To effectively bridge the gap between narrative and gameplay by creating a unique mechanic that acts as a reward and goal in the narrative that directly affects both gameplay and narrative.
Provide additional narrative mechanics that give the player the tools to setup and help them create their own player-driven stories through play.
To provide consistent pre-conditions for our narrative system design approach and to help determine the narrative delivery system each playable character in the game will be governed by a specific set of character statistics that can be changes through decisions made in the story and in turn will effect the game state variables to better bridge the gap between narrative ad gameplay and ensure they are being elegantly tied together and designed simultaneously.
The O.C.E.A.N Model, otherwise known as the big 5, is a behavioural analysis tool to help behavioural psychologist categorise personality types based on 5 key factors to an individuals personality, that being Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism.
This model inspired me to mix it with the narrative Legos approach in my design, especially when interacting with NPC’s to provide a more systemic feel to the game. This also would provide various opportunities to allow players to not only define their characters personalities through choices in the narrative but also allow these stats to directly effect gameplay to emphasize our themes.
Every player character will have their own set of O.C.E.A.N stats, which will effect NPC’s opinions of the player and help or deter them from recruiting potential talent into their fleet.
To simplify the system and reduce the amount of combinations so as to respect our scope I decided to segment each O.C.E.A.N stat bar into sections and provide a unique trait based on that stat, rather than having the player try to read the various bars for each stat and try to decipher exactly what they mean and potentially confuse them (especially if it will be different for every playable character).
When players make a decision they will simply be shown what stat it will effect, rather than exactly how (similar to Reigns). This will be so that player will have to rely on the context of the situation and content of the storylet to best determine what the effect will be, rather than having them game the system and play strictly for the stats/traits, and instead have them focus on the situation provided via the storylet.
To provide a more systemic experience NPC’s should have a derived function from the player characters personality stats that determines that characters opinion of the player character and in turn can be used to generate interesting player-driven stories of events that occurred through play.
NPC’s will have certain predispositions towards specific areas of each stat bar (or towards specific traits). If the interacting player character has those traits then the NPC will look favourably upon the player and be more willing to join the fleet. If on the other hand the player has opposing traits then the NPC’s will be more standoffish and require more convincing to join.
This also extends to specific player choices in the story and who the player is currently working towards recruiting. Certain characters will not like other characters or factions (sections of the fleet, like engineers and scientists). Thus making it a zero sum game. The players actions will cascade through the NPC pool and affect their opinion towards the player, and in some occasions cause them to act against the player character or help them further.
For scope reasons this will take low priority and only be implemented when taking the project further to DARE or full release.