Gameplay restriction ideas

[outer jackal]

Either Self-Imposed or added to advanced difficulty options:

• No government database/vastly less competent government.
• Citizens cannot be knocked out.
• Limited use fingerprint scanning (use batteries to recharge?)
• Greatly reduced job payouts
• Cannot buy lockpicks
• NPCs cannot be bribed
• Body purist - cannot install sync disks.
• No stealing
  Codeable only:
• Short memory - information gained on citizens is lost over time.
• Dyslexic - all written words become anagrams.
• Asthmatic - cough occasionally (attracting attention), cough lots in places like vents (make sure you bring your inhaler!).
• Known Criminal - doing bad things makes you lose social credit.
• Security Conscious - pin code notes are never generated.

[quiet sequoia]

I'd be interested in mutators of a similar kind. Here's a few I'd like to see:

1. Karma Meter - You start with a certain amount of Karma. Committing a crime for any reason, even if you don't get caught, reduces your karma by an amount equal to the bounty. Hitting zero karma ends the run. Completing cases grants additional Karma. Certain crimes, like Trespassing, have a cooldown between affecting your Karma so you don't get penalized for walking in and out of an apartment repeatedly.
2. Debt - You must pay a mounting debt. At midnight every day money is removed from your account. Run out and it's game-over.
3. Wanted - Enforcers will attack you on sight, even if you haven't committed a crime.

[outer jackal]

I really like those. The game would get a lot of life out of mutators.

[chilly pond]

Adding traits to the character customization screen, similar to Project Zomboid, could add a layer of difficulty and change the gameplay restrictions too. Think having a positive trait that your character has thick skin, so they don't get cold, but you have to take a negative trait where you can't install Syncdisks

[sharp marten]

Oh the debt one sounds really compelling. I would play that all the time!