Sensory Dysfunction

[Wormtail_]

I do not think there is another topic on this, so anyway... This shall be in a Q&A format, for what I think is easier to respond to.

1. What is sensory dysfunction?

Sensory dysfunction is where one or more of the five known senses ceases to function properly. Permanent blindness and deafness are not examples, as it is total loss of functioning, but could still be implemented. Temporary blindness and deafness are examples.

In PS, I believe, only sight and sound can be used.

2. When does one suffer from it?

One suffers from it by either choosing it in the character creation screen (if it\'s put in, of course) or has one of the senses disrupted by an outside/inside force. Outside being magic and sudden light, inside being poison.

3. Why should we have it?

This offers strategic advantages, as you could blind or deafen an opponent and surprise them from in front. Or you could have the wonderful feeling of being blinded and stumble around in the dark.

4. How does it affect characters?

It affects characters in one of several ways. Sight can be disrupted by either instant loss of sight (temporary, or permanent?)/hearing or slowly taking away sight/sound. Say, for example, that you can see for 100 feet (just an example). Then, your sight is damaged somehow and you can only see for 90 feet, and depending on what damaged you, it may stay there temporarily or sight may continue to recede to 80, 70, until a certain stop point.

5. What advantages does sensory dysfunctioning give?

As said before, tactical advantages. Also, it promotes realism somewhat, and while that is not always a good thing... Symbionts (see Parasites thread, last page) can draw upon the use of the senses as payment and give something else, or vice versa.

Comments? If there is another thread on this, please post the link, but I am sure there is not.

[Icefalcon]

Sounds good to me, but I think a sensory dysfunction should be rare and caused by only extreme conditions...

[XpYtZ]

Hey nifty. Would it be on creatures (non sentient or artificial life forms.) or only on characters?
If characters only?Uh limited point in implementing it. On creatures though it would be a good thing to add. Nerve damage is always fun ?I like watching folks convulse on the ground after hitting them with lightning  

[Xanaroth]

sounds good, tough i wont like permanent blindness/deafness... i like more when sight for ex. is totally gone (screen turns white) and then slowly turns back.. like you start with total screen turns white, then you can see your own weps etc again.(10 sec or so) after 20-25 sec you can see white-gray again.
25-35 sec you can see black-white (looks like old movie style:P) and after 40-50 sec you have your whole vision back. Tough blindness also gives you a block-decrease, a hit % decrease, and a chance to inflict self-injury. (if you are totally blind, and you strike, there is a chance of falling due to lack of balance, or a chance of cutting yourself by swinging your wepon against yourself)

[Wormtail_]

I like the idea for a white screen for temporary blindness. Characters will also have difficulty moving, as they might walk into a wall. That should produce a sound effect, so people know they ran into a wall. Should there be a skill for \"blind combat\" that trains characters to fight effectivley while blind?

Blindness/deafness will affect creatures and sentient beings, such as characters.

Sensory dysfunction, if Xanaroth\'s system is implemented, should not be so rare as it is not so extreme. Permanent sensory dysfunction is in a way permadeath - death of the senses. And using sensory dysfunction can easily be used as tactics if there are no extremely radical conditions that require dysfunctioning of the senses.

[ShadowFish]

yah dysfunction would be really useful to thieves and assassins....also blind combat could also be done.....you just make the screen sow outlines of things kind of like sonar, only when there is sound....this way when they are blinded they can attack the people out lined...of course they wouldnt know details like who it was....just hieght...and basic shape....they would also see the walls too i suppose....then most of the effects of temporary blindness go away unless you are also  defeaned.....

how would other players be able to blind other things though....large, magic light bursts, flash bombs for thieves.... or just hit the persson really, really hard???

[XpYtZ]

Any of those ways would work if they existed in game. There is also the looking at somebody that?s walking naked through the square option
But in all seriousness this would be an awesome addition.

Also you could be deafened by the crack of a thunderbolt, an explosion, getting hit really hard, etc. just think about all the fun you could have with a guy who is deaf and blind. Leading him out of the dungeon?into a room full of snakes?Where is my mind lately?

[Wormtail_]

Deafness could be expressed as the chatbox vanishing, and sound (other than music) vanishing. The chatbox, I assume, is not a method of telepathy and communication through ears and mouth. And the vanishing sound is only logical. Deafness can be caused by really loud sounds, poison of some sort, magic of another sort, and so on.

Players could blind other things by the things you described, Shadowfish, and damaging their eyes. Which would hurt.

And if you meet a person who was deaf and blind, guide them like a friend, not a grief causer. It\'s not exactly nice to lead the poor person to a room full of snakes, especially once they get over their blindness.

[Fast_Bear]

i know a good way 2 implement blindness & sutch, make it so when u attack some1nes head(melee ofcource) that they have a chance of nicking their eyes & ears & crap, after all thats only logical

[RussianVodka]

Well, as you people know, people who are bilind, rely on their ears, and touch, to do things. Well, if PS were to have a suround sound thing, that would realy help. Plus, because a PC game can not implement touch and feeling, my proposition is this:

When a player is blinded, he is not 100% blind, so that the screen goes black, or white, or something. But they can still see things that are within reach, anything beyond that is darkness. So, if they wanted to say enter a building, they would have to come close to it, and rub against the walls untill they find the door.

I think this will be a good choice becuase it is easy to implement. All it technicaly does is shorten the draw distance of the objects. (in fact, blindness may actualy be good for people with crapy comps).

[Entamis]

I think that blindness should cause a very short sight and some sort of blur effect. It should also lower many skills.
Chatbox shouldn\'t vanish, just stop displaying new text.
It would be cool if the sensory disfunction could be healed using healing skills, otherwise stayed a long time.

[ShadowFish]

maybe the short vision thing but when you are blinded you wouldnt be able to see details just what you think it looks like....

[Halvord]

Perhaps when blind you can only see (feel, get it)  \"colorless\" orange basic shapes when you get close enough to something.

[Wormtail_]

As for \'feeling\' shapes... I suppose getting close enough means actually physically touching the other object. Unless you mean that a character should somehow feel the heat emitted by the other object...

Perhaps races with an advanced sense of smell could, when bllnd, see outlines of creatures and items. That way, the sense of smell could be actually used. Smell could be fooled by using fake scents, however, but is a way to somewhat bypass restrictions imposed by blindness.

[SaintNuclear]

Nice idea.
I think that feeling-dysfunction could actually be implemented too...
Let\'s say you fight someone, and he casted a no-feeling spell on you. It\'s alot harder to fight him, because you lose coordination.
Also, if someone slashes you while you can\'t feel anything, you don\'t know you got slashed.

The way it should be when you lose the feeling sense is that you won\'t see your hp draining, you\'ll have more chance of missing attacks, and you won\'t be able to perform complicated combos.


There is a problem though, if someone suffers from more than one sensory dysfunction, he won\'t be able to operate. If you lose both sight and feeling, how will you be able to move around? You\'ll just bump into buildings without knowing it, and walk off of cliffs until you die.

So maybe there should be only one type of sensory dysfunction, or that a char can\'t suffer from more than one at a time, and it\'s also rare for a char to have a dysfunction.