Will "willpower" ever going to exist?

[Morphe]

In 2013 devs said about "willpower" and a photo ( locket for backers ) that would be something like a positive item for "sanity". But there wasn't any of these. Does it even going to be implemented?

 

Will willpower be an item for Will Mackenzie? Will it?

[Mroz4k]

Not sure about the willpower, and I kind of hope it doesnt exist as I am unsure whether it would work natually, or if it would be immersion breaking. But I am fairly sure the lockets already exist, but its an item only Kickstarter backers have.

I wouldnt mind if it gave something like a temporary energy boost, something like coffee. But I am not sure I want to see willpower in the game, unless it would re-structures things like Cabin fever as well.

[Fuarian]

10 hours ago, Mroz4k said:

Not sure about the willpower, and I kind of hope it doesnt exist as I am unsure whether it would work natually, or if it would be immersion breaking. But I am fairly sure the lockets already exist, but its an item only Kickstarter backers have.

I wouldnt mind if it gave something like a temporary energy boost, something like coffee. But I am not sure I want to see willpower in the game, unless it would re-structures things like Cabin fever as well.

they said it would work like a boost for the current situation you are in, so yeah, a fatigue boost, a temperature boost, a stamina boost. It's not the most immersive thing though... 

[Pillock]

In This War Of Mine the characters can get depressed. It's a simple system with five stages: Content/Normal/Sad/Depressed/Broken, and is affected by how well things are going during your game, such as whether you are keeping your peeps well fed, whether they or their friends are injured or sick, whether they've done a good deed like helping fellow survivors or a bad deed like robbing or killing someone. If they're feeling bad, the characters generally go about things more slowly and reluctantly, or at worst refuse to get out of bed altogether; when they're happy they are generally more active and energetic. It works really well and feels pretty logical within the gameplay actions/choices you take. You can improve/cure it by improving their physical health and living conditions, by doing good deeds rather than bad, or by having them give each other 'pep-talks' to cheer them up.

Obviously TLD has a slightly different set of circumstances - not least in that you are only in control of one person here - but I think it shows that mental condition can work well in survival games if it's done right.

It would need to be handled very carefully by the devs, so as not to annoy the player or feel like an artificial blocker on their progress, but I wouldn't be opposed to the idea in principle. However, I think the "Trust" system in Wintermute - something that begins to open the way towards emotional factors playing into your choices - is, in its current form, pretty weak and underdeveloped. I'd like to see that fleshed out a lot and made into much more of an immersive and useful gameplay tool, before any new 'willpower' or depression/psychological state systems are brought in.

[omoon66]

Yeah, irl willpower is sorta a thing. If someone really doesn’t want to die, it’s possible they won’t (only works in some circumstances, unless you’re Frisk from Undertale). But as far as it being in TLD, I’m not sure how they could do that without messing up the balancing.