What do you think about Trader Joel getting a new specialization?

[Survager]

Hello survivors.
I want to share with you in this post my reasoning regarding the specialization of some traders.

The game now has three global types of items, which are divided into the following categories: medicines, food, vehicles, as well as weapons and armor.

 

But there is another type that has been ignored. This is the subject of construction and tools.

 

Building in the game takes a very important place. And the fact that there is no trader in the game who specializes in building materials and tools is, in my opinion, a big omission.

 

After watching the third stream of developers and reviewing the locations of traders Joel and Hugh, I came to the conclusion that these guys are selling the same type of product.

 

 

 

Both traders at the base are equally represented as weapons and armor.

 

In my opinion, trader Hugh could sell both weapons and armor.

 

But Trader Joel, who built his base with his own hands, and only by this personifies the builder, could do everything related to construction.

 

 

He could trade in building materials, all kinds of fossil resources (stone, iron, lead, coal...), as well as tools for their extraction and tools for scrapping (wrenches, ratchet wrenches, axes, pickaxes...)

 

This would give players the choice to go to the mine for 2 days and mine for resources, or to do quests and build.

 

Conclusions: I propose to make Trader Hugh, those who will deal with military topics (weapons and armor)

 

And Merchant Joel should deal with the subject of construction and tools.

 

What do you think of it? Write your opinion.

 

Maybe if you like this change and this topic becomes popular, maybe the developers will listen and make this minor change to the system of traders in the game.

 

Thank you for your attention.

 

P.S.: Another reason for this change is that my index finger gets very tired when mining resources, and in general this is the most boring part of the gameplay in the game

Edited May 1, 2023 by Survager (see edit history)

[BFT2020]

Based on their trader file descriptions right now (A20):

 

• Jen - specializes in medicine
• Hugh - Guns and ammo
• Rekt - Food and farming supplies
• Bob - Tools and vehicle parts
• Joel - Armor

It will be interesting to see how the specializations roll out for A21, but I think it is a bit early of talking changes since we haven't seen the A21 release yet.

[Survager]

Joel (on this forum as @madmole) loves to build castles, so Trader Joel must be a builder! )

[Ramethzer0]

I think it's too early to decide what this means.

[Survager]

6 hours ago, Ramethzer0 said:

I think it's too early to decide what this means.

 

I've heard the proverb: "Better sooner, or later it may be too late" 😉

[Crater Creator]

They may or may not feel that Joel is the best fit, in which case I’ve prepared some concept art.

[meganoth]

Don't want to sidetrack the subject but it occured to me that the quest rewards should be skewed to the trader specialization as well. That way looking for a trader and relocating to the right one when you are looking for something specific would be even more important

 

[Ramethzer0]

17 hours ago, Survager said:

I've heard the proverb: "Better sooner, or later it may be too late" 😉

 

Too late for what, exactly?  Nothing is set in stone at this point, and rarely has it ever been.  So I more or less come from the arena of  'if it aint broke, don't fix it.'

Making a quick judgement based upon the hypothetical particulars just seems premature to me at this point, without actually having seen how the chips fall in the practical sense.

 

It's okay to have opinions on stuff, but for me the jury is still out.

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by Ramethzer0 (see edit history)

[Survager]

2 hours ago, Ramethzer0 said:

Nothing is set in stone at this point, and rarely has it ever been.

 

I do not think that the developers will notify us when the moment "set in stone" comes) And it's never too early to propose an idea that the developers may write down for themselves for discussion )

[Old Crow]

5 hours ago, meganoth said:

Don't want to sidetrack the subject but it occured to me that the quest rewards should be skewed to the trader specialization as well. That way looking for a trader and relocating to the right one when you are looking for something specific would be even more important

 

 

This would be a great idea and would make a lot of sense. Though maybe have all of them offer some ammo still as a reward option, along with items geared towards their specialization.

[Riamus]

7 hours ago, meganoth said:

Don't want to sidetrack the subject but it occured to me that the quest rewards should be skewed to the trader specialization as well. That way looking for a trader and relocating to the right one when you are looking for something specific would be even more important

 

 

1 hour ago, Old Crow said:

 

This would be a great idea and would make a lot of sense. Though maybe have all of them offer some ammo still as a reward option, along with items geared towards their specialization.

 

Quest rewards based on the trader's specialization would be a great idea.  I just wonder about the feasibility of doing that.  If they are skewed slightly, then that wouldn't be a problem but would also maybe not even be noticed by players, so is there a point in doing so?  If they are skewed a lot, then do you end up without ammo or without weapons or tools or armor depending on the trader?  What if the map doesn't have all the different traders on it?  Do you suffer because you'll always be skewed greatly to certain rewards?  I think that although this is a great idea, implementing it would need real care in balancing it.

 

If you chose 2 rewards, where one is a specialized reward you can only get from that trader and one is a general reward that you could get from all traders, then that could work very well.  But it also means a significant change to how rewards are given.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Riamus (see edit history)

[katarynna]

One way to do it would be one choice amongst the 5 is guaranteed to be of that trader's specialty.

[Old Crow]

5 hours ago, Riamus said:

Quest rewards based on the trader's specialization would be a great idea.  I just wonder about the feasibility of doing that.  If they are skewed slightly, then that wouldn't be a problem but would also maybe not even be noticed by players, so is there a point in doing so?  If they are skewed a lot, then do you end up without ammo or without weapons or tools or armor depending on the trader?  What if the map doesn't have all the different traders on it?  Do you suffer because you'll always be skewed greatly to certain rewards?  I think that although this is a great idea, implementing it would need real care in balancing it.

 

If you chose 2 rewards, where one is a specialized reward you can only get from that trader and one is a general reward that you could get from all traders, then that could work very well.  But it also means a significant change to how rewards are given.

 

Hmm, that's a good point. Maybe a setting for RWG to ensure at least one of each trader is present before duplicating traders?

[meganoth]

You act like a player couldn't survive if no trader had any armor for example. You may not have heard of crafting or looting but I assure you such mechanics are in the game 😉

 

There are players who play without trader. Apart from missing out on the free loot on top of loot missions that just means the loot and equipment is a bit more random than usual.

 

 

[Riamus]

Sure, you can get stuff other ways.  But people play the game in a variety of ways as you mention with the comment about not using traders.  If you limit rewards and make it so you aren't likely to get armor for example as a reward, then you're essentially limiting the playstyle of some players for a reason that, although interesting, isn't really that important of a change for something that can limit some playstyles.  As I said, I do like the idea and if it could be implemented in a way that doesn't limit players who don't ever want to craft and don't buy much at traders and survive only on loot and quest rewards, then it would be an interesting addition.  If it does limit those players, then I don't think any potential value the change could add would be enough to warrant doing so.

 

I had given a possible option - having one reward be trader specific and one reward being generic and you can pick one of each.  The specific one would be better quality than the generic one.  So if you got armor from a generic one, it would be 1-2 tiers lower than if it was part of the trader specific reward.  This would give you somewhat what you're suggesting without creating any limits for certain playstyles.  Of course, as I said, it would require a change to how rewards work and I doubt that would ever happen.  Someone else suggested just having 1 out of the available choice be trader specific and you'd choose as normal.  That would be more likely to be something that might be considered as an option and would work.  Again, the generic options would still give the chance of any of the rewards but would maybe be a lower tier because they are the generic choice.

 

I don't know... there are probably better options that could be thought of to make your suggestion work without messing with anyone's playstyle.  I just don't like the idea of affecting someone's playstyle without a very good reason even if the effect is not what you might consider "serious."  Just my opinion, of course.

[meganoth]

Seriously, you are imagining problems where none are. There may be some outlier maps you would be able to generate (though I don't know if the final RWG won't fix that, who knows) that are minimally different because one type of trader is missing. But every trader has the chance to have all items, he is just specialized to have much more of one type of items. And even if that were not the case, neither trader rewards nor trader stock is essential to playing the game and never was. But looting is and looting provides everything you need, randomly. In the case of armor you might run around with only a quality 3 steel armor in end game because of bad luck at looting, but thats all there is. No destroying of playstyles, no impossibilities.