Misc Projects

[AtomicFox556]

Part 1. Flight via mutations.

This feature would involve salvaging of CleverRaven#25582

Some things to note:

Flight should be split into "levitation" flight (e.g. sci-fi antigravity) and actual winged flight. Debug Flight trait as implemented in this PR would be showcase of the former.

Player shouldn't be able to do most things while flying with wings (pretty much all the same restrictions as when riding an animal). Hover flight has no such restrictions, but some things that require being solidly in one place (such as driving) will still be off-limits.

Any flight check would involver checking for a relevant active trait (or, potentially in the future, certain active items, to facilitate implementation of sci-fi jetpacks).

Any ground traps and fields (landmines, bear traps, acid puddles, etc.) should be ignored if character is flying via whatever means.

Winged flight level would be based on character weight to strength ratio, rather than how it's done in the pull request. Light/hollow bones traits apparently have no direct effect on character weight (bird bones apparently aren't actually less dense than mammal bones), but would multiply strngth by a certain number in this case, to represent bone structure being better adapted for flight, as is the case for birds. Low-gravity artifact effect from the pull request would halve character weight (in general and for this purpose as well).

If character stays in the same place for a turn for whatever reason, flight mutation deactivates and player falls down; wings won't allow hovering. Deliberately trying to stay in place (such as by pressing 5) will lead to a warning that you'd fall down if you tried.

Some more research is needed on the degree of feasibility of muscle-powered flight for creatures with weight similar to human weight. As for many other things, a game option may be added to fudge the numbers for the sake of interesting gameplay, if it proves to not be feasible to any degree, most likely by making it an additional multiplier to effective character strength for flight purposes.

Part 2. Learning overhaul.

This new learning system would facilitate the same ideal learning schedule as real-life schools and universities use: it would be most practical to learn varied subjects within a single undivided time period. It would replace the current focus system.

The proposal is to soft-cap max amount of "learning" that can happen within a day, and have certain conditions have an effect on how much drain any experience gain would have an it, so that things like powerful stimulants can still have a positive effect

Given that it's not a hard cap, after a certain point learning becomes not time-efficient, so it'd be best to do something else now and continue learning tomorrow.

Each skill uses their own learning capacity pool, as opposed to having one pool for all skills. So if you've exhausted your learning pool for one skill for today, you may start learning a different skill at full speed.

Learning pool replenishes whenever a character is sleeping; a full night's worth of sleep (8 hours) is expected to result in its complete recovery, no matter how drained it was before the character went to sleep.

Part 3. Weight-based encumbrance and misc worn gear changes

The new proposal for an enumbrance system intends to make it be caused primarily by the weight of items worn (or carried in pockets) on specific body parts, and by a limited freedom of movement caused by certain (usually impractical) gear (this includes wearing high heels, stuffing yourself into a sleeping bag, covering yourself with a blanket, etc). Final encumbrance from weight would depend on worn+carried weight vs. player strength ratio, so higher strength would help with making heavier armor more practical and likely even preferred, but this won't affect the innate encumbrance that comes from gear that limits freedom of movement as noted above.

Overall, final encumbrance from armor is expected to stay around the same as it is for characters with average strength, but it would make heavier armor and larger backpacks more practical for stronger characters, as it should be in my opinion, both gameplay-wise and realism-wise.

Encumbrance for items covering eyes and mouth is unaffected, as weight doesn't give an useful estimate on how restrictive a piece of gear worn on those body parts would be. Flat encumbrance penalty for hands would likewise apply for most fingered gloves regardless of their weight, due to reduced fine motor capability while wearing any gloves.

All pockets on armor items would need to specify a body part on which the weight of items placed in pockets would go, so that final encumbrance from weight can be calculated more accurately.

Armor items that cover more than one body part would need to specify the distribution of weight over all the body parts. For example, a well-made suit of armor would shift more of the weight towards torso, because it'd be more forgiving to carry a lot of weight on torso than to carry the same weight on your arms or legs. This would also serve as an incentive to use actual full suits of armor, instead of just wearing their parts individually.

Layering encumbrance penalties would need to be changed to be based on thickness and material of the two items that conflict with each other; overall it should still be highly impractical to wear two dusters at once, for example.

Every backpack-like item should be changed to have a new "BACKPACK" flag. This flag would prevent any other item with this flag from being worn; no more wearing a huge pile of backpacks to carry a lot of things without really being penalized in ranged combat. It'd be possible to attach together certain combinations of two backpacks, however (such as duffel bag + backpack), to wear them as a single item.

It'd also be possible for some backpacks (generally smaller and lighter ones only) to be activated, in order to wear them on front instead of on the back as usual. Doing so would always cause extra encumbrance that isn't reduced by strength, and backpacks worn in this way would have a "BACKPACK_FRONT" flag that would likewise prevent wearing more than one backpack on front.

It may be worth it to make a separate "STRAPPED_INNER" layer, which goes between OUTER and and NORMAL layer. It'd be taken up by various concealable and low-profile storage equipment, such as holsters for small pistols or sheaths for small knives.

Part 4. Wetness penalties overhaul

If part 3 is done, gear wetness could be tracked on a per-item basis, and said wetness could increase the weight of worn items, in turn raising encumbrance. If this is implemented, morale penalty from wetness could be significantly reduced, as there is now a different negative effect. This would affect not just worn items, but also items in pockets, unless said pockets are waterproof or items are made out of some material that doesn't soak up water. Wetness would also reduce the warmth of speifically the items that are wet.

Max weight of a wet item, as well as drying speed and warmth reduction, would primarily depend on its' material and its' original weight.

Natural armor originating from mutations (such as fur) would also be affected by this.