# A “Deep Cataclysm”-mode
**URL:** https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416
**Category:** The Drawing Board
**Created:** [March 13, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416 "2014-03-13T15:40:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Adrian](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Adrian)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416/1 "2014-03-13T15:40:37Z")
Or a “Weekend-Long-Fallout-Binge”-mode. Where instead of starting the game 48 hours (or whatever the consensus is at the moment) into the Cataclysm, the game would start five years or more into the Cataclysm.
The few unlucky people that didn’t just drop dead at the start of the Cataclysm would have been eaten by zombies, been de-brained by Mi-Go, joined a fungal colony or worse. The few of them that survived would have either banded together into small, fortified settlements or abandoned civilization all together to survive in relative safety far away from others.
Being so far into the Cataclysm would present the player with additional challenges:
Expansive fungal colonies and Triffid groves, ant colonies that grew into hectares and most wildlife dead (and some back up again).
Most towns would have been sacked by survivors, leaving little more than junk to scavenge. The towns that haven’t been sacked in the five years prior would have been avoided for good reasons. [insert your good reasons here]
Five years of isolation and the constant threat of whatever is scratching at the doors would’ve taken it’s toll on people’s sanity, and weak willed survivors would’ve gone mad from it. Because the only thing worse than a psychopath is a well-equipped one.
Although in the end, I think a regular game of Cata should be able to progress into the Deep Cataclysm as a very late-game challenge, as opposed to having it be a separate mode.
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### Author:  [@StopSignal](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/StopSignal)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416/2 "2014-03-13T15:42:57Z")
[quote=“Adrian, post:1, topic:5416”]Or a “Weekend-Long-Fallout-Binge”-mode. Where instead of starting the game 48 hours (or whatever the consensus is at the moment) into the Cataclysm, the game would start five years or more into the Cataclysm.
The few unlucky people that didn’t just drop dead at the start of the Cataclysm would have been eaten by zombies, been de-brained by Mi-Go, joined a fungal colony or worse. The few of them that survived would have either banded together into small, fortified settlements or abandoned civilization all together to survive in relative safety far away from others.
Being so far into the Cataclysm would present the player with additional challenges:
Expansive fungal colonies and Triffid groves, ant colonies that grew into hectares and most wildlife dead (and some back up again).
Most towns would have been sacked by survivors, leaving little more than junk to scavenge. The towns that haven’t been sacked in the five years prior would have been avoided for good reasons. [insert your good reasons here]
Five years of isolation and the constant threat of whatever is scratching at the doors would’ve taken it’s toll on people’s sanity, and weak willed survivors would’ve gone mad from it. Because the only thing worse than a psychopath is a well-equipped one.
Although in the end, I think a regular game of Cata should be able to progress into the Deep Cataclysm as a very late-game challenge, as opposed to having it be a separate mode.[/quote]
This… would be really good, with having a lot more zombies everywhere and very few items, but also while giving the player survivor gear and some skills he supposedly won in those years.
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### Author:  [@kevin.granade](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kevin.granade)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2014, 3:50pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416/3 "2014-03-13T15:50:15Z")
I’m ok with this as a starting option, but it needs a lot of groundwork before it can happen. The good news is the groundwork will be cool too.
Starting location selection (soon)
Large-scale monster biome growth
Rudimentary NPC faction interaction (unless the scenario is you tried to wait it out on your own or you’re the sole survivor?)
large scale disaster shelter areas.
Simulated looting happening in the background.
Once the above are in, it’d simply be a matter of starting the player in a large shelter (optionally with faction connections) with all the biome, looting, etc clocks rolled forward.
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### Author:  [@StopSignal](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/StopSignal)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2014, 3:52pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416/4 "2014-03-13T15:52:32Z")
[quote=“Kevin Granade, post:3, topic:5416”]I’m ok with this as a starting option, but it needs a lot of groundwork before it can happen. The good news is the groundwork will be cool too.
Starting location selection (soon)
Large-scale monster biome growth
Rudimentary NPC faction interaction (unless the scenario is you tried to wait it out on your own or you’re the sole survivor?)
large scale disaster shelter areas.
Simulated looting happening in the background.
Once the above are in, it’d simply be a matter of starting the player in a large shelter (optionally with faction connections) with all the biome, looting, etc clocks rolled forward.[/quote]
And, if you add the so awesome destroyed building, make them x3.
[size=4pt]Please add them ;-;
Really.[/size]
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### Author:  [@Binky](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Binky)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2014, 6:20pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416/5 "2014-03-13T18:20:57Z")
> [@Adrian](#):
>
> Or a “Weekend-Long-Fallout-Binge”-mode.
Great idea, I think moving from standard to deep cataclysm over time should be/is a long term goal, but starting their immediately would allow the testing of such late game systems and be very enjoyable. However, I imagine that it’d take a lot of work, as presumably a lot of things wouldn’t be able to be spawned which are now, and vice versa. Possibly the player could start with better equipment/skills though to balance out the difficulty.
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### Author:  [@FunsizeNinja123](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/FunsizeNinja123)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2014, 8:56pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416/6 "2014-03-13T20:56:29Z")
Ahh… was wondering when someone would bring his up again.
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### Author:  [@Adrian](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Adrian)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 8:13am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416/7 "2014-03-14T08:13:10Z")
> [@Kevin Granade](#):
>
> … all the biome, looting, etc clocks rolled forward.
Is that possible? To scale the spawns etc. with the progression of the in-game clock?
Because that would fix most of my issues with how Cata slowly becomes a sandbox game as the PC learns and grows.
And by slowly ramping up the difficulty the game world would feel much more like the Cataclysm is escalating, and generally just more alive.
> [@Binky](#):
>
> Possibly the player could start with better equipment/skills though to balance out the difficulty.
Dependent on what scenario you’re playing i expect.
If the PC only just got out of a large shelter after having exhausted the food supply meant for 100 people, i’d expect he wouldn’t have learned much survivoring in those five years.
> [@FunsizeNinja123](#):
>
> Ahh… was wondering when someone would bring his up again.
Sorry about that. When i try to search the forum i get 504 Gateway Timeouts.
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### Author:  [@Belteshazzar](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Belteshazzar)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416/8 "2014-03-14T20:53:44Z")
[quote=“Adrian, post:7, topic:5416”]Is that possible? To scale the spawns etc. with the progression of the in-game clock?
Because that would fix most of my issues with how Cata slowly becomes a sandbox game as the PC learns and grows.
And by slowly ramping up the difficulty the game world would feel much more like the Cataclysm is escalating, and generally just more alive.[/quote]
Technically there are already monsters that simply don’t spawn until you’ve survived for a couple seasons, Zombears being the example that comes to mind, I ‘believe’ they don’t start showing up until the first winter?
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### Author:  [@grisamentum](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/grisamentum)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2014, 3:38am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416/9 "2014-03-15T03:38:09Z")
> [@Belteshazzar](#):
>
> Technically there are already monsters that simply don’t spawn until you’ve survived for a couple seasons, Zombears being the example that comes to mind, I ‘believe’ they don’t start showing up until the first winter?
zombears are a day 1 thing for sure
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### Author:  [@Belteshazzar](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Belteshazzar)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2014, 5:05am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416/10 "2014-03-15T05:05:53Z")
> [@grisamentum](#):
>
> zombears are a day 1 thing for sure
Huh, I suppose I’d just heard that and I’ve been lucky enough to believe it so far.
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### Author:  [@KA101](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/KA101)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2014, 7:23am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416/11 "2014-03-15T07:23:14Z")
> [@grisamentum](#):
>
> [quote=“Belteshazzar, post:8, topic:5416”]Technically there are already monsters that simply don’t spawn until you’ve survived for a couple seasons, Zombears being the example that comes to mind, I ‘believe’ they don’t start showing up until the first winter?
zombears are a day 1 thing for sure[/quote]
That’s a Dynamic Spawn thing. Once hordes are in, we’re losing it. I’ll miss Dynamic, too.
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### Author:  [@Adrian](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Adrian)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2014, 12:39pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/a-deep-cataclysm-mode/5416/12 "2014-03-15T12:39:36Z")
I won’t. 🙂
Walls of Zs magically appearing while you’re escaping from another wall of Zs that magically appeared? I can totally miss that.
So long as there remains some kind of punishment for making loud noises or stinking the place up.
Maybe the horse can linger for a while where you’ve been stinking around.