You know…I played some Minecraft the other day on the Xbox 360 and I was all alone for about half an hour, except for the monsters roaming around, and my sanity meter barely dropped at all. Because I didn’t have one.
I honestly don’t understand these games that implement incredibly quick-depleting hunger and thirst bars. I mean, seriously, ffs a relatively healthy human being can survive 4-5 days without water and two weeks without food. I can understand speeding things up *a bit* for the sake of gameplay, but what the hell is wrong with these people who think you’re going to die of exposure within six hours?
Personally, my standard would be Ramadan. Every year, about a billion people go ~12 hours without food or water every day for a month. If a survival game protagonist could not even survive that relatively minor amount of fasting, the mechanics are stupid and broken.
Just reading the title i figured something like this :
GM : You enter a dark room Jim : i try to find a switch GM : okay roll san check first please. Jim : sure…. and … BOLLOCKS ! 100 ! critical failure ! GM : your character lose 5000 points of sanity, you die. Jim : What ?
The main problem I have with sanity bars is that it’s always unclear how to restore sanity. If you’re hungry, you eat. Thirsty, you drink. Tired, you sleep. But if you’re lacking sanity? Get laid? Do a crossword? Read a book? Watch some cat videos on the internet? Fuck knows.
Sanity in games could be really interesting, games like this always seem to mix sanity in with morale. Splitting the two into separate bars (yeah, I know, MORE BARS!) could make things a lot more interesting. Morale could be your motivation to do things, and you could for example trade in some sanity for a morale boost by creating a Wilson type companion.
I much prefer the kind of “soft data” of games like DayZ where the survival “bars” are represented by changing colour of icons, so there’s no precise idea of how hungry or thirsty you are, just a rough idea. This is more natural and also stops the player bar-watching.
I totally agree with Jim that these games tend to amount to little more than “coloured bar nannying”. The survival genre needs a shake-up, it could be really engaging.
A survival game where the PC has a lethal case of Nyctophobia? Well that’s um.. new.
You know…I played some Minecraft the other day on the Xbox 360 and I was all alone for about half an hour, except for the monsters roaming around, and my sanity meter barely dropped at all. Because I didn’t have one.
So Minecraft is better than this game already.
That is a whole lot of backstory for a game with the plot, “You’re on an island.”
I honestly don’t understand these games that implement incredibly quick-depleting hunger and thirst bars. I mean, seriously, ffs a relatively healthy human being can survive 4-5 days without water and two weeks without food. I can understand speeding things up *a bit* for the sake of gameplay, but what the hell is wrong with these people who think you’re going to die of exposure within six hours?
Personally, my standard would be Ramadan. Every year, about a billion people go ~12 hours without food or water every day for a month. If a survival game protagonist could not even survive that relatively minor amount of fasting, the mechanics are stupid and broken.
The rate at which most “survival” games require you to drink water in order to stay alive, would actually kill you.
Early access, survival, open world. You know from the get go it’s gonna be shit.
Just reading the title i figured something like this :
GM : You enter a dark room
Jim : i try to find a switch
GM : okay roll san check first please.
Jim : sure…. and … BOLLOCKS ! 100 ! critical failure !
GM : your character lose 5000 points of sanity, you die.
Jim : What ?
That “intro” with the ship was painful
whats up with YouTube? I dont get notifications for any of your videos ._.
Why anyone would make a game like this, when there is stuff like Stranded Deep and Subnautica around, is beyond me.
From the way your character leaps out of the water, I think they might be some sort of dolphin man.
Huh…that tree-falling sound sounds a lot like the same tree-falling sound in Starbound.
Thank you Jim for these videos longer than 15 minutes they’re very enjoyable.
The main problem I have with sanity bars is that it’s always unclear how to restore sanity. If you’re hungry, you eat. Thirsty, you drink. Tired, you sleep. But if you’re lacking sanity? Get laid? Do a crossword? Read a book? Watch some cat videos on the internet? Fuck knows.
I think the correct term is journey or voyage.
Sanity in games could be really interesting, games like this always seem to mix sanity in with morale. Splitting the two into separate bars (yeah, I know, MORE BARS!) could make things a lot more interesting. Morale could be your motivation to do things, and you could for example trade in some sanity for a morale boost by creating a Wilson type companion.
I much prefer the kind of “soft data” of games like DayZ where the survival “bars” are represented by changing colour of icons, so there’s no precise idea of how hungry or thirsty you are, just a rough idea. This is more natural and also stops the player bar-watching.
I totally agree with Jim that these games tend to amount to little more than “coloured bar nannying”. The survival genre needs a shake-up, it could be really engaging.
remember lost in blue? now that was a good survival game. not this shit.
STYX Shards of Darkness you fat…. god you…
Oh it’s dark.. AAAAAAAARRRRGH! *dies*
I’m pissed off, Jim. I cant find big bad beetleborgs in the UK.