Loot tables adjusted by game day

[Maharin]

Are there any plans to add the ability to adjust loot tables based on game days instead of game stage?  Why?  So you could have games that play more like a real apocalypse would play out.  For instance you could have "old world" loot be less and less likely to be found over time or even have the chance to find any loot go down over time.  If there are no plans to have this as an option would it help if I said please? 

 

Any thoughts on this idea?  It's does not seem possible to fake it as things stand currently, at least at my modding skill level anyway.

Edited October 13, 2022 by Maharin
Changed title (see edit history)

[theFlu]

It would cause all kinds of weird things for server play; new players joining later wouldn't find anything (if based on server day) OR they'd be the main source of "old world loot" (if based on days played). If "old world loot" is limited to "ready-made meals, fresh water and freshly-brewed coffee", it wouldn't effect much either way, so I don't think you mean it like that?

 

Assuming "old world loot" also contains the important things, like weapons, it would create a shifting economy - where you'd rely more on either crafting or trading/questing the later the game has gotten. This would be a neat feature IMO, but I don't think the end game is being planned to support it; they seem to want you looting, looting, looting all thru the game. There should be more refined game play in the "being self-reliant" part of the game for it to really work.

[Telric]

 

14 hours ago, Maharin said:

Are there any plans to add the ability to adjust loot tables based on game days instead of game stage?  Why?  So you could have games that play more like a real apocalypse would play out.  For instance you could have "old world" loot be less and less likely to be found over time or even have the chance to find any loot go down over time.  If there are no plans to have this as an option would it help if I said please? 

 

Any thoughts on this idea?  It's does not seem possible to fake it as things stand currently, at least at my modding skill level anyway.

With a good bit of code, you could write out a single buff that would do this. Using the timeofday requirement check, you could count up a cvar tracker, then use the passive gamestage and use a set operation to be that cvar number. So:

Checks the time on each day:
<requirement name="TimeOfDay" operation="Equals" value="2359"/>

 

Adds to the cvar (after setting it before hand):
<triggered_effect trigger="onSelfBuffUpdate" action="ModifyCVar" cvar="LootstageDay" operation="add" value="1"/>

 

Sets the gamestage to be equal to lootstageday:
<passive_effect name="GameStage" operation="base_set" value="2">
            <requirement name="CVarCompare" cvar="LootstageDay" operation="Equals" value="2"/>
</passive_effect>

You'd need to look into the timing of the update tick so it doesnt happen twice while the game time is at 11:59... or you could add a second buff that's applied as a cooldown, and then another requirement check to nothasbuff.

[Maharin]

I used the phrase "instead of" but I think I really meant "in addition to / or instead of".  No point in it being an either/or scenario.

[Weazelsun]

That would be an interesting way to play. 

[SylenThunder]

Difficulty used to scale by game day instead of by player stages. It had an extremely negative impact on multiplayer. Especially on dedicated servers. No one could join a server that had been up a while else they would get creamed by the higher difficulty zeds.

You would end up with a similar scenario by attributing loot quality to it.

[Maharin]

9 minutes ago, SylenThunder said:

Difficulty used to scale by game day instead of by player stages. It had an extremely negative impact on multiplayer. Especially on dedicated servers. No one could join a server that had been up a while else they would get creamed by the higher difficulty zeds.

You would end up with a similar scenario by attributing loot quality to it.

 

I was thinking more of the day being a factor in what kinds of loot get found and at what probabilities.  Not so much the quality of the items found.  Though, if you consider higher tiers as higher quality then I see your point.    Also, I'd be perfectly fine with it having no impact on zombie difficulty or anything else other than loot probabilities.

 

I'd still like the option of making adjustments based on game day even if the default experience does not use it.  I'd like to think of it as more of a scenario enabler so you could have games like scenarios in Project Zomboid when the water or electricity get shut off after so many days.  If someone really wants a challenge then turn on the game day option and set the day to 100 or whatever.