Abby's Grab Bag Extravaganza List o' Suggestions

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

Bullet point format goooooooo

  • Hauling frame exoskeleton suit without the power armor requirement. Just a steel-reinforced pneumatic frame like you see in Aliens, aka the Caterpillar P-5000 Work Loader. This would be a civilian version of the Power Armor, replacing armor/electronics with additional storage. It’s a big, bulky industrial exoskeleton suit. I’m thinking stats like:
    Environmental Prot: 3
    Storage: 240
    Encumbrance: 10 (5 when powered)
    Covers: Torso Arms Hands Legs Feet
    Armor: 10 bashing, 10 cutting
    Grants +2 Strength when activated, activating requires a UPS. Also works with the UPS bionic as well as the power armor bionic. Also gives -4 to hit for all attacks except basic hand to hand (ie punching).

  • More stuff with graphene. Currently graphene is on the cusp of becoming one of the most incredible materials ever made by mankind. All it’s lacking is research as to what it can actually DO, and mass production methods, both of which should be easily discovered by Cataclysm’s timeframe. Graphene is 200 times stronger than steel and much lighter, and as a 2-dimensional crystalline material has a wide variety of unique and useful properties - full-size HD televisions that can be folded up like a blanket and stuffed in your pocket, transistors on the atomic scale (HP recently made a graphene transistor that’s 10 atoms wide. yes, ATOMS), vehicle components that are impervious to everything but nuclear weapons, clothing inserts that are immune to small arms fire… Most of these things already exist today, they’re just insanely expensive due to the graphene production process. Superalloy? A good start, but we already have that. Isn’t this the future?

  • Why are all the drugs the same as we see today? Xanax, oxycodone? New drugs are developed literally every day, old ones are discarded on a constant basis, new side effects are discovered (I’m a pharm tech FYI). One of the biggest developments in pharmaceuticals would be manipulating amide/carbon chain molecules to remove side effects like addiction from morphine. A related suggestion: the drugs in game are written both with generic and brand names, and brand names change between countries. The generic name of Xanax is alprazolam. Also: drugs in pharmacies come in jugs of hundreds, not 10 at a time, and the narcotics and controlled drugs are always locked in a secure safe/drawer, not just on a shelf.

There should also be warning messages when you’re starting to overdose, rather than just “your heart stops”, you should start shaking, puking, falling unconscious, etc. Almost never is a medication OD just instant death. Some drugs also badly interact with others, and some are perfectly safe (ie. warfarin + aspirin = massive bleeding).

  • For the love of crap why make flowers and shrubs damage armored vehicle parts?? I know this has been in for a while now but it’s Not Fun At All and totally pointless. I can’t even mod around it without boosting all the vehicle part health to insane levels or editing the source code.

  • Smashing a vehicle with high (20+) strength should smack it away like the hulks now do

  • Ability to create sandbags and sandbag walls. Gunshots have a 50% chance of smacking into a sandbag wall and damaging it slightly instead of going through, crawling zombies can’t get past, and zombies have to climb over like a window frame. A full sandbag should weigh a lot and be massively bulky.

  • More industrial vehicles! Backhoes, street sweepers, garbage trucks, snowplows, 18 wheelers full of crates of bananas

  • Proper military bases with airfields, barracks, firing ranges, etc. Could be overtaken by zombies, left fallow and filled with plants, or inhabited by the army/raiders/automated robots.

  • EOD armor (bomb squad gear), as well as SWAT equipment. Though perhaps robots would have taken this job by now, I’m sure there’d still be ‘legacy’ equipment in storage.

  • Controllable commercial and military drones. One-time-use item that lets you pre-map a large radius, and mlitary drones let you clear out a % of all zombies in a small area (ie. take out half the zombies in an upcoming town).

  • Zoos. Zombie hippos! Zombie giraffes! Skeletal elephants!

  • Being able to save, load, breed, harvest from tamed animals. Any suitable animal should be rideable, such as cows, horses, or moose, if properly trained. Taming should be a skill representing your experience at dealing peacefully with wildlife. The dog food/cat food thing is dumb as bricks, why can’t I find a farm and make bacon out of abandoned pigs?

  • Allow NPCs and friendly animals to get into vehicles with you.

2

Regarding drugs, newer antipsychotics, at least, are probably called for. I don’t think chlorpromazine (Thorazine) is the first-line treatment for schizophrenia any more. Atypical antipsychotics have been in use since the 70s.

3

there is a lot in here that i like. namely:

More stuff with graphene
didn't knew about it, but a quick google search shows its interesting...
the drugs in game are written both with generic and brand names, and brand names change between countries
better to use the generic names. also interactions between drugs would be interesting and appropriate.
Ability to create sandbags and sandbag walls
fortress base ftw 
More industrial vehicles
Proper military bases with airfields, barracks, firing ranges, etc. Could be overtaken by zombies, left fallow and filled with plants, or inhabited by the army/raiders/automated robots.
either as a place to loot, or as faction bases and interwined with the (not yet implemented) faction politics, it sounds awesome. "hello survivor, we have a job for you: go steal the turbojet aircraft engine from the other faction's base, then booby trap their vehicles"
Zoos. Zombie hippos! Zombie giraffes! Skeletal elephants!
deathtraps! the animals have escaped and while you are thinking on how to tackle the charging z-elephant, a z-alligator eats your feet.
Being able to save, load, breed, harvest from tamed animals. Any suitable animal should be rideable, such as cows, horses, or moose, if properly trained. Taming should be a skill representing your experience at dealing peacefully with wildlife. The dog food/cat food thing is dumb as bricks, why can't I find a farm and make bacon out of abandoned pigs?
nice one, but requires quite a lot of coding i believe...
4

[quote=“Abbysynth, post:1, topic:7532”]* Hauling frame exoskeleton suit without the power armor requirement. Just a steel-reinforced pneumatic frame like you see in Aliens, aka the Caterpillar P-5000 Work Loader. This would be a civilian version of the Power Armor, replacing armor/electronics with additional storage. It’s a big, bulky industrial exoskeleton suit. I’m thinking stats like:
Environmental Prot: 3
Storage: 240
Encumbrance: 10 (5 when powered)
Covers: Torso Arms Hands Legs Feet
Armor: 10 bashing, 10 cutting
Grants +2 Strength when activated, activating requires a UPS. Also works with the UPS bionic as well as the power armor bionic. Also gives -4 to hit for all attacks except basic hand to hand (ie punching).[/quote]
I can put on 2 survivor duffel bags and I will have more storage for same encumbrance - only on torso instead of all over. Rethink it.

You can’t make graphene without incredibly high-tech machinery. Working factories are so far out of scope you won’t be seeing them in mainline.

Because medics are still seeing 40-year-old drugs in use because newer ones are too costly, unavailable, or lost effectiveness or desired side effects along with undesired side effecs. Maybe if you’re forced by something to move on, then they’d not be seen.
Game’s set in United States of America and currently-used drug names are iconic enough, I think, since dayquil and nyquil ARE renamed, nothing was stopping whoever did that to rename xanax as well.

Bad drug interaction would likely be a bit too much coding, though it would be nice to see “alcohol + certain drugs = ded”.

They can only hit wheels.

20 strength is people like I-forgot-the-name guy who bends out of forged steel and can hold down two sports bikes at maximum engine power. He’s still not going to cause any vehicle but a bike to be smacken away if he hits it, the construction will bend instead.

{ "type" : "construction", "description" : "Build Sandbag Wall", "//": "Step 1: Build sandbag barricade", "category" : "CONSTRUCT", "difficulty" : 0, "time" : 60, "components" : [ [ [ "bag_canvas", 2 ] ], [ [ "material_sand", 20 ] ] ], "pre_special" : "check_empty", "post_terrain" : "f_sandbag_half" },{ "type" : "construction", "description" : "Build Sandbag Wall", "//": "Step 2: Finish the sandbag wall", "category" : "CONSTRUCT", "difficulty" : 0, "time" : 90, "components" : [ [ [ "bag_canvas", 4 ] ], [ [ "material_sand", 40 ] ] ], "pre_terrain" : "f_sandbag_half", "post_terrain" : "f_sandbag_wall" },

Army is evacuated. Raiders or robots yes, and military outposts are basically crying for a revamp.

Don’t think there’s such thing as “explosion resistance”, but you’re still free to write one as you see fit.

Erm. What’s lore’s position of blobbing VERY LARGE animals like those listed?

5

@Barhandar
Two survivor duffel bags cannot be turned on with a UPS granting you +2 strength, so I don’t see why the exoskeleton suit shouldn’t be a thing. Also, you could at least make a recommendation for changed stats if you don’t like the ones suggested in the OP, rather than just saying, “no good” and moving on.

6

[spoiler=Answer Breakdown goooo!]

I’m not so sure about the +2 STR and -hit to attacks, but some sort of civilian heavy-working suit could definitely go in if it isn’t already.

* More stuff with graphene.
Cata is mostly "around the corner" style futuristic. As such I'd totally be willing to see some more advanced stuff with graphene (top tier power armor is already pretty similar) but I'm not so certain we'd be seeing it everywhere, especially if they haven't totally cracked a production process. (Similar things have happened tons of times in real life, where some unforeseen problem slows down utilization of a new technology. Heck, we've had the ability to make gasoline equivalents out of CO[sub]2[/sub] in the atmosphere for years now, but it's still way short of the mass production level).
* Why are all the drugs the same as we see today? Xanax, oxycodone?
Mainly so that the majority of players (who live in the US) can more easily recognize them and their effects. This is also why sometimes we use the Brand name and other times the generic. Eventually we'd like to add a few more new "Cata" drugs that have new effects. The pharmacies thing is a pretty easy change to make, just waiting on someone to go in and make it.
There should also be warning messages when you're starting to overdose, rather than just "your heart stops", you should start shaking, puking, falling unconscious, etc. Almost never is a medication OD just instant death. Some drugs also badly interact with others, and some are perfectly safe (ie. warfarin + aspirin = massive bleeding).
Definitely planned for the overdose warnings, it's just waiting for someone to get around to it. Interactions, on the other hand, are tricky business since you either need to hardcode them (thus reducing moddability) or come up with some good way of displaying and handling them in the JSON files. Add into that the exponential nature of interactions (where adding a single new item to your set of N items can add a potential of N new interactions) and you see why it's not in yet. It's just a whole lot of work to set up for relatively little gain.
* For the love of crap why make flowers and shrubs damage armored vehicle parts?? I know this has been in for a while now but it's Not Fun At All and totally pointless. I can't even mod around it without boosting all the vehicle part health to insane levels or editing the source code.
Is this in the latest experimental? IIRC flowers should only be potentially damaging against tires and both of them shouldn't be causing any real damage against armored parts. Vehicle vs. furniture/terrain collisions are always in a bit of a balance flux, so there are times when the balance goes a bit far in one direction or the other.
* Smashing a vehicle with high (20+) strength should smack it away like the hulks now do
Hulk smacking vehicles is a relatively new thing in the experimentals. As such stuff like this is almost certainly going to go in, but it's just waiting on a dev to add it.
* Ability to create sandbags and sandbag walls. Gunshots have a 50% chance of smacking into a sandbag wall and damaging it slightly instead of going through, crawling zombies can't get past, and zombies have to climb over like a window frame. A full sandbag should weigh a lot and be massively bulky.
I don't know if the bullet thing is properly handled in the JSON files yet (though it should be eventually) but other than that this is all stuff in the JSON. Cook up a PR and send it in, we're sure to merge something like this.
* More industrial vehicles! Backhoes, street sweepers, garbage trucks, snowplows, 18 wheelers full of crates of bananas

  • Proper military bases with airfields, barracks, firing ranges, etc. Could be overtaken by zombies, left fallow and filled with plants, or inhabited by the army/raiders/automated robots.

  • EOD armor (bomb squad gear), as well as SWAT equipment. Though perhaps robots would have taken this job by now, I’m sure there’d still be ‘legacy’ equipment in storage.


Similar thing, just waiting on someone to cook up a PR and send it in, though I’m pretty sure SWAT armor is already in the game.

* Controllable commercial and military drones. One-time-use item that lets you pre-map a large radius, and mlitary drones let you clear out a % of all zombies in a small area (ie. take out half the zombies in an upcoming town).
I could see something similar going in, but it would probably be a fair bit more involved than just a "press A to kill 20% of all zombies ahead" type thing.
* Zoos. Zombie hippos! Zombie giraffes! Skeletal elephants!
Once again, just waiting on a PR from someone.
* Being able to save, load, breed, harvest from tamed animals. Any suitable animal should be rideable, such as cows, horses, or moose, if properly trained. Taming should be a skill representing your experience at dealing peacefully with wildlife. The dog food/cat food thing is dumb as bricks, why can't I find a farm and make bacon out of abandoned pigs?
This one is a little farther off. Basically we need the ability to properly handle all enemies statically on the map, tracking them when they aren't near the player, instead of just dynamically spawning them in. We also need a good way to separate trapped animals (which can't wander around) from those that are running wild. It's something that is on the list, and is definitely getting closer, but is probably still a fair ways off.
* Allow NPCs and friendly animals to get into vehicles with you.
This one is an averagely low branch to reach, but would probably still require a little work. Once again though, just waiting on a PR from someone who decides they have the time and effort needed to make it happen. :)[/spoiler]
7
Is this in the latest experimental? IIRC flowers should only be potentially damaging against tires and both of them shouldn't be causing any real damage against armored parts. Vehicle vs. furniture/terrain collisions are always in a bit of a balance flux, so there are times when the balance goes a bit far in one direction or the other.

Quite a few experimentals ago (still after the latest stable) I had a character with a semi, but I abandoned it because several parts in the front, including heavy frames, kept taking damage from shrubbery. It was minor from one bush but it added up quickly.

My current character has a modified hummer (Heavy frames + Composite armour) and it seems to be taking a lot less damage. I haven’t had much time to play though and I did drive over a couple zombies aswell so I’m not sure if the bushes still do damage.

Similar thing, just waiting on someone to cook up a PR and send it in, though I'm pretty sure SWAT armor is already in the game.

Some elements of the SWAT armour are in, though I’d say it’s more generic police riot gear, which is fine. There is some crossover between heavy police gear and military equipment.

8

There are SWAT suits already and have been in latest stable, IIRC. Thanks, Rivet!

The powerloader adds zero storage (but goes on OK over normal clothing, and gives at most 50% coverage). I have the Aliens: Special Edition DVD. It’s a forklift with arms/legs rather than a fork and wheels. Try +30 or +40 ST, -5 DX, and 50% move cost increase. (Alice the milspec exosuit from AvP2 had zero storage and similar speed, but came with the equivalent of a RPG, a minigun, a flamethrower, and a laser pistol.)

You want the exoskeleton from STALKER, that’s another story.

9

YES STALKER SUITS

10

Slow down player to walking speed, ignore weight penalty until double the max weight/double max weight (whichever is easier to implement since they are effectively identical), 2 or 3 encumbrance regardless of being powered (have you SEEN the things? They’re guaranteed to get in your way), and since CDDA doesn’t have miraculous power-out-of-nothing artifacts, make it use batteries. Should be equipable over the normal clothes, though. And called something like “jury-rigged exoskeleton” or “stripped power armor”, in the second case it being the reverse of unpowered PA - joints and required frame, minus all the armor and most of electronics.

11

We do have “salvaged power armor”, which is power armor without the inner bits. But last I checked, salvaged power armor has about a 5 enc on all parts.

12

I love nearly all the suggestions here, apart from the bug that’s fixed.

13

STALKER exoskeleton isn’t PA without inner bits, it’s PA without outer bits.

14

It’s actually heavily armoured on the inside, the standard Radiation Suit boasts remarkable damage resistance, the Exoskeleton is designed to make it easier to wear that and/or carry plenty of supplies on long excursions into the Zone.

So it’s sort of like an inside-out suit of power armour, all the machinery is on the outside for wearer comfort.