Help Me Brainstorm – Downtime, Comfort

[lofgren]

For some time I have been mulling over a specific conundrum.

 

For both gameplay and immersion reasons, I feel that it would be beneficial to incentivize two player behaviors:

 

1. Players should want to split their time between adventuring in the "wilds" and spending time in more civilized places such as cities and towns – creating a sense that their character actually "lives" somewhere and has a reason to return home and sleep in their bed and talk to their neighbors (and maybe even wife and children) instead of dungeon crawling for weeks on end. There are a few mechanisms for encouraging this already. There are the Lover's Comfort and Well Rested perks from inns and player homes in the vanilla game, and a couple that I have experimented with through my own mods. I'm a Customer Dammit allows the player to eat infinite food in their own home, saving time and gold, as well as quickly acquiring food in inns and guildhalls. Predators, my werewolf/vampire mod, increases your ability to avoid detection by making friends and purchasing a home in a hold. And recently I have been testing a kind of "recharge" mechanic where the player's max attributes are slowly diminished over time while adventuring. They can be buoyed temporarily with food and rest, but eventually you must return to civilization to rest and recuperate. While all of these mechanics, especially when combined, are pretty effective at nudging me towards establishing a homebase, none of them feels quite right so I would like to hear some other ideas.

 

2. Players should want to have at least two sets of clothing/armor – one for adventuring, and one for civilized areas. The immersion aspect is obvious here, but honestly the gameplay aspect is of more interest to me. More than once I have sat down at an enchanting table to make a second set of armor for myself and then thought, "But why?" There is absolutely no reason to remove my best armor at any point in the story. Having a need to maintain more than one set of equipment would provide more reason for adventuring, more reason for crafting, and just generally give you some occasional variety to watch on the screen. Plus, I mean, let's be honest. RPGs are at least in part a game of paper dolls. If you're not changing your outfit at least once in a while, you're missing out on a portion of the fun. On this count I've only really seen one mechanic attempted: skill penalties (usually bartering and persuasion) for wearing armor. I find that this approach is merely tedious. I'd like the player to want to change into their civvies upon entering a town, or at least feel like it is a very good idea to. I don't want them to suddenly remember they were still wearing their helmet when they made their last purchase and then reload the game.

 

Ideas I have been toying with:

 

An "equilibrium" stat that causes "city" skills to diminish with adventuring time and adventuring skills to diminish with city time. For example your smithing will slowly be depleted while you hunt for treasure in the wilds, while your two-handed skill will slowly diminish as you get soft drinking at an inn. Downside: total player paralysis for fear of losing bonuses.

 

Making it a crime to equip armor and weapons (exceptions: "good guy" uniforms such as Companions armor, Imperial/Stormcloak, or Blades gear) while in a city or town unless it is currently under attack by vampires or dragons. Downside: Not exactly subtle. May be unforeseen issues if specific quests require specific uniforms.

 

I look forward to any ideas that my fellow modders may have.

[IsharaMeradin]

Maybe there could be more things to do in the towns and cities. Perhaps small quests that aren't about killing but about helping others go about their daily lives. Merchants might need help bringing cargo in from the docks or wagons. Smiths might need help crafting basic weapons and armor for the local armory. Things like that. I'd rather have quests to do that would keep me in town than having to mimic real life by going through the motions of eating and sleeping.

 

What about a cleaning or repair service provided by the housecarl or steward of the player's home? While they are cleaning and/or repairing the armor, the player would need something else to wear. Couple that with skill penalties and possibly unfriendly remarks for wearing armor that is dirty and in disrepair, there just may be enough incentive to wear a different outfit while in town. Possibly even a small bonus if wearing armor that is clean and in good repair when dealing with merchants. After all, they may be impressed that you keep your gear in top notch condition. Length of cleaning/repair time could be random or it could be tied to the length of time since the last cleaning/repair time. I would say no more that three days max (preferably two). The way the game is currently with in town only quests, I'd go stir crazy having to stay in town that long without something to actually do. I'd probably end up using the wait feature, if there were nothing to occupy my time, just to get my armor back.

[freddark]

Play with Legacy of the Dragonborn and you will spend a bit more time in Solitude. :laugh:

 

If you think about it, what do people do in real-life on a Sunday? Some will fix their house, and some will train their dog. So what if your house(s) in Skyrim need maintenance from time to time, or if your followers don't level automatically with you and you have to train them?

 

Just two ideas.

 

Happy modding

[lofgren]

To clarify a little, I'm not looking for more things to do in town, though that is certainly welcome. I'm looking more to create a sense that spending time in town is beneficial to the character mechanically.

 

Ideally, the player should have a sense that they can play as a wilderness-type who only trudges into town occasionally to sell his loot, but there should be a temptation to remain in town, and ideally to return to and remain in a specific town on a regular basis. I want foremost to create a sense that the player feels more comfortable in town than in the wild, and secondarily to create the sense that e.g. the PC feels more at home in Falkreath than in Morthal, and wishes to return to that home, similar to the way the PC sleeps more comfortably in an inn than a tent and is therefore incentivized to seek one out.

[FrankFamily]

An idea:

 

The character spending time in a town means he is strengthening his relations with the local merchants and can get better prices, if you go wilderness type they dont know about you so worse prices. And posibly not just time but number of visits, i.e. if you always sell your loot in the same town it makes sense to get better prices.

 

And much more importance to inns, better preices if you are a regular or free food (this possibly also in houses)

 

But, if you are to remain in town you should have something to do, so both concepts are a bit tied.