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Opinions on consequences in a game
The project I've been working on for months now (I've been bogged down with work) has reached a kind of cross roads. As it's a role playing game I wanted to include certain 'real life' elements and one of these is consequences. I'm interested to know whether people would like consequences to have the possibility to either alter the entire game (for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, till death you depart, or you just get bored with the game) or maybe just a temporary buff/debuff. I'm also interested in whether people think they should happen immediately or at some point in the future.
An example is you hear a kitten crying in a box and you have the choice to leave the kitten to it's fate or rescue the kitten from the box and return it to it's owner, who we'll call Emily.
You leave the kitten to it's fate, the kitten dies and the consequences are a temporary loss of a stat due to guilt (immediate temporary debuff) or one night you mention it while drunk in the tavern and it's overheard by someone who would offer you a quest, but will now dislike you and you'll never be able to take the quest (which will alter the course of the game and ending for the worse at some point in the future).
You rescue the kitten, you return it to little Emily who is so overjoyed you're given a happiness buff which gives you a temporary increase in a stat (immediate buff), or one night you mention it while drunk in the tavern and it's overheard by someone who will offer you a quest (which will alter the course of the game and ending for the better at some point in the future).
I've seen it used in games before, but it either slightly alters the ending (the end of GTA V for instance) or doesn't really do much in the grand scheme of things. The choices I've seen are also really obvious that there will be consequences, whereas there may be situations in my game that arise where it doesn't matter because it's down to how you choose to play at that moment. Then there's the question of if you make a choice early on in the game whether it's fair for it to have an effect a lot further on down the road.
All comments or other ideas would be greatly appreciated
An example is you hear a kitten crying in a box and you have the choice to leave the kitten to it's fate or rescue the kitten from the box and return it to it's owner, who we'll call Emily.
You leave the kitten to it's fate, the kitten dies and the consequences are a temporary loss of a stat due to guilt (immediate temporary debuff) or one night you mention it while drunk in the tavern and it's overheard by someone who would offer you a quest, but will now dislike you and you'll never be able to take the quest (which will alter the course of the game and ending for the worse at some point in the future).
You rescue the kitten, you return it to little Emily who is so overjoyed you're given a happiness buff which gives you a temporary increase in a stat (immediate buff), or one night you mention it while drunk in the tavern and it's overheard by someone who will offer you a quest (which will alter the course of the game and ending for the better at some point in the future).
I've seen it used in games before, but it either slightly alters the ending (the end of GTA V for instance) or doesn't really do much in the grand scheme of things. The choices I've seen are also really obvious that there will be consequences, whereas there may be situations in my game that arise where it doesn't matter because it's down to how you choose to play at that moment. Then there's the question of if you make a choice early on in the game whether it's fair for it to have an effect a lot further on down the road.
All comments or other ideas would be greatly appreciated
Comments
You could also feed it into an alignment system - +hardhearted for leaving it to die, +softhearted for saving it. Get enough of either and future choices to do the other may vanish. Works on the principle that your actions betray your character. Game would need at least 3 endings - normal, heartless cad and big softie.
Decisions taken in a game can help in forging a character and other attributes of the protagonist.
Its a really nice way of developing the character and his attitudes in mid-game.
Regardless of the path chosen the game would always be "winnable" so no Zork problems, but it would just follow a different path and have a different ending. For instance, at the start you have to choose from 3 different races (I've been really original and chosen humans, dwarven and elven), and each have a different starting area before the other races' areas are opened up. Each race also has a main quest line that runs through it that is specific to that particular race (although all races will be able to complete the quest lines), but even there there's a sort of long term consequence as different races have different classes. Dwarven can't be an assassins for instance as they lack the agility due to their stature, but they make friends easier which means that they get a reputation bonus. The game is also a sandbox affair where you can continue playing and in fact you don't even have to do quest lines if you don't want to - it's a bit like Elite and you can play however you want to - and could spend all your time becoming a trader, a mercenary or even a highwayman. I'll also be periodically adding extra stuff to it, from little miniquests, to daily quests (a repeatable quest chosen at random), to full on quest lines and expansions.
I have tested a kind of pre-alpha (it was actually quite horrendous and ended very abruptly, but gave them an idea) with people I know, and the consensus seems to be like Marmite (other yeast extracts are available) in regards to long term consequences. Everyone has said that it makes you read the text more, which I'll admit is part of the reason I've done it (I've been playing WoW's new expansion lately and have barely read any of the quest text, I just go and do what it says so I can level up ASAP), but it also causes you to think more. I don't want people to agonise over a choice either as then it stops the game being fun, and you try and figure out what may or may not happen.
I have considered an alignment system, but I want the character to actually be the person who's playing (instead of the other way around) and not to pass judgement on their choices where because they've done something they're considered evil or good. One of the early human quests involves a child who has the ability to transform into a giant and the battle involves various ways of winning which aren't explained in the quest text as there are a few secret rewards, but at one point if you make the right choices and the dice roll in the right way (there are certain random elements in every fight which the player has no control over regardless of stats or whatever else) you can actually kill him. Killing a child who is actually just having a tantrum of epic proportions is abhorrent to most people, but on the other hand this is a character than can actually kill you (although the player will always be resurrected). What gives me the right to say someone is evil for how they deal with a threat? Yes, there will be both positive and negative consequences if you do, but if you do it any of the other ways then there's similar outcomes.
I'm still unsure of what I'm going to do, but at the very least I'll tone down the amount of consequences that are long term. If anyone else has any views then please feel free to add them.