Consequences - Why Keep Playing

[Bouzouki]

Good day to you. First, I want to say, we love the game. It's one of my all time favorites. Please read this with that in mind.

 

I play with a small group of friends on a private server for games like this. When I got hooked on it, I set up a Linux machine and hosted a giant map. The early portions of the game are sooooooo additive. Finding a hoe took us days of searching and looting and trying to find traders. Something so simple as that added enough of a cause to keep me logged in way past my bed time.

 

In a few weeks, all of us agreed that the 'stress' was gone. Even death and deleting all your inventory was little more than a inconvenience since we had 4 tons of everything and could simply craft new 'whatever' and be pretty much right back in the saddle.

 

We even let the base get overrun to see what would happen. Nothing really. A little damage. But, nothing that made any of us worry that 'all our crap would be gone'. We also ran with friendly fire, so accidentally killing each other was always a threat too.

 

Which brings me to the things that we, as a group, felt might help keep that 'stressful interest' to encourage long term play.

 

1. Perma Death setting

 

The obvious option is to restart the game. Great for single player. Not so much for a group. If one person dies then, we're not starting over. That player should. It would be awesome to have a graveyard with headstones for RIPers.

 

2. Destructive Zombies setting

 

Have them tear down everything. If they breach the encampment, and can't find a living target then destroy the equipment, boxes, walls, until there isn't anything left.

 

I think those two items, coupled with the escalation of the Zombie strength and difficulty settings would help instill the game with that 'fear' that made the game so freaking awesome at the early levels when you had to hide like hobos in Bob's Diner hoping nothing heard you.

 

Anyway. Our two cents. Have a great day you guys. I'll keep an ear to the ground for what's coming next. For now, we've moved on.

[Kage848]

I take death very seriously in all my games. Whether the zeds destroy everything I got or not dieing is the worst thing ever. So for me personally death, loot run is plenty of a penalty.

 

With that said i dont see why we cant have a dead is dead option. You die, you start over.

 

But I would like it to be if you die your character starts over but the world stays. You could start a new character, find your old base and stuff and pick up from there. Would be cool. And maybe a delete the world death option too. For the crazy people out there lol.

[RipClaw]

Such an option would certainly be interesting for some players but not as a default setting.

 

For you the possibility to feel fear is apparently the motivator for the game. For me it is the possibility to build large bases, reshape the landscape and spend hours collecting resources.

 

Different people have different reasons why they love this game. You should always keep that in mind.

[Bouzouki]

Such an option would certainly be interesting for some players but not as a default setting.

 

For you the possibility to feel fear is apparently the motivator for the game. For me it is the possibility to build large bases, reshape the landscape and spend hours collecting resources.

 

Different people have different reasons why they love this game. You should always keep that in mind.

 

I am in complete agreement.

[AlyssaFaden]

I take death very seriously in all my games. Whether the zeds destroy everything I got or not dieing is the worst thing ever. So for me personally death, loot run is plenty of a penalty.

 

With that said i dont see why we cant have a dead is dead option. You die, you start over.

 

But I would like it to be if you die your character starts over but the world stays. You could start a new character, find your old base and stuff and pick up from there. Would be cool. And maybe a delete the world death option too. For the crazy people out there lol.

 

I love this idea ... not quite ironman, but so much better

[hotpoon]

But I would like it to be if you die your character starts over but the world stays. You could start a new character, find your old base and stuff and pick up from there.

 

This is how it is done in State of Decay. I wouldn't play this way myself, but I would support the call for it to be an option for people who want more of a challenge.

[Khulkhuum]

One time playing Terraria i decided to finally check out Calamity Mod. For those not knowing, it's a really big content mod with many new bosses, areas to explore, items, ores, as well as new mechanics added for a more interesting gameplay. Not only did it add a lot of interesting stuff, you could pimp up gameplay by adding special modes and change the difficulty to the extremes:

- Revengeance - Only available on Expert Mode (more difficult world with enemy hp and damage scaling). Pimped up bosses, increased damage received, capped damage reduction, but at the same time specific to Revengeance special items can be found.

- Iron Heart - Dying during a boss fight would perma-kill your character

- Death Mode - Bosses even harder, higher spawn rates and more damage received. Additionally, bosses can randomly spawn on their own.

- Armageddon - Receiving any direct damage while a boss is active insta-kills player, despawning him.

 

This is only an example, but if you think about how to make the game even harder, there are already quite a few ways to make it happen in vanilla (not to mention mods that would add more). Decrease loot, increase Z damage to blocks or player, not show supply crate on map, increase Z movement speed, etc. IF that doesn't satisfy you, simply pick up a few mods and change your game to your hearts content.

[Roland]

Consequences is always tricky when it comes to acceptance. What one person sees as a feature that provides real consequences others will label as "tedious", "micromanaging", "fake difficulty", "unfair", etc.

 

I think A17.0 had some real consequences that are no longer a part of A17.2

[HerrKingsley]

I have always liked the ide of character dying world stays.

Even cooler would be if your old character turns into a zombie with all your old gear.