Hey all,
This game is absolutely fantastic, and has eaten my last week. Seriously. I can’t really code, so I wanted to contribute with a list of ideas. I will try to get involved in other ways as well.
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Early survival training. As somebody who spends his time in a city, I end up training my survival by butchering zombies habitually (in case of a necro). I was thinking on this, and in a real-life setting I don’t think I could do it. Butchering a rabbit would be hard enough without training, but a zombie would be too disgusting as it IS still human. I would suggest limiting zombie butchering to Survival 1 and higher. This would make survival training harder, but I think more realistic.
– Speaking of butchering, using a pocket knife on a deer feels… overpowered. Do inferior butchering tools increase the time it takes? If not, they should. -
It has been mentioned before, but televisions are regretfully absent. I would suggest introducing them as an immovable, difficult terrain object that can be smashed into basic electronic supplies. I also think there is a better use of TV:
– Use advanced Electronics skill (2+) to dissasemble the TV into more complex electronics. I find that some items can be hard to find without getting lucky in a lab.
– Set up a couch next to the TV, and allow players to view training/entertainment videos as an alternative to books -
Similarly, stationary radios and music systems could exist. They would be broken into very rudimentary electronics, but could provide noise distraction when turned on
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One more bit of electronics - personal computers. Houses should have computers that can be accessed for random bits of lore and useless info. A few points:
– Computers could be broken (by default and/or through use) and would need RAM and other items to repair
– Laptops could also exist, if you are really lucky to find one
– Random USB drives you find lying around could also contain random fluff/lore
– They could be used for even more advanced training if need be (beyond the usual 6 given by books)
– You could find information in labs to read on a different computer. You could get lucky, and find a USB drive lying around. But nobody is lucky, so you would have to hack into already damaged consoles, survive the chance of electrocution and maybe recover snippets of data.
— You could even have a negative trait of video game addiction, requiring the occassional use of a computer and/or other gaming implements -
Newspapers! They could also have random fluff/background/lore and, more importantly, could be used to set fires.
Potentially, all above electronics could need batteries and/or UPS. This could also open the way for improvized generators to be built, which would take wood/alcohol/rags/other to run. Produce constant smoke, lots of noise, but power things inside the house/shelter.
Also, if the above “extra reading material” are of interest, I could likely recruit my writer/editor girlfriend to produce a large amount of personal records, news snippets and scientific babble to spread around.
Other thoughts:
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Guns are amazing, and remove a lot of the stress of survival (when you get lucky). I was thinking, you know what guns do in real life? They jam
Maybe guns should jam as well, especially depending on their recoil number and recoil status when shooting. -
For liquid carrying, glass bottles are infinitely superior to everything else I have seen. A waterskin has a volume of 6, weight of 8 (I think) and store 6 of a liquid. Similar volume of glass bottles will weigh 3 and store 9 liquid.
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Campfires. I’m SURE this has been discussed to death, but it feels like a more effective campfire could be built with sufficient survival (2+). This would need rocks, wood and kindling (splintered wood, cardboard boxes, paper wrappers, newspapers as per above) and would be used up after some time. This could then be reloaded with some wood and kindling.
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Vehicles - I have only started experimenting with vehicles, but I have read plenty about killdozers everywhere. At the same time, it feels strange to have no cars around. Lastly, I think killdozers are an awesome concept but their awesomness limits cars around. My suggestions are:
— Make regular vehicles deal 1/2 (or less) damage, have 1/2 (or less) health and be likely to be extremely damaged when you find them. However, normal cars and bikes would be more common.
— Starting a car requires good mechanics (2+) or high electronics (3+) to jump-start the vehicle without keys. Maybe cars could have a chance of having keys in them, bypassing this requirement. (33%?)
— Repairing, rebuilding and reinforcing vehicles would bring them to the godlike levels they are at right now -
Sleeping and heat. I have managed to get a handle on the current heat system by keeping a second set of clothes to warm up with. However, the description of sheets talks how they can be used for warmth. Could sheets be made to warm up while sleeping? By either modifying the bed object, wearing the sheet or simply dropping sheet(s) on the bed.
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Wasp nets are underwhelming. I found one, killed about 8 wasps and demolished their paper walls because screw wasps. Their nests should be more convoluted, I think. Maybe paper could obstruct more, but spawn larvae when smashed? Maybe the wasps could inject various larvae into you? (they do that IRL to bugs. It’s horrible.)
I think that’s it for now. I will probably come up with more, as I can’t stop playing. Let me know what you think, and how I can help!