosion (assuming item combination exists), could expose the combinatorial backbone of the adventure and ultimately frustrate the player.
we have to remember that we cannot force the player's hand directly, only influence them. like little voices it their head would.
like the idea about descriptions changing though
I am thinking maybe you can have certain objects associated with primal fears or personal fears that affect the view of the character when in proximity to them. example, vertigo: when near edges of cliffs view becomes distorted, making the actual position of the edge hard to determine. Players will fear cliffs as much as the PC would.
" Your meter fills up slowly whenever you take something that is not yours. Then after a certain point, whenever you try to put a object you've observed back at it's place there are a X% chance of you putting it into your inventory instead, X rises with the meter, when you reach the next point it stops telling you that you've put it in your inventory and instead says that you have "Put (object) away". "
hate to be a killjoy but a adventure game fan doesn't need encouragement to be a kleptomaniac, the genre is pretty much built on that assumption. Once an item is picked up, why would you put it back down again unless it was required for a puzzle, in which case having it randomly appear back in the inventory would annoying at best, or a cheap death if that action had to be done quickly to avoid a game over.
The only reason an item would need to be put down is if there was a limited size inventory, but then having lots of useless items would create a combination explosion (assuming item combination exists), could expose the combinatorial backbone of the adventure and ultimately frustrate the player.
we have to remember that we cannot force the player's hand directly, only influence them. like little voices it their head would.
like the idea about descriptions changing though
I am thinking maybe you can have certain objects associated with primal fears or personal fears that affect the view of the character when in proximity to them. example, vertigo: when near edges of cliffs view becomes distorted, making the actual position of the edge hard to determine. Players will fear cliffs as much as the PC would.
This definitely sounds like an interesting game, however the meters would be best if hidden from the player, and never actually mentioned. Don't let people know that the game is about insanity, have the main story have no mention of insanity until the players are too far gone to change anything. Don't advertise it as a game about insanity, do everything you can to avoid people having any knowledge of the insanity mechanic until they've actually felt it's effect. Hopefully people talking about the game won't mention this mechanic to non-players, the whole "spoiler-warning" mentality should come into effect here. I'd love to play this game if you ever develop it. If you need anybody to playtest...
Hehe I'm the complete opposite.feather240 said:
Yeah this idea sounds great I was thinking the other day why so many games like to use 1 dimensional bars for things instead of more complicated systems.
It's not like the player needs to see them
I think the first step in probably setting up this system is categorizing insanity states, so you understand how different disorders are related and what behavior a character can perform that would be signs of a disorder.
Probably the simplest way to split mental disorders in an RPG, would be Depressive vs. Maniacal. Depressive status effects would include: slow, sleep, stop, etc. Maniacal status effects would include Confusion and Berserk.
If you want to get more complex in mental disorders, you can follow how psychologists have categorized these before. You would get something like:
Cluster A (odd or eccentric)
........Paranoid: irrational suspicions and mistrust of others.
........Schizoid: cold and indifferent.
........Schizotypal: characterized by odd behavior or thinking.
Cluster B (dramatic or erratic)
........Antisocial: disregard for the law and the rights of others.
........Borderline: extreme "black and white" thinking.
........Histrionic: attention-seeking behavior.
........Narcissistic: need for admiration and a lack of empathy.
Cluster C (anxious or fearful)
........Avoidant: sensitivity to negative evaluation and avoidance of social interaction.
........Dependent: dependence on other people.
........Obsessive-compulsive: rigid conformity to rules.
So the three general behaviors would be: do you don't act human, are you too willing to act out your emotions, or are you too unwilling to act out your emotions. (Which probably suggest have a current 'emotion' to be part of more complex system.)
If you mix these together, I suppose the simplest way to look at your current sanity if from the scales:
Anxious - to - Erratic
Depressive - to - Maniacal
Rational - to - Irrational
Where sane would be having a level in the middle of all three of those scales. And as you moved to the extremes of any of these scales, you be going insane. Once you work out what you want the disorders to be, it should be easy to throw them on these three scales, with each disorder requiring a combination to be high, mid or low in each scale. That gives you 27 sanity states.
Probably the simplest way to split mental disorders in an RPG, would be Depressive vs. Maniacal. Depressive status effects would include: slow, sleep, stop, etc. Maniacal status effects would include Confusion and Berserk.
If you want to get more complex in mental disorders, you can follow how psychologists have categorized these before. You would get something like:
Cluster A (odd or eccentric)
........Paranoid: irrational suspicions and mistrust of others.
........Schizoid: cold and indifferent.
........Schizotypal: characterized by odd behavior or thinking.
Cluster B (dramatic or erratic)
........Antisocial: disregard for the law and the rights of others.
........Borderline: extreme "black and white" thinking.
........Histrionic: attention-seeking behavior.
........Narcissistic: need for admiration and a lack of empathy.
Cluster C (anxious or fearful)
........Avoidant: sensitivity to negative evaluation and avoidance of social interaction.
........Dependent: dependence on other people.
........Obsessive-compulsive: rigid conformity to rules.
So the three general behaviors would be: do you don't act human, are you too willing to act out your emotions, or are you too unwilling to act out your emotions. (Which probably suggest have a current 'emotion' to be part of more complex system.)
If you mix these together, I suppose the simplest way to look at your current sanity if from the scales:
Anxious - to - Erratic
Depressive - to - Maniacal
Rational - to - Irrational
Where sane would be having a level in the middle of all three of those scales. And as you moved to the extremes of any of these scales, you be going insane. Once you work out what you want the disorders to be, it should be easy to throw them on these three scales, with each disorder requiring a combination to be high, mid or low in each scale. That gives you 27 sanity states.
It might help if I better explain what actions would increase or decrease these scales.
Anxious: hiding your emotion and desires, lawful
Erratic: displaying your emotion and desires, chaotic
Depressive: being passive towards events around you
Maniacal: being forceful towards events around you
Rational: doing what makes logical sense
Irrational: doing what does not make logical sense
I kind of like how being too rational turn out to be insane by this scale. Just like in Math, if you don't include the irrational, you're not real. I should also point out, this scale could easily be hidden.
Let me also give some examples of how certain disorders could fit on this scale:
Avoidant: Anxious Depressive -
Asperger: Anxious - Rational
Obsessive-compulsive: Anxious - Irrational
Dependent: Anxious Maniacal -
Kleptomania: Anxious Maniacal Irrational
Schizoid: - Depressive Rational
Melancholia: - Depressive -
Paranoid: - Depressive Irrational
Sane: - - -
Psychopathy: - Maniacal Rational
Bipolar: - Maniacal -
Schizotypal: - Maniacal Irrational
Narcissistic: Erratic Depressive -
Antisocial: Erratic - Rational
Borderline: Erratic - Irrational
Histrionic: Erratic Maniacal -
I'd totally be up for helping with this. I made a text-based adventure game in Python a couple years back, and also worked on recreating Thy Dungeonman in both Python and C++. It would be nice to have something to program again.
What do you mean by opposite? "042rehtaeF"?Rockchimp69 said:Hehe I'm the complete opposite.feather240 said:
Yeah this idea sounds great I was thinking the other day why so many games like to use 1 dimensional bars for things instead of more complicated systems.
It's not like the player needs to see them
Limited inventory would be a must for this game, of course.Aphantas said:
And there should be a penalty/consequence to all the things you do; if you steal something, the owner will be pissed at you (this should happen early in the game), so you find out that it is not a good idea to take everything you see. And it should be possible to get through the game without becoming a klepto, so every story progression would remove some points from the bar, but only a set number, so you could still end up a klepto, or certain (needed) items could not have a "+x klepto" count.
Just to make sure, if any of the people who posts in this thread disappears suddenly; it wasn't me.Flig said:
OT: yes, that is quite right. The game would be indie, so it would be advertised as a normal RPG/adventure game (or something). And the insanity checks/bars should never be viewable by the player. I think non of the stats should be viewable actually.
I was think more in direction of a bar for each kind of insanity we decide to use. And then have a "combination count", so that when this and this bar both gets to that much they will add another negative.ManInRed said:
To all: of course this is only thoughts made by me, and not OP, so they are not final.
And we have in no way started, and I don't know if we ever will start making this game.
I would really love to do it though. *nudgenudge*@OP
No haha I mean I'm good at programming but don't know the syntax of many languages.feather240 said:What do you mean by opposite? "042rehtaeF"?Rockchimp69 said:Hehe I'm the complete opposite.feather240 said:
Yeah this idea sounds great I was thinking the other day why so many games like to use 1 dimensional bars for things instead of more complicated systems.
It's not like the player needs to see them
Well that's probably better. What language do you know?Rockchimp69 said:No haha I mean I'm good at programming but don't know the syntax of many languages.feather240 said:What do you mean by opposite? "042rehtaeF"?Rockchimp69 said:Hehe I'm the complete opposite.feather240 said:
Yeah this idea sounds great I was thinking the other day why so many games like to use 1 dimensional bars for things instead of more complicated systems.
It's not like the player needs to see them
Bit of C#, Lua and all of expression 2 from garry's mod.feather240 said:Well that's probably better. What language do you know?Rockchimp69 said:No haha I mean I'm good at programming but don't know the syntax of many languages.feather240 said:What do you mean by opposite? "042rehtaeF"?Rockchimp69 said:Hehe I'm the complete opposite.feather240 said:
Yeah this idea sounds great I was thinking the other day why so many games like to use 1 dimensional bars for things instead of more complicated systems.
It's not like the player needs to see them
The punishment for being a klepto would have to be waved for puzzle solving though, even with limited inventory. Maybe some items hurt when picked up at the beginning? making the player cautious with item collection, and to make sure that the player doesn't just take everything when left alone.
with a large number of items, just beware of unintended solutions, the adventure game community are like MacGyver, they will find a way make a raft from logs, gum and a paperclip.
IDEA:
here's an idea for OCD, an achievement list, completion of which would send the player on the OCD path
I am wondering how all these ideas will be used in the game. Will it be to create a virtual diagnosis of the which mental disorders they are susceptible to?, is it so that the player can experience, in a sense, what it is like to have such disorders? this will determine whether we will be forcing the player to take certain actions or just influencing them.
Also will there be a Stat System? this could be used to create characters with certain initial tendencies to some disorders, could be hidden as well to make sure that the game has replay value.
with a large number of items, just beware of unintended solutions, the adventure game community are like MacGyver, they will find a way make a raft from logs, gum and a paperclip.
IDEA:
here's an idea for OCD, an achievement list, completion of which would send the player on the OCD path
I am wondering how all these ideas will be used in the game. Will it be to create a virtual diagnosis of the which mental disorders they are susceptible to?, is it so that the player can experience, in a sense, what it is like to have such disorders? this will determine whether we will be forcing the player to take certain actions or just influencing them.
Also will there be a Stat System? this could be used to create characters with certain initial tendencies to some disorders, could be hidden as well to make sure that the game has replay value.
Wow. Anyways, we have got ot keep this thread alive. It'll be fun for Schizo, since 'helpful' voices that sppear like a normal NPC talking. Player backgrounds that influence the insanitly stat gains, perhaps?
Text based games are kinda.... crap... But I got some ideas! Although I don't exactly understand what the game is meant to be other than the mental disorders.
1. A player finds an item, something of interest or value to them. The player becomes so fascinated with this item he/she begin collecting them. The more and more they find, the more fascinated and deluded they become in wanting this item. They want this item so much they would kill innocent people to obtain it. As their addiction develops it is clear to everyone that this person is possessed. No body even knows what this item is, because the item never even existed. The player thinks they're collecting this precious item, but in fact the item's this person is collecting are very common items of no interest or value.
Of course, this can easily be accomplished by changing the name of said item to the one this person is obsessed over. It could be incorperated into a quest so they think they're collecting quest items. Or it could be a rare and powerful set of armour that is too desirable not to look for
Some NPCs may feel sorry for you, so they try to tell you to truth. Do you believe them? Or do you get angry and frustrated with them for lying to you. Perhaps they want these items also, so they are trying to steer you away from them.
Some NPCs take advantage of your condition. They may offer you one of these items for a very large amount of money or everything you own.
A game like this would need lots of choice in dialogue and actions, and also hide the overall effect of this addiction/mental disorder from the player until they eventually snap out of it, if ever.
EDIT: I just thought. If you start the game off as a child, in a prologue kind of way, it could really help shape these insanities and add context to them.
1. A player finds an item, something of interest or value to them. The player becomes so fascinated with this item he/she begin collecting them. The more and more they find, the more fascinated and deluded they become in wanting this item. They want this item so much they would kill innocent people to obtain it. As their addiction develops it is clear to everyone that this person is possessed. No body even knows what this item is, because the item never even existed. The player thinks they're collecting this precious item, but in fact the item's this person is collecting are very common items of no interest or value.
Of course, this can easily be accomplished by changing the name of said item to the one this person is obsessed over. It could be incorperated into a quest so they think they're collecting quest items. Or it could be a rare and powerful set of armour that is too desirable not to look for
Some NPCs may feel sorry for you, so they try to tell you to truth. Do you believe them? Or do you get angry and frustrated with them for lying to you. Perhaps they want these items also, so they are trying to steer you away from them.
Some NPCs take advantage of your condition. They may offer you one of these items for a very large amount of money or everything you own.
A game like this would need lots of choice in dialogue and actions, and also hide the overall effect of this addiction/mental disorder from the player until they eventually snap out of it, if ever.
EDIT: I just thought. If you start the game off as a child, in a prologue kind of way, it could really help shape these insanities and add context to them.
What exactly are people looking for? I can code some really simple stuff in python to get the ball rolling if anyone is interested, just to see how shit goes; but you'd need to set up interfaces that would make interactions possible, you know what I mean? How are NPC interactions handled, how are places defined, what kind of options are there to move around, etc.? I'm talking about the backbone of the engine here--the equivalent of jumping on blocks to move forward, crowching, that kind of stuff. If people wanna throw ideas into the mix and finally settle on something specific, and if time permits, I could go about programming that stuff given that it is just to make test runs on a text adventure. I'm talking about engine building 101, guys. That comes before ever trying to dream up features.
Again: interfaces are a must if you don't want hardcore scripted nonsense--not that nonsense is bad, mind you, since this game would be about...well, nonsense.
Be like the Geth, guys, build consensus on what exactly it is that you want for the backbone of this thing.
If anyone is interested keep me posted, if not, I may just code it for myself and see how it goes; I may have something funny to report here and there but don't expect me to share it as text interfaces are not my forte and people would most likely end up confused trying to go around my nigh unplayable text game.
Again: interfaces are a must if you don't want hardcore scripted nonsense--not that nonsense is bad, mind you, since this game would be about...well, nonsense.
Be like the Geth, guys, build consensus on what exactly it is that you want for the backbone of this thing.
If anyone is interested keep me posted, if not, I may just code it for myself and see how it goes; I may have something funny to report here and there but don't expect me to share it as text interfaces are not my forte and people would most likely end up confused trying to go around my nigh unplayable text game.
When I read the title for this, I immediately thought about the Malkavians from Bloodlines (Played as one through my first playthrough. Thought it was brilliant and mindfucking at the same time.) I LOVE the idea of insanity text based adventure.conflictofinterests said:
I don't know jackshit about making games, but hell I would love to be a beta tester or something like that!