Hi all, and cheers for TobEX getting another release!
I've got a new wish I would like to express: the creation of a "stamina pool" (that, hopefully, will lead to an overhaul of the whole resting system).
It was something I was discussing a few time ago on the
g3 forum, only to find out that it wouldn't have worked easily within the vanilla engine; that, even if I tried to shape my thoughts in order to exploit the intoxication mechanism already in the game.
Basically, I would like to create a new engine mechanic that would allow the making of limited-usage-abilities that still don't rely on the traditional vancian-system but, instead, on a threshold of fatigue that regenerates with in-game time.
In vanilla
BG a character can drink as much alcohol at inns & taverns as its constitution allows him to before becoming drunk (or, technically, "intoxicated"). This status gives him fighting penalties/bonusses (to
Thac0 and save against fear, IIRC) and only wears out with time (it's not necessary to sleep though I guess, since even travel time worked).
The intuition is that it should be possible to use a similar system in order to make some abilities that can be used only at a certain rate (since, let’s say, they “intoxicate you”) before a character becomes "exhausted", getting heavy combat malusses to his statistics and being prevented to use special abilities further until this state ends.
This “fatigue” will thus wear out with time without the need of resting, yet putting you at risk of going into this state while in combat.
I think that such a system would suit for a lot of abilities that could be virtually repeated many times in a day.. the limit being that if someone repeats them without any rest, it would eventually become “exhausted” for some time (you can run at high speed for some seconds in a while.. yet there’s virtually no limit to the number of times you can do that in a day, provided you take some rest from a dash to another).
E.G.
Clodgar has a Constitution of 17, which gives him 68 stamina points (4 stamina points per Con point).
Every time Clodgar uses a special ability he adds some fatigue points to his stamina pool (precise amount depending on the ability).
If “total fatigue points” > “total stamina points” -> then, “exhausted”
Note that “fatigue points” wear out with time (let’s say, for instance, at a rate of 4 points for round) and, thus, only an excessively intense usage of abilities would actually induce someone to become exhausted.
Note that exhaustion has “short time effects” (which go away in a matter of rounds) and “medium time effects” (which require a character to sleep to go away).
Short time effects:
- Can’t use ability which require fatigue points until exhausted has ended (after x turns?)
- Heavy malusses to statistics
Medium time effects:
- When “exhausted” state ends the stamina pool isn’t completely reset, but, instead, has some fatigue points on it that won’t go away until the char takes a sleep.
This medium time effects stack with each other if a character becomes exhausted consecutive times before taking a sleep, progressively reducing the effective dimension of his stamina pool (and thus his ability to “spam” special abilities into few rounds without becoming exhausted) and eventually forcing him into a perma-exhausted state until he takes some rest (since fatigue points will eventually > stamina points even when exausted state is reset).
This could be integrated with the general resting-system, equating x hours without sleeping with a certain amount of medium-time fatigue points.
This would mean that character with high constitution could – without going into exaustion state due to excessive usage of special powers – stay asleep effectively more time than a low con one.. adding tactical value to constitution.
So, what do you say, could TobEx do such a thing?
Edited by cremo, 07 February 2012 - 03:25 PM.