Limited world size?

[Aggregate]

Just want to add, this sounds like a good thing to me, as it effectively adds an ending other than death.

it very much sounds like you’re just going to kill all the zombies before running out of ammo/tools/gasoline/food/etc

[druidniam]

Just want to add, this sounds like a good thing to me, as it effectively adds an ending other than death.

It wouldn’t matter even if you eradicated all the zombies on the planet because the blob is already in the ground water supply, and will eventually start evaporating and raining down once saturation is high enough. Earth is doomed, it’s just a question of how long can you survive before that doom hits you,. That and random portals opening shitting out mi-gos.

[Aggregate]

From a lore perspective yes, but from a gameplay perspective my point stands.
That said, I would very much like to have the world slowly change to show that doom encroaching, to become more dangerous and alien. Things get a little stale after a while.

[druidniam]

Crank up the evolution factor on a worldgen.

[Aggregate]

That doesn’t really work; the monsters don’t evolve enough to actually become dangerous to an endgame survivor.

[proxiehunter]

Aren’t most endgame survivors themselves dangerous and alien posthuman beings? Humanity is over and your endgame character is in most cases no longer part of it.

[psyxypher]

I’d hate a limited world size. Because inevitably I’d run out of a non-renewable resource that a I really need, or be completely unable to find a rare item that I’m desperate to find.

[Aggregate]

Hm, I actually want to run out of resources, to be forced to use alternatives. Being completely unable to find some rare item would be irritating, though.

[dissociativity]

I definitely think with a limited world size, a compromise would be having events happen, maybe like in DayZ, helicopter crash site, ‘you hear a loud crash and see plumes of smoke in the distance’, cue showing it on map, NPCs will find it attractive to loot so you’re likely to encounter hostile NPCs there, and soldier zombies.

Cults spreading, building monoliths, trying to manually create tears in reality, maybe giving NPCs a goal of building houses or smaller shelters in safe places and storing items there.

new tears in reality, resulting in artifacts or other rare items, spawning otherworldly monsters, these rifts open and close with time to prevent the world from being flooded with too many mi-gos, perhaps a way of locating events like these, maybe a high electronics skill frequency detector that points the direction of tears in reality?

A static world size, with events, and mandatory having all overmap specials exist at least once should keep the game fun and fresh.

Events happening in a finite world hardly matter, your world going to shit doesn’t matter if there’s more world yonder.

[dissociativity]

Gameplay-wise, the game feels empty if the world revolves around the player too much, and despite the player having so much control over the world, their impact meaning nothing because they can so easily start anew in another infinite location.

If resources are running out, provide alternatives to manufacture said resources, add similar alternatives to said items in crafting recipes, or more makeshift items?

[Aggregate]

I like these ideas. Events like those would be nice to have even in the standard limitless worlds. Though, a helicopter crashing or rift opening in one’s base wouldn’t be fun. Hopefully should such a system is implemented, they won’t happen in bases or other areas the player has built up.

[druidniam]

OVERMAP_EXTRAS have a chance to spawn when the reality bubble hits a new unexplored chunk. This includes helicopter crashes, craters, unstable portals, drug gangs, dead soldiers, dead scientists, extradimenional creatures, etc.

[Aggregate]

True, but those are things that one stumbles upon, rather than things that happen. And the only ones I still bother stopping for are dead scientists and soldiers.

[Zhilkin]

I’ve prepared test version with new worldgen options. Someone please play test and provide your comments here, on github or on reddit.

Download following archives and unzip to Cataclysm folder, then run Cataclysm-LimitedWorldsize.exe and create new world of limited size using new world gen options.

• Windows 64 bit Binary - Cataclysm-LimitedWorldsize-Lib.zip;
• Windows 64 bit Libraries - Cataclysm-LimitedWorldsize-Bin.zip.

[RedPine]

Most of my characters reach endgame off of a single city, maybe two cities if I don’t find enough books in the first one. My 10 survivor series is taking place in a city that is roughly 18x18. I’ve already found 2 labs, a sugar house, a hospital, a school, looted maybe 10% of said city, and I have…

Vehicle with solar, turrets, all the books for end game gear, more trees, planks, nails, scrap metal, and rocks than I will ever need… lots of shotguns… swamps where I can craft infinite ammo…

There’s a portal that spawns infinite enemies if I so choose. Sustainable farming is tricky on 90 day seasons, but I found a seed stash that will make it possible. That doesn’t include foraging every season change for a ridiculous number of dried veggies and eggs.

By the time I leave the city I will have at least one set of full heavy survivor armor, a decent solar vehicle, and everything I could ever want to craft. All that’s left would be scouting individual POI’s to find rare uncrafteable items.

---

In terms of flavor, a limited world size would be an interesting option. It would NOT, however, add much difficulty. A single city is already more than enough to reach end game off of.

In terms of managing NPC’s / factions / reality bubble, being able to simulate a 30x30 overmap grid would be sufficient to make things interesting regardless of world size (and would be a desirable feature to pursue regardless of world size).

Personally, I reach endgame off of the first city or two, then either die to a stupid mistake or get bored. Changing map limits, at least for me, wouldn’t change anything.

[redxlaser15]

@RedPine I don’t see how it’s possible to get that far that easily with one city unless you increase city size/loot amount when you created your world. I can survive off one city for a long time ONLY if I up the city size. I’m not certain if a 18x18 tile city is even possible with the default worldgen, unless two cities merged by chance.

[RedPine]

I usually play with city size / spacing of 12 or so, which I admit is a lot higher than the default. That honestly still feels a little small to me, I like cities to feel like cities.

Even with default city sizes, you would only need 3-4 cities to reach end game - less if you are willing to farm and live off the land.

The only situation in which I can see a limited world being interesting is if the world was so small that you had to COMPLETELY loot a single small city (as in: all windows broken for their sheet), or if there was a time limit that didn’t give you enough time to loot everything.

Hmm… now that I mention it… a time limit would cause far more difficulty than a map limit.

[redxlaser15]

How would a time limit work? Lore wise and game wise?
Personally, I HATE timers on games, since I like to turtle whenever I possibly can.

[Zhilkin]

Issue: No Cure mod

[Human_Shield]

Doesn’t seem to work as intended.

On load 1x1 limited world

“unable to place all configured specials”

Reveal map debug command reveals an infinite number of identical overmaps instead of just the current overmap.

Map loops but it isn’t the same map. Just the same tiles repeated.

0’177 and -1’177
Both
Field | Grocery store | fast food

But they were two different Grocery store designs and burning down one doesn’t effect the other. The street had different vehicles as well.

Cities off the first overmap don’t have names.