I am still working on the new animal and items for Alpha 1.7. In the meantime, I’d like to share some thoughts on survival mode.
In the game I eventually want to include multiple factors that might hurt you. At the moment I am thinking of the following: injuries, hunger, cold, tiredness, poisoning. If I wanted to follow what RPG games do, I would create an intricate maze of “stats” and “levels” that affect your wellbeing and capabilities, all visible as numbers on some panel. For example: stamina 35/50, dexterity 18, level 52 etc. It has been done countless times before, and a lot of people are accustomed to it. But honestly, I don’t like it. It is too complex to the user and might turn the game into a level grinding fest. I want a simpler system that works.
My current idea looks like that:
There will be only one visible stat, “health”, which tells you how you feel. When it drops to a very low value, you go unconscious (involuntary sleep). When it drops to zero, you’re dead. It will be displayed as a “fuzzy” bar (like the current health is), so that you cannot put a definite number to it, and small changes are invisible.
Even though it looks like it, it’s unlike traditional hitpoints, which is a stored number. Health will be a calculated number. Under the bonnet, it will be calculated as a (mathematical) minimum from a number of hidden factors. These factors are hunger, cold, poisoning etc. as described above.
The factor that is nearest to zero (i.e. the one that causes your health to be low, as per the minimum function) will get special treatment: from time to time it will display a message on the screen telling you what’s wrong. For example if you’re hungry, you’ll see “I’m hungry” message pop up occasionally. If the hidden hunger factor drops to very low values, the message will appear more often and say “I’m starving!”. At the same time your health will keep dropping, because hunger will be the lowest from all hidden factors (and health is calculated as minimum from all of them).
If something else becomes lower than hunger, say a sandworm mauls you, hunger will no longer be minimum, but injuries will be. The system will stop displaying “hungry” messages (even though you’re still starving), but will display “It hurts” and “I’m bleeding” messages instead, until you mend yourself. Then it will go back to displaying hunger.
The messages may even suggest ways of correcting the bad situation. For example if you are injured, it will hint “I need to dress my wounds”.
Each factor will be calculated independently, and may have complex mechanics. But it always boils down to a single number. Here’s how I see the factors working:
Hunger: Value drops depending on exertion. Digging, moving around, jumping, swimming causes bigger drops. Otherwise it drops steadily. Replenished by eating.
Cold: Value drops based on temperature around player. Being wet exacerbates the cold effect. It’s colder at night. Clothing, being near fire or in a sheltered place mitigates it.
Tiredness: Value drops depending on exertion, like hunger, but faster. Replenished by sleeping.
Sickness: Value drops when you eat bad food (e.g. raw), otherwise slowly rises steadily.
Poisoning: Value starts dropping when you are injured by a venomous animal. Drop is stopped by administering antidote.
If the health drops to near zero, you will first lose consciousness, i.e. stop exerting yourself, so you cannot die of tiredness alone. But if you’re in water, you’ll drown. If you’re outside, you may freeze to death or animals may kill you.
That’s it really. The system is reasonably simple, factors are independent from each other (and thus easy to balance). It does not swamp the user with dozens of numbers. Even if you are starving and at the same time a lion bites off your leg, you are not likely to crave for a cheeseburger anymore :-)
There is an open question: should health affect your performance, e.g. movement speed or combat strength or digging speed?
I also know that a lot of people love traditional RPG games with levelling up, stats etc. They may not like this approach.
Please let me know what you think.
Survivalcraft 
78 Comments
I’m liking these ideas, I’ll have a think and get back to you with more (I’m sure ;))
Love all the ideas! :D and I love traditional rpgs which there are so many of so why try to compete? These ideas will make sc stand out and be truly successful haha and as for weather or not health should affect our performance maybe depending on what is minimum changes how it impairs us for example if we are poisoned our vision is impaired, if we take fall damage we run slower, if we take cold damage we mine slower and so on
Actually I do like the traditional levelling system more, I played a lot of RPG games a few years ago. But this system you described is not bad as well.
I think instead of text messages it should display visual popups or effects, like a recognisable icon or a “bloody screen”.
I’m still amazed by the birds btw… Good job. :)
I like your ideas :)
I also like a traditional leveling up system.
Have you thought about a blend.
Only haveing a few level stats, more like skill stats.
Ie if you good at mining you make your pickaxe last a little longer.
I don’t think we should revert to blood…
I do not like the RPG stuff because what Kaalus would probably be forced to do is add stamina where when it is low you have to wait for it to recharge. I play the game to have fun not to wait. I think the system that Kaalus came up with is the best one to choose because you don’t have to worry about “OMG im almost to level 6 i just need to kill a bird so that my stamina and health don’t run out so fast HAHA” (weirdo people talk like that not me :) ) . And i think that health should not affect your speed and stuff unless it is very low. I have one question though. When you slip into uncoscieness can you revive yourself or are you dead no matter what?
I think your ideas are brilliant,yes when you are hungry and injured ,you should go slower like in real live
Sorry,life
I like this approach. But please make it an option you can turn off just in case we want to build and mine for fun.
Or instead of that he can add a creative mode in which you can fly, your invincible, and you have infinite blocks! :)
I would just settle for a peaceful mode where you got no mobs and your stats (hidden and visible) regen on their own at a very fast rate for a build mode.
I agree sometimes I would just want to turn it off so I could just mine and build and stuff without worrying about all that
I think you don’t need to add poisoning and sickness, when you are poisoned, you only should lose your healthbar, and sickness would be only like no bar, you only should go slower, and you thinking you need to game more bars, it’s not very good. Many bars mean you making game harder, but with5 bars it will be unreal to play, so it better will be few bars.
It is an option to separate the survival aspect and the building aspect by making them different game modes. That would probably be a smart thing to do.
Hi Nikpol22. There is only one bar. Sickness, poisoning and and other are hidden values that affect the health via minimum function.
I don’t know excellent, so I don’t understand from the first time.
:)
Kaaulus, I know you’re adding this in 1.26. I mean, it’s quite obvious when you read this post.
PERFECT!!!
This idea sounds pretty realistic, so I’m gonna give my +1.
On the topic of
>>”There is an open question: should health affect your performance, e.g. movement speed or combat strength or digging speed?”
This may be a bit of a far-fetched idea, but given that the human body can survive for several days on end, these things shouldn’t drop too fast (balancing them will probably be a nightmare) – however, with things like this (I always found The Sims to be a real bitch for this) you run the risk of leaving it just that little bit too long, or suddenly there’s no food source in reach, then your dude is pretty much scuppered.
So – here’s where it gets crazy – what if after a really prolonged time of incapacity, as with true survival stories (127 hours anyone?) the dude – out of desperation – cuts off a limb, and eats that? This could, along with the adrenaline released by doing something effing INSANE like that, give the dude the boost he needs to survive another equivalent of 12 hours or something. Naturally from that point on, things won’t be so easy – throwing would be inaccurate, digging would take longer etc.
Of course, this could be totally negated by the fact that the dude respawns. Unless such injuries are carried over as a “punishment” of sorts for letting the dude reach that state?
That’s the sort of thing that’d really impress me, at least!
That and, a background-only levelling system? If you stick to the “rules” of survival, your max stats could increase, but if you neglect yourself, they decrease. The player never has to see such a system, but in a real situation, the human mind and body are very capable of adapting, should the individual make the effort to survive and exercise simultaneously.
Otherwise you run the risk of getting very bored with this whole surviving thing – some sort of reward always makes things more engrossing, no matter how small or subtle.
I don’t know about cutting of a limb that’s gross
So? If its what you have to do I like the cutting of the limb idea but you should have the choice too, so say your really far from your shelter and about to die you can die and loose the items you have on your person or you can eat your hand to get an energy boost and try and make it but but your hurt and probably a little sick so it would take ages to get back to your shelter I just hope drinking and eating piss and shit to survive isn’t added I think that’s abit to hardcore for the game haha
well when u eat ur hand how are u suppose to mine or do anything else
Well we only ever use one hand at a time so I don’t think it really matters we could eat out foot instead? And limb everywhere haha
Well we only ever use one hand at a time so I don’t think it really matters we could eat out foot instead? And limp everywhere haha
hypernova: lollin’ hard at the imagery xD
Though, there’s really not a lot of meat on hands/feet – though I guess the bones would sharpen your teeth, maybe so you could move on to the rest of your arm ;]
First off Kaalus the bird update is amazing. I like some of your ideas but I have to say I like the traditional RPG way better. I don’t think it’s too hard to read on a separate menu. Also I think it’s a bad idea to make your level slow you down. That would make the game too hard. Also I’ve not been able to catch any bird yet so getting food needs to be easier and we need more weapons too. If you add all the features you listed please add a “peaceful” mode for people who are having difficulty.
Its like the Sims!!! I like it but I think separate bars should also be accessible via some menu or other screen. I also don’t really like the idea of text messages popping up (not the kind sent from phones) when one factor drops too low… I guess it just takes away from the ambiance of the game. Picture/emoticon pop ups are one alternative.
You honestly think he is talking about a SMS? or IM? and I don’t see how a little bit of text takes away from the ambiance more than a picture or emoticons its still something that really wouldn’t pop up in front of your eyes the only thing that would work is if he said the text that was popping up instead of it popping up and that just adds a whole bunch more work so text idea is the best idea for getting across what is wrong with you some people might not remember what every symbol means but everyone who plays can read a small bit of text flashing up
No I don’t think he is talking about IM. That was unclear im sorry. And I didn’t mean literally have a ” :( ” show up whenever he’s hungry, but just showing lower health in a visual manner. Also it would help with the multi-lingual gaming audience
One true language master race go go go.
Ok honestly this survival thing is totally accurate for what you made but something that drastic needs to wait until we have ample amounts of ways to get food make antidotes have beds to sleep in maybe a bigger inventory for more food to be held like make us able to craft a backpack or just a sack of some sort which can add like 10-20 more inventory slots or another interesting thing might be traps like we make them somehow then we go to sleep and depending on what it’s made of it has a higher percentage chance of catching an animal (wood 20% stone 30% iron 40% ) and instead of diamond like minecraft add one or two stronger ores than iron like you could make “kaalusium” or just some randomly made up ore hope you take my post into consideration btw how to make possible said trap use three wood stone or iron in top three squares a stick in the middle two more sticks in the bottom outside squares and some string in the bottom middle square
I prefer Kaalus’s idea to more traditional stats. We don’t have specific stats for our performance in real life. Having a sophisticated system, but only having one health indicator is better in my opinion. By the sound of it its more about survival and keeping healthy than leveling up and getting better at things.
Also I think health should affect performance when it is low.
Skxawng ummmm what you posted didn’t really have anything to do with my post so im very confused as to what your trying to say?
Sorry adnel, meant to post it as a separate comment, didn’t have anything to do with your point :)
Maybe you should make a poll so that we can take a majority vote kaalus
These features are nice, but the reason I bought Survivalcraft is because it is the best Minecraft port available on Windows Phone, not because I wanted to survive. I would like it if there was an option to turn “Survival Mode” on and off. This way players can choose if they want it or not. I would also like if we could plant trees, grass and food related plants. One more thing I would like is if leaves would stay when placed on the ground. Everytime I build a hedge of oak leaves, they are gone within 1 – 2 Survivalcraft days, which really annoys me. I hope these features get implemented!
Thats cause leafs decay when there is no wood around them
Hi Michael.
I was going to disable decay of manually placed leaves anyway – seeing your comment just reminded me of it :-) People make a lot of nice stuff out of them.
As as workaround for now you just need to place a piece of wood within 3 blocks of leaves to stop them from decaying.
The approach I am going to take with the decay still has some limitations though, for example if you remove a piece of wood anywhere, all leaves within 3 blocks become targets for decay, no matter whether manually placed or not.
I like the idea of just having one bar to “worry” about. However, it would be nice to have a separate game mode where you didn’t have to worry about surviving, but you could just mine. My reason is because my 4-year-old daughter LOVES survivalcraft so much, but she wouldn’t be able to understand the different factors to take care of (hunger, cold, ect.) She loves playing it now because she just mines around looking for ore (She gets so excited when she finds malachite!), and I think it would become too difficult for her if she had to worry about food, shelter, etc. Just my thoughts!
My daughter and I thank you for an awesome game!
Hi Brian. Your daughter is a seriously competent player. To control a FPP game on the phone and find malachite at the age of four is amazing :-) If you look in the forums, a lot of grownups find it difficult. Don’t worry about survival being too hard. When this happens, I will introduce creative mode with all danger disabled. Wish her all the best from Kaalus, she’s officially the youngest miner on the planet!
Will creative mode include infinite blocks and flying?
Hi jriot. No idea yet. Probably initially it will be simpler.
Hi Kaalus – I read your comment to my daughter and that made her pretty happy! I wish I could get video of her playing (the video camera is on the same phone that this game is installed on), but I wish you could see how excited she gets when she finds malachite, coal, iron, etc. I had never played Minecraft or any infinite-block-world games until I picked up your SurvivalCraft – I was hooked right away and got a bit into Minecraft now too. My daughter actually has an easier time playing SurvivalCraft on my phone than Minecraft on the PC – the simultaneous keyboard/mouse thing is pretty tough for her. So thanks for supplying us with a really fun game – it’s great to share this experience with my daughter!
What with everyone saying they like the RPG idea more? None of you have even played what kaalus has in mind nor anything like it so how the hell would you no? RPG elements would destroy the game there is no need for them I have skyrim and mass effect for stats I got SC because its called survival!!! So I assumed it would have alot of survival elements and everyone needs to stop thinking it will be to hard obviously its not going to be released soon with the amount of objects we have in game currently, it will all be released slowly so we have enough stuff and time to combat bad things, please kaalus do what you has in mind originally trust me if you build it they will come you can’t please everyone so just please yourself and create what you have in mind and what you have in mind is unique its always the best way to be successful and stand out, tap into apart of the market that hasn’t been tapped thats where your ideas are heading but if you decide to just go down a RPG route you’ll be in a very crowded market and have to compete with alot more really top quality games especially if you decide to expand SC to Xbla or steam
Ps dam the amount of comments for this article exploded! Haha and I wish my day job was working on SC with kaalus haha :D
:) +100
This game is pretty amazing already. I like your idea for the survival system. The more challenging…the better. However i do agree you should implement a free play mode for those of us who are less hardcore and are looking for a more casual experience(not me, I’m all for the hard mode).
PS: Tried minecraft PE on my cousins android the other day. It is not even close to as good as this.
I like your ideas about minimizing the traditional RPG system. I’m not so sure about pop up messages. They shouldn’t just appear on the screen. That would interrupt the flow of gameplay. Maybe you could have a section of in-game menu (next to the sleep button maybe) that lists the problems the player is having. That way one can check these problems whenever one wants. And not get annoyed with pop up messages.
That’s my thoughts on the matter. Anyone see a downside to my suggestion?
could we maybe have a “survival mode” for ppl who want a challenge and a “sandbox” mode for ppl like me who like to just casually build/explore
To be honest i like this idea , even if it does remind me of sims , i still think it would be a good idea to seperate the game by adding a creative mode similar to minecraft ( infinite health / blocks etc ) and please can you work on multiplayer for the next update as it is kinda lonely playing the game on your own like minecraft sp , everything is more fun when you can play with friends and it inspires more creativity . Also can you consider making a place for people to upload maps and make the re-downloadable . this shouldnt be to hard to do and would be a good idea as we could get to see what other people get up to on the game :)
Not everything is more fun and they don’t inspire creativity other people will just ruin what I had in mind from experience, and hopefully multiplayer is the very last thing to be added after the game is out of alpha and beta stages any way if you really had ” elite skills” you wouldn’t want a mode where everything is provided where is the skill in that? aldo if its not hard to do you code multiplayer and a world swap section, and we already have a place to share what we have been doing go to the forum!
I’m not trying to start an arguement with U , all I will say is that I think quite. A few people think the same as I do , creative would be good fun and so would multiplayer .You wouldn’t have to worry about things being wrecked by others if U know who is joining. . And as for me having no skills as U say , I do have the skills to play. Survival and I was only making a point , no need to make it personal =P
Well some people want to just play without having to gather resources and take your time mining. I mean i love mining and gathering stuff but sometimes i just wish that i could have infinite resources so that i can make huge buildings out of expensive stuff
That would be fun too.
Oh, I forgot to say, you need to make a better map generation, I can’t find any resourses, only wood, cobble stone, sand, and no more! It’s annoying.
try digging downward, or exploring caves
I have a giant mine, and I only found there 15 coal, and I haven’t found any caves for miles away. And I wouldn’t know, how to get back home, so it would be good to add compass, or map.
What do you think giant is? And the world is randomly generated so there will be world a place where resources are scarce plus the amount of resources has already been increased twice I think there is now to many, and finding your way home is incredibly easy I mean if my younger sister can do it anyone can, just leave a trail of light or blocks behind you or you can find your way back with the sun/moon
nikpol i have a mine that goes all the way down to bedrock and goes up in four different places to Four different rooms (where i store the stuff i’ve gotten nearby) then go further up to the surface, I know what a “giant mine” is lol and i have to admit while mining i’ve found at least 50coal
then i found some more caves that had MUCH MUCH more
i have all my resources split between the four rooms and in one room i have 120 coal there alone, and my guess at a total number would be around 220coal
if you Can’t find something Expand/Explore, whatever it takes
if your afraid of getting lost do what i did, explore around a mine entrance then dig a tunnel to another location and for exploring outside light up the Highest Points and when the last point you lit up is almost out of view light up another peak even if your peak is only 2 blocks above “ground level”
It’d be cool but don’t make too hard the game please
When u do creative mode pls put some icon when u take screenshots.
That way we will.be able to tell if it was done in creative or surval mode as things are more inpressive in surval mode.
Building competitions will go downhill too with sandbox mode as its easy to build anything with unlimited resources an especially flight. Often the challenge in building is more the logistics of how you are going to get to stuff to build rather than running out of resources.
Mattlekim, that would b a really gud idea except you could just edit the image. Only way round it i can think of is to disable screenshot in sandbox, tho sandbox is where the most impressive things will be built so people will want 2 take photos
Disabling screenshots would make it so that nobody can see everybodies creations. Plus we would probably be able to tell if it is creative mode or not
i think creative mode should leave everything alone but just take out the sleep/hunger requirements and basically revert the game to how it was in 1.4 but with new blocks and ect..
that’d be nice and make building huge buildings impressive either way
Great idea I want a creative mode with infinite blocks also could you make it so that malachite can be used as a tool another thing is could you try to add multiplayer and mummies or stuff like that I want to be able to fight stuff
When will be the multiplayer..? I think that thats better topic ;)
Wow…..go away troll!
Hey Adam we share a name :P
Great work with the spears and birds. Now can you please add either a bow and arrow or railroad tracks.
I’m happy to say…its extremely unlikely that either of these will ever be put in
I dunno dude, a bow and arrows are pretty easy to construct. Kill a rabbit, use its intestines as a bow string… ;]
As an aside, the gore potential for this is incredible xD
arrows and spears are the same thing, the only difference is the way we propel them so it seems kinda pointless to implement them lol and haha would it be blocky gore cause that would be a sight to behold lol
It’d be like Doom all over again!
Nice!! :D I like your idea on everything, and on the health affecting performance, i’d say that’s a good idea. Maybe make it only on cruel mode though or something.
There’s a venomous animal in Survivalcraft now?
I like the last idea on hunger…can you add these in 1.28
Debout Congolais