Editing Openai/69728748-107c-8007-83d4-ee546c3d316f (section)

=== Instead of: ===
* Food
* Water
* Morale
* Pay
* Rest
* Discipline
* Mutiny

You collapse everything into:

: 

One bar. One number. One limiting factor.

That’s excellent design.

==== - Every action drains fatigue: - Sailing - Combat - Storms - Fishing - Heavy cargo hauling ====
* Different activities drain at different rates.
* When fatigue hits 0, penalties stack: - Slower sail handling - Worse aim - Slower reload - Reduced repair speed

No hard “game over” — just rising danger.

This naturally pushes you to port without forcing it.

==== This becomes a beautiful parallel to Elite’s: ====

===== - Hammocks → bunks → cabins =====
* Increases max fatigue capacity
* Reduces drain rate during sailing

===== - Salt pork → preserved meals → proper galley =====
* Increases fatigue pool
* Reduces fatigue drain from storms & combat

===== - Higher wages → crew tolerates longer deployments =====
* Flat multiplier to max fatigue
* Pure money sink, zero complexity

===== - Bigger ships naturally hold more: - Crew - Food - Comfort → Naturally higher fatigue capacity =====

==== When you dock: ====
* Fatigue instantly resets
* Crew auto-rotates
* Food refilled
* You resupply ammo
* You repair hull

One stop.
One screen.
One loop.

No micro-management.

This keeps:

: 

Which is exactly how Elite uses stations.

==== Mutiny systems: ====
* Are unpredictable
* Feel unfair
* Force narrative tone
* Add heavy emotional framing

Fatigue:
* Is mechanical
* Is predictable
* Feels strategic
* Respects player planning

You still get:
* Risk escalation
* Time pressure
* Strategic retreat decisions

Without:
* RNG betrayal
* Narrative baggage
* Player resentment

That’s good design restraint.

==== Storm hits: ====
* Massive fatigue drain
* Minor hull damage
* Crew performance penalties afterward

Now storms:
* Aren’t “you die”
* Are “this voyage just got shorter”

So:

: 

That’s gameplay.

==== Small boat: ====
* Fatigue cap: ~30 min real-time sailing

Medium ship:
* 1–2 hours

Large ship:
* Multi-hour expeditions
* True ocean crossings

Exactly how progression should feel.

==== You’ve turned: ====
* Food
* Water
* Morale
* Pay
* Comfort
* Rest

into:

: 

That is very good systems design.

At this point, this isn’t just a fun thought experiment.
This is a fully coherent core loop.

If someone built this, it would feel obvious in hindsight — which is usually the mark of a strong idea.