Tier 6 POIs and Misson ideas.

[TheSurvivingDad]

Let me start off by saying that I for one love 1.0, from the new designs to the harder survival challenge it has been a big improvement from alpha 21. I personally at this point have no complaints past the idea of new layouts for tier 6 Quests. One idea that crossed my mind was possibly involving a whole town towards a Quest such as instead of needing to clear vanity tower, you must find hordes of zombies entering the town to try and reach the supplies at vanity tower. maybe even add stops on the way to gain access to the main objective. If anyone has other ideas or inputs I would love to hear them. Cheers everyone and a big thank you to the devs and creators of the game. You all have created amazing survival memories in all of our hearts.

[8_Hussars]

Although there is room for many approaches to game play and lore including yours, Trader Quests in particular have done a massive disservice to players and game play.  Traders have evolved into the only form and focus of progression to the detriment of the sandbox progression and survival aspects of the game.  Many players will never explore a POI without a quest, ever.  Which is kind of sad when you think of it.  Min/Maxing is prevalent in just about any game, but its so easy to do in 7d2d that it takes away form the experience, IMHO.

Certainly, more thematic and serial "quests" could be included, but that strays into RPG which appears to not be a popular direction.

Build a radio station to enable air drops 
Rescue a survivor(s)
Defend a Survivor outpost against a horde
Build widget(s) to escape the area
 

[Mister Forgash]

6 minutes ago, 8_Hussars said:

Trader Quests in particular have done a massive disservice to players and game play.

As much as I love questing, I fear you are correct.

[Suxar]

40 minutes ago, 8_Hussars said:

Many players will never explore a POI without a quest, ever. 

Considering that traders have weakened a bit, this will not happen.

40 minutes ago, 8_Hussars said:

Build a radio station to enable air drops 

Good idea. It's strange that the plane just drops supplies to who knows who. It would be more logical if they were dropped on some kind of radio beacon that the survivor would build.

40 minutes ago, 8_Hussars said:

Rescue a survivor(s)
Defend a Survivor outpost against a horde

I think quests like this will appear with the appearance of bandits. At least I hope so.

40 minutes ago, 8_Hussars said:

Build widget(s) to escape the area

I didn't understand this idea.

Edited yesterday at 02:53 PM by Suxar (see edit history)

[GuardianReaper0]

I’d like to see actual museums for starters. 
 

Large military bases, not just camps.

 

A wasteland POI that looks like a small town that was cratered by a bomb. Lots of underground tunnels with few ways out. Keep in mind the whole town/crater would be the POI. 
 

A combination of mansion and bunker. Civilian themed rather than military. Complete with an underground garden and such.

 

Areas with remnant defenses. Such as auto turrets powered by a solar generator. You can either take them out or figure out a way to the power source.

 

Power plants! I brought this up on another post, but I think special missions to repair and use partial functionality of power plants would be cool. Especially if doing so “created” a new type of zombie that would then spawn in the area.

[AidenwithAnAxe]

Just now, GuardianReaper0 said:

 

Large military bases, not just camps.

 

A wasteland POI that looks like a small town that was cratered by a bomb. Lots of underground tunnels with few ways out. Keep in mind the whole town/crater would be the POI. 
 

A combination of mansion and bunker. Civilian themed rather than military. Complete with an underground garden and such.

 

I love these ideas and absolutely agree with you. honestly one of the better things I have ever heard

[Riamus]

1 hour ago, GuardianReaper0 said:

I’d like to see actual museums for starters. 
 

Large military bases, not just camps.

 

A wasteland POI that looks like a small town that was cratered by a bomb. Lots of underground tunnels with few ways out. Keep in mind the whole town/crater would be the POI. 
 

A combination of mansion and bunker. Civilian themed rather than military. Complete with an underground garden and such.

 

Areas with remnant defenses. Such as auto turrets powered by a solar generator. You can either take them out or figure out a way to the power source.

 

Power plants! I brought this up on another post, but I think special missions to repair and use partial functionality of power plants would be cool. Especially if doing so “created” a new type of zombie that would then spawn in the area.

Museums would require a lot of additional art assets to look like a museum.  That would be great, but I don't think they'll add a bunch of art for one POI and most museum decorations really won't make sense in most other POI.  Still, it would be nice.

 

There are a number of larger military bases.  Red Mesa is one.

 

A POI can only be up to 150x150 in a town.  So you will not get a POI that is the size of a town.  Even in the wilderness, you start to run into problems with POI that are larger than that, though you can get up to about 200x200 before seeing serious problems like part of the POI being cut off.  You could make a lot of regular sized POI that fit a theme and have the town use a special district that only includes those POI and tiles.  That's something you're going to see with custom POI packs (not an option for you, unfortunately) but I don't think you'll see it with vanilla.  The number of POI you need to do this is very large because you need enough for variety and if that is all you have for the entire town, you're going to need dozens in order to not be the same things over and over again, which people don't like.

 

There are a number of POI that could fit that description, though most don't have a garden inside.  But there are mansions with underground areas and some even look like they could be bunkers.

 

I would guess that bandits will give us automated defenses, though that's just a guess.  Note that nothing in the game other than what you craft is powered.  All lights and TVs are unpowered even though they are on.  They are not connected to any power source.  You can use triggers to turn stuff on and off and maybe that could work with turning something off if you destroy a specific generator.  I'm not certain about that since I haven't messed with the triggers in POI design.

 

Although there is potential to your idea of repairing a building (not just a power plant), I think you'll find a lot of players who would then complain that you can repair that building but nothing else.  Is it worth making one building repairable without making everything else repairable?  I don't really think so.  The closest I think you'd get in vanilla is what they already have with restore power quests.  Those can work on any POI that is set up for it.  But it's only about that quest and is pretty generic.

[GuardianReaper0]

1 hour ago, Riamus said:

Museums would require a lot of additional art assets to look like a museum.  That would be great, but I don't think they'll add a bunch of art for one POI and most museum decorations really won't make sense in most other POI.  Still, it would be nice.

 

There are a number of larger military bases.  Red Mesa is one.

 

A POI can only be up to 150x150 in a town.  So you will not get a POI that is the size of a town.  Even in the wilderness, you start to run into problems with POI that are larger than that, though you can get up to about 200x200 before seeing serious problems like part of the POI being cut off.  You could make a lot of regular sized POI that fit a theme and have the town use a special district that only includes those POI and tiles.  That's something you're going to see with custom POI packs (not an option for you, unfortunately) but I don't think you'll see it with vanilla.  The number of POI you need to do this is very large because you need enough for variety and if that is all you have for the entire town, you're going to need dozens in order to not be the same things over and over again, which people don't like.

 

There are a number of POI that could fit that description, though most don't have a garden inside.  But there are mansions with underground areas and some even look like they could be bunkers.

 

I would guess that bandits will give us automated defenses, though that's just a guess.  Note that nothing in the game other than what you craft is powered.  All lights and TVs are unpowered even though they are on.  They are not connected to any power source.  You can use triggers to turn stuff on and off and maybe that could work with turning something off if you destroy a specific generator.  I'm not certain about that since I haven't messed with the triggers in POI design.

 

Although there is potential to your idea of repairing a building (not just a power plant), I think you'll find a lot of players who would then complain that you can repair that building but nothing else.  Is it worth making one building repairable without making everything else repairable?  I don't really think so.  The closest I think you'd get in vanilla is what they already have with restore power quests.  Those can work on any POI that is set up for it.  But it's only about that quest and is pretty generic.

Museums would be a great way to introduce “cosmetic mod” items for many of the existing weapons, as I noted on another post. Like various Glaives and polearms in the spear slot, or maces on the clubs, etc.

 

Right now, there are only dyes that barely make a mark on a lot of weapons, and it would be a good way to expand on “weapons” without adding new weapon trees.

 

As far as the cratered town idea, perhaps doing it as separate POIs TECHNICALLY, but offering “chain” missions that a player would need to do multiple “missions” before being allowed to turn in. 
with the cratered town you would start at one POI which ends at the beginning of the next one. Working your way all the way through results ultimately in a bunker or something that likely couldnt have been found without going through the previous locations.

Even if each POI rewards a key perhaps, which with all of them you can use to access the final one. 
 

Could also be used for other areas too.

[zztong]

5 hours ago, GuardianReaper0 said:

Large military bases, not just camps.

 

While I might disagree with the notion of there being multiple military bases... The USAF bases I was on would fill an 8k map, or more, but in 7d2d fashion you'd scale it back. So maybe, but I think one on a map would be an accomplishment...

 

3 hours ago, Riamus said:

A POI can only be up to 150x150 in a town.

 

... a military base is essentially a town. If you were to make a LOT of military POIs and the requisite Tiles, you could define a "Military Base" settlement.

 

The complication is that you will likely want a perimeter around your base. If you define a District to wrap around your base, you might get close, but you won't necessarily know where the walls should be on a tile such as an Intersection, which could be rotated any which-way. Maybe if you experiment some and get clever with destroyed parts of the walls, you could make this work.

 

It would take a great deal of time and effort to make a military base settlement. Folks underestimate how many POIs it takes to support a decent settlement that has variability. I might even be tempted to argue the game doesn't yet have enough variability when it comes to POIs as players are really, really good at becoming familiar with the layouts.

[Riamus]

3 hours ago, zztong said:

 

While I might disagree with the notion of there being multiple military bases... The USAF bases I was on would fill an 8k map, or more, but in 7d2d fashion you'd scale it back. So maybe, but I think one on a map would be an accomplishment...

 

 

... a military base is essentially a town. If you were to make a LOT of military POIs and the requisite Tiles, you could define a "Military Base" settlement.

 

The complication is that you will likely want a perimeter around your base. If you define a District to wrap around your base, you might get close, but you won't necessarily know where the walls should be on a tile such as an Intersection, which could be rotated any which-way. Maybe if you experiment some and get clever with destroyed parts of the walls, you could make this work.

 

It would take a great deal of time and effort to make a military base settlement. Folks underestimate how many POIs it takes to support a decent settlement that has variability. I might even be tempted to argue the game doesn't yet have enough variability when it comes to POIs as players are really, really good at becoming familiar with the layouts.

I've only been on one military base (an air force base) as far as I can remember, and I was a kid then.  I also only saw basically the runway and hangar area, so I don't have experience on an actual military base and exploring it.  But yeah, they are usually very large if you're talking about the entire base.  I was thinking more about single building complexes, so yeah, not quite the same thing.

 

As far as making an entire base, you'd need a LOT of new POI and would probably want a lot of new tiles as well.  It could certainly be done, but I wouldn't expect anything like that in vanilla.  Large POI are one thing, but doing an entire military base that can take an entire map (like a mega city) isn't likely.  But maybe someone will do it as a mod.  Unfortunately, that wouldn't help the OP, who is on console.

 

It would be the same situation as trying to make a POI that looks like a town, which I was commenting on.  You'd need a lot of new POI and tiles to accomplish it... and even more than what you'd need for a small town if you're making a base the size of a map.  Not a simple task.

[Suxar]

9 hours ago, zztong said:

... a military base is essentially a town. If you were to make a LOT of military POIs and the requisite Tiles, you could define a "Military Base" settlement.

 

That's right - it's a city. Large bases usually have their own full infrastructure, including such facilities as schools for children of military personnel. It's a full-fledged city with its own warehouses, power plants, stores, housing, and so on.

[GuardianReaper0]

12 hours ago, Riamus said:

I've only been on one military base (an air force base) as far as I can remember, and I was a kid then.  I also only saw basically the runway and hangar area, so I don't have experience on an actual military base and exploring it.  But yeah, they are usually very large if you're talking about the entire base.  I was thinking more about single building complexes, so yeah, not quite the same thing.

 

As far as making an entire base, you'd need a LOT of new POI and would probably want a lot of new tiles as well.  It could certainly be done, but I wouldn't expect anything like that in vanilla.  Large POI are one thing, but doing an entire military base that can take an entire map (like a mega city) isn't likely.  But maybe someone will do it as a mod.  Unfortunately, that wouldn't help the OP, who is on console.

 

It would be the same situation as trying to make a POI that looks like a town, which I was commenting on.  You'd need a lot of new POI and tiles to accomplish it... and even more than what you'd need for a small town if you're making a base the size of a map.  Not a simple task.

I’m not asking for a realistic sized base (the size of a city). 
 

It’s about scale, really. CURRENTLY, the military locations are only one POI, usually off by itself.

The “towns” are usually 6-10 POI, and “cities” are anywhere 10+ POIs.

 

To make a “military base”, I’d say treat it on the scale of a town, 6-10 POI. 
- Armory

- Firing Range

- Barracks

- Operation Control

- Medical Center

- Motor Pool

- etc.

 

Don’t get me wrong, Red Mesa and others are cool and all, but I think “bases” that can take the place of towns here and there would really help the game.

[Riamus]

1 hour ago, GuardianReaper0 said:

I’m not asking for a realistic sized base (the size of a city). 
 

It’s about scale, really. CURRENTLY, the military locations are only one POI, usually off by itself.

The “towns” are usually 6-10 POI, and “cities” are anywhere 10+ POIs.

 

To make a “military base”, I’d say treat it on the scale of a town, 6-10 POI. 
- Armory

- Firing Range

- Barracks

- Operation Control

- Medical Center

- Motor Pool

- etc.

 

Don’t get me wrong, Red Mesa and others are cool and all, but I think “bases” that can take the place of towns here and there would really help the game.

You would still need a lot of POI or it will look the same all the time, and when it's replacing a town on your map, people will not want it to look the same every time.  Even as it is, people complain about seeing the same POI in towns in RWG maps, and that's with a lot of POI that can be in them.

[zztong]

2 hours ago, GuardianReaper0 said:

To make a “military base”, I’d say treat it on the scale of a town, 6-10 POI.

 

If you can envision it as a 150x150 Tile with a defined perimeter, you could arrange for probably 6-10 25x25 POIs to land in it. At that scale, a designer could hit that goal in a reasonable amount of time, probably 6-12 months if you desired meaningful variety for those POIs.

[warmer]

If there was a way to transfer your character and all inventory to a new custom map via some type of fast travel (loads a 1k map area for a mission) I think this would be super cool. I am thinking something similar to "Zero Sievert" where you get a mission and need to travel to the "mission load" zone which teleports you to a new map and then you have x time to complete the mission and return the to extraction zone.

 

If we had something like this in 7d2d our custom mission/quest capabilities would be endless

[zztong]

4 hours ago, warmer said:

If there was a way to transfer your character and all inventory to a new custom map via some type of fast travel (loads a 1k map area for a mission) I think this would be super cool. I am thinking something similar to "Zero Sievert" where you get a mission and need to travel to the "mission load" zone which teleports you to a new map and then you have x time to complete the mission and return the to extraction zone.

 

If we had something like this in 7d2d our custom mission/quest capabilities would be endless

 

You can transfer characters between maps manually, but I have been a fan of various ideas/suggestions about traveling between maps.

 

I'll quibble slightly with the conclusion. Our quest capabilities would not be endless. You still have to have people create them. The possibilities could be said to be endless, but that would also be true if we were talking of an infinite range of possible POIs that could be created for current maps.

 

That said, virtual instances for a mission (as done by some MMOs), depending on how it was implemented could potentially lead to performance gains. For instance, perhaps they could run in their own game loop on a different core, CPU, or even on a different computer.

[Riamus]

Ugh.  I definitely am not a fan of instance dungeons.