I read them and thought the game he outlined should be eminently do-able in Minetest, there are various mods that cover what he want's and should be malliable enough. It's a game idea I'd like to play. So what I want to do is this.
Firstly hunger and thirst. The easyest way, I think, to get this working is work on the premise that one can survive three months without food and three days without water. also food should provide reasonable amounts of energy, e.g. a whole sheep would last a real person probably 4 months if it was crafted into being preserved in some way. Salt springs to mind. A rat might keep someone going for three or four days. Regarding thirst. on land there is normally lots of water so that's not an issue, in mining there is typically less. A simple mechianic like jumping in water would be sufficient. The analogue of cupping water into your mouth or lapping. Glasses could be crafted to increase efficiency. This means you could carry water into mines in a bucket and drop into holes to keep working for longer. Increased effort should increase hunger and thirst rates.
related mods: hunger, simplemobs. need somthing for thirst.
Second is the idea of sleep, home, comfort and stress. Sleeping on the floor would increase a comfort meter, but you might wake in the night due to discomfort. Sleeping in a bed would increase it more. The chance of external noises to wake you would impact too. Not building a house near a dungeon spawn point for mobs might be a consideration. You should be able to go for at least a night without sleeping. Days should be long, night's should be skippable with sleep.
related mods: maybe beds, don't know anything about a comfort/stress meter.
Thirdly Mobs. I don't really like humanoid monsters but I realise that's a personal preference. The wolves and bear ones I've seen would be more my line. Idealy I'd like them to run away and hide after being whacked with something a couple of times. Mainly I've found while playing Carbone I spaz out and die all too easily. There should be some peril but it should be well telegraphed and avoidable (The bear was easily avoidable in the one game when I met it)
related mods: mobs.
Fourthly Efficiency. while you shouldn't die because you've not eaten for 5 minutes or had a couple of drinks in a day, it should have an effect on your ability to do work, the greater your hunger and thirst, and lower your comfort should make it harder to mine and chop trees.
Lastly Multiplayer. I'm more like John in that I'd rather play on my own but I realise a strong multiplayer game aspect could work really nicely. Especially if there is worked in some sort of speciallites and currencies. A person should be able to have maybe three skill slots they can be average at most things but have three speciaisations they can use to make improved things to trade with other players. e.g. a player might focus on the breadchain and have a wheat harvesting specialisation to get extra yield and bread making specialisation which has a better hunger decresing modifyer. Or one could specialise in the wheat, meat and apple yeild and pass these on to another who had put all his points into cooking various things. It should not be possible to be specialised in everything, building the specializations should involve some effort and should incur some cost if the user wants to change their focus.
related mods: currency.
If you can give me ideas of mods and maybe a clue how I go about modifying them to match this vision I'd be very grateful.
As a summing up I'm using a quote of John Walkers as a sort of vision statement.
It would tap into all those safe-places of mine, those Blyton-esque adventures, the childhood den built out of household furniture and bed sheets, the sense of being in control in a wild world.
