[MMO] Last Breath

[Zarcath]

Last Breath is a Mini-Multiplayer Online game using the Torque engine. It'll be a Zombie survival game with an ideal user base of 20-30 simultaneous players. The game is designed in a way that character turn over rate will be high. Your characters will pretty much be dead within a week.

Below is the general outline I have so far. I am taking suggestions, still in the design phase.

Premise: Survival oriented game with limited character life span. Community based goals are emphasized over character. In-Game rewards for charcaters to encourage people to play. Refuges/items named after famous players, even if they're named dickcockfag. Players ranked by played survival time, refugees rescued, morale given. Mostly puzzle-game driven content (think Puzzle Pirates but with zombies).

Morale buff
Upon entering the world all PC characters are given a morale buff. The time on the buff is variable (2-4 days played) and can be effected by talents, stats or in-game items/events.

Once the timer buff is depleted, players are at risk of randomly contracting an airborne zombie virus or turning into a zombie if attacked by one.

Safety

Community Refuge
Community refuges will lessen the morale decay of a player in the vicinity and potentially regenerate morale if you remain within the walls. However community refuges can be dangerous as they attract unwanted attention from zombies and humans alike.

Refuges are often designated pre-developed areas. The level of development/protection may vary by design or through player interaction.
Places of Refuge: Hospital, Church, School, TV Studio


Personal Shelter
Personal shelters are private "non-sanctioned" areas that only yourself and friends (and zombies) have access to. NPC refugees can be kept here but no scheduled rescues can occur without a special item so an unscheduled pick-up can occur.

Personal Shelters may be pre-designated spot with a morale bonus item already in play or player picked area with a morale generator being placed.
Places of Shelter: Gas Station, Garage/Basement/Attic, Store


Different Types of Morale Decay

Day/Night

At night the frequency of morale decaying events is increased. Therefore players will want to seek shelter during the night to prevent loss of morale.

Players can lose Morale by viewing something frightening or by taking damage directly. Three big morale hits in a day will drop you to 0 and put you at risk of death. Being attacked by a group of zombies while you're rescueing a family member NPC, seeing them turned into a zombie and then killing your zombie-fied family would count as 3 hits.

Zombies not the only danger

In-game dangers aren't limited to zombie attacks. Players will be in hazardous areas and can injure themselves in many ways. Falling down, hurting themselves on debris, injecting with dirty needles, being sprayed with rat hormones and being face raped by rats. The game should invoke memories of old MUD/nethack games where players are killed by humorous situations.

Morale Gain

Generic

From Environment
Players can prevent from of their morale decay by hanging around morale bonuses areas. This includes refuges. Personal Shelters may or may not have a morale bonus item in them or may require a morale bonus item to be placed within them.

From Events
Players can also gain morale by witnessing a morale giving event. Seeing other players rescue refugees, NPC refugees being airlifted from a Refuge, finding friends/family/items.

Unique

Family and Friends and Mementos
When a new character is made they are generated a family and friends name list that correspond to the NPC name generator. If a player rescues or sees a family/friend rescued or present in the refuge rescue zone they recieve a morale bonus and/or bonus items. During character creation the player will also select from a list of items. The available items on the list may be affected by their traits (a Packrat would have a larger list to choose from). If the player finds these items in-game they receive a bonus. Items may be found in areas or on zombies or given out by npcs.


From Items

Personal Worn Morale Bonus
Ribbon, Gloves, Socks

Personal Consumable Morale Bonus
Snacks, Soda, Drugs

Worn AE Morale Bonus
Religious Artifact, Flashlight

Placed AE Morale Bonus
Radio, Painting, Porn Pin-up

Placed AE consumable Morale Bonus
Campfire, Cooking Pot w/ Food

All morale items have a chance of giving bad morale.

Flat soda, lice infested gloves, stale chips, bad needle, radio starts spewing out screams of tortured souls, paintings' skin rots, campfire grows dim, cooking pot contains human heads.

[r.gun]

I like this idea. Although I've never liked the slow degradation of life in games, this sounds like it may actually work.