One of the mechanics of Fallout I never realized was not included in The Elder Scrolls was addiction. Skooma addiction is such a staple of Khajiit lore I just took it for granted. I believe ESO would be the perfect environment for this mechanic to be introduced into the Elder Scrolls universe.
TL/DR
ZOS should include an addiction mechanic in ESO to broaden gameplay and provide additional buff options for players.
Topics:
- Narcotics
- Alcohol
- Drugs
- Trafficking
- Effects
- Addiction & Withdrawal
- Curing Addiction
- Crown Store Additions
Narcotics
The first thing ZOS would need to do is add a new class of substance to ESO, Narcotics.
When a player uses a narcotic they not only gain immediate benefits they could also gain audio/visual/control effects. Unlike regular food, drink, or potions, all Narcotics should be able to stack upon one another. This would be so that a player who takes another of the same narcotic can multiply the narcotic’s effect.
Narcotics could include items from provisioning (alcohol) and alchemy (drugs). ZOS could use all of the alcoholic beverages in the provisioning system but should add new drugs to the alchemy line for the illicit drugs.
Alcohol
Like Psijic Ambrosia, which should be included as a Narcotic and used as a base for all other narcotics, all alcohol should be able to be added on top of food/drink effects.
All alcohol should include drunkenness mechanics where the more alcohol a player consumes the greater the drunkenness effects the players.
Effects of being drunk could start out as slightly blurred vision with a physical and magical damage resistance buff on top of whatever base effect the drink has. A player drinking more alcohol of any kind could see their vision become more blurred and eventually have their input lag a bit, but their defense buff could stay intact or increase.
Drugs
The Elder Scrolls is host to a variety of Drugs that can be used in a Narcotic mechanic in ESO. Unlike Alcohol, each drug could have is very own drug effects, benefits and withdrawal symptoms. Drugs that could be used are:
- Daril
- Felldew
- Greenmote
- Hist Sap
- Moon Sugar
- Skooma
- Sleeping Tree Sap
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Drugs
This doesn’t mean that ZOS couldn’t introduce a collection of new drugs to broaden this mechanic.
Drugs should be added to the Alchemy line of crafting and should include old and new ingredients. Drugs of the same kind should stack so that a player can boost the effects of a specific drug. Players shouldn’t be able to take multiple different types of drugs at once and, unlike food and drink (and alcohol), must wait until the drug effects pass before another dose can be taken.
Trafficking
Drugs should not be able to be purchased from regular NPC vendors. There should be Peddlers hidden in different locations all around Tamriel. Maybe not even one per zone. Sometimes they could be found in outlaw dens, bars, and Apothecaries. This could even include a mechanic where players must discover who is a Peddler by asking around. Ask the wrong people the wrong questions and the player could get a wanted level.
Once the player roots out the Peddler, they will be able to accept drug writs and buy drugs from them. Players will then have to either find another Peddler with that drug, find a player who can make that drug, or make the drug themselves. Peddlers may also offer trafficking quests where players must deliver drugs to other NPCs. Perhaps players could even have the choice to not deliver the drugs to the intended customer and could keep the drugs for themselves. This might also include some sort of underworld reputation system that would be best discussed in another thread.
Buying, and delivering drugs in view of an NPC or guard could be seen as a crime and treated appropriately with a wanted level and bounty increase. This could be extended to player-to-player trading also. A player caught by a guard for another reason who is carrying drugs could immediately gain more bounty and be given another chance to run or pay. This could also lead to imprisonment, if that is ever implemented.
This could also be extended to personal banks. Depositing drugs into Banks could automatically cause the player to become wanted. To further this, depositing drugs into guild store or bank could increase the store or bank's chance of seizure. The higher percentage of drugs in a store, the higher chance of a seizure. The exact nature of the seizure could include just the drugs or perhaps even all the contents of the bank or store. I can see the pros and cons of both. These mechanics would encourage the drug trade to take place person to person and discourage hording or drugs.
Effects
The positive effects of drugs should be similar to food, drink and potions but quite a bit more potent. This would mean that players would be tempted to use these drugs to get more powerful effects and there would be players that end up using quite a bit of these drugs to gain their positive effects.
In addition to the gameplay benefits, there should be negative side effects of drug usage that should impact just about every aspect of gameplay. From visual effects to floaty controls to input lag, almost no aspect of the game should be free from being "messed with" Maybe taking one drug causes your skills to randomly reassign themselves while under the influence. Maybe some of them cause your skills to misfire so a player under the influence of a certain drug might press the button for one skill, but another skill fires.
This is perhaps the most important aspect of this concept to get right. The benefits and the side effects must be enough of a boon to the player that they would use the drug, but enough of a pain that they wouldn't use them all the time.
Addiction & Withdrawal
Addiction mechanics could be very similar to the Vampirism stages that are already found in ESO. A player could have multiple stages of addiction to where a player who uses a narcotic sparingly can do so without becoming addicted. If a player continues to use the same narcotic during a certain period of time from their last use they will become more addicted.
The more a player uses a specific drug the shorter the drugs effect could last. Use a drug to much and you won't receive the benefit for very long and you'll become addicted more quickly.
If a player who is addicted to a narcotic doesn’t use that narcotic within a prescribed time period they could begin to experience withdrawal. The severity of the withdrawal symptoms is dependent on the player’s stage of addiction. The more addicted a player is, the harder it should be to break free of that addiction.
Unlike Drugs, all alcohol should feed the same addiction with the same withdrawal symptoms.
I outline how this mechanic could work in more detail in my Skooma Concept, which can be found
HERE.
Curing Addiction
Players who wish to cure themselves of addiction have a few options. They should be able to visit an NPC in-game, such as an apothecary, to buy solvents to relieve them of the symptoms of withdrawal while they wait for the drug to leave their system. Additionally, players could speed up their withdrawal with specific solvents that will push them into a fever dream.
This concept was also explored in my
Skooma concept.
A player could also simply outwait the addiction and live with the symptoms of withdrawal until they pass.
Crown Store Additions
To facilitate this system, ZOS could add a few items to the crown store, such as:
Drug recipes: Teaches the player how to make drugs
Cleansing Solution: immediately clears the player of any and all withdrawal symptoms.
Conclusion
Adding drugs would add an interesting mechanic to ESO. Along with this mechanic ZOS could add various drug dens in different parts of the world and could incorporate these mechanics into the justice system. Drug dens could have writs and delivery quests for drugs so players have to make and deliver drugs to other locations around Tamriel.
So what do you think? Wanna hit?