Traits and The Happiness Rating
In preparation some very cool upcoming announcements, we thought it would be important to take a better look at the Traits we are implementing for the beta version of Nestables and the all important “Happiness Rating”.
You will notice that many sections of this article have an X. This is because extensive internal and public beta testing will be required for us to get the balance right in this game.
Traits
A trait is a characteristic or a feature of a person or a thing that is inherited genetically.
For Nestables there are Personality Traits and Physical Traits. Both are passed down to the child Cube depending on if the gene is recessive or dominant.
X% = the increase in efficiency of the Cube performing that task
The overall efficiency of the Cube performing a set task is impacted by both traits and the research level the Cube has achieved. So the time taken to complete a task or action:
- Base Time — Not impacted by Traits or Research Level
- Trait Time — Base Time impacted by Traits but not Research Level
- Research & Trait Time — Base Time impacted by Traits and Research Level
- Research Time — Base Time impacted by Research but not Traits
Each trait will be randomly given to a Cube and come in 10 different levels with each level increasing the efficiency of the Cube in that area by X%. At this stage we intend to have this X% set at 0.5.
Personality Trait List
WOOD CHOPPING
- Increases the efficiency of the Cube chopping wood by a rate of X%
ORE MINING
- Increases the efficiency of the Cube mining ore by a rate of X%
FARMING
- Increases the efficiency of the Cube harvesting farmed products by a rate of X% — The X% refers to the chance of getting more of harvested product. For example, instead of four corn being harvested, it might harvest 6.
SLEEPING
- Restores fatigue levels faster by X%
RESEARCHING
- Decreases the amount of time needed to research a topic by X%
PLAYING
- Increases rating impact received from playing by X%
BUILDING
- Decreases the time taken to build by X%
More traits will be added over time and will be dispersed into the breeding pool via the marketplace and the Cubes distributed to new players.
The Happiness Rating
Cubes have an overall “Happiness Rating” which is impacted by FOUR (more later) main areas. Each area then has sub-impacts which determine that rating.
The Happiness Rating is on a scale of 1–100 with 50 being ‘Neutral’. A ‘rating impact’ is applied for each activity / task at a repeated time interval. For example, playing with a ball will increase the Social by +1 for every 10 minutes. So 60 minutes of play time will result in an increase +6 for the social part of the overall rating. Whereas, boredom from excessive mining might negatively impact the Cube’s happiness rating at -1 for every 20 minutes.
Keeping your Cube happy is essential to their productivity ingame and being able to breed.
BOREDOM
- Boredom increases over time and is designed to tell the user the Cube has been assigned to one task for too long or idle for too long
- A high level of boredom decreases the efficiency of the Cube completing the designated task
- Boredom levels are decreased by changing the task assigned for the Cube or allowing them to play
FATIGUE
- Is determined by workload (how much work the Cube has done with some activities more tiring than others) and sleep levels over the past 24 hours
- A high fatigue level impacts the performance of all activities done by the Cube and decreases their efficiency
- Once fatigue hits level X, the Cube will automatically start snoozing
NEST SATISFACTION
- Looks at the home life of the Cube
- A low level of Nest Satisfaction decreases the efficiency of the Cube completing the designated task
- Assesses if the Cube has shelter to live in
- Size of the Nest is appropriate compared to number of Cubes
- Cleanliness of the Nest (for when a Cube goes poop)
- Hunger levels / diet of the Cube
SOCIAL
- Social interaction (or lack of) / play with other Cubes or toys
- A low level of social interaction decreases the efficiency of the Cube completing the designated task
- Time spent playing with Toys
- Time spent socialising with other Cubes
