Dealing with encumbrance

[sproket]

Hi all,

Sorry for the long absence. I'm moving to a new house so my weekends have been busy lately.

My milestone for goldchest 0.3 is to get all the economy working - and I'm pretty far along - most of the shops done etc..

I'm trying to decide on how to handle encumbrance. Currently I'm checking on any transaction if it would result in the weight carried exceeding the max weight the player could carry. This is complicated.

What I think is that I should just allow the character to become encumbered if they want - the negative effect would be they would only get 1 move in combat. (I wont' have the drop menu in combat - so players would have to be careful about this).

This leaves it up to the player to be smart about what they are lugging around with them.

What do you think?

 

[Black Bart Charley]

How is checking for max weight at transaction more complicated than checking for encumbrance and then later for max too?

My solution would be linear scaling of moves, attacks and so on where MAX_WEIGHT/2 is the the encumbrance limit.

 

[sproket]

Thanks.

It can get complicated because there are multiple currencies and they also have weight so a transaction could result in total weight > max weight. But by then the transaction is finished. I think in those cases I'm just going to leave the player over encumbered. I will check it before the transaction so it won't be a common case.

And yes - my plan is to make movement linear based on various variables like dexterity, magic effects, armor worn and overall encumbrance.

 

[crufty]

depends on the game

real vs fun

realistically, people have four levels of encumberance:
- free movement (zero inventory)
- reduced stanima / movement (basic inventory)
- encumbered stanima / movement (heavy amount of inventory)
- overloaded (inventory heavier / bulkier then person's ability to transport)

One thing most games miss is that even something as basic as a chainmail shirt and helmet is going to encumber a player signficantly (vs no chainmail shirt and helmet).

some games do allow dropping in combat--but that takes turns and that means free hits vs the pc while dropping.

perhaps a happy meeting point would be storing inventory in packs, and allow players to store goods in pockets. Players could drop the pack, with a risk of things broken...and also give up any goodies they had stored in there. Not sure if it would be too fiddly putting potions and scrolls in pockets though. maybe some kind of auto pocket where the best potions go in belt loops and the best scrolls go in vest pockets or whatever. and a guy in full plate? maybe he just gets one potion...

There's lots of unexplored gameplay in encumbarance i think...things like having to hire henchmen to carry chests of gold(and what if they run off), where to store gold, how to protect it. Modern players don't like this, but the flipside is people complain when they walk around with a million geepees. Awesome idea regarding multiple currencies...sounds cool...

In game terms, a simple encumbered / unencumbered flag w/movement penalty of one for encumbered would likely be ok. It could represent a player way overload constantly moving bags from place to place, pushing packs, dragging gear, etc. Might even consider not allowing attack or defense too...simple messaging like 'you struggle to move all your gear but manage in the end' every now and then to remind the player why they only get one movement or something?

 

[sproket]

Thanks. I lean towards fun. Trying to make a game too realistic would be burdensome for the player.

Yeah my inventory system is quite simple. I don't count "hands" for example. A character has 2 inventory types. Carried items and backpack items.

Carried items can be any combination of hand and ranged weapons, shields, and various other things like torches, potions, scrolls, etc... Backpack items are everything else that's not immediately ready-able in combat. On the inventory screen you can move items in and out of either. Of course I count any inventory management in combat against the movement points.


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http://goldchest.sourceforge.net/

 

[soggie]

Thanks. I lean towards fun. Trying to make a game too realistic would be burdensome for the player.

Yeah my inventory system is quite simple. I don't count "hands" for example. A character has 2 inventory types. Carried items and backpack items.

Carried items can be any combination of hand and ranged weapons, shields, and various other things like torches, potions, scrolls, etc... Backpack items are everything else that's not immediately ready-able in combat. On the inventory screen you can move items in and out of either. Of course I count any inventory management in combat against the movement points.


---
http://goldchest.sourceforge.net/

I don't see a problem with having the player encumbered. But having an infinite upper limit at weight is just plain crazy. Imagine this scenario: your PC goes to a merchant store, buys shitloads of stuff. He is now carrying 2 tons worth of items, and then he drags everything (yes, moving at 1mm per hour, even) to another merchant and sells everything off, turning him into an instant millionaire.

Either limit the inventory slots, or make it so that once the player exceeds a certain limit the player would not be able to move at all.

My opinion is, go back to the drawing board and re-design your economic system to solve this issue once and for all instead of adding another layer of game mechanics just to accommodate this oversight.

 

[denizsi]

If time is important, eg. arriving at somewhere before some deadline or travelling during day being safer than at night etc., encumbrance affecting travel speed can have meaning.

Dropping backpack should be fast and easy enough that it wouldn't necessarily cost a move.

I don't know how your combat works but some kind of permanent combat penalty until the next rest due to becoming encumbered beyond a threshold might work as a good deterrent and reason to plan your fights ahead.

 

[sproket]

I don't see a problem with having the player encumbered. But having an infinite upper limit at weight is just plain crazy. Imagine this scenario: your PC goes to a merchant store, buys shitloads of stuff. He is now carrying 2 tons worth of items, and then he drags everything (yes, moving at 1mm per hour, even) to another merchant and sells everything off, turning him into an instant millionaire.

Either limit the inventory slots, or make it so that once the player exceeds a certain limit the player would not be able to move at all.

My opinion is, go back to the drawing board and re-design your economic system to solve this issue once and for all instead of adding another layer of game mechanics just to accommodate this oversight.

Not sure where you got the notion that I allow infinite inventory. I have a max carry-able in weight and all items have a weight unit. The issue was that in certain edge cases a transaction could cause a character to exceed the max.

I solved this by simply not doing any currency conversion. The character will get gold and I do the check against the single currency. I have multiple currencies so I wanted to convert the currencies to their minimal weight. Now I will only do that when a character buys an item - not when they sell.

BTW you're game looks very cool. Bookmarked it.

:D

 

[sproket]

If time is important, eg. arriving at somewhere before some deadline or travelling during day being safer than at night etc., encumbrance affecting travel speed can have meaning.

Dropping backpack should be fast and easy enough that it wouldn't necessarily cost a move.

I don't know how your combat works but some kind of permanent combat penalty until the next rest due to becoming encumbered beyond a threshold might work as a good deterrent and reason to plan your fights ahead.

Dropping the whole backpack is an interesting idea. It would mean all the characters extraneous items would be quickly dropped but that could be dangerous as items could be lost or even stolen while unattended during combat. I'm gonna write this down.

The combat will work similar to the old goldbox games. But I have a lot of improvements in mind.

thanks.