Idea: Disease and Medicine/Potions

[Palpetinus]

Now first of all, i know diseases were already suggested pretty frequent.

So i will skip the whole disease-part and get right to the medicine/potion-part.

Something came to my mind by the f-ing old game "Rogue". For those who know that game (well), you can skip everything here except the crafting part. It works just like in that game.

While i only had medicine on mind originally, it seems to make more sense on potions

Crafting:

You craft it by combining stuff, of course. Honey + flowers, flowers + butterfly wings, and so on.

That would create a potion.

Use:

No, it's not a "Healing potion", a "Speed potion" or whatever.

It would create a potion which you only know the color about, just like it would irl. (except irl you would know the smell, too)

So, you have that "Red Potion" there in your inventory.

But what does it do?

... Exactly.

That's the tricky part.

You need to find out what it does. Consume it, and it tells you what it did, and it is permanently renamed to the effect it does, like "Healing Potion" until the character dies. Maybe also harmful potions? Maybe you can feed it to a trusty companion first to find out the results?

Oh, you mean you can just try every potion and you know what it does forever?

No, it would change every time you start a new game. Or else it would be far too easy. Like, a red potion can be a healing potion in one game, but a poison in the next one.

The thing what i expect here, is that you have to experiment with it first to make something you really want to have.

A more hardcore way would be that you have different recipes too, each time you start a new game. But i think that lacks the ammount of resources available atm.

[Moonphos]

I'm not too fond of the term "Potion" - Overused term/item, and in DS, there's currently no method of creating glass, making bottles, and storing liquid into the glass bottles to act as "Potion".

I've... advice on another topic similar, instead of "Potion", to use another possible method that may fit DS theme with additional item creations before, called Poultice (credits to mobius187 for the term's name). Basic idea is you crush & grind herbs with a Mortar, put on a Cloth, and wrap/bandage yourself to heal (over a period of time).

Perhaps your disease/sickness curing mix can be used with food instead, acting like a medicinal pill that needs to be swallowed, or something that fits DS theme more, or easily available to be crafted.

Again, it can be as you're suggesting - Experimental. Herb A and Herb B cures Disease, Herb B and Herb C heals minor wounds, Herb A and C cures Sickness... etc, and the player needs to find out him/herself.

[Palpetinus]

My point is that it creates different variations of something without knowing what it does until you use it, and that it changes every new game. It's not important if it's a Poultice, a potion, medicine, herbal powder, or whatever.

Maybe you need some lategame item for it, like an item from spider queen? This will improve mid- and lategame, since early game is already kinda finished.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Palpetinus
To prevent a doublepost.

[Moonphos]

Well, it's a good suggestion - random effects makes gameplay somewhat different each.

[Spazmatic]

Maybe all creatures have a certain chance to drop an ingredient which can be used for *insert what word you find apporpiate for medicines and stuff like that*,and the introduction of an item in which you can combine the ingredients,similar to the crock pot(has this been suggested before?I think so,but can't recall the origin.).The fact that the effects change every game is really good,sortha like the pills from The Binding of Isaac,but with more depth.

[Palpetinus]

Yes, Spazmatic, just like the pills from BoI, exactly like that, only that you have to create it.

[mobius187]

Now first of all, i know diseases were already suggested pretty frequent. So i will skip the whole disease-part and get right to the medicine/potion-part.

Fair enough, however it's perfectly fine if you want to discuss existing topics, so long as you feel that you're bringing something new to the table. And even if you're not at least the Devs will know which ideas players prefer by the fact that they're repeatedly suggested.

While i only had medicine on mind originally, it seems to make more sense on potions

Potions... hmmm. Why not... "tonics".

Crafting:

You craft it by combining stuff, of course. Honey + flowers, flowers + butterfly wings, and so on.

That would create a potion.

Fair enough, especially when I replace the last word with "medicinal tonic".

Use:

No, it's not a "Healing potion", a "Speed potion" or whatever.

It would create a potion which you only know the color about, just like it would irl. (except irl you would know the smell, too)

So, you have that "Red Potion" there in your inventory.

Interesting. Again, fine, just I'm reading it as "Red Tonic". That's a personal choice of course.

You need to find out what it does. Consume it, and it tells you what it did, and it is permanently renamed to the effect it does, like "Healing Potion" until the character dies. Maybe also harmful potions? Maybe you can feed it to a trusty companion first to find out the results?

Oh, you mean you can just try every potion and you know what it does forever?

No, it would change every time you start a new game. Or else it would be far too easy. Like, a red potion can be a healing potion in one game, but a poison in the next one.

The thing what i expect here, is that you have to experiment with it first to make something you really want to have.

Actually there was a similar idea to this one, but it didn't involve potions/tonics. Rather it involved the underground caverns biome. One of the suggested features of this biome was mushrooms of various types, but, as you suggested with potions/tonics, the player wouldn't know what one did until they ate it. And even after they confirmed every mushroom in the game once they restarted a new game they would randomize again. As such, I could certainly respect this idea for that feature.

I'm not too fond of the term "Potion" - Overused term/item, and in DS, there's currently no method of creating glass, making bottles, and storing liquid into the glass bottles to act as "Potion".

True, however Kevin did mention "clay pots" in his thread about food rot. The idea was for these clay pots to store/preserve foods, however I could see them used to store liquids too.

I've... advice on another topic similar, instead of "Potion", to use another possible method that may fit DS theme with additional item creations before, called Poultice (credits to mobius187 for the term's name). Basic idea is you crush & grind herbs with a Mortar, put on a Cloth, and wrap/bandage yourself to heal (over a period of time).

Yes. As I recall several players have requested either bandages or healing herbs, so my thought was that the two should be combined. In particular, flower petals could finally have a use other than simply eating them or fuelign a fire (both of which actions are very limited in gains). In detail the idea involved talking Silk, refining it into String (as part of another suggestion involving candles from beeswax and string), and then refining Strings into Cloth. Of course if that sounds too complicated I suppose Silk could just be used from the get go.

Personally I'm not sure we need a mortar/pestle, as Don't Starve tends to skip intermediary steps in the crafting of items/foods. It could be as simple as a new crafting formula: flower petals + silk = poultice. Or the more convuluted way involving string and cloth... of course then you would want other inventions that benefit from these resource refinements to make it worthwhile.

Perhaps your disease/sickness curing mix can be used with food instead, acting like a medicinal pill that needs to be swallowed, or something that fits DS theme more, or easily available to be crafted.

Pills are certainly an option as well. Maybe you combine: honey + flower petals = medicinal pill.

Again, it can be as you're suggesting - Experimental. Herb A and Herb B cures Disease, Herb B and Herb C heals minor wounds, Herb A and C cures Sickness... etc, and the player needs to find out him/herself.

I still think this would be interesting. After all, this would keep the game from being too predictable.

My point is that it creates different variations of something without knowing what it does until you use it, and that it changes every new game. It's not important if it's a Poultice, a potion, medicine, herbal powder, or whatever.

Fair enough.

Maybe all creatures have a certain chance to drop an ingredient which can be used for *insert what word you find apporpiate for medicines and stuff like that*,and the introduction of an item in which you can combine the ingredients,similar to the crock pot(has this been suggested before?I think so,but can't recall the origin.).The fact that the effects change every game is really good,sortha like the pills from The Binding of Isaac,but with more depth.

I'm not sure I would want "drops" from every creature in the game. I would get flashback to playing The Witcher. Every creature in that game was a component to a potion, just waiting to happen. However I could see that maybe a poisonous creature could drop something (i.e. poison stinger) that in turn could either create a tonic that cured poison... or on the flip side, caused poison. Randomly. Or if two options are too limiting then maybe we should focus on my herbal ingredients, like: mushrooms, flowers, berries, saps and various other types of plant life.

[Palpetinus]

First of all, thank you for your feedback, i really appreciate that!

I still think this would be interesting. After all, this would keep the game from being too predictable.

That's EXACTLY what i wanted.

A game doesn't get boring when you can't exactly predict what's happening. Personally, i hate games where you can learn every single step. Some people may like it, i don't.

Also, this is a demonic, unknown world, you shouldn't be able to know stuff about it!

Or if two options are too limiting then maybe we should focus on my herbal ingredients, like: mushrooms, flowers, berries, saps and various other types of plant life.

This could add much more meaning to flowers. Maybe remove the general "petals" and instead make every flower be a different item, and ingredient. Or make them able to be picked as whole thing ("xyz flower") and when you right click they turn into petals.

[mobius187]

This could add much more meaning to flowers. Maybe remove the general "petals" and instead make every flower be a different item, and ingredient. Or make them able to be picked as whole thing ("xyz flower") and when you right click they turn into petals.

True. It always bothered me in Minecraft that they only ever had two flowers... and yet they had dyes. Wouldn't it have been simpler to have lots of different flower colours and base the dyes on them...? Okay, that's a bit off-topic I realize, but this reminded me of that issue.

But yes, I recall there were other topics where players suggested that we should add more plantlife to the game, including ones that serve no purpose. So, for example, players could use a shovel to dig up a shrubbery... that has no real purpose other than they could replant it somewhere. It would also have players guessing what was useful and what was just "another plant". I recall how in Fallout 3 you could grab all sorts of junk in ruins... but much of it was useless. Still, the game didn't stop you from doing it.