Schizophrenia

[M!NT]

We should have a negative trait for Schizophrenia.

It would be a hidden stat on a character that can go up from various traumatic events and potentially substances.
There could also be a negative opt-in trait during char creation similar to blindness and illiteracy. This would make someone more sensitive to things that can increase this hidden stat, and additionally it will increase slightly over time.

The only way to reduce the stat is to take union controlled medications for it.

Depending on how high the stat is, the character will start to see auditory and visual illusions as the stat increases. The higher the stat, the character will see illusions more often and they will start to impair the character's daily functions.

For example:
At a lower level, the character will start to hear CP or OTA footsteps approaching them when alone.
At a higher level, the character will have a vivid illusion of getting shot by an OTA unit. Or perhaps they might start having out of body experiences, where the players camera becomes detached from their character.

From a technical perspective this wouldn't be too hard to write as clientside sequences that fire based off of this stat.

 

[Donavin Jones]

I like this is idea, but I believe this would be more enjoyable in a RP case rather then an actual in game mechanic
Over all great idea though.

 

[Maroon]

Finally, I'll be able to self-insert.

 

[ShadoWiz4rd]

Lets add autism aswell

 

[Chico]

it'll be annoying as a mechanic

 

[Belgg]

The only way to reduce the stat is to take union controlled medications for it.

At a lower level, the character will start to hear CP or OTA footsteps approaching them when alone.
At a higher level, the character will have a vivid illusion of getting shot by an OTA unit. Or perhaps they might start having out of body experiences, where the players camera becomes detached from their character.

Don't like how all your examples are related to rebel rp, and your way of "reducing it" doesn't work. There should be a drug that rebels could make to reduce it aswel, (if that feature is added), but i think it should not be added, i think that "stat" should be admin-controller, should not go up by script, and once it goes up it can't go down unless an admin decides otherwise (You should show them proof that your character wasn't involved in any traumatic scenario, and was just living a normal life, obviously you can't be in a fucking rebel base while you wait for it to go down, as that itself is pretty traumatic).

I don't like this idea, as i think it would only make sense with an admin supervising it, and i think this kind of thing can just be rp'd instead of adding it as a script.

 

[Landon]

willard network players could just rp it cuz they know the symptoms first hand

 

[Imperator RAD-X]

willard network players could just rp it cuz they know the symptoms first hand

Can confirm.
@Asimo1234 is the most schizo.

 

[SifTheAI]

Whilst this idea is good in theory, I don't think it would work out.

The schizophrenic experiences would be limited to what is put into the code for them, so at some point the same experiences will be happening, and would get repetitive. If we put in many, many different experiences, particularly the more vivid of your examples (getting shot by an OTA unit), it would take even more time to put them in, and more effort to diversify them so it's not the same six experiences.

Additionally, not only would schizophrenic experiences get repetitive, but encountering schizophrenic people may start to get repetitive for those who are not schizophrenic. Imagine being the one person in a room of schizophrenic people (like new staff members when they join the staff team), it would likely get a little old quite quick, and makes it less unique than a few people roleplaying it out.

There's also the issue that there are a lot of traumatic experiences in this universe. What may be perceived as traumatic may not be perceived as such by someone else, and the raising of this stat would be subject to what the GM views as what would be traumatic to you, rather than what your character views as trauma inducing.

I personally feel that we can keep this to being roleplayed out. It allows for each individual schizophrenic person to come up with their own schizophrenic experiences. Medication can still be Union-handled; Working in the CMU, I've seen the psychiatric department deal with a few of these cases already, and specific medications are often provided through custom scripts and added to medical records. To insert it as a stat, I personally feel, limits it more than helps it roleplay-wise.

 

[M!NT]

Don't like how all your examples are related to rebel rp, and your way of "reducing it" doesn't work. There should be a drug that rebels could make to reduce it aswel, (if that feature is added)

How does it not work for it to be Union controlled? I imagine the resistance could get their hands on it one way or another. I'm not sure how they would manage to craft this from nothing though.

I don't like this idea, as i think it would only make sense with an admin supervising it, and i think this kind of thing can just be rp'd instead of adding it as a script.

All of the other negative traits (needing glasses, being illiterate, etc) could just be RPd as well. What makes willard unique is the weird things that have code support and can be opted into so that players can have a unique experience that is tailored for their character.

Whilst this idea is good in theory, I don't think it would work out.

The schizophrenic experiences would be limited to what is put into the code for them, so at some point the same experiences will be happening, and would get repetitive. If we put in many, many different experiences, particularly the more vivid of your examples (getting shot by an OTA unit), it would take even more time to put them in, and more effort to diversify them so it's not the same six experiences.

Right, well I mean its all a balancing act. I mean, for almost everyone it would be minor auditory illusions and things that I think would be easy enough to act out. I remember the ambience in the apartments in city45 sometimes playing the sounds of CP footsteps and having that jumpscare never got tiring for me. It was enough to make me think I was going crazy, but it also wasn't very intrusive. I think the more vivid examples would be very rare, keeping them fresh for most players. Not only would they be rare, but they would likely require a nearly maxed out stat which, most people wouldn't have. At least, not for a long time.

There's also the issue that there are a lot of traumatic experiences in this universe. What may be perceived as traumatic may not be perceived as such by someone else, and the raising of this stat would be subject to what the GM views as what would be traumatic to you, rather than what your character views as trauma inducing.

This is true. However, I also suspect that players almost never roleplay out negative traits like these. This is similar to how, without a hunger and thirst counter, most people pay no attention to how often their character eats and drinks. I think a little code support goes a long way in helping people keep track of what issues their character has.
On the flip side of that, I also know that a lot of characters are played as desensitized to the types of events that would be traumatizing to characters. Thats why this is an opt-in negative effect. Do you play a character that isn't effected by traumatic encounters? Don't select the stat when you make the character and it will have little to no effect on you as the stat won't really increase. If you do select the stat during char creation, it will slightly increase as your character experiences traumatic events.
Perhaps, this whole GM-oriented PTSD type system could be ignored. Then it would be a matter of characters getting exposed to something that increases the trait in an automatic way- like consuming certain things that could increase it over time.

 

[Belgg]

How does it not work for it to be Union controlled? I imagine the resistance could get their hands on it one way or another. I'm not sure how they would manage to craft this from nothing though.

The resistance litteraly has a whole smuggling network in place and you're telling me they can't get their hands on fucking meds? they even got fucking rpgs and shit...

All of the other negative traits (needing glasses, being illiterate, etc) could just be RPd as well. What makes willard unique is the weird things that have code support and can be opted into so that players can have a unique experience that is tailored for their character.

You can't compare not being able to read to this bro, this is a fucking mental illnes, and it's complex as fuck, it depends on the person aswel, so you can't really "code it" to be perfect. It just wouldn't work.

 

[M!NT]

The resistance litteraly has a whole smuggling network in place and you're telling me they can't get their hands on fucking meds? they even got fucking rpgs and shit...

If they can get it more power to them. I'm not saying its impossible for them to get their hands on it. Its just a somewhat rare item for them to find, and would be valuable just as other medical items are. Perhaps, with some R&D, they can find a way to homebrew something that can help treat it. Its all IC.

You can't compare not being able to read to this bro, this is a fucking mental illnes, and it's complex as fuck, it depends on the person aswel, so you can't really "code it" to be perfect. It just wouldn't work.

You're right about that. This is code that will add minor effects to a character to make them experience some- almost always- non-intrusive symptoms of a mental illness. I'm not trying to say that my code will simulate Schizophrenia perfectly, thats up to the character to roleplay in their own manner. I'm meerly saying that we can add some code that will realize some of the symptoms of it. And- that the code will only apply to characters that have opted-in to that experience. In that way, it is similar to the other opt-in negative traits.

 

[SifTheAI]

Right, well I mean its all a balancing act. I mean, for almost everyone it would be minor auditory illusions and things that I think would be easy enough to act out. I remember the ambience in the apartments in city45 sometimes playing the sounds of CP footsteps and having that jumpscare never got tiring for me. It was enough to make me think I was going crazy, but it also wasn't very intrusive. I think the more vivid examples would be very rare, keeping them fresh for most players. Not only would they be rare, but they would likely require a nearly maxed out stat which, most people wouldn't have. At least, not for a long time.

The problem is that eventually, a large amount of people will get their stat maxed out. What is rare will turn into common, by the fact that at some point, a large people will have their stat maxed out, by sheer will of not getting it reduced. Albeit not for a long time as you put it, but when that long time comes, 'long time' doesn't really matter any more.

This is true. However, I also suspect that players almost never roleplay out negative traits like these. This is similar to how, without a hunger and thirst counter, most people pay no attention to how often their character eats and drinks. I think a little code support goes a long way in helping people keep track of what issues their character has.

On the point of players never roleplaying out traits like these, I'd argue that not being correct at all; I've seen plenty of people, both in my character's role in CMU as well as just out in the streets, roleplaying negative traits, including schizophrenia; Heck, one of my own characters suffers from it. Hunger and thirst are something that everyone has, whilst schizophrenia isn't. If people want to keep track of what issues their character has, they can write their own notes, including in-game using the character note system, if they wish. We don't need a system in place to monitor levels of schizophrenia, that can be done ICly, by the player roleplaying their own schizophrenia.

Perhaps, this whole GM-oriented PTSD type system could be ignored. Then it would be a matter of characters getting exposed to something that increases the trait in an automatic way- like consuming certain things that could increase it over time.

I am completely against an automatic increase, as that completely removes the control from the player. At least with glasses, and inability to read, there are controllable ways to fix that (by getting glasses or buying a learn-to-read audiobook, respectively).

You're right about that. This is code that will add minor effects to a character to make them experience some- almost always- non-intrusive symptoms of a mental illness. I'm not trying to say that my code will simulate Schizophrenia perfectly, thats up to the character to roleplay in their own manner. I'm meerly saying that we can add some code that will realize some of the symptoms of it. And- that the code will only apply to characters that have opted-in to that experience. In that way, it is similar to the other opt-in negative traits.

My overall reason for personally not thinking this is a workable suggestion is in the above quote. Whilst it is up to the character to roleplay in their own manner, what happens to them is enforced by the server. Symptoms can be roleplayed out instead of coded in, because otherwise, a loyalist may hear footsteps of Civil Protection, despite not having any problem with Civil Protection, for example. Additionally, they may end up limited to roleplaying schizophrenic sightings only when they see them, and not when they want to - I personally see that is a disadvantage, albeit I can see why some people may want that to be done.

I feel like a lot more uniqueness can be derived from this not being a stat, and it instead being roleplayed, like people already do. Whilst this suggestion does add quirks to having it - audio cues, visual cues - only the person who is schizophrenic receives these, so it only really benefits them, rather than the people around them, who would just have to react to a /me whether or not this is implemented. As said before, medication is already given by CMU for this too, in way of custom scripts. Adding schizophrenia as a stat, rather than keeping it roleplayed out, also asks the question of why we don't add other mental or physical disabilities as stats - if we do add this, we're opening ourselves up to add a whole host of others, too. Whilst not a bad thing at it's face, the development related to that is going to be quite large, when it can be put to other things instead that still require work and provide more benefit in general to the playerbase.

That's just my own opinion on the suggestion, so take it as you will.

 

[Ruairidh]

We should have a negative trait for Schizophrenia.

It would be a hidden stat on a character that can go up from various traumatic events and potentially substances.
There could also be a negative opt-in trait during char creation similar to blindness and illiteracy. This would make someone more sensitive to things that can increase this hidden stat, and additionally it will increase slightly over time.

The only way to reduce the stat is to take union controlled medications for it.

Depending on how high the stat is, the character will start to see auditory and visual illusions as the stat increases. The higher the stat, the character will see illusions more often and they will start to impair the character's daily functions.

For example:
At a lower level, the character will start to hear CP or OTA footsteps approaching them when alone.
At a higher level, the character will have a vivid illusion of getting shot by an OTA unit. Or perhaps they might start having out of body experiences, where the players camera becomes detached from their character.

From a technical perspective this wouldn't be too hard to write as clientside sequences that fire based off of this stat.

Have it let you dodge fear RP but make it so you see shit like zombies that arent there and CPs that also arent there

 

[ZeroPants]

I give this a +Support for a few reasons.

-It would be an OPTIONAL negative trait, you are giving your character a weakness/flaw to make them interesting. People don't need to pick it if they don't want to. It is a flaw just like how the illiterate and glasses flaws are, it doesn't provide any benefits asides from making your character more interesting, which I think is a good thing.

-City characters with the trait could go to the CMU to get a free prescription for the drug, most likely limited to a single bottle of pills per every few days, but getting the pills would be easy.

-Rebel characters with the trait would obviously have a harder time getting treatment, they could either make the drugs themselves (provided they have the medicine skill, equipment, and chemicals needed for it.) or they could buy them from the smuggler with chips. Getting treatment for the condition as a rebel would realistically be much harder, you don't have access to the CMU after all, but it gives rebel characters a better excuse to venture into the city, if only to pick up a prescription.

-The trait could be used as an admin tool as well, just like how GMs are able to set players gas levels, GMs could set players sanity levels too.


I have a few suggestions if this idea is implemented, some of these might be pretty shit, but I just want to throw the ideas out there:

Usage as a GM tool:

-Allow GMs to set the sanity of players that don't have the trait for event purposes, this could be abused, yes, but for specific events, it could be a good tool. (say for example the CPRD "accidentally" releases a gas that causes temporary insanity, players without the trait could still be affected by it because the GMs could set their sanity or whatnot.)

-Have specific zones increase the insanity meter similar to how the spore zones work, perhaps being in the nexus interrogation room would increase your insanity, or being in a prison cell would make you go mad, or exploring dangerous areas underground could make you nervous. Just like the suggestion above this could be a good tool for admins and GMs, should events require specific areas of the map to affect people, and perhaps specific insanity zones could have effects on people that don't even have the trait.

Treatment methods and detection:

-Have certain drugs increase insanity when you use them, and have certain drugs that decrease insanity, perhaps using 'Third-eye' could increase your insanity while using bob trail mix could relax you and decrease your insanity, it would give rebel players some more treatment options if they aren't able to get a prescription from the city. Imagine treating your mental illness with street drugs because you can't get a prescription.

-Similar to how players can tell if another player is on drugs by looking at them, have a system where you can tell if someone is going insane by looking at them should their insanity get too high. Cops could declare citizens mentally unfit if they are not able to control their sanity in public.

Insanity effects:

The insanity system could work similar to how the spore exposure system works, at low levels you don't see any effects at all, but after reaching certain percentages you would start to see different effects.

-At 25% you would start noticing small things, perhaps distant CP radio chatter or the sounds of cops running or sounds of footsteps from behind you.

-At 50% you would start to see figures in the distance (like those *super scary haunted gmod maps) alongside the previous effects. You would also start hearing OTA radio chatter and the sounds of OTA running.

-At 75% you would start having more auditory hallucinations like people yelling out your name or asking you questions. Imagine you are walking through the street and you hear *** [A man wearing a blue shirt and...] "Hey ________, how are you?". Perhaps the system could operate where the voice utilizes the description of the person closest to the person with the trait, they would start hallucinating the person closest to them saying things they didn't actually say.

-At 100% perhaps clientside NPCs could spawn and attack the player but they would deal no damage, you could add in screen effects as well as all of the previous effects.

Reaching 100% wouldn't be lethal, but the negative effects it would give you would make living very hard.


I'd also advise renaming the trait to 'Insanity' or 'Mentally unfit', as it keeps things generalized.

 

[M!NT]

-At 75% you would start having more auditory hallucinations like people yelling out your name or asking you questions. Imagine you are walking through the street and you hear *** [A man wearing a blue shirt and...] "Hey ________, how are you?". Perhaps the system could operate where the voice utilizes the description of the person closest to the person with the trait, they would start hallucinating the person closest to them saying things they didn't actually say.

Wonderful idea. This can be done pretty easily actually. We could use a number of imagined voice lines with nearby character descriptions to keep things fresh.

I'd also advise renaming the trait to 'Insanity' or 'Mentally unfit', as it keeps things generalized.

Yep

 

[RedHotGinger]

Two reasons this is ultimately a poor idea as I see it:

The big one:
Anytime you add something of this sort, you inevitably will see the rarity of it plummet as people jump aboard the hype train and it becomes overloaded. The amount of schitzo characters the server will have when coupled with a literal option to become one will make it seem trivial and downright silly. Schizophrenia effects less than 1% of the entire worlds population, thus having even 1/10 or even 1/20 of the characters exhibit symptoms, minor or major, is just not believable. So, you end up with two options in this

1. Either we keep it realistic and barely anyone uses the feature that took development time to actually implement.
2. It's used a whole lot and C24 turns into a literal mental institution with half of its population screaming racial slurs randomly, or however Willard players will manifest such a thing.

Secondly, I don't think mental illness is typically played very well by most people, and introducing (a very rare and severe) one as the developmental mainstay is just going to lead to some really laughable stuff that will more often be taken for humorous occurrences than anything serious or sad or whatever else. Even those who may be able to pull it off, will probably often be playing second fiddle to the fact so many others will have it.


This is one of those things that is very easy to just RP, if you really want to.

 

[Imperator RAD-X]

I have to reject the idea of this. In the span of a week, half the playerbase is going to be "schizophrenic" with these particular systems proposed to be implemented. You'll have a never ending spam of characters turning to insanity in no time, and then follow the stupidity of human behavioural psychology taking over the spectrum of what schizophrenia actually is, in comparison.

Tfw everyone chooses to become paranoid schizos... not gonna work well.

Just RP it, or take drugs and then RP it.
Tools are already there for everyone to do so if they want.