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Author Topic: Brain clusters and old age  (Read 1179 times)

Abyssal Squid

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Brain clusters and old age
« on: May 10, 2008, 10:12:00 pm »

Right now all brain damage does is cause you to stop breathing, which isn't too interesting.  The brain should be split into 4 organs, a brain stem, sensory cluster, motor cluster, and intellectual cluster (or just the first 3 for animals.  Damage to the brain stem makes you sluggish, incontinent, and eventually dead; damage to the sensory cluster worsens your vision and/or causes pain, and worsens pathfinding; damage to the motor cluster makes you clumsy, paralyzed, or eventually catatonic; and damage to the intellectual cluster drives you insane.  Any sort of traumatic brain injury knocks you unconscious.

[OLDAGE:x] replaces [MAXAGE:x], and once you hit it, your brain starts to deteriorate.  Death from old age isn't a drop-dead sort of thing, it comes after a long illness, or maybe you decide to stop eating, or maybe you stumble over a ledge, or maybe you just go to sleep and don't wake up.


While I'm on brains, epilepsy would be cool to see as another form of insanity.  Epileptics run around like normal until they have a fit, then they thrash about causing damage to themselves, to bystanders, and to adjacent buildings and items.  When they recover, they're over-exerted but otherwise back to normal.

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Cthulhu

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Re: Brain clusters and old age
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2008, 10:19:00 pm »

That's coolsauce.

Seconded.

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Shoes...

Xombie

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Re: Brain clusters and old age
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2008, 11:30:00 pm »

Old Age thread: http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=5&t=003098


"Any sort of traumatic brain injury knocks you unconscious." - Seconded. If it's not already in game.

Other stuff looks too complex and unnecessary, since when you knocked out unconscious in front of an enemy - it's game over.

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Draco18s

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Re: Brain clusters and old age
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2008, 11:32:00 pm »

Not entirely true.  I've seen many a dwarf with "bruised" brains.
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Abyssal Squid

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Re: Brain clusters and old age
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2008, 11:50:00 pm »

quote:
Originally posted by Xombie:
<STRONG>Other stuff looks too complex and unnecessary, since when you knocked out unconscious in front of an enemy - it's game over.</STRONG>

Right now, sure, since all fights are to the death and adventure mode allies are rugged individualists.  However, if you have allies hanging around, monsters should try dealing with them while you're indisposed, rather than try to finish you off and leave themselves defenseless.  It should be harder to tell unconscious foes from dead, for that matter.

Plus, there are lots of plans for non-fatal... combat incidents.  Stuff like hitting a guard with a sap, or barfights.

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PTTG??

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Re: Brain clusters and old age
« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2008, 11:53:00 pm »

I think this has some awesome elements.
Full seconding.
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GRead

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Re: Brain clusters and old age
« Reply #6 on: May 11, 2008, 12:02:00 am »

I rather like the idea, but think the specifics of it should be hidden.
When one of your dwarves takes brain damage, all you'd get to know is that they've taken brain damage. to figure out what sort they took you'll just have to watch and see what happens. Even in the modern era the amount we know about the brain is staggeringly small, and as you go back that gets less and less. I think it better reflects what the dwarves would know and understand and be a more entertaining game element to make the effects of brain damage more widespread and varied without revealing what they are until they happen. So if your dwarf has suffered a blow to the head and is going to become a berserker who kills friend and foe indiscriminately, you don't get to know this until they go berserk and start killing their squadmates. no locking away your dwarves who have suffered one variety of brain damage that is potentially dangerous while letting the safer ones free.

also, while we're on sanity, it would be nice if there were more varieties of insane dwarf to choose from when moods fail, and some minor insanities that are non-fatal but can afflict some dwarves. These could all also be acquired through brain damage.

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Neonivek

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Re: Brain clusters and old age
« Reply #7 on: May 11, 2008, 12:04:00 am »

Toady is probably waiting until he impliments psychological status before making brain damage any more sophisticated


That way getting hit in the brain just causes Insanity and many other psychological impairments (or possibly rare benefits)

[ May 11, 2008: Message edited by: Neonivek ]

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Kanil

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Re: Brain clusters and old age
« Reply #8 on: May 11, 2008, 12:55:00 am »

Rare benefits? Like when your noble demanding adamantine gets his brain maceified?
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Yah, it sounds like minecraft with content, you have obviously missed the point, people dont like content, they like different coloured blocks.
Seems to work fine with my copy. As soon as I loaded the human caravan came by and the world burst into fire.

Neonivek

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Re: Brain clusters and old age
« Reply #9 on: May 11, 2008, 01:16:00 am »

Well... Maybe you become insane and know no fear

Maybe Dwarves could suddenly not get negative emotions anymore

Maybe you gain the ability to eat anything as you don't know what Yucky is anymore. (Dwarf Fort they could just eat bugs)

Given that you have to take a brain hit for this... it isn't something anyone would want to do.

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brainfire

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Re: Brain clusters and old age
« Reply #10 on: May 11, 2008, 12:34:00 pm »

quote:
Originally posted by GRead:
<STRONG>it would be nice if there were more varieties of insane dwarf to choose from when moods fail, and some minor insanities that are non-fatal but can afflict some dwarves.</STRONG>

This would be pretty cool.

You fail to provide one of your moody dwarves with the bones he needs for his project. Afterwards, he returns to normal, but is constantly stealing bones and putting them in his room.

Another dwarf who fails a mood might return to normal, but on certain days, confine himself in his room and cry uncontrollably, and never again gain another skill increase in the skill that his mood was going to use (or maybe even in any skill).

[ May 11, 2008: Message edited by: brainfire ]

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You can allow or stop your dwarves from eating these mushrooms, but it's entirely optional and doesn't turn Dwarf Fortress into Dwarf hookah-smoking pad.