Buy extra starting items

[Someoneman]

Basically, a new tab on the character creation menu labeled “Items” where you can spend skill points on extra items to start with, so you could spawn with guns and ammo, good armor, a big-ass pile of canned food and water, or other stuff like that. This could make the early game easier (for example, for ranged characters, since guns are hard to find at the start).

Currently, one skill point is equal to one level 2 skill, so to be balanced the items would have to be around/slightly above this level of difficulty to obtain.

Another way of doing this would be that one skill point = 2000$ (arbitrary amount, feel free to change) that can be spent on items, so one set of items doesn’t necessarily have to be equivalent to one level 2 skill.

[pisskop]

Id like a more flexible starting rigup, but I think Id rather ‘buy sets of items’ rather than ‘buy items’.

[wad67]

I guess something similar to that of the purchase menu in defense mode.
I’d prefer it if it was not specific, maybe just a few preset ones, should be fairly expensive too.

[Shadow86]

Id like a more flexible starting rigup, but I think Id rather ‘buy sets of items’ rather than ‘buy items’.

I agree. Something like tool set, rifleman kit, hunting gear, and similar bundles of items so that character creation points can more easily apply.

[TooDAMNMuch]

sounds like a cool idea, i just hope if it’s sets of items it’s not random, i doubt i’d play a crap-shoot like that very often.

if i can’t say what i’m getting assigning a value is impossible.

[TheWumpus]

[quote=“TooDAMNMuch, post:5, topic:13034”]sounds like a cool idea, i just hope if it’s sets of items it’s not random, i doubt i’d play a crap-shoot like that very often.

if i can’t say what i’m getting assigning a value is impossible.[/quote]

That’s what’s called, in roguelike terms, !!FUN!!. If that was an option I’d do it every time just to see what would happen.

Note: Active explosives (like C4 with a 30 turn timer or something) would be especially !!FUN!!, as long as they came with a warning “One of your explosive devices seems to have been armed in the confusion!” or something like that.

[Shadow86]

No, the item sets shouldn’t be random “loot boxes”. Nothing is randomized during character creation.

You pay specific amounts for specific benefits to face the game’s randomized challenges.

[Rot]

This seems like a decent suggestion, why not move it to the ‘drawing board’ sub forum

[TooDAMNMuch]

[quote=“Shadow86, post:7, topic:13034”]No, the item sets shouldn’t be random “loot boxes”. Nothing is randomized during character creation.

You pay specific amounts for specific benefits to face the game’s randomized challenges.[/quote]

yeah, agreed, if it’s randomized loot boxes then they’d need to cost less.

actually that might be useful, have a few preset selections plus one or two random choices that follow a specific type of theme, random assortment of electronics parts, foodstuff, metalworking etc more like spare parts to get you started than complete tool sets.

[Lesseps]

That sounds good, the only thing that confuses me is price of items which is now as we all know a bit strange. So probably using money as a counter here is not that straightforward.

[Fourty_two]

I like the idea that you can either choose a random kit for a cheaper prices, or a set item for slightly more.

[RedPine]

At the moment starting items/professions are the same thing. I do like the idea of making starting items a separate category from (most) professions, though, since it would allow more mixing and matching of tools and skills instead of just sticking with presets.

That said, I’m sure this idea has been suggested before, which means it either hasn’t been implemented do to difficulty of coding or design choice.

[Aabbcc]

Something similar has been implemented already, in the defense mode. Granted, those menus are a little dated, but it wouldn’t be starting from scratch.

An interesting possibility is selling profession items you don’t want. Maybe your nicotine addict ran out of cigars before the crash, gets a slightly tougher time at start with the addiction hitting, but managed to nab a tool or weapon on the way to the shelter, or just a winter coat so they can brave the early game cold more easily.

It could also lead to customizable cyborgs.

With professions coming with varying amounts of cash and items having a price, if a nice $/point ratio is found, it could lead to making the point costs of the professions more consistent as a side effect, which would also be nice.