Riamus

Although I like the idea, how can we balance the loot aspect? They handle it in stores by having mostly empty shelves and the shelves that have stuff often have stuff that isn't too important. With the Crack A Book stores, most shelves are empty but you already can get a ton of magazines/books from those. A library with mostly empty shelves seems really strange to me, but to have that many lootable places for magazines and books seems a bit too much to me. I played a custom college POI from Deverezieaux that had a large library in it. Even with half the shelves being empty, it still got you a TON of books. And that was in A20 before magazines were a thing. With magazines, you could end up getting enough to fill out half of all magazines you care about after only one time through. It was nice in a way but also very OP. I don't see a good way around that unless you want to have shelves that show books but can't be interacted with. And I think that just frustrates people. Any ideas? Because I love the idea of a library if the loot balancing can be figured out. I also don't think the option here is to have a ton of paper like before.

I think this is pure fiction, to be honest. First, you need to cut out all the games that are service games (games like MMOs) as those don't count in this context. Then, you can't count DLCs because those are paid content as well and so don't count (TFP might even do DLCs after gold). Even if the DLCs are free, they are still made after gold and so don't count when we are talking about a game that is not yet even at gold. Now, you look at the remaining games and most updates you see to most games after gold are just bug fixes, QOL, etc. Yes, there are some games/developers who do put out additional content in patches over time that are unrelated to DLCs but the number of those is low in comparison to those that do not. And in many of the cases of those who do add more content in patches, it's usually not very significant content as they aren't really making money off the new content. They might get a few more sales by announcing that there's new content but the sales aren't going to be very significant and likely not cover the cost of creating the new content if it's anything significant.

Considering they are working on finishing the game for gold, you are going to be disappointed because they aren't going to be doing much with gameplay other than adding bandits/story. Everything else is going to be optimizations and improved art/UI/etc. as well as more POI for the remaining alphas.

Yeah, I am with you on this. I am really hoping that bandits will be a good addition to the game. I'm just concerned that they will be something I don't like and that I feel take away from the zombie killing experience that makes this game great. We'll see.

They aren't currently planning to add NPCs like that (at least before gold), though it would be interesting.

That's a decent number to start with. The next question is how does progression work? Is there any? I mean, obviously few will stick to primitive, so there is technically progression from there. But a lot of people stuck to padded armor and/or light armor because they didn't want movement penalties, etc. So since we don't have multiple tiers anymore for armor within each type of armor, will there be progression? Or will you just pick the armor type you want (light, medium, heavy) and once you find/craft/buy the stuff, you'll never upgrade since there aren't any upgrades? It sounds like we're losing progression with the new armor system as well as customization. Will it even be worth caring about finding armor since you will probably just want a specific armor set and without any upgrading or real variation in what you wear, you just sell everything else? I guess some people might do a bit of mixing of armor but I'm not sure how many of those will look good mixed. Assassin chest/pants armor with farmer head armor? Sounds a bit weird to me. Some will like odd combos but I think most will end up just sticking to a single set because most will start to look weird when combined. I do really like the looks of the new armor. I just am very concerned about feeling railroaded into a single armor for the entire game based on whichever armor you think looks good. I mean, yes, the current system has very little change throughout the game, but I do start out in light armor until stamina goes up and then switch to heavy armor and I always find the scrap armor first and then it's hit or miss whether I go through iron armor or jump to steel just depending on what I find. Add that to changing clothes as I find others that look better and I at least have a little choice. It seems like with the new armor, I'll end up deciding that the best look for me in heavy armor is something like Raider and then, other than wearing a mix while I work to find the right armor (and at that point, it isn't really choice and is just RNG), I'll never wear anything else but that set in every game I play from as soon as I can get that set. No upgrades. No variation at all. I hope I am wrong. If we had a few times this number of armors and there were upgraded tiers and enough overlap where if you like a few different armors, no one armor is better than others for your playstyle and you could choose different ones (even from a limited number of armors that fit that preference) for different playthroughs without feeling like you're worse off, then it would be good. Or, as I mentioned previously, if we have a way to change the look of the armor without changing the armor itself, that would be best. You could wear something like Raider armor and decide you want to look like you have on Lumberjack armor for the aesthetics of it without losing the armor/bonus of Raider. That would make this new armor system much better, imo. Then you'd at least have choices without that sense of being railroaded that I think we're going to see with this new armor system. I don't see any downside to changing the look and it would add so much to the armor system. I hope it's considered. It can't be too much work to add in that kind of thing since it's really just a UI thing as you already have the art and animation and everything already fits on the characters. It could even be something you unlock after a while if you don't want people looking like they have the full set when they're still building out a set of armor. Maybe unlock it after you complete any full set of armor?

Whether the number is small or large, when anyone you see has the same look as you do in every game, it gets stale quickly. I'm not saying that the current system offers a great variety either, though. And I have no idea how many armors there will be when all is said and done or if the bonuses on them will be varied enough to get people to use different ones rather than all gravitating toward the best looking two or three. We'll have to see. I don't at all disagree that the new armors look great (even ones I don't personally like or would ever use). But I am still concerned about losing customization choices. I like picking a look without caring what the bonuses are. Although it's true that the hot/cold stats don't currently really matter at all and that lets me wear any clothing items that I want without caring about those stats, it still is nice to have that option to just wear what looks good. This is why I said having the option to change the look of armor without losing the stats of the armor is a great option that many games offer and would be nice to at least consider here.

I was not suggesting any change from how it works today. You already can't have a bandana and cigar at the same time and I wasn't saying you should. In the same way, you shouldn't have multiple pairs of glasses at the same time. Thank you for the reply. I hope it is as you say. Lack of customization of characters is a pretty significant negative for a lot of people.

I never said that. I said it should have a dye slot as well as a customization slot. Right now, if all visualization of the items is removed as they are saying, then all you get is the bonus and can't see any changes. That's what I think is a bad move. If you're going to wear sunglasses, show them. Don't just give us the bonus. If you're going to use the cigar, show it. Don't just give us the bonus. As I said, yes, this requires you to have art for these items, but you can use the old art.

This is unfortunate. It is a loss of character customization. Sure, the bonus from these items was nice, but being able to customize the look of your character is sometimes more important. If you are getting rid of all these customization items, not to mention all the clothing options, please at least consider an ability to change how stuff you are wearing looks. Many games give you this option these days and it is a great way to allow customization without needing to have a ton of items. You had a semblance of it before with being able to change hats to look like ball caps, cowboy hats, etc by using a mod. If you give each item a customization slot that lets you choose a good variety of options that aren't necessarily items that are in the game anymore (or ever), it would at least not lead to everyone being exactly the same. Note that I am not referring to the dye slot. You should have both, imo. Yes, it means you need art for these things, but you can use the old art. And yes, it means that maybe someone is getting a bonus for the lumberjack set out whatever set and yet look like they should not be getting that bonus because of how they look, but is that really a problem? I don't have stats on it, but I have a string feeling that character customization is one of the top requested/wanted features in any game that has a player character you can see on screen. Yeah, lighting is definitely backwards. If I stand in a bright spot while I'm a dark room, it should be harder to see in the dark spaces, not easier. If I stand in a shadow, it shouldn't make the brightly lit spaces around me harder to see.

I'm not really a fan of the lockpicking mini games as seen in games like Skyrim. They are fine in a game where you don't pick many locks, but when almost every POI has at least one locked chest and potentially multiple safes, it would get old really fast. For a game like this, I'd prefer to use the method of not being able to unlock something if you don't have enough skill but once you do have enough skill, you can unlock that level lock every time. Better than Skyrim style where you can get lucky and unlock a max level lock on the first try with basically no skill if you luck out in where you place the lockpick. Lockpicks can be single use to not make lockpicks last forever with max skill.

I think if they want to make it so you can unlock doors, they need to redo lockpicking. Right now, you can go through 10-20 lockpicks on one container of you have bad luck. I'm not about to waste time and lockpicks on a door the way it is now. It is far easier and generally faster to break down the door. And since noise doesn't matter for waking up zombies, there is no real value in lockpicking a door right now.

I also feel this is needed. I did download them one by one, but that is a pain, especially on Nexus (I hate that site!). If you want to allow people to choose which ones, you can still have individual downloads, but can also do a single download for everyone who wants everything. It is also a pain to have so many "mods" where each is a single POI. It almost makes it not worth using them.

Well, you can certainly try this method. I don't see it working well but maybe it will. 😀

Other than to reset your character, I don't think there is any option to remove points. You can refund them after spending them but you would still have 8.

The best option if you don't want bridge prefabs is to set it to either use land bridges or else set max bridge length to 0. I think there is also a setting for Max number of bridges per road that you could set to 0. I don't have Teragon in front of me, so I may be wrong about that one.

If you include a log file, it may help to determine the cause. I have seen this when the map was corrupted, but that was while moving around the map. With it happening inside a POI, it is probably something else.

Thanks. I kind of thought that but worded it wrong. 😀

I don't think it is all that important to try to force players to travel if they don't want to. I never stay at one town in any game even if it has all tiers in it. And I know others who also course to travel because they want variety. But for those who prefer to stay on place, trying to force them to move with a mask design probably isn't something they are going to want to play on. Just my opinion, of course. There are also other options to get players traveling that are more feasible. Darkness Falls does it with their quests requiring going to different places. As long as those places aren't next to each other, you need to travel. You can also do something where trader progression requires using all traders and then make traders 1-2km apart. There are various options that would work for that goal without trying to do something that the game design for tiles and prefabs isn't really designed for.

Yes, but building materials are an obvious need for building or upgrading. Having a fully constructed door or hatch to use to "upgrade" an existing one is not. At that point, you aren't upgrading... You are replacing, which is different from other upgrades. Granted, the idea that you are upgrading from wood to steel on anything without replacing it doesn't exactly make sense but it is there for gameplay reasons. I don't see why they can't just have steel in your inventory to use to upgrade the doors or hatches like you would any other upgrade. That is why I say it is odd.

Regarding armor sets, I am wondering this as well. If the armor doesn't have any stats beyond what we have now, there is little reason to mix and match and give up on the set bonus. They would need useful stats on each piece that would give you a reason to choose to mix up the armor in order to get a mix of stats at the cost of losing the set bonus. But I have a feeling that won't happen. Which means everyone is going to start looking identical... not a good thing. The road decals (the yellow and white lines) are confirmed to not be blocks, so you will be able to build on to of them in A22.

Yes, but the change to having glasses and such as helmet mods would mean that without a restriction, you could wear multiple pairs of glasses, which makes no sense. Yep, that is what I was wondering. Ok, thank you for that answer. It clarifies that there is a restriction that prevents more than one mod in a category (attribute modifier mod) from stacking. That probably would be enough, I think. Off the top of my head, I can't think of other mods that shouldn't stack. All glasses are attribute modifier mods, so those are covered. We can use both cigar and glasses, so that is good. It sounds good to me.

That all depends on where you spawn. You can, of course, require spawning at the center of the map, but I have found that the way cities are placed can make the center not desirable. Not to mention, there could easily be a lake there. But that doesn't mean you couldn't tailor a map to work with that kind of design in mind. Still, I don't believe you can make a fully tiled town that doesn't include tier 1 and tier 2 POI without having a lot of spaces. I haven't really looked into that and so may be wrong, but it is unlikely that you could do it with pure vanilla POI and tiles. Few tiles are designed for only high tier POI. I'm not sure how many tier 3 or 4 POI are 25x25 and doubt there are any tier 5 that size. Even 42x42 might have very limited numbers after you get past tier 3, so you're still looking at a lot of repetition and blank spots even at the 3-4km range. You could probably make it work with a 6k map but it wouldn't really feel different except that you won't have tier 5 in the middle and no tier 1 on the outside edge. Tier 4 would also not be in the very center. But on such a small map, you might not even notice the difference because you're rarely right at 0,0 anyhow and are probably building a base out near the 1-2km mark, so you'll have most things around you on that size map. An 8k map would make it more noticeable but you'll really start getting duplication and missing spaces in towns, and anything larger will get even worse. I'm not saying you couldn't make an attempt to create such a map, but I think you'll quickly find it isn't going to work as well as you think. But that's just a guess based on vanilla tiles and POI that are available. If you were to use a lot of custom POI and there were enough high tier POI and you had custom tiles that would work for such a design, then it could possibly work.

This is a very good point. I wonder how many mods you can have on your helmet. The light is mandatory for me, so that limits what else I could include. And unless the mods are based on position (eyes, mouth, forehead), then they might only allow one mod for the helmet, which eliminates adding anything else (or at best, swapping over and over whenever you go to the trader and want to use the cigar, or swapping whenever you're not in dark spaces so you can get the experience bonus from nerd glasses, etc... and swapping all the time is an annoying requirement). If they allow mods based on position, so one pair of glasses, one thing for mouth (currently only cigar, I believe, unless they consider the water purifier a mouth mod), one thing for forehead (only headlight, I believe, unless they consider the water purifier a forehead mod), then it could work but would feel strange, I think.

Considering the VERY low number of higher tier POI, you'd end up with nothing but duplicate POI side by side on the outer areas of the map and towns wouldn't be possible to create with this set up without having a ton of empty spaces because tiles are not designed to allow any kind of POI to be placed on them... the POI needs to the right size and tier 5s have a limited number of tile spaces they can appear on. Even tier 4 will be limited, though not be quite as much. Not to mention, a town with all tier 5 POI will be extremely laggy for most players because you'll have dozens of skyscrapers all in one place. I think trying to accomplish this would be pretty much impossible without having a LOT of new high tier POI and have enough of each type of POI that can fit on each tile to avoid blank spots on your towns to make it work. In the end, it's just really not feasible. The best I could offer would be to make wilderness POI get harder by distance as those have no tile limitations. But even then, you'll still have a handful of tier 5 duplicating themselves everywhere around the edges, which most players wouldn't appreciate.