Nightmares in the dark.


Docterrok

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Okay, our character is facing rather horrifying things, almost every day,

like this...

thelongdark2.jpg

and this...

latest?cb=20151120011515

and this...

maxresdefault.jpg

If I encountered these things, I would be horrified beyond all reasonable measure. I don't consider myself a giant pansy, but stuff like this would be too much. So here's my idea, have interactive nightmares! If your character sees a lot of scary stuff. Dialogue will show his mental distress, saying things like "I cant do this," or "I want to leave this hell." or something like that. It increases or decreases based on what you encountered that day, similar to the insanity system in amnesia. Then, when you sleep, you have a chance to get a nightmare, this will pause time and become an interactive event where you can move around, interact, etc. It would look, well, for lack of a better word, dreamy. But in its idyllic-ness, you will begin seeing really strange visions, my thought is nightmares would transport you into a dream that looks like shadow of colossus, and there's a giant bear or something, and you start seeing ghosts that are saying, "You could've saved us" or something. *here's an image to illustrate what I was  thinking.

shadowoftheclos-1420653287554.jpg

and wispy ghosts would be flying around. This would be a affliction when you wake up, having a nightmare will make it impossible to sleep for 1 hour, no matter how tired you are. What do you think? thanks!^_^

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3 minutes ago, nicko said:

ha nice idea, it would defiantly make sleeping all those hours a bit more fun as long as it didn't happen to often. maybe it only happens as well when your mega tired and hit 9 hours sleep time.

 

I think it should happen often if you decide to do a lot of horrifying stuff. You decide how often you want nightmares according to your deeds.

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I rather like the idea of nightmares as part of PTSD, which can be incorporated into the morale system. Of course, there are those (and I'm one of them) who are against getting these automatically. Your emotions and your moods should come from yourself, the player - after all, it is part of the game experience. But that said, I believe that PTSD type symptoms including nightmares would be an affliction triggered by some combination of fatigue, dehydration, and time lapsed since the last hostile encounter or close call.

As someone who has nightmares quite often (I dream a lot, and a fair portion of them are nightmares), I would suggest nightmares that are an extension of the worst experience you have had so far in the game multiplied by a hundred times or more.

Need an example? The first time you sleep after a wolf encounter, you dream of it again. Only you can't fight the darn creature off, or you think you have, only to have it (or a second one) come back and get you before you can recover, and so forth - a never-ending mauling, so to speak. The severity of these nightmares decrease with each 24 hour period, until three days later it barely bothers you and you get on with survival.

Or how about running from a bear? Only you can't move from the spot you're in. It's like your feet are stuck in molasses. And that bear is always breathing down your back. Again, the severity of these nightmares decrease with each succeeding rest period until three days later you're fine. Only I think the bear is more terrifying than the wolf, so maybe five days of Bear nightmares (or would that be Nightbears?)?

Or the first time you cross that wooden trestle in the Ravine and the first rest period (only the first one) you dream of falling forever. 

Or the first time you go out onto thin ice and nearly fall through. That night you dream that you did actually fall through, and that you are struggling to get out before hypothermia kills you. Except it doesn't. You just struggle forever . . .  Again, that would be something that would affect you just once.

And all of these would have distinct odds of happening. Like 70% chance of occurring the first time you rest, then 50% the second time, and so on . . . 

I'm not a programmer, but I know these don't use new resources. Just maybe new algorithms . . .

And the risk of getting/being impacted by these nightmares would be minimized by keeping your condition bars maxed out - i.e. good health, no thirst, and no other afflictions. Fatigue is unavoidable because you only get these during rest periods, and you have to be tired/exhausted to rest.

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48 minutes ago, hauteecolerider said:

That's how I dream, too.

Ironically, even though I'm deaf since birth, my dreams have sound ...

Well, since your deaf, I'll tell you what the noises are in the long dark.

fshshshahhshhshhshshshshhhshhshshhs

hoooooooooooowwwwwlll

im hungry

so cold

fshshshhshshshshhahashhshshhssh

raaaaawwwwrrrr

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

you have died of shock and blood loss from bear attack...

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Of course, I hear these too.

Wind.

Creaking shutters and doors.

Groaning metal in the Dam

Growls, barks and howls by wolves.

Owls at night near Trappers.

The melting snow and boiling water. Sizzling meat being roasted.

The zipper on the pack every time you go into inventory. 

And of course the lovely music that plays every now and then (and more often lately, I've noticed.

Plus I can hear the difference between the male character and the female character.

I'm not quite totally deaf, you know. With the right equipment, I hear enough to enjoy this game. 

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Ohhh! Cool idea, I really like it, but the first thing I thought of was: "What if we could BEAT our nightmare?"

Since if all nightmares would end up in a debuff or loss of sleep it could overpower the player if they already had some because of previous effects they had FROM the events that caused the nightmare. So what if these dreams would be a chance to balance some of these negative effects? It should be hard and it would only negate a small part of current effects so no one would try to get nightmares on purpose, but maybe it could be useful? :)

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 7/15/2016 at 3:55 PM, Docterrok said:

Okay, our character is facing rather horrifying things, almost every day,

like this...

thelongdark2.jpg

and this...

latest?cb=20151120011515

and this...

maxresdefault.jpg

If I encountered these things, I would be horrified beyond all reasonable measure. I don't consider myself a giant pansy, but stuff like this would be too much. So here's my idea, have interactive nightmares! If your character sees a lot of scary stuff. Dialogue will show his mental distress, saying things like "I cant do this," or "I want to leave this hell." or something like that. It increases or decreases based on what you encountered that day, similar to the insanity system in amnesia. Then, when you sleep, you have a chance to get a nightmare, this will pause time and become an interactive event where you can move around, interact, etc. It would look, well, for lack of a better word, dreamy. But in its idyllic-ness, you will begin seeing really strange visions, my thought is nightmares would transport you into a dream that looks like shadow of colossus, and there's a giant bear or something, and you start seeing ghosts that are saying, "You could've saved us" or something. *here's an image to illustrate what I was  thinking.

shadowoftheclos-1420653287554.jpg

and wispy ghosts would be flying around. This would be a affliction when you wake up, having a nightmare will make it impossible to sleep for 1 hour, no matter how tired you are. What do you think? thanks!^_^

Its a very good idea,who said TLD could not be a patially horror game,although it kinda is...It would be awesome if they'll consider your idea ;)

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  • 7 months later...

I like the idea of adding the idea of nightmares to the game but I do have some problems with that. I hate being Buzz Killington but most of these comments are just too approving.

1. The game is a sandbox, not a story. The nightmares should only be simplistic and not be too unrealistic as this will shift media and public view of the game from being that awesome looking game with mountains and snow to that awesome looking game with Shadow Of The Colossus bush pilot.

2. The nightmares are something that should be used in proportion to the time and experience of the player. Someone who has had a crash landing in a plane may suffer from PTSD and nightmares of the crash but not of any monsters or animals if they haven't been introduced to them as of yet.

3. The game is about survival and yes you could say that basic mental health is something most people need to continue to live but entire focus of the game currently and the public image of the game is that of physical survival, not mental

4. There should definitely be a way to wake up from the nightmares quickly if you don't want to have to do them over and again.

5. Referring back to points 4 and 5, those awesome guys who developed the game will need to create a lot of them if they intend to make nightmares available for the sandbox. There is nothing worse than having to sit through cut scenes in a game that are too long again if you already know how they end. 

Buzz Killington,                   AWAY!

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