Should POI's have different variants?

[Solomon 120]

This specific thing is bothering me, whenever you or me started playing the POI's you raided are the same. That SM factory you fell down in a hole trying to avoid a zed is the same as the SM factory you have built your base in today.

 

Nerdpooling into loot rooms is only a thing because we know where the loot room is because nothing changes, after a certain point you know where everything is because the Pimps may create a new POI for us to explore but they dont really touch the POI's created unless for bugfixing.

 

I would like to suggest making POI variants what from the outside look exactly like the old ones but from the inside they are different for example:

 

Shotgun Messiah Laboratories:

 

This version of the SM factories has a secret entrance in the boiler room with the flaming zombies, you can go down from there into an underground military complex where they presumably were experimenting with goverment weapons. 

 

Shotgun Messiah Overtaken:

 

Same old SM factory except the second and third floor was overtaken by civilians/bandits. The walls are reinforced, there are living quaters and the obvious signs of not good enough defenses against a horde.

 

Water Treatment Factory Collapsed:

 

Its fine from the outside but the whole interior underground collapsed into another cave system, someone must have cheaped out on safety regulations.

 

Water Treatment Factory Money Laundry:

 

An ingenious strike of the mob, a working water treatment factory with a hidden entrance for a money laudering scheme right behind the walls.

 

 

The key idea is to make the random aspect of the RWG even more random by further increasing the building variants. The RWG would choose randomly from building variants after it choosed which buildings would it make like SM was choosen to be placed down 1 so it now chooses between A, B and C variants.

 

What do you think, would you like to see more variants of the existing POI's?

 

[Maxley 38]

It would be ideal if they could do that but it isn’t something that they have the time or man power to do. Even if they managed to make 3 variants for every POI players would figure out the fastest way to cheese it and get to the loot for all of them, it would just take 3 trails per POI instead of 1.

 

just reduce the amount of loot at the end to one hardened chest and one box and spread the rest out around the POI more. Sham way actually does this pretty well already. There’s like 3 worthwhile loot piles throughout the building besides the very top loot.

[Solomon 120]

8 minutes ago, Maxley said:

It would be ideal if they could do that but it isn’t something that they have the time or man power to do. Even if they managed to make 3 variants for every POI players would figure out the fastest way to cheese it and get to the loot for all of them, it would just take 3 trails per POI instead of 1.

 

just reduce the amount of loot at the end to one hardened chest and one box and spread the rest out around the POI more. Sham way actually does this pretty well already. There’s like 3 worthwhile loot piles throughout the building besides the very top loot.

Ohh you got me wrong, my goal is not simply to just make finding the loot room harder but to mainly add in more content into the game in form of varying up things.

[Kalen 483]

13 minutes ago, Solomon said:

Ohh you got me wrong, my goal is not simply to just make finding the loot room harder but to mainly add in more content into the game in form of varying up things.

Any time spent on building new versions of existing POIs is better spent on brand new POIs, IMO.

[Solomon 120]

28 minutes ago, Kalen said:

Any time spent on building new versions of existing POIs is better spent on brand new POIs, IMO.

They are kind of the same, the only difference is that in one version you dont touch the exterior while in the other you do.

 

The result will be the same but with making new variants you are also needing less time to create something in theory.

[Kalen 483]

4 minutes ago, Solomon said:

They are kind of the same, the only difference is that in one version you dont touch the exterior while in the other you do.

Thats a pretty substantial difference.   I see more value in 2 POIs that look different than 2 POIs that look the same but are different inside.   

[Maxley 38]

I mean, if they had they had the time to do something like this, I would definitely agree it would be good. But I am pretty sure they are already putting all their time into making new POI's and improving pre a17 POI's. I don't think the fun pimps have spare time currently to do something like this.

[canadianbluebeer 80]

It won't make any difference if they did something like that.

 

With a finite number of variables, we'd just memorize them all over time.

"Oh, this is the DBL version, so the loot room is over there.."  kind of thing.

 

(more T5 POI would be a good thing though, however they do it)

 

 

[Ramethzer0 85]

The variance in POIs already seems pretty diverse.  Id rather they just keep on making new POI's in lieu of varied regular ones.

 

[Maharin 185]

7 minutes ago, Ramethzer0 said:

The variance in POIs already seems pretty diverse.  Id rather they just keep on making new POI's in lieu of varied regular ones.

 

This, plus they could just toughen up the last room and make it locked, with the easiest point of entry being the one the designer wanted you to use (they do this with a bank, I know, but others would benefit).  And by tougher I mean a lot tougher, especially for the bigger POIs.

[stample 61]

I think a couple variants of the T5 POIs would be enough.  Certainly not every POI.

 

I'd also like to see some "no path" POIs that aren't a rat-in-a-maze type.  They work well for the large POIs with clears (and I get why we need it on the large ones), but there are no POIs that are not suited for clears, and only for Fetch. 

 

I finally went into a Red Mesa, and was dismayed to find it was the old missile silo, revamped to have a "path".  I loved that POI before, because it was large, confusing, and had several ways in and out.  Plus, the loot was spread out, including a good cache in the secret room/hallway.  It was a fantastic POI, and I feel like the 1-path version ruins the immersiveness of it.  I think it would have been a great POI that was tagged for Fetch only, and you had a choice of ways to get to wherever the supplies are.  Without zombie-radar, its easier to surprise players with the hidden walls and closets, etc.  You end up checking them and finding some of them empty, and others not, retaining the feeling of surprise and building tension.  Not to mention if you wake up the sleepers, they'll potentially be coming from multiple directions since there isn't a single path.

 

@Solomon I think there's nothing stopping us from making a variant or two of a T5 POI and having them added to the compo pack.  My main issue, though, is that each POI needs a unique name.  So maybe you have factory_01 and a factory_01a and a factory_01b.  Since that is what is displayed in the quest dialog, it'll be easy to tell them apart for questing purposes.  Obviously not if you're just randomly encountering them in the wild, but I think it highlights a need for TFP to implement localization for POI names.  I'd much rather see "The Crack-a-Book Distribution Center" than skyscraper_02, and it would also allow you to hide variants behind a common name.

Edited November 29, 2020 by stample (see edit history)

[AtomicUs5000 235]

Someone could do this on their own time and share the POI set.