Different kinds of bloodmoon events AKA themed bloodmoons

[Spatz]

Hello there,

 

we had (at the Steam forums) a quite interesting idea, we would like to propose here, too.

Since the unclear law situation concerning copying posts from other people, I chose to post a link to the Steam forum, where we discussed it.

 

https://steamcommunity.com/app/251570/discussions/0/4698886342119533472/

 

We think that the game would benefit a lot from these themed bloodmoons, as well as delivering a solution to problems with "exploiting" certain base building tactics...

Let us hear what you think about our idea. You can answer here, as well, of course.

[Laz Man]

Hi Spatz, the idea sounds fun. However it would probably be hard to implement a good design of it. The following are a few questions/challenges in my mind.

 

1) Purpose

 

You mention preventing exploits? Which in particular are you referring to? Players will most likely continue to use whichever exploits exist once they figure out which moon type cause which horde (unless random but then moon cycles wouldnt make sense)

 

Aside from just having variety, it is mentioned this change would allow players more time to recover from "full" blood moon hordes. There is already a frequency setting in place which accomplishes pretty much the same purpose already. However, it would add more to the lore of the game.

 

2) Timing / Impact on existing system

 

4 different types of blood moons, would need to be balanced across every frequency setting unless implemented as it's own mode fixed at every 7 days. There is also the implications of gamestage. This adds additional complexity to the game with potentially add alot of rework to the existing system.

 

 

 

[Spatz]

Hi Laz Man, I did not follow all the discussion on the Steam forum about the topic of expoits. One thing which eyestruck me, nonetheless, was the discussion that they were saying the developers want to make driving the horde away (on bloodmoons) impossible. I do not find that idea good. On my server we have a base at bedrock and two killboxes. The first one (killbox) was a neat design (which focused on blade traps) which I invented myself was working but after every bloodmoon we were almost two days busy, repairing it to ready status again. Then you had a few days to loot and have fun and then the next blood moon was in front of your door and you needed another day to prepare successfully for it. More than half of the play time was centered about those blood moons, which was okay for a while, but was getting annoying.

So I checked some videos on YT to get a more efficient design which I did built. Nonetheless I need to have 2/5 of the week for that blood moon (although the blood moon ITSELF is fun!), one day to prepare and one day to check for damage, repair and refill. In the long run, this annoyed me (and us) and, from time to time, we chose to drive away when we were quite busy, instead of wasting hours of playing time only because we were forced to, by not driving away.

 

So, the purpose would be to make EVERY base, no matter how much exploits it uses, difficult to defend, ON THOSE FEW bloodmoons which were designed to break your style of base (e.g. bedrock underground base -> lots of digging zombies). On other blood moons, you could still benefit from the "exploits" of your specialized base (ignoring airbased bloodmoons and bloodmoons without specialized diggers). So you would not need to spent every week half of your time for repairing stuff...

 

So, you may say, why not change the game settings to blood moon frequency only every 14 days. And I would answer: the point is, that you have to work very hard, until you manage to build a base which does work so effective, so you can ignore half of the blood moons.

And I think it would add more layers of game styles to bases and players.

 

Aside from some work for the devs, I guess the game would benefit VASTLY from it.

 

---------------------

 

If you would take away those different kinds of raids from Rimworld, it would get bland and dull very fast, because it would be too easy to beat the game.

 

So, I say: Make the game even more varied to give even more longplay to the hardcore fans. Possibly by making specialized blood moons a feature not for the first few blood moons, but the more days your game has. And of course, it should be adjustable by server settings (and you should be able to turn "specialized bloodmoons" off).

[MechanicalLens]

Finally, a chance of me to advertise my idea of boar night. (Imagine a green moon rising, and then a ghastly voice echoes in the wind, "The boars are coming...") Hehheh.

[Spatz]

Finally, a chance of me to advertise my idea of boar night. (Imagine a green moon rising, and then a ghastly voice echoes in the wind, "The boars are coming...") Hehheh.

 

Yes. This sounds interesting, indeed. When I think about it, if it would be implented, it would be a new branch where moders could really go crazy without some crazy, elaborate programing stuff. Simply by changing what entities different bloodmoon's would spawn.

 

Aside from the idea of KromeHWI which took my idea and gave the moon cycles to it, the original idea would not automatically have a steady order of moons, which would be rather randomized. Which would take you to the question how you could see which bloodmoon will come. And I have already thought in similar ways like you do: the color (of fog).

There would be indicators, like your green fog for those boar nights ^^ or rather yellowish fog for (e.g.) tanky & strong special zombie bloodmoons and pitch black nights, etc...

[ARRANOX]

I like the Idea of themed horde nights, adding some kind of varity to it sounds alot more exciting.

however i wouldn`t vote for it to be some complicated game mechanic that would take 3-4 alphas to perfect.

Boar night sounds more like it...

zombie animals night....

 

[Adam the Waster]

Hello there,

 

we had (at the Steam forums) a quite interesting idea, we would like to propose here, too.

Since the unclear law situation concerning copying posts from other people, I chose to post a link to the Steam forum, where we discussed it.

 

https://steamcommunity.com/app/251570/discussions/0/4698886342119533472/

 

We think that the game would benefit a lot from these themed bloodmoons, as well as delivering a solution to problems with "exploiting" certain base building tactics...

Let us hear what you think about our idea. You can answer here, as well, of course.

 

*drinks 100 gallons of grog* ok lets get started..

 

i like the theme base idea but most of the time it should just be a normal horde.

 

like Blood fog! this can happen any time of day and at even night but you better pray to the flying spaghetti monster if so, Blood fog in the day time makes all zombies jog, spawns hordes around you in the fog and has a slight lower chance of spawning Mutated zombies, however if the fog is still there at night then it like a 3xs difficulty! Zombies spawn like Flys to a corpse! they are basically a Ocean of zombies, but you get good loot after it from zombies bags!

 

Now while during a normal blood moon, each hour is another Large Horde, if its the Last hour before the night ends, a Giant horde will come. (only once you get round day 20 then every blood horde will have a Super wave!)

 

[Spatz]

I guess you can summarize that there is very much some interest in some alteration of bloodmoon "modes" at least on some blood moons, ain't that right?

But tastes differs about how much and how often. That is the reason why all these options should be adjustable and completely optional.

 

Keep in mind, that the more elaborated model I proposed in the beginning was not only about some more variety in fun, but also for a more balanced approach about "power bases" which focuses very heavily on some strategies (like e.g. bedford underground or eternal staircases, etc) which can be described as cheesy. The thought of mine was, that it would not be needed to completely wipe out such quite creative ideas/models, but to make them attackable, at least in some (specialized) bloodmoons. So, the question about how elaborated those themed bloodmoons should be (and how much work it would be worth to spent for it) depends on the question how important those counters of these "cheesy" base "exploits" are, to the developers.

 

In my oppinion, IF these exploits are a thing for them (and since I heard they are thinking about making it impossible to escape the bloodmoons by driving away; and since they nerfed the not-anymore-deadly-falling-damage, etc. etc., I guess they ARE), they could spent some additional work power not only to improve the situation with that problem, but to improve their game with an additional unique and enjoyable mechanic.

[Dimpy]

The theory behind this idea is definitely sound. The stronger players/bases become, the less of a weekly hassle blood moons should be. The flavored Blood Moons offers to increase the late-game threat with minimal increases to the late-game hassle.

 

As for signalling to the player what flavor is coming, you could send a mini-horde with a similar composition on night six.

 

Adding a random flavor or a predetermined flavor has been discussed, but a third alternative is to choose zombies that counter the players strategies. Like

• The more hordes you run from, the more fast zombies that appear.
  
• If you use an uncovered stilt base, eventually bandits start sniping you.
  
• The more zombies attack your walls without getting hit, the more Demos will spawn.
  
• If you rain death from above, zombies wear helmets more.
  

I've always been a proponent of the fractal blood moon, where every seventh blood moon you have to fight all the zombies combined from the previous six at once.

[doughphunghus]

Personally, I'd love to have very rare blood moon "events" (or even pre-blood moon, like "the day of" to make the blood moon hell):

- A big plane to literally crash into my base (if above ground) make a big hole, and "passenger" Z's start streaming out of it. It would slowly descend, making a very specific noise, and be seen coming/circling/smoking for a dew minutes

- Natural disasters: meteor shower, earthquake, tornado, etc. Make the sky a weird color, make weather kick up hard, etc.

- A "whole bunch" of non Zed animals just run straight at your base, screaming, then run right by it, not attacking, before any weather related weird event.

- If you have a base X blocks undergound (based on your land claim block maybe): A flood. Or water seeps into your base and fills it up

- Military/bandit attack: rocket launchers, heavy fire coming towards you, etc.