This post is a dumping ground for gameplay/content ideas and long-range plans. Feel free to comment.

These are all serious proposals for implementation after the essential v0.7.x features are complete.

Hacking into the Panopticon (2021.12.01)

STATUS: ASPIRATIONAL

Now that I have a proper GUI in v0.6, I can create a full-blown simulation of PRISM, with which certain classes (particularly Hacker) may spy on any character in the game, including player characters just to see what the Synthnostate knows about you. Scan social media for watchwords… in Synthnostate. Dox NPCs by cross-referencing social accounts, emails, phone numbers, and cookies… in Synthnostate. Track their location with GPS, WiFi, license plate scanners, credit transaction monitoring, store loyalty cards, etc… in Synthnostate.

Basically I want to show normies how easy it is for tyrants and criminals to stalk them with simple databases.

Persistent Injuries for the hardcore audience (2022.01.01)

STATUS: ACCEPTED, prototype system implemented in v0.7.5

This is a very tempting feature. Maybe we can keep an easy mode option to restore all party members to full health after battles, but tailor everything for hard mode with persistent injuries. It’ll be difficult; no magical healing and no resting because there’s no game clock. In V1, the HP bar is stamina/fatigue i.e. the ability to keep fighting; when it hits zero, you drop. You’re not dead, just defeated. If your team loses you’re all dead or captured. If you win get right back up. Let’s keep it that way, without health regeneration in hard mode - you have to restore it with food/drinks/drugs; that adds a nice logistical challenge. “Dead” characters remain unconscious, and if you’re on hostile turf, you have to leave them to die or get captured unless you have a good medic who can revive them. Mercy kills might be an option… whoa that’s dark. o7 F

But why stop there? Critical hits can cause persistent debilitating injuries… broken arms and legs, hearing or vision loss, heavy bleeding, collapsed lungs, concussions, unconsciousness, and death. You can reload… or you can press on with a decimated party, work around your injuries with different equipment, and patch yourselves up or recruit NPCs when you’re able. You may complete a mission with an rifleman with his right arm in a sling, wielding a pistol left-handed, pushing your irreplaceable ‘leet hax0r in a wheelchair with a long gun he barely knows how to shoot, and he gets captured during the getaway and you have to rescue him from a hospital under police custody, and then he’s on crutches for the next run. If it’s any consolation, your wounded will have a few weeks to fully recover between the last few chapters. Yeah… I like the sound of this.

That’s exactly what this game needs. A little design tweak built on the existing status-effect system that’ll add a lot of depth to the gameplay. I think I’ll do it.

Plot Consequences (2022.01.01)

STATUS: ASPIRATIONAL

This is a conspiracy sim, not a mass murder sim. I want lots of creative options to discover the real conspiracies and do something about them. CAN you simply arm your characters to the teeth with stolen military gear and storm into Glowie Central with guns blazing? Absolutely. CAN you become informants and go around slaughtering good guys? Sure. Either way you’ll probably get a GAME OVER or railroad yourself onto a desperate and hopeless path.

For example, early in the game you enter a shopping mall which serves as a mostly-safe hub level. What happens when psychos attack random shoppers in a mall? Last week in LA the psycho and a random 14 year old girl in the dressing room behind him got killed by a cop who brought an AR-15 to a 10-on-1 fistfight (allegedly, allegedly). Whatever game the guy was playing, it’s over. If the girl happened to be a key figure in the plot, that whole plot thread is now unachievable. Maybe the world needs more Dirty Harry cops, but now this one’s out of the picture and the others are on notice.

Consequences.

How to code this efficiently? Quests tied to NPCs/items and an alarm level that increases from silent alarm to SWAT raid. That’s half-done in v0.5 but will be much easier to code with a full scripting language, which was the primary motivation for a complete engine rebuild in v0.6.

Expandable Equipment (2022.02.15)

STATUS: ACCEPTED, prototype implemented in v0.7.5

I’m experimenting with NEO Scavenger-inspired expandable equipment slots as a more “interesting” alternative to the existing shared party inventory.

In this mockup I’m reducing the core equipment slots from 5x3 to 4x3, keeping all 10 clothing+weapon slots, and replacing the 5 belt slots with 2 “accessory” slots. You add “cargo slots” by wearing clothes with pockets, belts, bags, backpacks, frame packs, fanny packs, purses, or manpurses I suppose.

The 4-row layout allows for a party of 6 (on normal monitors) without covering up the bottom UI panel, and the bottom area is available when necessary i.e. for corpse/chest looting.

I want to implement cargo slot sizes and concealment… weapons and ammo are the main concerns, so let’s think of sizes in these terms:

1. Tiny: derringers, penknives, pistol clips, large caliber single rounds
2. Small: pistols, knives, AR clips
3. Medium: machetes, baseball bats, bullpup rifles
4. Large: long guns, bows, spears, pitchforks

There are degrees of concealment: open carry, hidden in a bag/pack, concealed carry, and James Bond stuff. The first will arouse suspicion in public places, the second won’t get past bag inspection checkpoints, and the third will get caught at metal detector checkpoints. The last is odd stuff like plastic knuckles and composite handguns.

Oversize items can fill two next-size-down cargo slots (like two-handed weapons occupy both weapon slots) but lose any concealment (i.e. a baseball bat sticking out of a backpack). Undersize items can be stacked in larger cargo slots (i.e. an energy drink is small, a 6-pack is medium, and a case is large). Weapon/clothing slots can hold ONE item of any size - no stacked items unless they’re in a container (like bullets in a clip/magazine).

I don’t want a weight/encumbrance system. However, bags and packs and purses will incur speed/movement penalties much like armor. It also costs more AP to access their contents in combat. The standard gameplay tactic would be to drop them immediately at the first sign of a difficult fight. Also, bigger/stronger characters could get extra belt/vest/pack slots as an approximation of larger carrying capacity.

Another tradeoff: tactical gear that’s useful in combat also raises your Intimidation level, which is great for bullying NPCs but not for sweet-talk. There will be times when it’s advantageous to send in an unarmed martial artist, a MacGyver character, a sexy spy with a thigh holster under her miniskirt, or a stealth break-in artist who can avoid confrontation altogether.

Laying Traps (2022.03.14)

STATUS: PASS

This is not a very serious proposal. It’s in the original design, that’s all that ever came of it, and it’ll never happen without two things:

One: defensive and ambush scenarios to provide the motive and opportunity to lay traps (lol, no homo!)

Two: combat mechanics. I had a few dumb ideas like slippery floors and tripwired grenades. We need more than that.