[Concept Discussion] Character Stats

[aft2001]

This is a post to discuss a concept in order to better flesh it out, before being posted to the actual suggestions thread (as, again, this is a concept and not a fully-formed addition).

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In short, it should be possible to have some stats that can be changed for your characters. These would have more of a mechanical change rather than an RP one, though it would still be useful on Goon1.

There should be physical and possibly mental traits for your character(s) which will determine how likely they are to succeed in certain things in-game, among other things. This can be as simple as a basic slider between Agility and Strength. While this is self-explanatory, I'll still explain how this could work. The closer the slider is to Agility, the faster you move and generally the more dexterous and agile you are, but you'd be weaker and more prone to being grappled/shoved. Vice versa, as well.


Alternatively, this could be a point-buy system, much like the current trait system. Here are three Stats that I had in mind:

Strength - Your raw physical prowess, basically how robust you are in hand-to-hand combat. A high score would mean that you are more likely to succeed when trying to wiggle out of a grapple or push someone over; you also hit harder. You don't wiggle out cuffs better though, because your swole muscles just can't slide through them as easily! A low score would essentially be the opposite of all of this, of course.

Agility - How quick and precise your movements are. With a higher score, you'd be more slippery - figuratively speaking. Faster, get up more quickly, lower chance to slip on things, more easily wiggle out of cuffs, be better at dodging attacks, be better at landing hits, and whatever else would make sense. A low score is, again, the opposite of this.

Intelligence - How much of a nerd genius you are. A higher score would mean greatly improved chances of succeeding at more complex tasks like surgery, faster building of things, less likely to be shocked when hacking, faster repairing of things like APCs and stuff, better haggling with merchants, and other niche but situationally VERY useful bonuses (perhaps randomly being told what a wire does when hacking, being told what an artifact does as a scientist, etc.). But, having a low score results in taking longer to do complex tasks, higher chance of fucking up, and if it's seriously low, then you just wouldn't be able to do most complex things - essentially low INT would act like high brain damage.

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This is absolutely a concept that requires more fleshing out, but I'd certainly like to see more ability to tweak characters to fit specific playstyles.

[HydroFloric]

High intelligence might as well also increase stuff like how much brain damage you can take. Strength could also increase HP.

[KikiMofo]

Ehh. I don't like this idea. Ive seen servers that have the whole stats thing and its like a High RP server thing. Seems weird to me. Bay and CM have this stat thing and its more used for telling people you can't play this job because your stats are not right.

[Studenterhue]

Lifeweb has a pretty similar thing with its attributes system. Full disclaimer: I don't know much about it besides it having Intelligence, Strength, Dexterity, Perception, Willpower, and Health, but I specifically remember someone explaining how it actually keeps griefers in line. They said that, because of the huge strength difference, a new player bum with 8 ST was unlikely to beat a 21 ST guardsman, unless they got lucky or attacked with a mob, somewhat similar to real life. There's also a few abilities that, of course, boost your attributes or allow you to drain them from others. Again, I've not much details. Maybe they actually think it's a terrible system there, but I think it's interesting.

[polivilas]

I can only see it being min-maxed to high hell.

[Sundance]

My 2c, I mean it's not a bad idea per se, but it doesn't really fit what Goon RP/Classic is going for - in that effectively all players are equal aside from the odd quirk that encourages them to do their job, such as MD's successful surgery dice rolls or Security having a little stun resistance.

I feel traits is the way to go when it comes to giving players stats. My problem with traits is that the pros are too minor and the cons are too major. Like I can throw better punches but I have to offset with the fact that I am extremely flammable? How about I turn this off and instead wield something heavy and not have to worry about bursting in flames?

There needs to be more traits, they need to be toned down (the cons toned more than the pros) and there needs to be +1 point allocated, starting with 2 instead of 1. This allows to mix and match and it becomes less gamey like polivilas mentioned. Right now it's too restrictive.

What's the real big boy that i'd like to see is a more inclusive motives system. Right now it seems to be gutted because peeps don't know what to do with it.

[The Gorog]

My 2c, I mean it's not a bad idea per se, but it doesn't really fit what Goon RP/Classic is going for - in that effectively all players are equal aside from the odd quirk that encourages them to do their job, such as MD's successful surgery dice rolls or Security having a little stun resistance.

I feel traits is the way to go when it comes to giving players stats. My problem with traits is that the pros are too minor and the cons are too major. Like I can throw better punches but I have to offset with the fact that I am extremely flammable?  How about I turn this off and instead wield something heavy and not have to worry about bursting in flames?

There needs to be more traits, they need to be toned down (the cons toned more than the pros) and there needs to be +1 point allocated, starting with 2 instead of 1. This allows to mix and match and it becomes less gamey like polivilas mentioned. Right now it's too restrictive.

What's the real big boy that i'd like to see is a more inclusive motives system. Right now it seems to be gutted because peeps don't know what to do with it.

Traits could do with a rework and have not all of them contribute to the 6 trait limit maybe.
So you can have some that have less influence on stats, or even none at all, not contribute to that. Like accents, or maybe the stowaway trait.

[Frank_Stein]

I think if there are stats, simpler is better.

Strength - Your raw physical prowess, basically how robust you are in hand-to-hand combat. A high score would mean that you are more likely to succeed when trying to wiggle out of a grapple or push someone over; you also hit harder. You don't wiggle out cuffs better though, because your swole muscles just can't slide through them as easily! A low score would essentially be the opposite of all of this, of course.

Agility - How quick and precise your movements are. With a higher score, you'd be more slippery - figuratively speaking. Faster, get up more quickly, lower chance to slip on things, more easily wiggle out of cuffs, be better at dodging attacks, be better at landing hits, and whatever else would make sense. A low score is, again, the opposite of this.

Intelligence - How much of a nerd genius you are. A higher score would mean greatly improved chances of succeeding at more complex tasks like surgery, faster building of things, less likely to be shocked when hacking, faster repairing of things like APCs and stuff, better haggling with merchants, and other niche but situationally VERY useful bonuses (perhaps randomly being told what a wire does when hacking, being told what an artifact does as a scientist, etc.). But, having a low score results in taking longer to do complex tasks, higher chance of fucking up, and if it's seriously low, then you just wouldn't be able to do most complex things - essentially low INT would act like high brain damage.

I think breaking it down into roughly those three categories is best.

Just take any timed action, put it into one of those categories, and either marginally increase or decrease the speed based on if they are poor, average, or good.

Make it so you can only raise one at the cost of lowering another

[KikiMofo]

If you guys REALLY want the stats how about tying them in with the traits system? Like say you need a certain amount of Strength to have like a special trait that lets you take more damage or do more damage. Kinda like fallout perks you feel me?

[Slacker Magician]

The big bruiser and athlete traits already kind of fill those niches.
I can't help but feel that a stat slider especially one that would increase movement speed, would just end up with a power-gaming meta less than a week in.

[Lady Birb]

I can only see it being min-maxed to high hell.

[Wisecrack34]

I think it'd be cool, if at the very minimum as an RP1 exclusive

[Dauntasa]

please god no

this is how other servers do things and it's awful

[Technature]

Only if the stats are for really stupid things.

Like the smell of farts or how good you are at playing darts.

Otherwise it's gonna get min maxed the wiz waxed yo!

[Studenterhue]

Honestly, yeah, min-maxing is definitely a issue. These systems really only work on Lifeweb, Baystation, and other places because there's at least some expectation that people roleplay rather powergame. The Lifeweb community in particular likes to name and shame people who break immersion in some way (e.g. sharing a name with a celeb, referencing memes), and stats tend to be fixed and depend mostly on role, rather than some sort of points-build/skills system or whatever.

If something like their system were to be implemented on Goon, I imagine it'd be RP#1-exclusive, where people restrain themselves for the sake of roleplay and interesting rounds. It'd feel like a beefed up version of traits, with some similarity to old-school Fallout, where some minor changes in stats would allow you access to current traits (e.g. buffing up Strength at expense of Intelligence would allow you to take Meathead). The traits and stats themselves would have minor effects on actions, provide quality of life, or add something silly, like Job Rewards.