Lately I've been working on adding condition trackers to the game.
The original game started out with an all-purpose "MP", which was then split into "EP" (Endurance Points) and "MP" (Mind Points). When I split magic off from the standard mental attributes into its own thing, it gained "PP" (Power Points). That's a lot of P for one game.
This version uses Endurance (not Endurance Points, just Endurance) to track your physical resources. Mind Points are gone, replaced with a stat called Stress. Stress is tracked as a percent from 0 to 100. Rather than being used up when you use mental skills, Stress is gained when you fail at demanding tasks, or sometimes even when you succeed (for instance, when crafting a recipe you haven't mastered).
Stress lowers your recovery rate for health and endurance and even your recovery from stress itself. If it's over 50%, there is a chance you will fail any skill check due to frustration. Stress also lowers the benefits you get from eating and drinking.
Stress recovers fairly quickly when you don't have much of it, much slower when you have a lot, though resting/sleeping lowers it in a way that bypasses a lot of the reduction. Getting too stressed, though, will leave you restless and unable to sleep.
The way sleep works is you hold the Z key down while your character is resting, and the screen darkens incrementally to represent you falling asleep. Once it becomes fully dark, you are asleep and can release the Z key. For most characters in low-stress situations, this is a swift sequence completed in a matter of seconds. If your character is stressed, agitated, hopped up on stimulants, et cetera, it's more of a prolonged struggle... and while you're fighting to sleep, you do not lose any stress! A character who gets to 100% stress may need to lie awake for a while before sleep even becomes viable.
To guide new players through this and other intricacies of gameplay, I've also added the tip system, which gives an explanatory text message the first time you encounter something/do something. For instance, the first time you run out of endurance, you get a message telling you how to rest, and then following that instruction leads you to a series of tips guiding you through the sleep system.
ID:1812760
 Mar 18 2015, 2:31 am
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Well, I think there are a couple of unforeseen consequences involved here.
First, we have to realize that realism is not and cannot be the goal here. Realism would dictate that you should spend 30-40 minutes asleep every two hours of play to remain functional. I don't aim for realism. I figure that forcing realism in one area just highlights how distorted the simulated reality is; I mean, your character basically ceases to exist for days at a time, on a persistent server. Focusing on the minutiae of a sleep cycle during the time they are present is not a good use of simulation. The second is that if we look at it objectively, what you're saying is that in the original game, the mechanical benefit derived from sitting and staring at a blank screen was sufficiently compelling enough to get you to do so, and you would like very much if I would remove that option so you don't keep taking it. Because unless I'm completely misremembering my design choices, I don't think the game required sleep. I don't think stat recovery degraded over time awake or anything like that. You could get hungry without food, you could get thirsty without drink, but I don't think you could get tired without sleep; just fatigued in the sense of losing stat points, all of which could be recovered without sleep. Now, none of this takes away from the system you're describing. But I just want to point out the above, and the fact that there is no actual inherent "full rate". Whatever I peg the numbers at, for whatever game balance reasons, they will be on some level arbitrary, and they could always be higher. So while you might be envisioning players staring at a blank screen watching their endurance tick upward and grumbling about how frustrating it is, under the system you describe I posit a lot of the same players would be staring at a brightly lit screen watching their endurance tick upwards and grumbling about how frustrating it is that they can't at least rest whenever they want. I think the actual problem had more to do with 1) going out and being social/experiencing the game not being interesting enough to be more compelling than staring at a blank screen for a mechanical advantage, 2) the balance between recovery while sleeping and recovery awake being off, and 3) the lack of tools for cooperation/collaboration meaning few characters had ready means of rapid stat recovery that weren't sleep. I'm not above tweaking the sleep system away from the basic MUD formula I used, but I'd rather look at the big picture. What I'm thinking right now is that sleep will have more to do with achieving a "rested state" buff that lets you recover stats at a sleeping rate even after you wake up. How long it takes to enter the rested state will depend on your comfort. The rested state would not be able to survive much in the way of exertion, but you'd be able to be up and active during it. | |
Having said that, I think the actual system I'm going to use is this: when you sleep, about five to ten seconds after you hit black, you'll receive a "restfulness" buff/debuff of varying strength/description (based on environmental considerations) that will color your stat recovery for the next hour, awake or asleep. An hour after it falls away, if you haven't slept then you'll get a "tired" debuff which is basically the worst sleep modifier.
Your restedness would also affect your skill usage, so you'd not only be able to get more work done after sleeping comfortably, you'd get better work. (This scheme would also increase the market value of being able to offer a comfortable room to sleep in.) | |
...and having said THAT, I'm now pondering the value of making sleep into an interactive experience. Imagine a mini-game where you have to literally "catch Zs" or "catch 40 winks".
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The second is that if we look at it objectively, what you're saying is that in the original game, the mechanical benefit derived from sitting and staring at a blank screen was sufficiently compelling enough to get you to do so, and you would like very much if I would remove that option so you don't keep taking it. Well put! That is EXACTLY what I'm saying! I'm a min-maxer by nature; given the choice between the "most fun" option and the "most mechanically beneficial" option, I will almost always choose the latter. The thing is, I don't see the need for players to be forced to choose between one or the other. If the "most fun" option and the "most mechanically beneficial" option can reasonably be one and the same, why shouldn't they be? Think back to your design for the skill system. You gained skill points at a set rate regardless of how you were spending your time. It allowed players to spend their time as they pleased, without having to worry about the mechanical benefit they might be missing out on. And it was FANTASTIC. All I'm asking is that the same logic be applied to stat regeneration. Yeah, some players will inevitably be thinking "Gee, I wish I could sleep so I could get my stat points back faster." But this logic is hardly different from saying "Gee, I wish I could be punching a training dummy to get skill points faster." | |
...and having said THAT, I'm now pondering the value of making sleep into an interactive experience. Imagine a mini-game where you have to literally "catch Zs" or "catch 40 winks". I would also be okay with any solution that makes sleeping a more interesting option. :-) | |
Could always play a non-copyright-infringing variant of the Jeopardy theme song while vintage HrH characters danced across the screen, not too far unlike 'Hamster Dance'. The longer you can sit through that and not resort to slamming your face into your desk, the more stats you replenish.
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Sleep in HrH was one of the more non-fun and unsocial parts of the game - and also one of the more unrealistic parts, if you think about it. It encouraged having "5-minute work days" in which your character would blow through their physical/mental resources, sleep it off, and repeat.
As an alternative, I think it would be fine if your points/stress just came back at the full rate as long as you're not exerting yourself. This would encourage more pro-social behavior in players, since they could leave their hole, explore, and go chat with others while waiting for their points to return. Or, if they prefer, they could just sit there and stare at a non-black screen. =p
Sleeping could still have a non-roleplay use in giving back a large portion of stats in a shorter period (like 5-10 seconds), but would have limited usage (like once per in-game day). This would also let nice blankets/beds still have a use; the higher quality your bed, the more stats you get back in your limited sleep time.