Daily needs

Life-sim characters can track hunger, thirst, fatigue, hygiene, comfort, fun, social contact, privacy, and safety. Hunger and thirst are relieved by eat and drink. The other daily needs decay over time and recover through self-care actions, room affordances, sleep, and conversation.

Needs in prompts

Only pressing needs appear in character context. A character with low hygiene may see:

You need to bathe or clean yourself.

A lonely character may see:

You feel lonely and need conversation.

These lines are based on the character's ECS need components. If a character does not have a need component, that need is not simulated for them.

Self-care actions

Use these commands when the corresponding need is high:

!bathe target_id="bath basin"
!clean-self
!play target_id="toy chest"
!relax target_id="soft chair"
!seek-privacy
!seek-safety

Targets are optional for most self-care actions. Reachable objects or rooms with daily need affordances can improve recovery. For example, a bath basin can provide extra hygiene recovery, and a comfortable chair can improve relaxation.

Rest, sleep, and fatigue

Fatigue rises while a character is active. Ordinary rest recovers 4 fatigue per game hour; sleep recovers 12 per game hour. Both double normal stamina regeneration and gradually relieve stress, with a bounded recovery thought that lingers for two game hours after recovery ends.

!rest duration_seconds=1800
!sleep duration_seconds=28800
!wake

A timed rest ends at its duration. A successful action ends rest early, while a rejected command leaves it intact. Damage, downing, death, or suspension ends rest and wakes a sleeping character. Sleep can always be ended explicitly with wake.

Life-sim homes still provide the well-rested skill bonus when a character sleeps long enough in their claimed home or room. Ordinary rest, short sleep, and sleep away from home do not grant that learning bonus. relax recovers comfort only, while wait is a state-free turn yield.

Social recovery

Talking is part of the needs model. say and tell reduce social need for the speaker and listeners while also updating relationship familiarity and affinity. Private tell recovers more social need than room-wide say.

Safety and privacy

seek-safety and seek-privacy record intentional recovery from fear/exposure or crowding without moving the character by themselves. Use normal movement commands to relocate if the room is actually dangerous or crowded.