that's what my last thread was kinda about

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1173896-will-dead-bodies-float-in-the-water/page__st__20

I feel it should be a combination of several attributes such as strength and endurance. The longer in water at a higher weight will cause you to sink faster thus requiring stamina then ultimately drowning, Perhaps some elaborate (or not so elaborate) equation such as (Strength * Endurance * 2 + max encumbrance) / ( .5 encumbrance).

Yeah thats a good idea. I didn't want to get into the specifics of the sinking in the OP so i just tried to make it about the general idea.

But yeah some algorithm for sinking would be best, not something just reliant on one attribute

since the water is supposed to affect you movement as i pushing against you, then i would like to see this. i picked other for weight because i think anything over 50% cause you to struggle to swim and drains your stamina faster. this way you could make it across a small river but anything bigger and you would drown. if its over say 70% of your maximum carry weight then you should sink like a rock. its a bit high depending on how you view units of weight in nirn but it makes it a bit less forgiving for people carrying loot. im also hoping that the environment as far as cold and hot affects you as well. nothing dramatic but being outside in the cold all the time cause you to tire more easily and catch disease more often.

argonians should have a higher threshold though since they are designed for swimming.

I like the idea...

I know that many other people will disagree and say its just annoying, but my opinion is that a completely realistic encumbrance and movement system should be implemented in a comprehensive way. Water would only be a part of it.

I don't know what "stats" will affect your encumbrance overcoming abilities in Skyrim, but whatever this value is, it should be pitted against many factors. The more encumbered you are, the slower you should be able to go as a function of your "strength" to overcome the encumbrance. So when carrying nothing, you move at 100% of your potential speed, and the more encumbered you are the more your speed is lowered. Instead of making this so that you end up going "0" speed at maximum encumbrance though, still allow movement at maximum encumbrance (say 10% of normal), but also make your encumbrance levels cause fatigue to be lost when moving (like in the older TES games) and also lost when very close to or at your maximum encumbrance level even when you are not moving. This way, you fall over stunned as your fatigue hits 0 instead of just "suddenly not being able to move" because your encumbrance reaches 100%.

Then, add another aspect such that determines if you are in water, and make a separate calculation for water "depth". The percentage of your character's mesh that is submerged in water gives a modifier that adds to your encumbrance. This would make it so that as long as you weren't encumbered to the point that you can't move at all, you wouldn't sink, but being in water would make it more likely that you would become over encumbered.

Add elevation grade calculations, so that its harder to climb up hills than down as well.

Now again, I'm sure many would disagree with this viewpoint because they want to just be able to move freely and carry tons of stuff, but being able to carry 40 books, 2 sets of armor, 2 claymores, a magic staff, 50 potions, and a bag of skulls and knickknacks and swim and run about just fine is bothersome to people who want to role-play. Having to make decisions about what you carry adds to the feel of the game and a reason to have a place to call home to keep your treasures at.

Scuba gear can weigh a good 50-60 pounds, and that doesn't hurt them much, but IF there is a limit, it should be a function of strength, stamina, and endurance.

You didn't say "realism", you said "HYPER-realism."


So...... you're carrying more than, say, 20lbs of stuff, you sink to the bottom and drown.

Yay?



The sim vs. game point is..... I play these games to be a Hero?, not a guy with all the limitations of me. Making everything as close to "real life" as possible (i.e, HYPERrealism) would ruin it completely.




http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AcceptableBreaksFromReality - it's not just for breakfast anymore?.

Is hyper-realism even a word? i was just pointing out the fact that its way more realistic than what we have now. I didn't know Hyper-realism meant a definite amount of realism.

That's because the neoprene suit and the BCD (buoyancy control device, the vest which holds the tank to your body) cause you to float. You actually need to attach 2-6 pounds of lead weights in order to keep your head at water level.

Making people sink in water isn't just "annoying, pointless realism." It's a "balancing factor" which makes the game more fun because there are different styles of play.

For instance, your knight in shining armor will sink like a stone if he tries to run away into a lake, or swim in an underwater cavern. But the lightly armored thief will have no problem.

Also, it should be based strictly on fatigue. If you run out of fatigue while swimming, you sink. So you can wear a full suit of armor, and if you're in good enough condition, you might float for a while.

Also, items should be divided into "less/more dense" than water. So if you are carrying 50lbs of wood, you would actually float compared to 50lbs of rocks.

That website says that this is acceptable:

"Bottomless Magazines:
You get unlimited shots, because who wants to stop the action to reload?"

If thats acceptable to you then you and i like very different games. I want to have to reload in my shooter games.

It doesn't make sense to be in heavy armor, with hundreds of pounds of extra equipment, and have no problems swimming without sinking.

Yea. Most of those aren't "acceptable" so much as "commonly included in movies and video games." Doesn't make them any less stupid or irrational.

50 votes in and I'm surprised this idea is doing so well. I thought most people weren't going to like it one bit.

I was so/so about this idea when i made this topic, but i think i'd go for more realistic swimming. probably a combination of some of the ideas on this thread would be best.

Indeed, this and required eating/drinking/sleeping would be extremely annoying to the extremity of extreme. It's a videogame and it's not something that bothers a many people and its also something that would be next to impossible to pull off well.

I want to escape the guards by jumping in the river. In OB they could swim and dive just as good as me even though I was wearing clothes and they were wearing heavy armor.
Ridiculous.

Hell yes, you shouldn't be able to swim in armor, at least not heavy armor.

Not a bad idea, but it should not be about the weight of all your items. Only the ones that do sink like iron swords, but then again you could have more sinking items with you if you have like 2 bows and 300 arrows (pulls you up) you could gave like 2 extra swords in water, also people can swim little bit more up instead of straight so that they could stay above the water but this would come at the cost of stamina. also when you are diving and the oxygen in your body lovers you would start to sink faster. (Scuba divers use this methold)

75 lbs is a lot to walk with, even for just 9 miles. Now swimming? Let's see the worlds strongest man try and do that. He's gonna sink like a rock in pond. Buoyancy and feather are the only thinks that should counter act that.

I like it, but I like these kinds of features.

I can't imagine most players appreciating such a feature. Seems the maximum interaction with the gameworld most players go to is "I'll bet I could survive this fall." and "WTF! How can I die from falling 50 yards? This is STUPID!"

The human body only just barely floats, because gravity and buoyancy force are about the same. It takes very little extra weight to make you sink.

As such, either you take the realistic approach of wearing virtually any metallic armor making you sink, or you keep it like in past games in the series (which is by far the better option).

Setting some other XX lbs, totally arbitrary limit on buoyancy would not make the game "hyper realistic", but on the contrary would be an utterly contrived, video-gamey mechanic.

Come on people, lets not forget that its a video game.

If i'm not mistaken, the sinking/floating of a object depends on it's density (and the density of the fluid). So if you want to implent a system that will make you sink based on weight alone, you're not really adding realism.

No thanks. Don't want to check my weight before entering water all the time. If I'm too heavy what do I do? Drop all my loot or spend hours looking for a bridge o.O

Absolutely not. This whole system should *not* be implemented.

Just... no.

I have all kinds of realism (hyper or otherwise) in my day to day life. When I sit down to play a game, I don't want to worry about [censored] that would [censored] me in real life.

Not a bad idea. That might make me more likely to look for a bridge or use water walking rather than charge straight through a river.

Dont know about this one. Weight should impose a movement penalty, this should be counteracted by a higher strength level and a higher athletics level and appropriate perks.