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<html><head><meta charset="UTF-8" /><title>On Dying, and Injury</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/default.css" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/highlight.css" /><script type="text/javascript" src="js/highlight.min.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery.min.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="js/page_effects.js"></script><script>hljs.initHighlightingOnLoad();</script></head><body><div id="header"><h2>Generated by <a href="https://github.com/weavejester/codox">Codox</a></h2><h1><a href="index.html"><span class="project-title"><span class="project-name">The-great-game</span> <span class="project-version">0.1.3-SNAPSHOT</span></span></a></h1></div><div class="sidebar primary"><h3 class="no-link"><span class="inner">Project</span></h3><ul class="index-link"><li class="depth-1"><a href="index.html"><div class="inner">Index</div></a></li></ul><h3 class="no-link"><span class="inner">Topics</span></h3><ul><li class="depth-1"><a href="A-generic-planning-algorithm-for-craftworker-npcs.html"><div class="inner"><span>A Generic Planning Algorithm for craftworker NPCs</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="API_Spec.html"><div class="inner"><span>API Spec (unfinished)</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Appraisal.html"><div class="inner"><span>Appraisal (unfinished)</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Baking-the-world.html"><div class="inner"><span>Baking the world</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Building_on_microworld.html"><div class="inner"><span>Building on Microworld</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Canonical-dictionary.html"><div class="inner"><span>Canonical dictionary for this documentation</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Division_of_tasks_between_server_and_client.html"><div class="inner"><span>Division of tasks between server and client (unfinished)</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a 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class="inner"><span>Modelling trading cost and risk (unfinished)</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Naming-of-characters.html"><div class="inner"><span>Naming of Characters</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Not_my_problem.html"><div class="inner"><span>Not my problem</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1  current"><a href="On-dying.html"><div class="inner"><span>On Dying, and Injury</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="On-sex-and-sexual-violence.html"><div class="inner"><span>On Sex, and Sexual Violence, in Games</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Organic_Quests.html"><div class="inner"><span>Organic Quests</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Pathmaking.html"><div class="inner"><span>Pathmaking</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Populating-a-game-world.html"><div class="inner"><span>Populating a game world</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Pseudo-object-inheritance.html"><div class="inner"><span>Pseudo object inheritance</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Roadmap.html"><div class="inner"><span>Roadmap (obsolete)</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Sandbox.html"><div class="inner"><span>Sandbox</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Selecting_Character.html"><div class="inner"><span>Selecting the Player Character</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Settling-a-game-world.html"><div class="inner"><span>Settling a game world</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Sexual-dimorphism.html"><div class="inner"><span>Sexual dimorphism</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Simulated-genetics.html"><div class="inner"><span>Simulated Genetics</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Simulation-layers.html"><div class="inner"><span>Simulation layers</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="The-spread-of-knowledge-in-a-large-game-world.html"><div class="inner"><span>The spread of knowledge in a large game world</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Things_Voice_Interaction_Enables.html"><div class="inner"><span>Things Voice Interaction Enables</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Tree-library-evaluation.html"><div class="inner"><span>Tree library evaluation</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Uncanny_dialogue.html"><div class="inner"><span>The Uncanny Valley, and dynamically generated dialogue</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Voice-acting-considered-harmful.html"><div class="inner"><span>Voice acting considered harmful</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="Worlds-and-flats.html"><div class="inner"><span>Worlds and flats [obsolete]</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-1"><a href="intro.html"><div class="inner"><span>Introduction to the-great-game</span></div></a></li></ul><h3 class="no-link"><span class="inner">Namespaces</span></h3><ul><li class="depth-1"><div class="no-link"><div class="inner"><span class="tree"><span class="top"></span><span class="bottom"></span></span><span>cc</span></div></div></li><li class="depth-2"><div class="no-link"><div class="inner"><span class="tree"><span class="top"></span><span class="bottom"></span></span><span>journeyman</span></div></div></li><li class="depth-3"><div class="no-link"><div class="inner"><span class="tree"><span class="top"></span><span class="bottom"></span></span><span>the-great-game</span></div></div></li><li class="depth-4"><div class="no-link"><div class="inner"><span class="tree"><span class="top"></span><span class="bottom"></span></span><span>agent</span></div></div></li><li class="depth-5 branch"><a href="cc.journeyman.the-great-game.agent.agent.html"><div class="inner"><span class="tree"><span class="top"></span><span class="bottom"></span></span><span>agent</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-5"><a href="cc.journeyman.the-great-game.agent.schedule.html"><div class="inner"><span class="tree"><span 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href="cc.journeyman.the-great-game.utils.html"><div class="inner"><span class="tree"><span class="top"></span><span class="bottom"></span></span><span>utils</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-4"><div class="no-link"><div class="inner"><span class="tree"><span class="top"></span><span class="bottom"></span></span><span>world</span></div></div></li><li class="depth-5 branch"><a href="cc.journeyman.the-great-game.world.heightmap.html"><div class="inner"><span class="tree"><span class="top"></span><span class="bottom"></span></span><span>heightmap</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-5 branch"><a href="cc.journeyman.the-great-game.world.location.html"><div class="inner"><span class="tree"><span class="top"></span><span class="bottom"></span></span><span>location</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-5 branch"><a href="cc.journeyman.the-great-game.world.mw.html"><div class="inner"><span class="tree"><span class="top"></span><span class="bottom"></span></span><span>mw</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-5 branch"><a href="cc.journeyman.the-great-game.world.routes.html"><div class="inner"><span class="tree"><span class="top"></span><span class="bottom"></span></span><span>routes</span></div></a></li><li class="depth-5"><a href="cc.journeyman.the-great-game.world.world.html"><div class="inner"><span class="tree"><span class="top"></span><span class="bottom"></span></span><span>world</span></div></a></li></ul></div><div class="document" id="content"><div class="doc"><div class="markdown"><h1><a href="#on-dying-and-injury" id="on-dying-and-injury"></a>On Dying, and Injury</h1>
<p>Death is the end of your story. One of the tropes in games which, for me, most breaks immersion is when you lose a fight and are presented with a screen that says ‘you are dead. Do you want to reload your last save?’ Life is not like that. We do not have save-states. We die.</p>
<p>So how could this be better handled?</p>
<p>You lose a fight. Switch to cutscene: the battlefield, after the fight, your body is there. Probably no sound. A party of non-enemies crosses the battlefield and finds your body. We see surprise and concern. They gather around you. Cut to interior scene, you are in a bed, unconcious, being tended; cut to similar interior scene, you are in a bed, conscious, being tended; cut to exterior scene, you are sitting with some of your saviours, and the game restarts.</p>
<p>Time has passed; events in the game world have moved on. You can talk to your saviours about it. You have lost a lot of strength, and most of the gear you were carrying. You must do whatever it is you do within the game mechanics to rebuild strength, and to acquire more gear. Significantly you have acquired a debt of honour to your saviours, which they may call on later. You almost certainly have new scars, and might possibly have some lasting effects (although how that interacts with other game mechanics might be tricky).</p>
<p>So who are the non-enemies? It depends on context. If you have a party, and some of that party survived the fight, it’s your party. Otherwise, if you’re in a populated place, it’s locals. If it’s on a road or other route, it’s passing merchants. If you’re in the wilderness, a hunting party. It’s a bunch of non-hostiles who might reasonably be expected to be around: that’s what matters. It’s about not breaking immersion.</p>
<p>Obviously losing a fight must have weight, it must have meaning, it must have in-game consequences; otherwise it is meaningless.</p>
<h2><a href="#injury" id="injury"></a>Injury</h2>
<p>Similarly to death, injury must have meaning. Any injury takes time to recover from. It takes a certain amount of time if you’re able to rest somewhere safe, and considerably longer if you’re not. If you fight while injured, you’ll have less strength, less stramina, and probably also less agility. Depending where you’re injured, there will be certain things you cannot do. If you fight while injured, also, your recovery time will be extended, even if you take no further injury.</p>
<p>Some serious injuries will lead to permanent scarring, and permanent loss of agility; you’ll be just slightly slower in fights.</p>
<p>It should be said that <a href="https://lofigames.com/">Kenshi</a> — a game I’ve only recently become aware of and greatly admire — handles all of this extremely well, and is worth studying.</p>
<h2><a href="#reciprocity" id="reciprocity"></a>Reciprocity</h2>
<p>If the player is going to depend on good samaritans for rescue after losing a fight, then there must be at least a social convention that people should assist people found injured on the wayside. Consequently, if the player fails to do this, that should in itself become a ‘gossip’ event which will lower the player’s reputation with non-player characters.</p>
<p>On the other hand, helping NPCs found injured at the wayside can be another category of <a href="Organic_Quests.html">organic quest</a>, as a special subcategory of an escort quest.</p>
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