Feedback:User/Avaera/Character Quirks
Character Quirks | |
|---|---|
| User | Avaera |
| Categories | Mechanics Player interaction |
“A game is a series of interesting choices.
I propose to introduce a new character development system that builds on and extends the existing Personality mechanics, and complements the Personal Story aspect of the game. For lack of a better term (and 'personality' is already taken), I'm going to call this the Quirks system. Quirks are designed to provide a tangible representation of some of the choices you have made in your character's life.
This system is partly inspired by the 'User boxes' that wiki editors can place on their user pages to define their identity and preferences.
Premise[edit]
The idea is to record, display and maintain various choices that the character has made as they progress through the game, some of which may be fluid and change frequently, in order to facilitate a feeling of ongoing character development and uniqueness beyond that of just the mechanics-based skill build you are currently using.
The system would display a series of character preferences that have been evidenced by your gameplay or dialogue choices, similar to a list of achievements, that are displayed in their own panel in your character information window. These can be individually set to be seen by other players, friends, or kept private, and may or may not provide minor cosmetic perks for prestige.
It is important to note that a quirk is not the same as an achievement. An achievement is obtained by meeting a specific objective independent of other achievements that you have earned, then once obtained remains in your achievement collection forever. A quirk is obtained by meeting criteria which may be exclusive to quirks that represent other choices, and persists only as long as you continue to meet that exclusive criteria.
Implementation[edit]
Obtaining a new Quirk[edit]
I envision that Quirks would be obtained through various means, including:
- selecting mutually exclusive options in character creation;
- selecting mutually exclusive options in dialogue;
- gameplay styles that meet mutually exclusive criteria;
- completing quests or objectives that are mutually exclusive with other quests or objectives.
Character creation quirks are fairly obvious and important choices that serve to distinguish your character from others. These would include your gender, class and race, as well as the particular personal story options unique to your race and class combination. These core quirks would probably be among the few that cannot easily be changed.
Dialogue option quirks could be obtained anywhere throughout the game by interacting with NPCs. I would suggest that the more 'hidden away' the quirk is the better, both in terms of where the option is available in the NPC dialogue menu and in terms of where the NPC might be located in the world. This would encourage interacting with a variety of NPCs in a role-playing capacity and paying attention to the writing, because you would never know when your words might gift you with a particular quirk. An example of this might be that through talking with a series of NPCs in your racial city, you are asked how you feel about each of the other races, able to choose perspectives such as respect, fear, loathing, fondness, curiousity, indifference or derision (or of course choose not to reveal your perspective and avoid gaining any quirk). Depending on which of the dialogue options you chose, a quirk would be added to your character accordingly along the lines of "Feels <emotion> towards the <race>".
Gameplay style quirks would be obtained through persistent gameplay over time that evidences one particular style in contrast to others. This would need to be based on historical data recorded through play, and so would depend on exactly what information the game stores in player files. I would suggest that these would be the most prestigious and important quirks that a character can obtain, simply because they require the most effort in actually demonstrating a continuous style of play. Some examples that I can think of off the top of my head might include:
- An 'artisan' quirk if more than 50% of your historical experience has been derived from crafting, or an 'adventurer' quirk if more than 50% of your historical experience has been derived from PvE combat. These might reward the player with a title as long as the condition is met.
- A 'favoured weapon' quirk if more than 60% of your historical damage has been delivered while a particular main-hand weapon has been equipped. This could provide a faint cosmetic glow whenever you have that weapon equipped, as long as the quirk is maintained.
- A 'gourmet' quirk if your food consumption history is entirely composed of very high-quality foods. A 'vegetarian/vegan' quirk if your food consumption history is entirely composed of non-meat/non-animal sources. A 'carnivore' quirk if your food consumption history is entirely composed of meat-based sources. Each quirk might reward the player with a different emote or animation as long as they maintain it.
- The various personality styles - Charming, Honourable, Brute, Barbaric, Captivating, Diplomatic, Militant, Noble, Scoundrel, and Unpredictable would also comprise a quirk of your character, changing over time through your use of dialogue options in each of the three personality aspects.
Quest or objective quirks I will have to leave to the developers as I don't know enough about exclusive options in this area. I know there are certain points in every personal story though where you must make a decision out of multiple choices, and these would be excellent candidates for recording as character quirks.
Displaying Quirks[edit]
Each quirk should display on its own line in a special panel of your character window, along with an option on how it should be shared with other players. Valid settings could include:
- Public: Everyone can see your quirk by interacting with your character or looking up the character database (if there is one).
- Personal: Only friends and guildmates can see your quirk.
- Private: No-one but you can see your quirk.
The other option that should be available for each quirk is whether to show the perk it provides, if applicable. This means that if you set a particular quirk to private, you could also select to hide the cosmetic reward that it provides, avoiding anyone guessing from the weapon glow or whatever that your character is running around with.
Quirk score[edit]
Each quirk, like each achievement, should be given a point score that you receive as long as it is maintained. Each character's quirk score would be visible to friends and guildmates, and would hopefully come to represent how 'fleshed out' your character has become over time, through making all of the choices that you have throughout your play history.
