habits, vices and neuroses in Book II?

[Evnissyen]

I seem to remember a while ago somebody suggesting an option that characters be able to develop coffee addictions and therefore need a cup of Joe in the morning, after camping, just to get going. It was a joke at the time, but I thought it would be a cool thing to implement.

Who was it? Pipe up now! Because I remember saying I loved the idea.

And... I was thinking about it again just yesterday.

So I'm wondering again: BW: might there be any likelihood... if not in Book II then maybe Book III? (since Book II, by your words, seems like it's just about complete except for incomplete dungeon layouts and such)... for people to choose or develop neuroses or habits? Say, for example, needing a cup of coffee in the morning, or having an apple-eating fixation/need (there're so many apples in Book I and so few uses for them), or having a real annoyance for certain kinds of people (like priests, or librarians, or cartographers, or barkeeps, or young women named Penelope) that tends to put you on really bad relations with them (thus limiting your options), or having a problem with authority that inevitably gets you into trouble (could our hero be landed in jail every once in a while?), or tending to enter an uncontrollable berserker-like rage when faced with brigands or goblins, or (like poor Lilith) being allergic to bee stings, or just plain being terrified of bugs, or having a terrible aversion to Mithral, or a need to be constantly humming some random tune, being afraid of silence, having this need to keep your inventory organized just so (or else a certain penalty is incurred), or needing to always keep a certain item in your inventory (back to the apples again?) lest you incur some penalty, or having an insatiable desire to collect books or other things or even just twigs or rocks or torches, or having an incurable odor problem that makes people have negative attitudes toward you, or being afraid of water (this is where the boats come in), or not liking rain (I believe you said there'd be weather in Book II?), or being afraid of roads and therefore being unable to walk upon a road without incurring a penalty of some sort, or a necessity to close doors always after opening them, or having a bad stomach (making the food requirement more problematic... you mentioned food would be an issue in Book II as well, right?), or being myopic and therefore needing glasses in order to see and fight properly (and of course these glasses will inevitably break once in a while, thus forcing you to buy new ones and in the meantime fighting creatures/brigands poorly and mapping things really poorly)... well, there're lots of things you could think of... have fun and come up with some cool neuroses!

For every debilitating neurosis there could be a complementing benefit... .

It could make the game even more fun.

But I still think the coffee need is the best idea of all.

I've also spent way too much time on this post.

[BasiliskWrangler]

I've also spent way too much time on this post.

Yes, you did.

Here is what I have determined: Book II is feature complete. That means, at this point, I simply cannot cram another feature into the engine and expect to get the game out in any reasonable time. I've said previously that we've put over 60 enhancements into Book II -- the truth is we are waaaay above that by now, if you want to get specific. Book II should have had a complete development schedule of 18 months, but at this point we will be pushing a total of 30 months of dev time before Book II is in your hands.

So, to answer your question above...eh, no. There will be nothing like that in Book II. Let's bring up these suggestions when Book III development is in full swing.

[Evnissyen]

Aww... .

...I spent all that time coming up with ideas for nothing.

Oh, well. The seed is planted. Now you'll have to put neuroses into Book III. It'll become a neurosis in itself for you to do so. You'll do it without thinking and then you'll think, "What have I done? I've put crazy neuroses into Book III? Why? A character with a constant need for coffee in the morning? Where'd that come from?"

...And then you'll remember this thread, and the other one.

[Unclever title]

This reminds me of an idea my brother and I talked about involving a (non existent to the best of my knowledge) stealth based game in which the protagonist was horrendously obsessive compulsive (think Sam Fisher crossed with Adrian Monk), obviously that would be a tremendously severe version of this kind of stuff, but it led to some interesting conversation. That would likely be a game I'd both thoroughly enjoy and dislike simultaneously.

I'm all for realism and such but neuroses (even mild ones) may be a bit too much, though I suppose I can reserve full thought and opinion about it for later.

[Evnissyen]

Well, the idea wasn't so much for the sake of "realism", so to speak, as it was for simple craziness and fun.

Maybe it's just the Absurdist in me who's drawn so much to this kind of stuff.

I like the idea of having to have an apple in your inventory, too. I think I like that one very much.

(Actually, here's an interesting turn -- memory's really weird -- after finally finding the original thread, it turns out that this morning-coffee-need-in-Book2 that I was trying to pin on someone else was actually my own idea in the first place.

(And I was just calling for the one who brought up the idea in the first place to step forward.

(Surprise, surprise.

(I'm a genius! Yay!

(Or a lunatic with annoying ideas that some people perhaps wish I'd stop introducing.)