Medical Science/Farming in DU

[Timevdo]

The idea of farming, food and water as a survival mechanism in particular, has come up a lot in the forums. I personally think needing to eat/drink to survive would add little more to the game than a little bit of realism and a lot of really frustrating scenarios: For example, you are a explorer mapping the surface of a planet, you are making great progress but - BAM - you run out of food, and all your great work is lost! Besides, not needing to eat as we know it could be possible in a world with nanoformers and FTL travel.

 

What I suggest is that farming and consumables be in the game - but not be essential to survive. My Idea how this could work is medicine. A player could devote their skill tree to go and learn to farm various herbs and crops to make medicines and similar products, which could heal you or boost certain stats for a period of time. For instance, you could get injured in the game - either by accident, or from surviving an attack of some kind. You could either (A) wait for your health to regenerate very very slowly - or go to a clinic and buy medicine from another player to heal yourself quickly. This would add a great dynamic to the game -  both in the way of career options and the economy. Perhaps different medicines are needed to heal different sorts of damage - you would need a different treatment for surviving a spaceship crash vs. getting shot with a laser. There should also be negative "status effects" - like radiation sickness, for example. You could either wait until you recover or die/respawn, or you could get treated with some medicine/consumable. This idea would add a great dynamic to the universe, and add the need for hospitals and doctors in player-built settlements.

[Lord_Void]

I agree that farming would make a good addition to the game, as sort of a side activity/way to make money off of land. However, this is not going to be in the game when it initially releases, for several reasons. More content means more time to develop and balance it, and this was not in their initial roadmap so they would have to delay the game to add it. Also, DU is not planned as a survival game per se, so environmental factors are planned to take a bit of a backseat to player interactions.

 

As JC explained it: to add hunger would add an annoyance without adding much benefit. There are a lot of games that do survival very well and DU is not trying to compete with them on that, so DU will be focusing on its niche which is scale, player interaction and exploration.

 

It is entirely possible that this will get added later in a (free) "survival" expansion.

 

I really like the way you are thinking with the medicine and trauma idea. That would definitely make an interesting addition to the game. There was a thread a while ago discussing similar ideas, and I think you may find it an interesting read. It can be found here: https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/10334-trauma-mechanics-and-emergent-gameplay-consequences/?hl=trauma

[Anaximander]

Any sandbox activity is a good activity. The more things the game has for people to invest time in, the more the Subscription Fee is aslo validated. If those sandbox activities (like farming) can provide people with the option to play the game for free, by literally farming their share of the DAC, means the game has more people and more in-game communities.

It's a sandbox after all. I'd say anything that increases the game's activities and passtimes and creates no dullness at all, is a good addition.