For the Devs: Regarding ADHD and character builds

[Aldernut]

Hello!


I've been enjoying the game so far. Thank you for making it.

However, I just reached the point in the game, where I have to start choosing how to build my characters. As there are only 3/8 skills each char can have, this means making choices.

I'd guess normally in video game development, "making choices" is seen as a good thing. However, with ADHD "it's complicated". ADHD is a neurological disability, which severely lowers your brain's ability to make permanent choices. The result is a very stressful situation, with possibly hours of teeter-tootering.

Two concepts involved in this are "executive function" and "analysis paralysis". The first is basically the neurobiological part of your brain involved in e.g. planning and choices, while the second is the resulting paralysis of it being overwhelmed.

More info here:
https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/apa-blog/2017/01/executive-function-of-the-brain-key-to-organizing-managing-time-and-more
https://www.additudemag.com/slideshows/analysis-paralysis-and-adhd-trouble-making-decisions/

There are tens of millions of people with ADHD, many of them gamers.

A more hands-on description of the problem is, that you essentially have to "lock on" to certain character builds without experiencing any late game play. As there's no respec option, all skill choices are permanent. Make wrong choices, and you'll shoot yourself in the foot, potentially having to redo tens of hours of gameplay.

The best solution for me (and other ADHDs?) would be to not limit skills. With time and effort, each MechWarrior could unlock every skill available. Second best would be the ability to respec characters.

The way to cater to everyone would be adding a simple slider: "How many skills you can choose: 1-8".


Best regards,
Aldernut

 

[ZeroPlus]

Forgetting the ADHD part for now (more on this later) and focusing on the suggestion itself, here is how it could be implemented without impacting the balance or systems of the game.

Suggestion for Retraining
As part of the game, you can upgrade the Argo to bring its systems back online. Part of those systems are 3 Training Pods.
My suggestion is tied to the unlocking of the Training Pods.
Once you have unlocked the 3rd Training Pod upgrade on the Argo, the option to retrain MechWarrios would become available.
Prerequisites to Retrain
To retrain a MechWarrior, that MechWarrior will need to have already unlocked (or, depending on how you look at it, be "locked into") their 3 abilities.
MechWarriors who meet this prerequisite would have a "Retrain" button become available when looking at their "skill tree" (once the 3rd Training Pod was unlocked).
Cost to Retrain
To retrain a MechWarrior players would have to pay a C-Bill cost (suggestion: 1 million C-Bills) and the MechWarrior would be unavailable for missions for an extended period of time (suggestion: 90 days).
During the retraining period the MechWarrior would be listed in the timeline as "Retraining" and show the remaining days to finalize his retraining (much like you see for wounded MechWarriors).
Practical effect of Retraining
Once the retraining period was over the MechWarrior would again be available for missions.
All skills would have been reset and all XP points previously spent on skills would have been refunded to the MechWarrior.
The player would be free to reapply skills to the MechWarrior using the refunded XP points.

The above suggestion would allow players the option to retrain their current MechWarriors as opposed to levelling up a new MechWarrior (for example: they might like their current MechWarriors enough that they don't want to lose their presence in missions but are not happy with their currently skill set) while at the same time not impacting existing balance or other game systems.
For HBS the work involved *might* also be minimal as it would basically involve updating some tooltips, adding a button and code to track current MechWarrior XP along with their downtime (I have no idea on how hard it would be to implement this but since it wouldn't require changing balance or other game systems it *might* be simple).

Back to the ADHD part of this suggestion, Aldernut would a system as outlined above alleviate the ADHD concerns you raised?
It doesn't allow you to end up with a 8/8 MechWarrior but it would give players the option to change things if they are unhappy with their choices while at the same time giving them something to work towards in case they want that option.

Aldernut: If you feel that something like this would alleviate the ADHD concerns you raised, feel free to start a new thread with the above suggestion in the first post or maybe even edit the first post of this thread to include it (so it doesn't get lost way down here in the thread ).

 

[EmptyPepsiCan]

Alternatively, there could be a list of difficulty modifiers when you start, and it could include "Allow MechWarrior retraining - yes/no."