I've tried typing this out like five times and I feel like I'm vomiting disorganized words. I'm going to try and keep it simple.
I really love the idea of phobias, a pretty good idea that allows you to have some interesting characters, or, at least in theory. Unfortunately, I feel like phobias are in a pretty poor state right now where they feel way over tuned to the point of going from a slight debuff to massively and entirely debilitating. I unironically think it's probably one of THE most debilitating quirks, depending on what phobia you pick.
As the phobia quirk is listed as a neutral one, I feel like that gives a much greater excuse to be more creative and worry less about the quirk balance. As you get no quirk points for using it, there's no point in taking it for points to purchase a strong positive quirk, therefore there is a much lesser concern when it comes to some phobias being less of an issue or more of an issue than others.
These ideas were brainstormed with absolutely zero understanding of how these sorts of checks are done in byond, I imagine there are probably some massive performance issues I am entirely oblivious to.
My idea for reworking phobias is as follows:1. Eyesight reactions
2. Proximity/on person reactions
3. Remove word triggers for phobias (or at least heavily rework it)
To (again) try and keep it simple, I'll try and keep each section brief.
1. Eyesight reaction:
This pretty much just means some slight mood debuff and/or shaking/trembling/looking pale or whatever if you see something you have a phobia of.
For instance, a phobia of space would have someone going through these reactions looking out a window into space.
A phobia of spiders would have this firing when looking at spiders from a distance.
A phobia of blood would have this firing upon seeing others with blood on them or minor amounts of blood from a distance.
2. Proximity/on person reaction:
This, on the other hand, is for stuff in incredibly close proximity or actively affecting the person with the phobia.
For instance, a phobia of space would have the person with the phobia screaming, shaking, generally freaking out, massive mood debuff etc. when out in space, regardless if they have a suit or not.
A phobia of spiders for instance would have this be firing if someone was in very close proximity to spiders and especially if they were being bit by spiders or stuck in spider webs.
A phobia of blood would have this be firing when close to tons of blood and gore, and/or especially if the person had blood on them.
3. Remove (or heavily rework) word triggers:
I like the idea of word triggers for phobias but a lot of them feel super forced and are overly annoying. For instance a fear of falling as you locking up upon hearing the word "fall." You also are entirely incapable of saying the word at all.
Ideally I'd have it where other people saying it only triggers a minor reaction (if at all) and the player who has the phobia when attempting to say something INCREDIBLY AND HIGHLY RELATED TO THE PHOBIA at worst will only shake or recoil upon saying the word. I feel like it wouldn't make sense for some phobias to have this, for instance, a fear of falling is something I feel like should have no trigger words at all.
Stuff that I didn't know where to put anywhere else
Freaking out about items or plushees with related phobias. I like these, but they would ideally be minor mood debuffs when near them or having them on your person.
The ability to run multiple phobias? I'd probably run aliens, blood, falling, snakes, space, and spiders if I could.
I wanna be a discount Adrian Monk with my phobias.
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