OLD_TODO.txt

NOTE: ONLY SAVED FOR POSTERITY, PLEASE USE GIT FOR ALL NEW SUGGESTIONS/DISCUSSION

LONG-TERM FEATURES:  Stuff I hope to finish in a year
  Save NPCs.

  Once NPCs are working, populate settlements with them.  Make sure that the
  code for placing an NPC REALLY WORKS, so that shopkeepers stay where
  they're supposed to.
	Most settlements belong to a faction; its citizens should too (mostly?)

  Factions already get generated and placed in the world, but they have no
  effect on it.  Once NPCs are working, place faction patrols in the world.
	Factions could control radio towers, spewing propaganda or using it to
	  recruit or start missions
	Factions could have projects; exterminating the zombies in a given town,
	  clearing a particular forest, paving a new road!

  Replace the Skills tab in character creation with a Class tab
	Classes come with a set of items and the skills needed to use them
		e.g. a handgun, ammo, & holster, plus handgun & firearms skills
	Cap at one class?  Or make it mix-and-match, purchasable with points?
		Mix-and-match has the problem of giving the player too many
		  items to store, unless we start them with a backpack
		Maybe add a trait that allows a player to take 2 classes
	Classes may also have unique effects upon the game
		Priests start with robe & collar and have bonuses when
		  interacting with religious NPCs

  Wrap WINDOW* in a custom class.  This will eliminate the possibility of
  memory leaks from undeleted temporary windows, and will make porting to
  different display libraries (e.g. tiles) much easier.

GENERAL:

  More cultural references!
	LOST: Black cloud monster, polar bear, hatches
	Resident Evil style zombies
	->The whole game is already a reference to Fallout, let's admit it.  So
	  avoid Fallout references in general, they're too easy.
	->Ditto for Half-Life, the game is saturated with HL references
	Hellraiser: High level Void monsters could be Cenobites.
	Bladerunner: "Androids And The People Who Kill Them"
	Steam powered robots (built by post-apoc factions)
		Wild Wild West, Miyazaki, Iron Giant, Neverhood, etc. etc.
	2001: Get locked in a chamber with an insane computer which you must
	  disable
		What are the other great "insane computer" movies?
	Logan's Run: A faction that kills people when they reach 30
	Six-String Samurai: Like, all the bad guys.  Wind People.
	Nausicaa: Radiation-purifying mushroom forests
	They Live!: Special glasses that let you see "reality" somehow
		Hidden doors?  Some people are really disguised monsters?
	Indiana Jones: Archeologist class, religious artifacts
	The Warriors: Making gangs (basically small factions) with cool themes
	  and costumes would be nice.
	Dr Strangelove: Mineshafts converted into bunkers; quotes
	Ghostbusters: Weapons!  Maybe ghosts.
	OTHERS: Escape From New York,
	Classes (see above under LONG-TERM) could draw from pop culture heros
		Archeologist: Indiana Jones (a la nethack)

  Configurable options:
	Colors (e.g. highlight color, currently blue)

  Fix eating/fullness; right now only overeating when Full is a risk of puking,
  which comes too quickly and feels unfair.  Thirst (and small amounts of
  nutrition) never causes puking, which allows players to exploit cola by
  drinking 10 at once.
  Possible solutions:
	>Two levels; "Full" and "Overfull"; Only when Overfull is puking a risk
	>Three levels, hunger, thirst, and stomach fullness

  When picking items up, highlight useful ones in particular colors
	Green: Important medical (1st aid, bandages, painkiller, etc.)
		Possibly context-dependant?  Painkillers if you're in pain, etc.
	Blue: Items you can craft with
	Purple: User-defined criteria

  Highlight or color-invert monsters that're fleeing; also make indifference
  visually obvious in some way (change glyph foreground color?)

  Make swimming more interesting
  	Items at the bottoms of rivers, only discoverable by diving underwater
	Entrances to special dungeons;
		Sewage treatment plant?
		Underwater monster lair?
	Water-dwelling monsters.  Probably rare, because for unskilled swimmers
	  almost any monsters would be deadly

  Allow basic movement while reloading, or make it possible to resume
  interrupted reloading

  Make computer usage more widespread and more convincing.  Possibly add a
  class for computer networks; an area on the overmap, protected by a password.
  Once you hack the password, you gain access to certain commands on computers
  found inside that area.
	Make computer functions use skills other than sk_computer.  For
	  instance, the computers in hospitals should use sk_firstaid

ITEMS / BIONICS:
  Fire extinguisher bionic
	Make this, and real fire extinguishers, more effective

MAP:
  Hatch (see cultural references, above)

  Terrain tiles, such as heavy doors, which require the help of an extra NPC
  or two to open (or very high strength)


CHARACTER CREATION:
  Illiterate makes read speed show up as "N/A" on stats tab

  Glass Jaw makes Head HP show up on stats tab, alongside Base HP

  Show skill erosion rate on stats tab (modded by Forgetful)

  Greater transparency for skill comprehension (at level 0, 4, 8, etc.)

  Show food consumption rate?  (Modified by Light Eater)
	Should high Strength increase this rate?

  Save our position in both Traits lists, even when changing tabs

  Make the Description tab more interesting?  Maybe hair color, etc.
	Any effect on gameplay?  Probably not.
	Make the effect of gender on gameplay transparent

  List specific effects on gameplay mechanics in the Skills tab, comparable to
  those listed in the Stats tab.

TRAITS:

  More Schizophrenic effects
	Make auditory hallucinations more realistic/varied

  Balance/fix/remove Jittery

  More obvious Wool Allergy text (remind the player that they're allergic)
	Wool Allergy prevents eating wool (with Internal Furnace bionic)

  Android encourages start-scumming.  Maybe make it a static set, or present
  the player with a few different options?
	Make Android a class instead?  (see above under LONG-TERM)

CRAFTING:
  Fruit drying; remove quench and some nutrition, but won't go bad

KEYBINDINGS/INPUT:
  Make ctrl+movement equivalent to 'e'+movement

  "Repeat last command" command

  Macros--are they necessary or useful at all?