This is the next part of a series dealing with the new abilities, stats and other things creatures have (read back for parts 1 & 2). So, without further ado:
Blood.
This matters in three ways. Firstly, some creatures have blood, and therefore can bleed out. Secondly, creatures have varying amounts of blood depending on their size, physiology, and a few other factors. Thirdly, the blood of certain creatures behaves in certain ways and has other roles to play.
Bleeding out: any external injury to a creature can cause bleeding. Internal injures are handled differently. For instance, if a creature is hit in the chest with a blunt object, it may cause an internal injury but there is unlikely to be any blood from it. By contrast, a sword slash might cause no lasting internal damage but unleash a fountain of blood. When a creature has been cut, it will lose a set value of blood each turn, until either a) it dies, b) the wound clots, or c) the wound is tended to. Creatures can therefore die from being wholly exsanguinated; they would need a significant number of injuries to do so, but it can happen. This could be in the middle of a battle, or after the battle if they don’t get sufficient care. Creatures will sometimes pass out from blood loss before death.
Wounds clot after a length of time, which is again dependent on the species in question. Some creatures have impressive regenerative abilities, while the three main humanoid races, sadly, do not. Though I have not yet finalised how the system will work, wounds can also be tended to, which will both stop/staunch the blood loss, and aid recovery. Bleeding out is also particularly important when on your own – for instance, attack a creature at distance and wait for it to die – or when far from home and far from any kind of medical supplies.
Blood amount: some creatures do not have blood. The undead obviously lack any veins for the blood to go through anyway, and various constructs are blood-less (though they may have an equivalent; more on this when I’ve pondered it further). Obviously, larger creatures have more blood, and are therefore trickier to kill by bleeding to death; a Titan has enough blood to keep it going until the next ice age (sometimes literally), while a wolf isn’t going to last very long with a major cut.
Unusual blood: some creatures don’t have ordinary blood. This is not to include constructs that may have something instead of blood, since I haven’t decided on that yet, but rather creatures with blood that’s just a little unusual. Some kinds of blood may burn on contact; some might have healing properties; some might have poisonous, disease-giving or hallucinogenic effect; and some might do other things I haven’t even thought of yet (do please suggest any you think of, readers). A few species that might be in the very first alpha have specific, planned, blood properties. Anyway, if you manage to acquire blood (I’ll leave the method up to your imagination) you can dip arrows or other weapons in it, or use it just like any other liquid.
Lastly, a question. Are people interested in more code-related blog entries? I’ve had a few people say they’d like to see, if not actual copy/pastes of code, but description of the details of some of the game mechanics in coding terms. Let me know if you’d like to see these, and I’ll try to include them in the future.
More coding blogs are always interesting imho.
I really like your ideas so far. But without code I keep wondering how much of this you have actually coded so far and how much is just “talkie talkie” project (stealing this term from the roguebasin wiki).
A few things you might not have considered:
1) Fire-based attacks could have a possibility of cauterizing bleeding wounds.
2) If a spider receives a bleeding wound, any time it attempts to move, the bleeding increases/decreases due to the change in blood pressure in that area. If a spider loses too much blood, its legs curl up, incapacitating it.
3) Lack of blood should make poisonings/intoxication more potent.
More code-oriented posts would be great. Or at least more technical ones. Even if it’s only describing high-level implementations considerations, it would be very interesting. Looking forward to it !
@ Soy – got it, thanks. As for current status, I hope the screenshots give an idea – all the world exists, and roughly 50% of creature activities (thus far mentioned on the blog) have been coded, though they exist in a variety of files which need combining. A lot of the past few blog entries have been mapping out what I’ll be working on in the next few months, and I’ve tried to use “will” rather than “do” when describing features in the far future. Currently, there’s 80% of the UI, 100% of the world generation (natural world, not civilizations, yet), and you can wander around, fast travel, fight, use items, die, with reasonable complexity, but much of this is being added to over the next month. The last thing I want to do is become a talkie talkie, BUT I do want a reasonable basic game for the first alpha, and it’s a big project : )
@ Ryan – Fire cauterizing – I like it, it’s on the list. Could also be a way to manually seal wounds with no other option. Interesting spider idea; giant insects are on the list. I wonder how that could apply to other creatures, too. Agreed on 3); nice idea, I’ll definitely add that.
@ Grungi – got it. Once I’ve finished this series (next week’s will probably be the last) I’ll try and add some more technical information in the future!
Implementing disease with blood seems like a natural progression. In that respect, allowing players to consume blood could have some interesting results.
The blood/bleeding/poisonous blood/cauterizing wounds all sound great. I wouldn’t worry too much about coming up with different blood effects, but rather focus on tying the bleeding system more tightly into the game.
With regards to sharing code, I’ll tell you that my “World Generation Breakdown” article ( http://www.nolithius.com/game-development/world-generation-breakdown ) has been my biggest hit to date. That article alone brings in about half the monthly traffic, even a year after it was posted. It takes more work to put together this type of article, with a step-by-step breakdown, interactive demos, and commented source code, but it can get you a boost in traffic.
Also, you should consider releasing nonplayable versions of URR, even in its current state. The roguelike developer community is fairly receptive to works in progress. I started releasing Dance of Death when it was little more than a dungeon, basic combat, rough character creation, and inventory.
Cheers!
Ebyan “Nolithius” Alvarez-Buylla
http://www.nolithius.com
Ideas:
Blood stains and spatter. Although kind of mentioned already regarding the special effects of blood, this would have more to do with blood’s liquid properties. If blood leaks onto a surface, it could stain it. If blood gets in a creature’s eyes, it could cause temporary blindness. It could be possible to track a wounded creature by the blood stains they leave behind.
Blood as a carrier for disease. There are plenty of blood-borne diseases out there, and exposure to blood (especially if one has open wounds of their own) could transmit some of those diseases. This would not be of the specific “x-creature’s blood always gives y-diseases upon contact,” which has already been mentioned and would see limited use, but rather “any creature’s blood gives y-disease if that creature has y-disease itself.”
Ischemia. If not enough blood is getting to a specific body part (perhaps because of frostbite or because a major artery supplying that part has been cut), then the body part might become impaired or even rendered permanently unusable even though the creature might not be in danger of death by blood loss. There might be wound treatments that employ this mechanic, sacrificing a damaged body part to keep the rest of the creature alive.
have you considered modeling internal bleeding? it is often just as deadly as an open wound (if not more so, an embolism or hematoma can kill rather quickly for the amount of damage done) and would allow a blunt-force based player (or enemy!) to be as effective as a slash or stab based one.
Totally agreed with the comments about blood as a carrier of diseases. You should include procedurally generated diseases too I think. When I say procedurally generated I’m not only talking about the name of the disease. Things like; how it’s transmitted, how fatal it is, which creatures and humanoids can it affect, what is the cure, etc.
Blood may be an ingredient too. A really powerful ritual could require rare things like unicorn blood maybe.
And hey, what about drinking the blood of a were or a vampire as a way to turn into one? : )
@ True – I fully intend to let players consume blood. Disease will mostly be connected to blood; there may be a few creatures that are carriers of disease in other ways too, though (e.g. from a bite, or just from contact).
@ Ebyan – that is definitely what I’m focusing on first. My goal at the moment is to get blood splattering on the ground/walls how I want it, and to make sure that creatures have a blood amount, can bleed out, and similar. The ‘color’ function is just red for all blood for now, though I’ll improve on that once I add different types.
Interesting re: code entries; at some point I might take a fortnight rather than a week, perhaps, and produce a longer code-centric entry. I have actually considered releasing what’s currently there, but I definitely think I want a little more ‘playability’ in the first release, especially since the current version is full of developer-specific commands and shortcuts that would take a while to explain. But mainly I don’t want to show it until it’s just a little more polished : )
@ Anon – *staining* a surface I hadn’t thought of, though I am currently working on letting blood splatter on walls, floors, etc (with the idea it will drip off/vanish over time). I like the blindness from blood idea; I’ll definitely put that in, and blood is going to be a factor for tracking (higher your tracking skill, for instance, the more blood a creature has left behind you can spot). I think most diseases will definitely follow that second model; most creatures can have most diseases, and it is contact with diseased blood (not blood of a specific creature) that is explicitly the carrier. Sacrificing a body part sounds like an interesting level of realism to add to wounds and battle damage, too – I have a few ideas for cold and heat effects (like you said, frostbite etc) which would combine nicely…
@ Hulk – I have indeed, and some of it is currently implemented in the game. Internal/external damage is handled differently, though internal bleeding is still in the early stages. It might be in the first alpha, though internal damage per se 100% will be (and is part way completed now).
@ Leatra – I’m definitely going to make diseases procedurally generated. A lot of those variables are ones I’ve already got down, as well as things like ease of transmission, other effects it has, whether some species are immune to it, etc. Blood will definitely be an ingredient for some spells/rituals, but early stages on those ideas still. As for vampires and werewolves… just have to wait and see : )
Very impressive that you already implemented all these great things. I have been following this with interest. Keep working on it!
I have been thinking a bit about blood. What if you give certain monsters/spell effects/whatever a different type of vision. Something that allows you to ‘see’ smells. (Visually there would be some effect that puts a layer of smell over the normal terrain). With blood splatters generating more smells. Just like blood in water does for sharks.
Or you could include this special vision only for vampires. Who when almost out of blood, cannot see identify different mobs as friend or foe, but only as a certain type of blood. Aka “You see 3 dirty vessels of orc blood, one jummy vessel of virgin human blood, and 3 small vessels of bland animal blood.”
I think it’s an awesome idea! That vampire frenzy thing would work well for mind-affecting spells too.
@ Soy/Leatra – very interesting sight ideas. I’ve put in a little code for giving some creatures superior night vision to the player, though I haven’t really done anything with it yet. Changing your vision is definitely an effect that certain types of blood could have. I *really* like the vampire blood vision idea, though!