Ability To Use Drugs (Advantages vs. Disadvantages)

[Maiconi 0]

After playing a lot of Altis Life and Tanoa Life I thought about how it's weird that drugs in the game where just to be sold to random NPC's and actually served no real purpose to anybody besides to be sold. In Identity the plan is to get rid of almost all NPC's so if that's the case why not have drugs be sold to the players themselves?

If they made it so that players were the only ones in the drug line it would move drugs from the cartels > player drug dealers > player users to create a much more realistic system that actually made a demand for drugs. NPC dealers could still be found in the game but they should be found out in the ocean on sailboats that you request to meet at so that if no drugs or player dealers are in session they could still be bought and/or sold to an outside source. 

I've gathered up the four drugs found in Altis Life and want to give some ideas as to how they could be useful to the player and worth actually buying.

One big impact I wanted every drug to have is a withdraw if not continually used. Impact of each withdraw is drug specific and will be specified below. from least worst to worsts withdraw should go in this order. Weed > Cocaine > Heroin > Meth.

 

Marijuana / Weed

Pros:

All sounds including Music and Player Voices are enhanced giving better hearing with more bass.

Player vision is much higher contrast and lights are brighter to make everything prettier. Good if outdoors or at a party for euphoric reasons.

• Since food is usually thought to be better it should fill you up more that if you weren't influenced.

Has the least penalizing withdraw that just dampens your vision and slows your movement slightly.

Cons:

Player movement is impaired so driving is made difficult and looking around is slow and doesn't stop as easily with the mouse (moves a little bit more).

The burning of marijuana can haze up a room so if it's searched it's obvious if it has been used.

Aiming with a gun can be very difficult due to the view impairment.

Can make it very difficult to work whilst under the influence.

Withdraw lasts a few in game hours.

 

Cocaine

Pros:

Enhances vision and hearing sharply.

Takes more damage to knock you unconcious.

Blood Loss slows.

Able to move more with less impact on stamina.

Cons:

Heavy withdraw that impairs you greatly.

The fall right after the main high is pretty much the opposite of all the cons of using this drug and can only be fixed by using again or sleeping it off.

The withdraw lasts about a full in game day.

 

Heroin

Pros:

Very similar to the effects of Cocaine however lasts longer due to being injected straight into blood.

Able to deal more melee damage.

Need less of drug than cocaine to get high.

Cons:

A horrible withdraw that has a chance to cause you to pass out if not treated or if you don't use again.

Withdraw can keep you bedridden for a few in game hours and then affect your vision and hearing for a day.

Requires use of needles which could be difficult to come across.

 

Meth

Pros:

During the drug high you cannot be taken down with tazers or other forms of damage and will only be downed upon death or near death.

Similar effects of Heroin yet more powerful.

Very hard to trace without paraphernalia.

Cons:

Has the most devastating withdraw of all the drugs that with cause you to pass if not treated or if you use again.

Can be bedridden for almost an in game day and impaired for almost two in game days.

Requires use of needles which could be difficult to come across.

 

The idea behind the effects of these different drugs is mostly for Marijuana to be a sort of recreational tool and for the other three to be meant for combat and tactical uses with varying degrees of risk and reward. I would love to hear what you guys have to think and maybe what the developers have planned or if it may be similar to this.

[Vince 276]

I would hate for Identity to have an NPC who buys up all your drugs. One of the thing which hurts so many other games is the lack of a proper drug market, so if Identity had one that would really help roleplay on both the OC side and the consumer side of things. 

That said, they need to have enough advantages to serve as an incentive for people to use them, without being overpowered to the point where everybody is always on drugs. It's a balancing act.

Either way, I'd love to see this implemented.

[Maiconi 0]

4 hours ago, Johnny said:

I would hate for Identity to have an NPC who buys up all your drugs. One of the thing which hurts so many other games is the lack of a proper drug market, so if Identity had one that would really help roleplay on both the OC side and the consumer side of things. 

That said, they need to have enough advantages to serve as an incentive for people to use them, without being overpowered to the point where everybody is always on drugs. It's a balancing act.

Either way, I'd love to see this implemented.

I tried to have them be balanced by a few limits. The withdraw is supposed to be the deciding factor  where if you don't have a huge quantity of this drug somewhere you are going to have to either get treated at a hospital for a large amount of money or just suffer through the symptoms. I've also balanced it so none of them give a defininate advantage during gun battles. It'll still take the same amount of bullets to kill you but you have a better chance of surviving. Drugs do however require an amount of time to both use and for the high to kick in so it isn't just an instant consumable either.