# Deserts, and how they should have tons of casinos. Vegas Mode

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659>\
**Category:** The Drawing Board\
**Created:** [December 30, 2013, 9:57pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659 "2013-12-30T21:57:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TheGrifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@TheGrifter](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/TheGrifter)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 9:57pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659/1 "2013-12-30T21:57:48Z")

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So, there’s a desert mode now, and something seems missing… This isn’t new england any more. It’s a neutered Nevada. It needs military outposts, and gambling palaces now owned by the undead. Baseball bats in backrooms that come pre-stained with the blood of cheaters and card counters.

Big, beefy thug zombies who work for the management who are now more focused on brains than profit. Tons of money that’s good for nothing but kindling.

And enough drugs, guns, and weirdness to satisfy Hunter S. Thompson.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Except for zombie infection. That shit comes back.

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**Author:** ![anon388770](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e9a140/32.png) [@anon388770](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/anon388770)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659/2 "2013-12-30T22:01:19Z")

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I like this. A lot. Maybe when we have proper NPC’s we could have giant gambling parties and stuff.

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**Author:** ![FunsizeNinja123](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/funsizeninja123/32/118_2.png) [@FunsizeNinja123](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/FunsizeNinja123)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 10:32pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659/3 "2013-12-30T22:32:46Z")

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+1

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**Author:** ![Datanazush](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/datanazush/32/1055_2.png) [@Datanazush](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Datanazush)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 8:29am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659/4 "2013-12-31T08:29:15Z")

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So what you’re going for is basically New Vegas with less people and more zombies?  
I’m on board for that, it’d be nice to actually have to deal with overheating, New England is too cold for my tastes.

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**Author:** ![Binky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f04885/32.png) [@Binky](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Binky)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 1:32pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659/5 "2013-12-31T13:32:57Z")

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I’m not really a fan of turning this into New Vegas with Zombies or having any sort of management/government sort of thing - I don’t think it works thematically, and it’d be a hell of a lot of work coding wise (and I’m pretty sure the devs aren’t wanting to push it that way either).

Possibly there could be bigger NPC camps (as well as military camps) as well as more resource scarcity, which would make it more about battling between/with NPCs - with zombies as just a side problem rather than the main focus. Gambling mini-games and such like could also be added at some point I’m sure - but I don’t think we’ll ever get to the point where it’s New Vegas + zombies.

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**Author:** ![TheGrifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@TheGrifter](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/TheGrifter)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659/6 "2013-12-31T15:05:51Z")

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Not NEW Vegas. Vintage Las Vegas. Untouched by nukes, no Howard Hughes in Cryo-storage. I’m thinking more Martin Scorcese’s Casino, but with brain eaters. Or Fear and Loathing, but that undead grandmother isn’t a hallucination.

Just something that used to be a tourist’s paradise, but now is a death trap. Casino chips worth nothing but plastic chunks to repair safety glasses. So many hotels and crappy kiosks you could wave a stick at. Overpriced restaurants and oxygen bars…

Las Vegas, where every man used to be a king, until the end of the world hit, and everyone stopped pulling the one armed bandit and started pulling chunks of flesh out of each other.

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**Author:** ![Datanazush](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/datanazush/32/1055_2.png) [@Datanazush](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Datanazush)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659/7 "2013-12-31T15:18:50Z")

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The key thing I really want is for the heat to go way up (it’s summer in Australia right now, and some days it’s a killer). The heat is deadly out in the Mojave you know. With a desert map, towns should be further away or smaller, barring the occasional megacity like Las Vegas. Finding reliable sources of water should be difficult when outside of town.

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**Author:** ![Binky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f04885/32.png) [@Binky](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Binky)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 4:47pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659/8 "2013-12-31T16:47:06Z")

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[quote=“TheGrifter, post:6, topic:4659”]Not NEW Vegas. Vintage Las Vegas. Untouched by nukes, no Howard Hughes in Cryo-storage. I’m thinking more Martin Scorcese’s Casino, but with brain eaters. Or Fear and Loathing, but that undead grandmother isn’t a hallucination.

Just something that used to be a tourist’s paradise, but now is a death trap. Casino chips worth nothing but plastic chunks to repair safety glasses. So many hotels and crappy kiosks you could wave a stick at. Overpriced restaurants and oxygen bars…

Las Vegas, where every man used to be a king, until the end of the world hit, and everyone stopped pulling the one armed bandit and started pulling chunks of flesh out of each other.[/quote]

Yeah I think a tourist sort of place with casinos and h/motels would be a great addition, but I think it’d be a lot better to have the desert map a bit more general purpose as I don’t think it was stated anywhere that this was the Mojave desert and we probably don’t want people to start dragging it towards a sort of New Vegas RL which would inevitably happen if we added in an apocalypse style Vegas.

Still, as Datanazush said, desert maps with higher heat and smaller towns, with some big mega-cities (to choose to go into the mega city or die of thirst would be an interesting choice) would make for a really interesting setting.

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**Author:** ![ClaytonRISING](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/claytonrising/32/75_2.png) [@ClaytonRISING](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/ClaytonRISING)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659/9 "2013-12-31T20:45:38Z")

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I see all these key words, “Desert”, “Mojave”, “New Vegas” and now I really want to play Fallout: New Vegas haha.

I really like this idea; I haven’t tried the desert mode myself yet, but casinos sound like an awesome idea by themselves.

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**Author:** ![AtomicDryad](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/atomicdryad/32/85_2.png) [@AtomicDryad](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/AtomicDryad)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 6:36am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659/10 "2014-01-02T06:36:59Z")

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> [@TheGrifter](#):
>
> So, there’s a desert mode now, and something seems missing… This isn’t new england any more. It’s a neutered Nevada. It needs military outposts, and gambling palaces now owned by the undead. Baseball bats in backrooms that come pre-stained with the blood of cheaters and card counters.

It’s a test, hence the name desert\_test. =^.^=

> [@TheGrifter](#):
>
> Not NEW Vegas. Vintage Las Vegas. Untouched by nukes, no Howard Hughes in Cryo-storage. I’m thinking more Martin Scorcese’s Casino, but with brain eaters. Or Fear and Loathing, but that undead grandmother isn’t a hallucination.

Oh that would be great.

[quote=“Binky, post:8, topic:4659”]Yeah I think a tourist sort of place with casinos and h/motels would be a great addition, but I think it’d be a lot better to have the desert map a bit more general purpose (snip)  
Still, as Datanazush said, desert maps with higher heat and smaller towns, with some big mega-cities (to choose to go into the mega city or die of thirst would be an interesting choice) would make for a really interesting setting.[/quote]  
The eventual goal isn’t a ‘the desert’; The stuff desert\_test changes are (some) of the variables that will eventually be determined ala-carte from a bigger regional map. So you could start in Casino Hell - and if you manage to survive - gather supplies, drive through the barren Salton Sea type desert, and try reach the lush woodlands of the coast (not the swamps though. The swamps eat people).

In the meantime, check out data/json/regional\_map\_settings.json and data/json/test\_regions.json. If you want to make a better desert (or a swamp etc), feel free to pr or post here. The forest / swamp variables are obtuse (I’ll be improving that later), but ground cover and shops (even entirely new ones) can be done completely in json. Weather / cities / rivers are next, but I’m somewhat delayed due to holiday\_business, and fixing road generation.

…which is like being mired in a swamp, really.

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**Author:** ![deadmerits](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/deadmerits/32/19_2.png) [@deadmerits](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/deadmerits)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 7:03am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659/11 "2014-01-02T07:03:42Z")

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Edit: AtomicDryad, I read another post which more or less answered this for me. Also found out you’re working on the regions, so thank you for your work.

Regarding the “eventual goal”

I hadn’t heard the “bigger regional map” as the reason for the desert, I thought it was problems arising from the portals, that changed the landscape into several different biomes especially around the portals.

To be honest I don’t keep up with the behind the scenes chatter so much. So am I wrong, has the eventual goal changed to just represent the US from coast to coast?

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**Author:** ![AtomicDryad](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/atomicdryad/32/85_2.png) [@AtomicDryad](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/AtomicDryad)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/deserts-and-how-they-should-have-tons-of-casinos-vegas-mode/4659/12 "2014-01-02T15:51:26Z")

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Regional map is something that’s been at the ‘eventually, we should…’ development state on irc for awhile. I’m leaning towards terrain generation, just at a higher scale and vector based, but a pre-rolled map of the US would be possible.

At scale? That might need another scale above region map. Some numbers, assuming a tile is 1 meter, an overmap is 4.3km:  
Chernobyl exclusion zone: 11.8 x 11.8 overmaps  
Nevada: 60-ish wide  
Ireland: around 100x100.  
Around the world (at equator) 10000x10000 (ish).

Actually _playing_ in all that space might not be so amusing.

…maybe some day if the engine (and vehicles!) get goods enough code-wise ( and someone adds ai controlled [waveriders](https://www.llnl.gov/str/Carter.html) or something).