The eternal endgame question

[Apocalyptical Survivor]

The bane of so many great games, what to do once you're level capped and fully geared. I'm doing all T5 quests now and I enjoy them, but I'm wondering if there are other plans afoot to add more of an "endgame", more to do? 

 

[Maharin]

Plans?  Yes.  Will they come to fruiting before release?  Maybe, maybe not.  After release, most certainly.

[Syphon583]

Endgames are hard to do without a story. It can be done, but at the moment I'm struggling to think of a game with no story that has a meaningful endgame. There are plans to add a story, and hopefully with that, some sort of endgame, but from what I've read your progression throughout the game will likely not be story-driven. Rather think of the story as bits of lore you'd read in a found note or through random trader/bandit dialogue. This all could possibly change, but I don't think we should count on any sort of story/endgame content until the game is officially released.

[Guppycur]

How about when you reach level x, you get a radio call that says meet at xyz, where a helicopter is waiting and you get on, and it crashes so you lose all your gear, but on a different map. 😃

 

...mostly doable now with the dreaded M word, except for the map swap bit.  That would require M word coding.

[Rotor]

@Guppycur Word!

[Roland]

Even once an endgame event is added and the credits roll, the game will still allow the player to play on in that world continuing to fight blood moon hordes and doing whatever they want. The game over screen will happen and then....you will be allowed to do exactly what you are doing right now forever or start over in a new world and play through it all again.

 

So, for now you could just pretend you fought a big final combat with the Duke and killed him and all his lieutenants surrendered and Noah comes up and places his hand on your shoulder and says, "Now we are free, thanks to you". Then go to the top menu and select credits and stare at those for a bit. Then return to the game and keep on playing in the post credit post apocalypse or start over.

[meganoth]

17 hours ago, Apocalyptical Survivor said:

The bane of so many great games, what to do once you're level capped and fully geared. I'm doing all T5 quests now and I enjoy them, but I'm wondering if there are other plans afoot to add more of an "endgame", more to do? 

 

 

If you are level capped then you are far past any end game TFP or any modder will include in vanilla. Because once you mastered one "class" aka "attribute" learning other attributes does not increase your power level by very much. What you can do as a lvl300 you probably could have done as a lvl80 already

 

Edited August 4, 2022 by meganoth (see edit history)

[Apocalyptical Survivor]

I guess what I take away from the variety of responses here is that it's unknown what if anything will be added in the way of an endgame, and some pessimism at the possibility. But as most of you must be aware, this game is one hell of an accomplishment as is, it's not easy to build what these guys have built, so I give them a LOT of credit for both competence and vision. As developers, they've surely played this game to death and I'm confident that they are very aware of what it feels like to reach the end and experience that "now what" feeling. This is of course in tension with their principal desire to get the thing shipped, and it sure seems like it's close from my perspective, but then A21 seems to present some pretty big changes, so maybe we're just at the start of a new direction. I don't know, but I'm betting that they have some great things in store for us in the future. It's been a long time since I've been as hooked on a game. 

4 minutes ago, meganoth said:

If you are level capped then you are far past any end game TFP or any modder will include in vanilla. Because once you mastered one "class" aka "attribute" learning other attributes does not increase your power level by very much. What you can do as a lvl300 you probably could have done as a lvl80 already

 

I didn't mean to suggest that I'm level 300, I'm far from it, I think around 160 or so. But I've got all attributes maxed, all of the perks relevant to this character maxed, and a lot of extra goodies thrown in for good measure. But I am at that "now what" point and trying to decide between rolling a new character/map (again) or just playing on to see how zombies progress into late game. Either that, or go find another game and come back later, after A21 perhaps. 

[NekoPawtato]

17 minutes ago, Apocalyptical Survivor said:

I guess what I take away from the variety of responses here is that it's unknown what if anything will be added in the way of an endgame, and some pessimism at the possibility.

Roland had a post in another thread where it was mentioned that late-game stuff would be added after the base game is finished (I'm assuming meaning once we're out of early access)

 

  

On 7/25/2022 at 9:18 PM, Roland said:

That will come when post release updates come. The objective now is to polish and refine and finalize everything for what the base game is going to offer that the majority of new players is going to experience. An update that adds content to expand gameplay for Days 50 - 100 would be exactly the type of thing to extend the game once it is finished. You’re asking for version 1.5 while the devs are working on version 1.0. That is the risk of becoming a veteran player while the game is in early access. You play out the whole unfinished base game before it is done and then you have a long wait for them to finish the base game and then start working on extended game updates before you are going to see something new in the end game.

 

thread:

 

[Maharin]

In the end it was all a dream.  A midsummer nights dream.  Damn Puck and all his shadow friends.  I am mortally offended.

 

On a side note, what the hell does "mortally offended" mean?  Is it the final straw in the Great Karen Purge?

[BFT2020]

2 hours ago, Apocalyptical Survivor said:

I didn't mean to suggest that I'm level 300, I'm far from it, I think around 160 or so. But I've got all attributes maxed, all of the perks relevant to this character maxed, and a lot of extra goodies thrown in for good measure. But I am at that "now what" point and trying to decide between rolling a new character/map (again) or just playing on to see how zombies progress into late game. Either that, or go find another game and come back later, after A21 perhaps. 

 

When I get to the point it seems rinse and repeat, I change bloodmoon days from 7 to 1.  Becomes a lot more chaotic, and I think you will see your end'game'  😁

[Kyonshi]

I don't get why some people want an endgame so bad. I mean I do, it can be interesting when it's well written, but I don't get why it's so necessary.

 

The game's in development and they're not at this part yet. I don't feel the game loses appeal for that. The way I see it is that every game I played is the story of one anonymous survivor, who tried it's best to live through these awful times and either died or was able to maintain a seemingly stable life with decent comfort and safety.

 

Some of them were lucky enough to wake up in less constrained conditions (easy game settings, spawn in Forest Biome), others were struck with savage hardships by evolving in a much more hostile environment (Wasteland/Snow biome, nightmare zombies, longer nights). They will never meet each others, stuck in the belief they're the last remaining humans in the world, unless they come across the Traders, who are the sole witnesses of those desperate survivors who visit them once in a while.

[Syphon583]

3 hours ago, Apocalyptical Survivor said:

I guess what I take away from the variety of responses here is that it's unknown what if anything will be added in the way of an endgame, and some pessimism at the possibility. But as most of you must be aware, this game is one hell of an accomplishment as is, it's not easy to build what these guys have built, so I give them a LOT of credit for both competence and vision. As developers, they've surely played this game to death and I'm confident that they are very aware of what it feels like to reach the end and experience that "now what" feeling. This is of course in tension with their principal desire to get the thing shipped, and it sure seems like it's close from my perspective, but then A21 seems to present some pretty big changes, so maybe we're just at the start of a new direction. I don't know, but I'm betting that they have some great things in store for us in the future. It's been a long time since I've been as hooked on a game. 

 

I didn't mean to suggest that I'm level 300, I'm far from it, I think around 160 or so. But I've got all attributes maxed, all of the perks relevant to this character maxed, and a lot of extra goodies thrown in for good measure. But I am at that "now what" point and trying to decide between rolling a new character/map (again) or just playing on to see how zombies progress into late game. Either that, or go find another game and come back later, after A21 perhaps. 

I think half the fun of this game is trying to find different ways to challenge yourself to play differently. I've nowhere near the number of hours as some people, but since starting in A19, I've tried a variety of different playthroughs where I would impose some sort of restriction on myself to force a new playstyle. Whether it's increasing horde night frequency, avoiding traders, living in a certain biome, playing permadeath, different character builds, etc.; there is a lot you could do with just the vanilla game to add variety.

[Rotor]

I think no quest and permadeath is pretty hard even on the second level of hardness.  One mistake and is over.  I havent gotten into the 30s yet.  But I am still larning.

[Maharin]

Endgame... in the end, it's just a game.

[Apocalyptical Survivor]

I agree that this is the risk of playing an early access game and playing it intensely. It's a trade off and, personally, I'm glad I made this particular trade. I've often come back to games I've enjoyed and left, to see what's new. And it's most always fun to start over fresh. In that regard, I'm a true believer that the journey is the reward, so maybe I'll move on and come back and re-take the journey when the landscape is new. Meanwhile, this particular journey has been fun as hell and although I'm not at all complaining, I am disappointed in the same way that I am after finishing a great book. 

[Syphon583]

15 hours ago, Rotor said:

I think no quest and permadeath is pretty hard even on the second level of hardness.  One mistake and is over.  I havent gotten into the 30s yet.  But I am still larning.

It's a challenge for sure. Many think the traders/questing are OP, and in some ways they are, but it all depends on your playstyle and where you find the most enjoyment from the game. I think my record in a no trader run was around day 35ish, and it was a stupid death. Backed myself into a corner when I had a clear path out of the POI 🤦‍♂️

[ErrorNull]

back as a kid, after beating a game, i would play the game again on the next higher difficulty mode (contra, streets of rage, shinobi, ninja gaiden, etc). then replay again until i can beat the highest difficulty. then once i could be that, i would start decreasing the number of lives i get per playthrough, until i need to challenge myself to beat the game without dying. of course not everyone plays video games for the same reason. i play to challenge myself, other gamers play to engage in a story (like an interactive movie), or other play just to chill, or hang out with friends. for now i've only been able to get through to the 2nd week in 7 days with one life in Insane, zombies sprinting all day/night, loot levels at 25% and zero air drops and no loot respawn. it's frustratingly fun lol.

Edited August 8, 2022 by ErrorNull (see edit history)

[Rotor]

22 hours ago, ErrorNull said:

 for now i've only been able to get through to the 2nd week in 7 days with one life in Insane, zombies sprinting all day/night, loot levels at 25% and zero air drops and no loot respawn. it's frustratingly fun lol.

 

Look Ma! A real life Masochist.