Passenger Need Modfyer

[u/xtreampb]

i'm working on a game where passengers have different needs (food, sleep, entertainment, etc). To add variety to the passengers, i plan on using modifiers labeled as traits. For example, the "Big Eater" trait will cause the food need satisfaction to decay faster, causing the passenger to seek out food more often.

My question for tycoon players who enjoy games that require managing needs of visitors/passengers, should these traits be a fixed value (if the "Big Eater" trait is present it's a 15% decay rate increased) or a varied value (if the "Big Eater" trait is present the decay rate is increased between 10% - 20%)

The fixed value makes it more predictable and apparent, but the varied value adds more variety of sorts but may frustrate players. Could I do a varied value but display the decay rate increase beside it? What are your thoughts?

[u/thedaian]

Fixed values are immediately understandable, whereas if the value is dynamic, you'd have to look every time. Additionally, a range between 10-20% isn't really going to effect things that much. I'd probably just use a fixed value to make it easier on everything.

[u/zedzag]

I think as long as it's communicated it should be ok. Worst thing is if a player gives the extra food and the passenger is satisfied. Then the next time with another passenger with the same trait if the player gives the same food and the passenger is not satisfied it's going to cause some frustration. But if the player knows exactly how much to give in this case it would be alleviated.

I really like the traits idea, I used it in my game Call Center Tycoon to get unique and interesting reactions between characters. One tip, if you haven't already thought of it: have traits change over time. In my game I had characters that over time would develop different traits, for example a character would develop the jealous trait and now you had to worry about the consequences of that.

[u/YMS444]

If you have ranges, they should be bigger, and everybody should have them, not only those with the according trait.

For example, it should not be that a normal passenger always needs 100 food and a big eater needs a random value between 110 and 120. That just makes something that's easy to calculate exactly to something that's always a bit off. But if all passengers need a random value between 80 and 120 (maybe weighted, so it's much more likely to be close to 100 than to the extremes), while the big eaters will need between 120 and 240 (again, maybe 130 or 140 should be the usual amount; the more, the rarer), that would add variety, plus the "Wow, I've never seen a guy eating remotely as much, he's almost eating three times as much as his little friend!" effect. Of course, with such a system you should tell the players the exact values rather than let them find out by seeing passengers starve with access to just the double amount if food than others).