Adding character developtment

pagroove · Post by **pagroove** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 9:10 pm

How about adding a bit of character development to the game? So your commander has to eat, drink, and sleep. and has a health status. So when in a station you need to eat or hire a cabin.
On trips you must activate the 'star-dreamer' to rest and prevent from becoming very sleeping. I know that pressing the J key does this automatically now.

Example

Commander Jameson:

Health status 67%(minor injuries, hungry and didn't sleep for 48 hours)
You have minor injuries
You are hungry
You have to sleep

This is basic but you could at other stats.

Sarin · Post by **Sarin** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:40 pm

a teeny weeny little bit of realism...would be nice if you had to take care of yourself too. I'd like to see such thing, but only in small scale. I'm pretty sure someone will soon suggest adding more RPG-like character development, perhaps something like trading skill, fighting skill etc...not that I'd be entirely against it, but it would eventually lead to a totally different game.

By the way, I think your commander actually sleeps while in witchspace.

Selezen · Post by **Selezen** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:41 pm

The Stardreamer is from Frontier. Not Elite. "J" is the Torus drive - a kind of supercharger for the thruspace drive that lets you travel three times as fast as normal...

In a station you can use your ship to sleep in. It does have full living quarters, after all. It would be a bit like taking a caravan to a campsite then sleeping in a hotel...

Your health status is "recharged" by the medical equipment on the bridge. Can't remember what the manual called it. MediStim bay?

Anyway, travelling from witchpoint to planet takes about 15 minutes real-time and game time. Not losing any sleep there!

The MemnSomn thingy simulates a kind of trance whilst in witchspace so that only takes a few seconds of subjective time AND you get a rest in the meantime!

Sarin · Post by **Sarin** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:44 pm

Selezen wrote:
In a station you can use your ship to sleep in. It does have full living quarters, after all. It would be a bit like taking a caravan to a campsite then sleeping in a hotel...

I disagree with that...after sleeping in a caravan for most of your time, wouldn't you like to exchange it for a hotel room for a night or two?

Post by **Micha** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:15 am

Sarin wrote:
Selezen wrote:
In a station you can use your ship to sleep in. It does have full living quarters, after all. It would be a bit like taking a caravan to a campsite then sleeping in a hotel...
I disagree with that...after sleeping in a caravan for most of your time, wouldn't you like to exchange it for a hotel room for a night or two?

Well, I don't know about you, but my 'caravan' as you put it isn't too shabby. I've diverted some of my trading funds into refitting the standard cabin on my Cobra. It's fairly spacious anyway for a single pilot (after all, it's designed for 2) and with some creative work you can get a pretty decent extended live-in area. Just perfect for when you have to wait around for your mark.. combine that with the latest in DirectBrain HoloImaging and VirtuaSense I/O systems and you've got a pretty neat little virtual cinema/electronic entertainment area right in your bunk.

To be honest, most of the hotel rooms I've had to put up with while planetside have been rather worse.

Sarin · Post by **Sarin** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:25 am

Not everybody does that, for example me, I don't have money to tune up my ship yet, besides I don't want to keep my Cobra for longer time...I'll be going for lambda class shuttle prolly once I find one that isn't overpriced because of upgrades, or maybe I'll grab Grass Snake...I just need something a bit bigger for trading.

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:41 am

A Ferdies cabin is 5*, I'd sleep in one all the time.

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:08 am

TGHC wrote:
A Ferdies cabin is 5*, I'd sleep in one all the time.

Yes, but the rest of the ship sucks. Technically it's so outdated.

*****

Oh, and for the character development suggestion: It's not that I am completely against it, but I don't see any way of implementing it in the existing game, except that you would have to go through a couple of mission screens on each and every docking. Apart from the possible screen clash problems with older OXPs, that would be not only un-Elitey, but plainly annoying, if you ask me.

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 11:04 am

Micha wrote:
Well, I don't know about you, but my 'caravan' as you put it isn't too shabby. I've diverted some of my trading funds into refitting the standard cabin on my Cobra. It's fairly spacious anyway for a single pilot (after all, it's designed for 2) and with some creative work you can get a pretty decent extended live-in area. Just perfect for when you have to wait around for your mark.. combine that with the latest in DirectBrain HoloImaging and VirtuaSense I/O systems and you've got a pretty neat little virtual cinema/electronic entertainment area right in your bunk.

Don't tell me, all leather fire proof interior, with gold lamay trim and mirrored ceiling, right? Cobra soft top, the ultimate passion wagon.

Post by **Disembodied** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:54 pm

I prefer to sleep on board the Radio Maru... I object to paying for a bed I'm not going to use and anyway, in the mornings the cleaners have been known to mistake me for a hoover...

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:58 pm

Disembodied wrote:
I prefer to sleep on board the Radio Maru... I object to paying for a bed I'm not going to use and anyway, in the mornings the cleaners have been known to mistake me for a hoover...

I wonder how you leave the Radio Maru anyway?!?

Post by **Disembodied** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:16 pm

Commander McLane wrote:
I wonder how you leave the Radio Maru anyway?!?

I pop the hatch and trundle on down the gangway... the whole "bolted onto the deckplates" thing was getting old. Anyway, it's more sociable to be able to roll around the place. As long as some scutter doesn't try plugging a hose where the stars don't shine...

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 6:10 am

Disembodied wrote:
Commander McLane wrote:
I wonder how you leave the Radio Maru anyway?!?
I pop the hatch and trundle on down the gangway... the whole "bolted onto the deckplates" thing was getting old. Anyway, it's more sociable to be able to roll around the place. As long as some scutter doesn't try plugging a hose where the stars don't shine...

Now that's what I call character development!

</shameless attempt to pretend that we're somehow still on-topic>

But I wonder: So do you have some wheels attached to your jar? Or does 'roll' mean the whole thing, like you would roll a barrel? And in that case, what would be the long-term effects on the brain inside?

Selezen · Post by **Selezen** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 8:38 am

Oolite is for playing...the forum is for character development.

I prefer to do my characterisation either in my head or on paper/in Word. Keep the game simple and let everyone's imagination do the work... that's what I think made Elite great!

Post by **Disembodied** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 10:09 am

Commander McLane wrote:
So do you have some wheels attached to your jar? Or does 'roll' mean the whole thing, like you would roll a barrel? And in that case, what would be the long-term effects on the brain inside?

*Tut*... I've had a transport body since I got out of the medical unit. Treads, manipulators, the works. Now, after extensive (and expensive) modifications, my jar sits inside an armoured core along with an emergency oxygen supply, carbon scrubbers and a rebreather; a Tezaeded-built digester, which can break down pretty much any organic matter to extract nutrients; and a whole bunch of filters and processors to do the jobs of the missing organs. Add in a bit of magnetism and I can (and sometimes do) trundle out onto the outer hull of the Maru in a quiet system and just watch the universe roll by.

The hardest part is getting my autonomic processes working properly: it's often easier to adjust my brain chemistry consciously, upping my adrenalin flow for example if things are looking a bit leery rather than waiting for some subcircuit to notice any unconscious flickers of anxiety and turn the taps on for me. Then, of course, I have to remember to turn 'em down again, when I've finished a run. That's more important than ever now that I have added some, ah, other features to the transport vehicle. These are not the sort of things you want to activate accidentally in a crowded place...