Ditches!

[iceball3]

[quote=“gtaguy, post:6, topic:1614”]Nope.

Just nope.

Road barriers maybe, but not ditches.[/quote]Why?

[Justice]

[quote=“iceball3, post:3, topic:1614”][quote=“100Rads, post:2, topic:1614”]In what way would they be useful? Like barriers on the sides of highways/roads?[/quote]I think the idea is that they are an obstacle, rather than a use.
Also we should implement delicious “Sleeping Face Down In a Ditch” effects.[/quote]

Actually, they would be immensely useful to us. I think it’s reasonable to believe the movement cost would be nearly twice that of a window frame.

[iceball3]

[quote=“Justice, post:9, topic:1614”][quote=“iceball3, post:3, topic:1614”][quote=“100Rads, post:2, topic:1614”]In what way would they be useful? Like barriers on the sides of highways/roads?[/quote]I think the idea is that they are an obstacle, rather than a use.
Also we should implement delicious “Sleeping Face Down In a Ditch” effects.[/quote]

Actually, they would be immensely useful to us. I think it’s reasonable to believe the movement cost would be nearly twice that of a window frame.[/quote]Well… considering I personally could jump over/through a ditch in much less time than getting throw shattered glass (do I have parkour expert irl or something?) it would seem a bit less time I think…
Even stumbling into the pit and climbing out of it would be faster than trying to squeeze through a shattered window I THINK.

[Nighthawk]

Screws vehicles over pretty badly unless you’re a good driver, effectively balancing seriously overpowered cars. Add the ability to make them yourself, creating an obstacle that works a lot like shrubs and counters, and you can establish weak defensive measures from zombies.

I see no reason why this should not be implemented.

[kevin.granade]

The plan for nerfing vehicles includes heuristically determining if a vehicle is “offroad capable”, and penalizing speed and giving a stuck chance based on that. Ditches would also be nice, I seperately want to connect together adjacent “pits” into “trenches”. Somehow hadn’t thought of lining non-city roads with ditches though, which is odd as I grew up “in the country” where ditches are completely ubiquitous.

[The_Darkling_Wolf]

Ditches and trenches could go together nicely. A trench is a line of deep pits, a ditch is a line of shallow ones.

[TonicEngine]

One thing I love about this game is the early part when you’re so miserable, stumbling around wearing a dead zombie’s shredded cargo pants, purse full of apples slung over your shoulder, cold and thirsty, covered in bites and scratches. Sleeping in a ditch would round this out perfectly.

[Otaku]

Welcome to Canada, where springtime means potholes in the roads and roadside ditches were invented to catch people who swerved to miss the deer. And probably deer who swerved too. bowling lane gutter for the acutely evasive.

Welcome to Nepal, where it is the season for road widening, hence also the season for ever piping company to dig a few more ditchs to lay pipes, within the city before the roads are remade. This is a reason why there might be ditches in the cities in the cataclysmic future.

[Pthalocy]

That is a good reason. Here in the countryside I think a large part of it is to capture runoff from the spring thaw/meltwater? Both good reasons.

[Wayfarer]

Yeah, water runoff is pretty much the reason for ditches, barriers of course to try to prevent people ending up in said ditch…or bank…or river…or cliff-face-of-death… But in terms of gameplay both would, like you guys have said, balance the OP vehicles and in certain situations provide a bit of following-horde slowing. Though until the player can jump things like ditches, it’s slow us too…

So a +1 from me!

Another thing, if it’s not already in or on the list so to speak, would be “potholes”. Simply shallow (or deep hehe) holes at random points in road pavements. World’s gone to shit, right? No one out there repairing them… Long-term the frequency (and scale) of holes could ramp up, after maybe a season or two (or year) in-game…progressively making the road system very difficult to use.

[TaintedHolyWater]

Thats (runoff) what we use them for around here… but we get seasonal flooding that demands some way to direct it away.

For ditches slowing people down I’d say not much. You can cross an in town ditch at no loss of speed or difficulty (on foot, cars may see some damage); the twelve foot wide and six foot deep ones that flank our highway and the in town ditches flow into to take it out of town? Ya, those will slow you down a bit and wreck a car.

[Pthalocy]

Runoff ditches would ideally have stagnant water, mmm, skeezy drink sources.

A tiny concern of mine would be applying more difficult roads specifically to balance overpowered vehicles. I’d rather fix the vehicle than the world it’s in, if the vehicle is the problem. Otherwise you’re liable to wind up with a different issue, à la “cats everywhere because we tried to fix a mouse problem”.

I still think ditches potholes etc should be added for what they add to the game otherwise, all the same.

[KA101]

Potholes seem like something that would crop up in year 2 or so, after a year’s worth of no road maintenance.

[TheRealTenman]

Potholes seem like something that would crop up in year 2 or so, after a year’s worth of no road maintenance.

AFAIK pot holes are from cars/trucks/deathmobiles going over a dint or crack and making it worse. As it gets larger so does the amount of damage to and from the vehicles.

Although I do want a way to get airborne from a car. 600kph+pothole=disintegrating car.

[Bladerock]

If you remove the ability to customize vehicles, they stop being “overpowered” since the only vehicles that can go through a house without breaking both front wheels and heavily damaging their engines are the rare ones such as military and semi trucks (Cars can barely break one wall before losing both wheels and going yellow on most of their front. Flatbed trucks should be moved to semi rarity since those aren’t common in civilian markets) and player made ones.

Anyway, what are ditches on the corners of highways and long roads gonna do? I’m pretty sure there is barely anything worth killing off of highways to change much, so people will just keep their fast transit up. And potholes are, gameplay wise, the same as the currently scattered vehicle hulks (stuff you need to maneuver around, but ultimately doesn’t change much).

[KA101]

[quote=“KA101, post:20, topic:1614”]Potholes seem like something that would crop up in year 2 or so, after a year’s worth of no road maintenance.

AFAIK pot holes are from cars/trucks/deathmobiles going over a dint or crack and making it worse. As it gets larger so does the amount of damage to and from the vehicles.

Although I do want a way to get airborne from a car. 600kph+pothole=disintegrating car.[/quote]

Yeah–and those dings & cracks also get enhanced by water getting in and freeze/thawing. Hence, worse after Winter.

[The_Darkling_Wolf]

Totally in support of that. More world decay is something I’d love.

I’d rather we don’t end up like The Walking Dead, where several months after the outbreak all of the lawns are still cleanly manicured.

[Bladerock]

[quote=“The Darkling Wolf, post:24, topic:1614”]Totally in support of that. More world decay is something I’d love.

I’d rather we don’t end up like The Walking Dead, where several months after the outbreak all of the lawns are still cleanly manicured.[/quote]
The goo zombies access the old mind of their host and continue to maintain the world, fueled by the memories of the dead.

[Pthalocy]

Oh god the amount of underbrush taking over lawns, yesss. Reminds me of a friend of mine who NEVER cut their lawn. You could find snakes back there. Just little itty garters, but imagine what that would translate to after a world ending.

Mmm, critters. Delicious critters that think @'s are delicious too.

[NamelessHero]

I imagine that there is just a guy riding a lawnmower around in every town, mowing the lawns and zombies. He’s a beacon of hope for us all, and our manicured lawns.