This Grand Life 2 News

Last time I talked about the preferences system and how activities affect people differently depending on their likes and dislikes. Today I'd like to talk about status conditions, which stack on top of preferences to create even more powerful feelings.



There are broadly two categories of status conditions:

1. Very low probability but high-damage or permanent changes like arthritis.
2. High probability but temporary changes like getting agitated or getting a hangover.

All conditions have a set of preferences. For example, if you get the agitated condition you'll have a stronger dislike for working or authority but be more receptive to caffeine or alcohol.



An agitated person's dislike for work means their fun would fall faster than normal while working.



On the other hand, someone who might normally dislike alcohol would gain more fun from drinking at the bar while in an agitated state.



This leaves you with a choice - do I force the character to work through the pain and then use alcohol to recover their fun? Or avoid alcohol and accept the penalties that come with having a negative fun need? Or skip work altogether and hope the performance hit doesn't get them fired?

Every status condition will come with its own set of changes that you will have to consider.

[h3]How are status conditions gained?[/h3]

Status conditions are gained or lost at the start of every month and there are a number of sources.

If your fun need goes negative, the risk of gaining the agitated condition starts to increase. If your fun need goes beyond the maximum, the risk decreases.



Some actions can also change the risk of conditions appearing. A run in the park will increase the risk of gaining a body smell, while a shower will reduce it.



Finally, you can gain conditions simply from getting older. Every month that passes increases your risk of things like arthritis or diabetes. Certain activities might increase these risks as well (e.g overeating can lead to diabetes) but everyone has a small chance to randomly gain these conditions over time.



I was planning to talk about how you can mitigate these risks but this is already getting too long, so until next time thanks for reading!

How can some people work two jobs, while others struggle to get out of bed in the morning? What compels one person to shower twice a day, and another to consider personal hygiene completely optional?

To simulate this variety in human behaviour, I would like to introduce the Preferences system. Every character in your household feels allergic, hate, dislike, like, love or addicted towards different aspects of life.

To use an example, let's look at a theoretical character Bob Baker:



Bob loves sleeping and hates hygiene. He loves sleeping so much that in addition to the base needs of hunger, energy and fun, he has a 'sleep' need to satisfy.



His sleep need is fairly straight forward to take care of - just sleep on a bed.



The image above shows he recovers +800 energy from sleeping, but also +90 fun from loving sleep and +120 fun from liking comfort. On the flip side, his hatred towards hygiene means he actually loses fun when forced to take a shower, as seen below.



It's this balancing of needs and choosing priorities for activities that forms the core of This Grand Life 2's gameplay.

Maybe you want to roleplay a character who is allergic to authority and becomes unhappy when interacting with the government. Such a person would be upset when applying for a transit pass at the Town Hall.



Activities like jobs and education also have a set of preferences. A lawyer would not have much fun if they hated paperwork, while a delivery driver who loves driving would find work much more tolerable.

You might even get opposing preferences for the same job. For example, someone who dislikes working but likes being social would feel mostly neutral towards working as a food server.



You could even create absurdly overpowered characters with an addiction to work who can maintain multiple jobs, only stopping to eat and sleep. However, a drawback is that if they ever stop working, their work need won't be fulfilled and they will suffer penalties.

This leads us to the next topic on health, happiness and milestone birthdays, which I will discuss next time.