Hey people, I have an idea, and an issue. The idea is one I’m not entirely sure exists in the game (I’m getting better at CDDA, but I’ve still got a lot to learn) and that’s merchant caravans that move throughout the game, and a way to attract them to your base. The problem however, is that as cool as I think something like this sounds, I’ve no idea of the programming implications required, but I’d at least like to pitch my idea.What I was thinking is the addition (if it is not already there) of groups of NPCs that roam around the map and serve to buy and sell goods from you. I know you can do this with the other friendly NPCs in the game, but I find that most often they either don’t have what I need/want, or if I’m trying to sell things, they do not have any money. I would love to be walking or driving down a road to spot a merchant camp right on the side, or stumble into a group of peddlers just trying to get what they need through the power of economics. I think the addition of travelling merchants and merchant camps full of traders would be a great addition, as well as possibly the addition of a questline you can complete to be able to crash at the camps or travel with the groups. This could add an entirely new method of approaching the apocalypse, as well as be a fun new section of this already amazing survival game, and would create a playstyle that I, as well as others, may enjoy. But for those of us who like to wait out the apocalypse in their fully armored bases, I’d like to introduce another idea, beacons. With a good bit of electrical equipment, and skills, you could create a beacon that will identify your base as a trading post, or if you wanted to, you could establish it as a camp. Your base will have to meet certain requirements before placing the beacon (I’m still thinking about this part, maybe a certain amount of beds, away from the city, but not too far from a road and body of drinkable water, etc.) After all those requirements are met, you can then place the beacon at your base, and if any travelling groups are within a certain radius at any time the beacon is on, they’ll have a certain percent chance that they’ll be interested and go to your base.
The beacon could be upgraded, becoming more durable, requiring less power, having a bigger radius, and increasing the chance of attraction. The beacon must also be defended, as it (work with me here) creates a sound that some creatures may hear and also be attracted to (this is to encourage keeping your base healthy and fortified.) Merchants who like you enough could become companions and stay to defend your base, go looking for supplies you want (at a slightly elevated cost) and even join your caravan (I feel like that could also be a cool addition.)The caravans don’t just spawn with this loot however, they would start similarly to the player (random stats, professions, etc.) and would have to search for the goods themselves. With that I feel there could be a new profession added that is suited for this playstyle, maybe a profession with clothes suited for long trips being outside, some gear for carrying a lot of equipment, but near bear minimum in terms of weaponry. It would also give a bonus to skills that correlate with buying and selling goods, and maybe even like a +1 to survival and cooking?
I know nothing of programming, so I’m really only serving a a creative figure, and a feature similar to this might already exist, but I would love to see this, or at least making the already existing features more prevalent. This was just an open idea, feel free to critique and add different or better ideas, I’m simply interested in seeing this game grow even further.
-Namely
or maybe its my phone.