Ideas about Meters

[Fanomatic2000]

I have thought a little about meters in the game, and this is what I would like to see.

1. HP meter  - The usual life meter, however with a connection to the stamina meter. When the meter gets very low you faint and it\'s up to the PC/NPC if they wanna let you live or not.

2. MP meter  - The usual magic meter, but with a similar connection to the Stamina meter.
Casting a spell can be a very hard thing to do, and if your level is too low (I mean your level in magic) it\'s possible you faint when you throw it.
If the spell is too powerful for your level you may even die.

3. Stamina meter  - The stamina meter is a very important meter because it shows how tired you are. It will continuosly regenerate by itself. I think that there should be beds where you can sleep to recover faster, and bedrolls if you\'re traveling.

4. Hunger meter  - You\'ll have to eat now and then. If you don\'t, your stamina will stop regenerate, and will fall instead. This meter forces players to buy food, and bring food with them on their journeys.
(Different races should eat different types of food)
If this meter reaches zero, you die.

5. Water meter  - The human body (and other races as well) Needs water to survive.
You can choose from many different types of drinks which is often sold at pubs. Some drinks will give you positive effects, and others will give you more negative effects (With some other positive effects as well).
If this meter reaches zero, you die.

6. Weight meter  - This is a meter I\'d love to see in a MMORPG. )  It indicates how much your body weights, and it will depend on how much you eat and how much you train.
Just like in reality players gets fat if they eat too much and if they don\'t exercise.
I know this is hard to do, but It would make the game become more alive.

[Jessyn]

well, the first three sound a lot like morrowind, except your stamina just affects your CHANCE of successfully casting, and if it goes to low, you fall unconcious(hand to hand attacks do this) and ly on the floor taking hits


Jessyn

[Gateway]

very interesting.  The hunger/death also solves the problem of macro cheaters who use a program to train afk.  Eventually they will fall over and die.

[Kiern]

Dying from hunger/thirst is too harsh and im sure it would be annoying if you run out of food and are somewhere you are unable to attain it...so instead i think it would be better if you drank or ate some food, you would have more of a chance to succesfully do something (such as cast a spell, hit a monster, etc.)

 I really do like the weight meter though

[Link]

I hope mage doesn\'t hurt stamina to much, that\'s what turns me away from being a mage in alot of games, you cast two spells, which don\'t hit even half of what you would as a low level warrior, and your out of stamina.

[kinshadow]

Meters and interrelated stats are nice, but be carefull not to kill the game with the \"Broadsword of Micromanagement\".  Too many stats and meters make the game less \"realistic\" and more of a \"pain\" to play.  The meters you have aren\'t too bad, but the penalties are kind of harsh.  Eating and drinking should be bonuses (with no real PC visible meter) in my opinion, where you don\'t really \"suffer\" if you don\'t do them.  They should just help balance the stamina stat.

[Fanomatic2000]

Well, I think that it\'s more realistic if you have to bring food with you when you travel around.
The hunger-meter goes down pretty slow, so you don\'t have to eat like 1 time per minute.
And just like in \"The sims\" your meter will slow down when it gets closer to zero. If you get lost in a cave or something then it\'s more exiting if you have to get out before the food runs out.  
This idea is not meant to be annoying. It\'s more for those of us who wanna cook food and sell to others.
I know this system looks a bit like Morrowind, but I think that MWs \"beat him to the ground and hit the air until he dies\" system is a little stupid.
If you\'ve heard about a game called \"Gothic\", it\'s more close to what I have in mind.
When you hit people in \"Gothic\", and your HP goes down to zero, then you\'ll faint. Then you can kill him if you want.
This is great for bar-fights and the like )
The water-meter is inspirated by Dungeon master ll (no, not Dungeon Keeper).
I forgot to mention that warriors should decrease in stamina when they fight as well. (Hungry warriors fights like cows)
I don\'t think 6 meters is too much for a game. This is a RPG, and not a HnS (Hack n Slash) game.

[Culsoron]

I like the ideas, but where on the screen would these meters be ? The HP meter and MP meter must be on the main screen, but what about hiding the hunger, water and stamina meter somewhere else, or at least have the option to hide them. Annoying it would be if half your screen (in low resulutions) is meters and such.

[Fanomatic2000]

I don\'t know what resolution the game have, but if you play the game in 1280 x 720 (for example) there should be no problem at all.
A sub-menu is also a good idea. I think it should be something in style with Morrowind: Elder Scrolls, where you can also see your skills, your align (angelic, extremely good, nice, neutral, bad, evil, Extremely evil, Demonic) and your reputation in the land of PS.  

[Fanomatic2000]

I\'ve changed my mind about the replenish stamina thing. I think it would be better if it falls until you fall asleep. It will force you to find a bed or something, or sleep in a cave.
This will add some inns and guest-houses (built by PCs) in the world (and it gives meaning to your house too).
If you fall asleep you\'ll have to wait until your stamina-meter has regenerated enought for you to make you stay awake for a while.
Of course you\'ll have to stay awake for like 2 days or so to fall asleep (no \"the sims\" stamina where you fall asleep before 10 o clock   ) and the less stamina you have, the more misstakes you do (a player who hasn\'t slept for 24 hrs misses more often).

[Kiern]

Well, if taking up the screen is a problem they could just put the less important ones on a different screen (like i guess inventory might be?)