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[Melly]

Looks shitty, but it's just a quickly done mockup

I wanted to start a thread for this, but since there's really no demo for people to test I thought I should wait out until I created one on Feedback.

Survival is my idea for an unusual RL (without fantasy, axes, sorcery or sci-fi stuff). The premise is simple. You're a person travelling by airplane, when the engines fail and you crash on the woods. Miraculously, you survived the crash, but no one else did. You're miles from any semblance of civilization, in the wilderness with many dangers. Your job is to survive.

I've always wanted to make a roguelike and I find this a neat idea to start with. I'm posting it here to discuss ideas with other tigers. Right now, I plan to make it as complex as I can, with a lot of possibilities based on what your character has to work with and his conditions.

The stats you see on the mockup work like this: Thirst and Hunger work as you'd expect. Keep them down or die. Stamina should also be a no-brainer. Nutrition is separated from hunger because although you can keep from being hungry by eating whatever, you need to get some important stuff in your system, like vitamins and etc. Finding some vegetables, fruit, meat, etc would be needed unless you wanna go malnutritioned, in which case wounds would be harder to heal, and your stamina would deplete quicker. Another important one is the Stress meter. Stress relates to your psychological state. Obviously trying to survive under such rough conditions is greatly stressful to someone used to the easy life of the big city, and every time something bad happens or you're forced to do anything more radical your stress goes up. Keeping it down is essential, as having it surpass a threshold will lead to your character breaking down.

I also want to have a menu-based interface. Every action on the Main menu would open up another one with more options depending on what you can work with. This should make everything easier to understand and keep the command list from going to ridiculous ammounts like most RL's, while still allowing for complexity. The menus would also grow as you discovered new items and situations in order to help with new players learning it bit by bit.

Well, I'll stop with the wall of text for now. Hope I get someone slightly excited about this. Watch out for bears.

[Cheater‽]

Three needlessly complex suggestions I'm taking from another survival game because they're quite awesome:
- Shelter Building
- Heat stat
- "Farming"

Sounds pretty awesome already, though.

[battlerager]

Looks shitty

....says WHO? 


Nah but seriously, it does sound quite compelling.

[Melly]

Shelter building would be a necessity, and I also plan to have temperature and seasons.

One thing I'm still not sure about is on which type of wilderness I'll place it. I'm partial between tropical and temperate forests. Anyone has another idea?

[battlerager]

I don't know; jungle would be pretty obvious, but how about some sort of cooooooollllld forest!? 

[Melly]

Temperate forests tend to get very cold in winter, with snow and shit. Which is why I was thiking about them.

Possibilities for settings:

- Temperate Forest (leaning towards this one)
- Tropical Forest
- Desert Island (probably overdone by now)
- Arctic
- Desert (most probably those rocky ones, which seem to have more interesting stuff and not just sand for kilometers)
- High mountain/Mountain range
- Anything else people can think of

[battlerager]

- Desert Island (probably overdone by now)

Totally.

While I thought "Hey, a desert would be cool" I can't quite imagine enough gameplay to be had there. That may be because I suck, but yeah, I think there are other settings that offer more possibilities.

Temperate forests tend to get very cold in winter, with snow and shit. Which is why I was thiking about them.

- Temperate Forest (leaning towards this one)

Yeah, so that's probably what I meant.
I'd say "go for it!"

[Annabelle Kennedy]

- Arctic

i like this one, i think.

[Jrsquee]

Avalon Hill's Outdoor Survival might provide some inspiration.

[Xion]

I wouldn't say arctic, but cold definitely. Maybe one of those northern temperate or pine forests that never really get hot but have more survivable summers than straight-up ice you know? That way the game could be divided into the preparation season and the survival season. Strengthen shelter, gather food, make stuff, and when winter comes put it all to good use...?

Like My Side of the Mountain.

I love that book.

[Melly]

Avalon Hill's Outdoor Survival might provide some inspiration.

Maybe an inspiration of how not to design my game. Man, those reviews make it seem like the most random-riddled piece of crap ever. But damn those maps look good.

I wouldn't say arctic, but cold definitely. Maybe one of those northern temperate or pine forests that never really get hot but have more survivable summers than straight-up ice you know? That way the game could be divided into the preparation season and the survival season. Strengthen shelter, gather food, make stuff, and when winter comes put it all to good use...?

Like My Side of the Mountain.

I love that book.

Possibly. I'll probably include some really rough winter seasons. Even worse if you manage to crash during one.

Another idea I was toying with is with starting equipment. Sure, you're an average person which was going on a fairly short plane trip to a city, not a hike in the woods, so you pretty much have your wallet and maybe a bag of clothes. I'm talking about all the random items you may find in the wreckage, belongings of the late passengers (whose bodies will also be present, with detailed descriptions of their current gory states), whatever they may be. They'd be randomized at the start of each game. Things like books, clothes, toys (wanna fight stress by playing a bit on the last batteries of a kid's DS?), maybe some useful tools like a knife, and maybe some... unusual ones. Ever thought of how you'd feel fighting off animals with a 11-inch vibrator?

Of course the items you'd be able to find would be very few. Just hope they are of the useful kind.

[Gainsworthy]

Go arctic or Temperate forest, I think. Temperate's ability to kill you san orcs/zombies/nazis is really underdone. And Arctic, well, Arctic environments are just brutal. And Fun  !

That starting equipment idea sounds pretty perfect- it'd keep it roguelike-like, whilst making Actual Sense! Also, the sheer potential for what you could find would really add some replay value. The odd survivor, later-game, could be cool too. Or, uh, not. Whatever.

Also, you really should collab. with The Smithy on this one. I'm sure he'd offer you many a tip on fighting bears, and befriending bears, and using your bear to fight more bears, thus amassing an army of bears. Other things too! So I've read.

[george]

Temperate forests tend to get very cold in winter, with snow and shit. Which is why I was thiking about them.

Possibilities for settings:

- Temperate Forest (leaning towards this one)

Yes, I'd go for something like this. Like something in remote British Columbia.

Also make the plane crash on an island. In the middle of a lake. In the middle of a mountain range.

[hroon]

Sounds lovely so far.

Maybe you could randomize the temperature of the region you crash in?

Also please do:
-Animal trapping
-Canoeing!
-very rarely meet other survivors you can fight/ally with

[Melly]

Animals can be trapped for anything you may think of using them for.

Anything.

Just be sure not to get your face clawed off in the process.

[shrimp]

Add me to the list of excited people 

I vote for a cold forest setting (aka. boreal forest or taiga). Has bears, wolves, moose, beavers, etc, and isn't so extreme as to make the survival experience very limited (there's not much in the artic except seals, snow and bears).

Another status effect that I think is important is wetness: If you get caught in the rain you're going to need to start a fire and dry off or risk hypothermia. Sheltering under trees/in caves seems atmospheric and would add another consideration for decision making, i.e. "Do I go hunting for some essential protein in the rain or stay dry and nibble on some tree bark?"

Reference material:
- Unreal World (http://www.jmp.fi/~smaarane/urw.html)
- Any TV program featuring Ray Mears and his friend with the strange beard who thinks everything tastes like nuts.

[skrew]

change the premise to a scheduled flight over the north pole sometime in the 1950's, due to weather the plane gets taken off its course and as you go past a point 80km~ or so away from the alleged north pole you find the real north pole.

As you fly over it turns out to be a place with green grass, prehistoric animals and a strange english speaking aryan race. your plane then proceeds to crash into a lake/river/mountain due to the compass going haywire and you are stranded, do you choose to brave the cold of the arctic or venture further into this strange new undiscovered land.

http://www.v-j-enterprises.com/byrdiar.html

check that link if your interested. i think fighting dinosaurs and mammoths much in a contemporary fashion much more interesting than 20th century beasties

[Melly]

Interesting suggestion skrew. Who know into which direciton my game will go. I might surprise you.

Also, my inspiration was that guy named Bear Greaven or something like that, who eats decapitated crickets and squeezes elephant feces in order to drink the water that comes out.

[shrimp]

Bear "Hotel" Grylls?

Still, getting water from disgusting sources sounds like quality gaming material!

[Melly]

Yeah, that, thanks.