Hibernation

[Doug R.]

I suggest allowing characters to hibernate. Hibernation would work as follows:

-hibernating characters consume food at 1/2 the normal rate
-hibernating characters do not light up for new events
-hibernating characters are visible to other characters as such
-hibernating characters are dragged as corpses (i.e. they're 60 kilos dead weight + inventory) (offers a bit of protection against dragging).
-it takes a period of no less than a day to enter hibernation (could be a project), and no less than a day to exit hibernation (could also be a project).
-hibernating characters cannot work on projects other than exiting hibernation.

This gives people that need to restrict their character lists, yet can't resist looking at new events, an option other than suicide for their characters.

[Addicted]

I suggest allowing characters to hibernate. Hibernation would work as follows:

-hibernating characters consume food at 1/2 the normal rate
-hibernating characters do not light up for new events
-hibernating characters are visible to other characters as such
-hibernating characters are dragged as corpses (i.e. they're 60 kilos dead weight + inventory) (offers a bit of protection against dragging).
-it takes a period of no less than a day to enter hibernation (could be a project), and no less than a day to exit hibernation (could also be a project).
-hibernating characters cannot work on projects other than exiting hibernation.

This gives people that need to restrict their character lists, yet can't resist looking at new events, an option other than suicide for their characters.

It sounds good, but what about food, could they harvest while exiting? In case they are very hungry? I like them being heavier too.

[Piscator]

Apart from that I don't like the idea of Cantrians spinning cocoons for themselves very much (what else would starting a hibernation project mean?), this seems like a pretty useless mechanic.

Even now an inventory full of potatoes can feed you for two and a half months, which should be pretty sufficient most of the time. And if not, the ancient art of potato farming meditation can feed you almost indefinitely.

If your characters lighting up bothers you, you can get a room or learn to ignore it. Both works pretty well from my experience.

I don't really see any advantages to this.

[Rusalka]

I could be usefull for characters who want to save some food (in wilds etc.), but when char is hungry in such situation, hibernating won't change anything. He has to be active to survive.

So would would be the puropse of this option?

[Snickie]

I kind of like the idea. One thing concerns me, though: if the hibernating character is in a town, and a lot of its members suddenly kick the bucket so there are a ton of corpses lying around, is it possible for the hibernating character to become faint thus consuming higher multiples of their normal food consumption and reducing the amount of time they live before they starve?

Like (and I admit: I will get into the details of a scenario that will probably never happen), say a character is put into hibernation for thirty days because the player is taking a month-long trip to where there is no access to Internet, and they leave their character with just that amount of food. Two days after they leave, their town is massacred and there are a ton of corpses lying around, but somehow that one hibernating character survives (maybe they're equipped with a really good shield or something). Due to the number of corpses in the vicinity, that character becomes faint and starts eating all their food. So say that the character polishes off their food in the eight days after the massacre*, and so now they're without food. The rest of the town can't feed them because they're dead (also the reason the corpses aren't buried). So that character begins to starve, obviously. Twenty days later, the player returns to find that character either…
A) still in hibernation but extremely faint and hungry and barely alive?
or...
B) dead from starvation (which defeats the purpose of hibernation)?

* This figure, I feel, is plausible. I have had a character when, upon feeling a little faint, ate eight-hundred forty-two grams of potatoes on their first day of feeling faint, which is more than four times the normal daily consumption-rate of two-hundred grams of potatoes. Normally, six kilos of potatoes would efficiently feed an awake, healthy person for one month, at the normal consumption rate. One with faintness consuming more than four times that amount daily could consume six kilos of potatoes in as little as eight days, maybe less depending on their condition and how many grams of those potatoes were consumed previously. To make these figures apply to the suggested hibernation state, simply divide every figure (except for the one in my example from my char who was faint; those are actual statistics) by two.


I suppose that it is obvious that I have put a lot of thought into this.

[Abe]

This gives people that need to restrict their character lists, yet can't resist looking at new events, an option other than suicide for their characters.

One problem I see with this suggestion is that it is something for the player, not the character. So it should be enough to have a button on the character page that allows ignoring a character. That would be great, I think.
How would hibernation be explained IC? Sleeping is OK, because people do fall asleep in real life and we can assume cantr is similar. If some character doesn't respond, then the other characters think "he/she fell asleep" not "the player logged out". But this involves a project and a state that other characters can see.

You say: *shrugs*
My good old friend says to you: ((OOC: Sorry, got bored with this character))
You say: Hey, what are you doing?
You see My good old friend entering hibernation.

But it is a great idea to be able to restrict food consumption. Not being able to work on projects, however, is too harsh, I think. Increasing tiredness would be a logical choice, but it only affects fighting, doesn't it?

[SekoETC]

It would be like a deep sleep or a coma, people can't work while they're in a coma. So people could show others that they're not checking this character. It might also be useful if you're sailing and about to run out of food and you know which way you're supposed to sail to get it but you fear that you don't have enough to last that far, so it would make sense to stop moving and slow down your metabolism to make yourself survive.

[Abe]

"Deep sleep" or "coma" sounds like a better name than hibernation.
Can you think of any other use of this than while sailing? I mean if you're out in the wilderness and you have little food, hibernation/coma seems useless as you cannot work on projects to get more food or build a shelter, etc.
On the other hand, I think it would be overused by sailors. There aren't many projects that can be done on a ship, just repairs, so not being able to work on projects wouldn't mean much. During travels between islands, every sailor would "hibernate" to make their food last longer. Especially if you can check the events if you want and talk to your shipmates.
And I still don't understand why a "neglected" character should be given advantages.

[Doug R.]

One thing that is very clear from the responses from to this suggestion, is that very few of you have any idea what hibernation is as a biological process. Piscator's "cocoon" comment being the most stark example. Hibernation is deep sleep in which animals burn fat for heat and essentially shut down most biological processes (cocoons are not involved anywhere in the process - that is metamorphosis - nowhere do I suggest that cantrians emerge from this as butterflies, and I resented the flippancy of the comment, which set the tone for the rest of the discussion and killed this suggestion before it even developed). A coma is something entirely different, and not at all appropriate for this suggestion.

For some reason, the combination of plain misunderstanding and missing what I thought was a very clear point have drained what will I had left to participate in development. I don't have the energy to defend this or any other suggestion. Just move it to rejected and put it out of its misery.

[Addicted]

One thing that is very clear from the responses from to this suggestion, is that very few of you have any idea what hibernation is as a biological process. Piscator's "cocoon" comment being the most stark example. Hibernation is deep sleep in which animals burn fat for heat and essentially shut down most biological processes (cocoons are not involved anywhere in the process - that is metamorphosis - nowhere do I suggest that cantrians emerge from this as butterflies, and I resented the flippancy of the comment, which set the tone for the rest of the discussion and killed this suggestion before it even developed). A coma is something entirely different, and not at all appropriate for this suggestion.

For some reason, the combination of plain misunderstanding and missing what I thought was a very clear point have drained what will I had left to participate in development. I don't have the energy to defend this or any other suggestion. Just move it to rejected and put it out of its misery.

I think the point was missed by most and not understood as was the advantage of the process. I still like it. I would want it in the original suggested form though. Not with the following modifications.

[Piscator]

I was trying to be ironic when I mentioned the cocoon, but just a little as humans are able to undergo metamorphosis, they are able to hibernate. It has been established that Cantrians are basically human (even though with an impressive list of oddities) and in my understanding it would violate this premise if they'd be suddenly able to hibernate like bears or woodchucks.
It's mostly the word I've problems with though. Food rationing might be an interesting option in certain situations, although I wouldn't consider it wise to reduce the food dependency of characters even more.

[viktor]

hybernation is basically doable in game, build a chamber inside a room in a building, stock on food and have a couple super long projects available to work on for weeks at a time.

if you're desperate for something new, how about an IV apparatus, you can load an additional 15k of food into it and hook it up somehow and you'll be fed from that resevoir first before you begin to deplete the food in your hands.

[phoenixannwn]

Perhaps hibernation can come as part of vacation mode (on leave), or even be automatic.

[KVZ]

This suggestion sounds good.

I also though today about something like automatic death for character if you leave them for more than 20 days (not checking their events), so those who want to get rid of characters have this possible without throwing food or worrying that someone will fed them in meantime. I think that connecting this with hibernate can work more perfect, but then hibernation should be also automatic if someone does not check events.

[phoenixannwn]

YES.
So. Tired. Of. Sleepers.