a bad upcoming feature?

[toxiciron]

where all the top soil is run dry from excessive agriculture

Why is there excessive agriculture after oil runs out? Isn't the point that agriculture drops because we have less ability to farm without the machines?

Probably just to compensate for not being able to use machinery. If the harvest is less efficient, then people may resort to simpler, more primitive methods of farming, and more farmland would be needed... more quantity farmland to make up for less quantity harvests... I hope that makes sense. Also, with the coming of a post-oil world, there would probably be a lot of clumsy amateurs taking up farming, knowing that industrialized methods won't help them.

[Santaissick]

Or maybe humankind used all oil and that lead to global warming and climate chance and the earth became desert.

[Nephos]

Well, robotic limbs sound cool to me.
I think the robotic limbs should be something like the ones from Fullmetal Alchemist, they have their pros and cons, the pros being that you can block swords with your bare hands, and the cons being that you are slowed down due to the extra weight.
I think there should be multiple types of robotic limbs too, different types of metals offering sturdier, but slower limbs and other types of metals offering more fragile, but faster limbs.

[1337]

Or maybe humankind used all oil and that lead to global warming and climate chance and the earth became desert.

The desert is just one biome. There will be other stuff like forests, moutain ranges, plains, ...

[Slaineify]

What about clockwork, no steam just clockwork...

[Nephos]

Clockwork sounds good too.

[Mask]

Depending on the lore you could have mutant limbs being attached or something. You could also have the lost technology which includes weird advanced stuff, but few records of how to make more basic items which the broken world would be capable of.


I REALLY like the idea of limb severing. Please put it in! So few games do this well, and a deadly game like Kenshi could be one of the few.

[Botcher]

Just because the world is seemingly post-apocalyptic doesn't mean technology has completely fell-in on itself entirely; never seen a post=apocalyptic cyberpunk film or read a book? Mad Max? Tank Girl? Wall-e? Ultraviolet? Terminator? Each of these have almost cybernetic technology introduced, or some form of tech involved; some are more flashy, others are more dreary in execution.

It's certainly not an immersion breaker, but an enhancer, to have cybernetic limbs to a degree; and I'm not talking steampunk... the things found in most of those movies were not steampunk/clockwork at all.

I'm all for different types of modified tech being introduced. Doesn't have to be worn-down, frozen-in-its-century tech either (Fallout series)... Could be modified to keep with the new age. Even if it's laser beams, I find it all fascinating.

[Scotterius]

I really like the idea of attaching other peoples severed limbs to replaced lost ones. Technologically, it is a far simpler process than synthetic limbs. Synthetic limbs have all of the disadvantages of transplants, and it loses some of the macabre honesty of a transplant. Some one had to give up a limb in order for your character to have one. I like the morality there. Its far more morally challenging than simply getting a robotic replacement, and far more interesting. I could see some players taking a wounded veteran and retiring him to be a one armed bar keep to avoid the limb trading dilemma.

It is such a challenging concept that it could be grounds for subplots and even entire factions.

[toxiciron]

I really like the idea of attaching other peoples severed limbs to replaced lost ones. Technologically, it is a far simpler process than synthetic limbs. Synthetic limbs have all of the disadvantages of transplants, and it loses some of the macabre honesty of a transplant. Some one had to give up a limb in order for your character to have one. I like the morality there. Its far more morally challenging than simply getting a robotic replacement, and far more interesting. I could see some players taking a wounded veteran and retiring him to be a one armed bar keep to avoid the limb trading dilemma.

It is such a challenging concept that it could be grounds for subplots and even entire factions.

I've done quite a lot of medical research for a game that I am creating, and although it may be more possible to transplant an entire arm, it may not be feasible. The tissue of the arm is likely to die within minutes of it being severed, and once it's dead, it's dead. You'd have to either be a ridiculously fast surgeon or be able to supply the arm oxygenated blood, which would still have to be pretty fast.

However, not everything has to be plausible in a game, for balance purposes. For instance, in deus ex, using a tranquilizer got you IMMEDIATELY spotted, no matter if you are a mile away whilst hiding behind cover. It wasn't necessarily realistic that they could see you that well, but it certainly balanced the game out because otherwise you could just sit back and snipe people all day without anyone noticing *cough cough human revolution (among others) cough cough*

So, yes, I like the idea of taking someone else's limbs, I like the moral dilemma of doing so. But DAMN, it would be f*cking creepy to see someone with other peoples' body parts... ala SAW...

Perhaps there could be a choice between a fully functional limb stealing, but it drops your honor score or something because it's disgusting and just... terrible, or getting a robotic replacement that isn't fully functional, but it looks like a sweet battle-scar that burly dudes dig.

[Santaissick]

It is such a challenging concept that it could be grounds for subplots and even entire factions.

Mother of god. Almost got orgasm there. Faction full of outcasts who have lost arms/legs and everyone thinks they are useless, they can't get a job, so they isolate themselves to desert and try to survive on their own. Robing passing traders, revenge for the world that once thought they were garbage. Seeking for new brothers who are discriminated by others, who are easy to brainwash to hate human kind. Those "four limbs" who dare to come too close, will regret they celebrated when their favorite 100m runner won olympic gold but when the paralympics started, they didn't even open TV. Once these halfrobot-halfhuman-halfwoodenleg-like creatures will rise. All the time, by raiding towns with their choping blades, their numbers grow.

[wolfwood296]

that would be SO CREEPY, mabye instead of an honner factor how about an insanity factor, you could only take so many limb replacements before you start going crazy (also what if the limbs starting regecting you?)

[Scotterius]

All the time, by raiding towns with their choping blades, their numbers grow.

Precisely! They spread much like zombies, but instead of biting they shake hands.

Seriously, you did touch on some of the depth that could be found with the concept. Social implications of using transplants, the harvesting trade, the poor selling their own healthy limbs, cannibals, and cults of disfigurement all fit in nicely.

Perhaps there could be a choice between a fully functional limb stealing, but it drops your honor score or something because it's disgusting and just... terrible, or getting a robotic replacement that isn't fully functional, but it looks like a sweet battle-scar that burly dudes dig.

Its a nice compromise. Having the alternative of robotic limbs, even with a stat penalty does tend to soften the 'evilness' of the idea. I would have given the player the option of 'choose dark side path' or retire party member, because I like the grisly feeling associated with combat that causes you to make triage kind of decisions. Your idea gives do-thee-wells a nice option.

[Blxz]

I'm not really sure I see the evilness here? Seems like a no brainer to hack some bandits arm off and whack it onto my disfigured soldier... Maybe I just lack morals though.

[Nephos]

I'm not really sure I see the evilness here? Seems like a no brainer to hack some bandits arm off and whack it onto my disfigured soldier... Maybe I just lack morals though.

I agree, who cares if some douchebag bandit who has raped and killed every woman in the goddamned game gets his arm chopped off and put on some other random.

[Scotterius]

... Maybe I just lack morals though.

Well the factions need another driving element, and that is fear. So if you are an organ collecting bounty hunter...then bandits arent going to attack you because they enjoy the simple pleasures of metabolism. So if you are organ collecting, you will be (before too long) attacking unprovoking mooks and taking them back to your organ extraction lair to remove undamaged limbs with surgical precision. I mean who wants a limb that has laid in the dirt. Would you eat an arm that fell in the dirt? Maybe, but would you have it grafted to you? No.

Oh then you could suspend their limbless bodies and turn them into blood factories...for blood. I mean...if you had not seen the evilness yet.

[Nephos]

Would you eat an arm that fell in the dirt? Maybe, but would you have it grafted to you? No.

I'd boil the arm, usually works.

[Mask]

All you need to do is capture a wounded bandit, if you need an arm. Of course, in the future, it might be easier to just go to the place where they grow arms for people who pay a lot (they can make human hearts these days, an arm isn't too far off).

[Blxz]

they can make human hearts these days, an arm isn't too far off).

FFS, no. they. can't. Where do people get this stuff from? Critical thinking is a virtue and a very important skill.

The best they have done is some basic, very thin tissues like skin and possibly another thin organ that I can't remember. Hearts, livers, kidneys, etc are too thick and require blood flows to every cell at once and so they simply cannot grow them yet despite decades of work.

Oh then you could suspend their limbless bodies and turn them into blood factories...for blood. I mean...if you had not seen the evilness yet.

Haha, yes. This is good. Any more suggestions you can think of? I like your angle here.

I still don't see why I would have to resort to attacking "non-aggressive mooks", as you put it, in order to fuel my organ hunt. If someone attacks me I'll defend myself. If one of my guys loses a limb then I'll hack off someone elses from the fallen party and use that. If people fear me because of that then I won't be attacked and my guys won't lose limbs and I can continue on with my merry life of turnip farming.
I still don't see the drive to be evil here without becoming comic-book supervillain style.

[toxiciron]

I don't see how you guys don't see... O.o it's just weird! Taking someone's arm and putting it on yourself, its sick! Would you sew someone's face over yours? It's really unnatural, no matter if the person was bad or not.

Anyways, the ideas being brewed up here remind me of the movie Repo Men, where a company would sell artificial organs to people, but if they couldn't pay they'd repossess the organs straight from them. Perhaps there could be some sort of Repo Men faction? That'd be interesting.