Granted I know CDDA is primarily a sandbox apocalypse for all of us to goof around in, but I can’t stop from wondering about the feasibility of implementing a sort of gamemode based on a timed challenge for the player to build up to, either pre-selected or randomized from the start, and considering it a “Win” and finished game by getting through this huge final hurdle.
Specifically, something to the effect of having a 2- or 3- year time limit before the [EVENT] occurs, which the player needs to have planned and prepped for and survive until the end of. Possible additional challenge could be that the pending threat is unknown and certain clues might need to be found in the world to determine what to prepare for. [BIG DEADLY EVENT]s could be something to the effect of:
-Mass Drought: Water sources that are not protected and stashed in proper vessels begin to dry up entirely
-Mass Famine: Similar to above, edible materials vanish, and animal species begin to starve and die due to a lack of food sources, meaning the player can no longer rely on normal hunting for sustenance.
-Solar Flare: Going out without proper UV protection inflicts massive damage, most plants wither and die, spontaneous fires erupt around the world, possibly could even break electronic devices due to electromagnetic pulses.
-Zombie/Fungal/Insect/Mutant Swarm: A colossal horde of monsters sweep through the region, making the outdoors almost impossible to navigate without encountering multiple slavering brain-hungry monsters.
-Military Purge: A spec-ops military force has been ordered to purge the entire region of all contaminated flora and fauna, including the player. Routinely spawns a large amount of heavily-armed soldiers and drones to roam the world and possibly pursue the player in such a way as to encourage moving shelters and never staying in the same place too long.
-Meteor Storm: Many random areas in the world begin to spawn small craters from micro-meteoroids indicating the imminent crash of massive meteors in that spot after a few days, which will completely destroy anything within a large radius as they crash to the Earth. Any base, resource stash, or living thing unlucky enough to be there when it hits is utterly destroyed.
Basically, I guess what prompted the thought was playing a bit of FTL and thinking about how the game is always randomized and never feels the same way twice, except for the imminent looming threat at the end (the huge boss ship at the final point) which you need to make sure you’re ready for just in the nick of time.
Am I crazy, or… does this kind of thing sound like it would be fun to mess with to anyone else? Granted there are probably tons of other threats that would make for a fun final showdown, but that’s just my two cents.
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It’s not the direction that the current development team wants for the game, but if you make it optional and you add non-invasive code yourself, something like this might get in.
If you’re just spitballing an idea but don’t know how to implement it yourself, it’s unlikely to happen unless some other programmer volunteers to do it.
While I personally wouldn’t mind it being an option, I wouldn’t want the game remade to accomadate it either. As far as programming/json scripts go, I am crawling at a snails pace with my own atm. 
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I REALLY like the idea of having major challenges that need to be prepared for and overcome, but I would definitely want the game to continue afterward instead of just having a “you win” screen after succeeding in overcoming them.
Maybe make some of them random and semi-regular, starting after a year or two has passed. They would occur every so often, sometimes up to two or three overlapping, but then have a “grace period” where everything returns to relative normal.
Another idea to add to the “BIG DEADLY EVENT” list: Fimbulwinter.
Specifically, I’m thinking of a version of Fimbulwinter similar to the one from The Laundry Files series, shown in the first book, The Atrocity Archives.
Have a reality tear or portal open up somewhere in the overmap that is connected to a dimension which has a MUCH higher entropy state than our own (approaching universal heat death), and as a result energy is being pulled out of our reality into it. The net result on the earth experiencing MASSIVE cooling, causing apocalyptic winter conditions nearby, with the effect steadily spreading outwards. The player would have to either find a way to locate and seal the portal, or adapt to a new permanent super ice-age.
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Would love the endless horde of demons from hell (also called my love-life) laying siege on the map every full moon or lunar/solar eclipse. Makes you prepare for something other than when Steve Buscemi now turned Skeletal Juggernaut busts down your door.
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I do like the idea of a map overlay that determines areas the player has spent a lot of time at (ie: base), puts them on a blacklist and makes dangerous world events occur outside of those.
Giving players a reason to revisit old areas would be cool.
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The issue with the “Military Purge” scenario is that that almost all life on the planet is contaminated already, so that doesn’t really make sense.
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I really like the idea of the UV bit. Zom swarms and fun and all, but environmental challenges are nice ways to add more diverse game knowledge requirements. I might actually take the UV idea bit for PoraComp, something like that would fit right in with the raid system!
Great. That’s all a Rat Mutant like me needs. Does Albino still sunburn through full body clothing?
@mlangsdorf
At the moment I’m just spitballing, but you never know, inspiration can come from the tiniest of sources, and I’m pretty tiny!
@psyxypher
Canonically-speaking, yeah, the planet’s done for, I just figured it might be good for the gameplay on its own. If anything, maybe if it was tweaked to ONLY be military drones, you could explain it away as being someone having tripped the alarms on an automated bot-based purge system from some bunker somewhere and it’s doing it on its own.
@nameless_survivor
I can see what you mean and I guess the idea of getting a [YOU WIN] isn’t the biggest importance as much as just, sort of a goal to shoot for? Just a more specific and concrete point of “Okay, cool, I’ve beaten this established BIG CHALLENGE and can feel good about restarting with a new world if I wanted to” rather than how I sometimes end up bunkered away in a nigh-invincible mini-fortress feeling almost no challenge at all anymore and wondering EXACTLY when I should call it quits without feeling like… y’know, a quitter!
Also, I can’t believe I listed all those extra ideas without throwing in something so simple as [Nuclear Winter] where it’s a whole damn year of deadlier-than-normal winter weather conditions and lengthy spans of darkness.
Agreed, I think future ideas to the game are going to come from 4X games. Including more random global and local events.
Not sure if I should put this here or in the “make terrible suggestions” thread, but…
…some late-game “win” conditions:
BLACK GOO VS GREY GOO
-develop nanomachines
-program them to attack all traces of XE037 on the molecular level
-find a way to seed them throughout the atmosphere and water table
-possibility that the nanos will malfunction and consume all life on the planet
SUMMON THE OLD GODS
-find and decipher ancient relic
-communicate with Perun and Belobog
-convince him that the inter-dimensional invasion is somehow the work of Veles or Chernobog, thus warranting his attention
-call down thunderbolts on the zombie hordes, triffid groves, et al.
-If you hear roosters crowing and hounds baying right before Gjallarhorn blows then, well, you’ve awakened the wrong pantheon.
TO MARS BY A-BOMB:
-Well, things were bad enough already. Now you’ve got nanobots running amok and Fenrir is eating the sun?
-No problem, just rustle up a bunch of nukes, set them off directly under you and ride the explosion straight up out the atmosphere. Let the dead have this planet, the future of our species is in the stars!
-I ain’t joking about nuking yourself off the planet. Scientists at one point really did consider it, and the physics seem to be practical enough.